Discussions

To log into the online textbook for readings use the link: https://brytewave.redshelf.com/library/
Journal Entries:
Choose which story you want to focus on, and in this journal entry answer the following questions in complete sentences and with properly MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited entry after the responses.
“For journal entry assignments, you are to follow the guidelines below for an A
1. Good paragraph structure, formal writing, and proofread for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
2. Answers each prompt completely and thoughtfully and follows all instructions.
3. Cites readings and outside sources in correct MLA both in-text and in Works Cited entries.”
Bierce or Gilman Journal Entry:
• Read Ambrose Bierce BIO (394) and the short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (395-401).
• Read Charlotte Perkins Gilman BIO (842-843) and the short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (844-855).
This first journal entry allows you to begin describing, assessing, and explaining our readings and using concepts or terms you have reviewed in the Literary Devices handout. It will also allow me to access your strengths and areas for improvement.

1. If you had to tell a friend in a couple of sentences what the story is about and what happens, what would you say? That is, give a summary of the plot.
2. Who is the main character (the protagonist)? How would you describe this character to a friend based on evidence from the story?
3. Does the main character change by the end of the story or does she/he stay the same? How do you know?
4. Why do you think the story is told from the point-of-view that it is? What is the effect on you as a reader?
5. What is up with the title? How does the title relate to the story as a whole?
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Journal Entry 2:
Choose between Faulkner and O’Connor for this entry. Re-read the instructions/requirements for Journal Entries above.

Go to the BCC ENG 232 Library Databases link in our Resources folder. Search for your writer and the short story in one of the databases in the Guide and find a scholarly article providing a critical analysis/interpretation. You may need to explore more than one database. Make sure you look for scholarly articles (peer-reviewed, academic). You can check the boxes in each database for this. Look for boxes under the “full text” boxes for “peer-reviewed” or something similar.

For access to the database follow this link: https://search-proquest-com.proxy021.nclive.org/artshumanities/index

Once logged in you can search for the authors (Faulkner or O’Connor) in the search bar.
Journal entry questions to be answered:
1. Who is the writer/author of the source, and what is the title of the source?
2. What is the main argument/thesis statement/interpretation of the poem or short story?
3. What kind of evidence does this scholarly source use? Evidence from the story? Evidence from other sources?
4. Do you agree or disagree with their analysis/interpretation? If you agree, point to evidence they used that you agree with and why. If you disagree, point to evidence they use, and explain why you disagree.

Discussion forums
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Discussion Forum 1: Only pick two poets to answer one question for each.
Reading:
• Read Langston Hughes BIO (833-835) and poems “The Weary Blues,” “Mulatto,” and “Song for a Dark Girl” (836-839).
• Read Claude McKay BIO (467-468) and poems “The Lynching” (470), “Africa” (471), and “America” (471).
• Read Robert Frost BIO (218-219) and poems “Mending Wall” (220-221) and “Fire and Ice” (233).
• Read e.e. cummings BIO (607-608) and poems “Buffalo Bill’s” (611) and “‘next to of course god america i” (612).
For this forum, choose two poets that spoke to you the most and answer at least one (1) question for each one.

For instance, if you were drawn to Hughes and cummings, you would answer one (1) question on Hughes’s poems and one (1) for cummings.
Hughes’s “The Weary Blues”:
1. How does the speaker feel about the musician?
2. Watch this video of Langston Hughes reading his poem to music accompaniment. How does this poem affect you after hearing it with music?

“Mulatto”:
1. What did you think about the imagery in this poem? What effects do these images have on a reader?

“Song for a Dark Girl”:
1. This poem has a young Black girl as the speaker. What is she describing in this short work? What emotions is she feeling? As a reader, how did you feel after reading this poem?

McKay’s “The Lynching”:
1. Do a close reading on lines 9-15 in McKay’s “The Lynching.” What time of day is it? What is the setting? Who is there? What does the speaker say about the spectators? How are the characters described here? How do you feel as a reader?

“Africa” and “America”:
1. What are the similarities and/or differences between the poems “Africa” and “America”? How does the speaker talk about each place? Is the language the speaker uses different?

Frost’s “Mending Wall”:
1. Where in this poem does the speaker change his mind about the fence? How does this change signal his challenge to his neighbor and tradition?
2. How does this poem reveal the contradictions of a society?

“Fire and Ice”:
1. This is a short poem about the end of the world. What is the speaker’s tone? How does the speaker feel about the end of the world?

e.e. cummings and “Buffalo Bill ‘s”:
1. How does the spatial arrangement of the poem affect you as a reader? Why is there a space between “Bill” and “‘s”?
2. Why the word “defunct” instead of, say, “dead”? What is the difference?
3. “and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat”
Why smash words like this? As a reader, what affect does it have on you? Do you read slower or faster? Does it indicate movement?

“next to of course god america i”:
1. The speaker in this poem is drunk and, in a bar, giving a speech. It is an anti-war speech. What examples in the poem tell us that this is an anti-war poem?
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Discussion Forum 2:
Read:
• Read information on Faulkner, O’Connor, and Southern Gothic.
• Read William Faulkner BIO (666-669) and the short story “A Rose for Emily” (765-771).
• The textbook Literature Since 1945 (yellow cover): Read Flannery O’Connor BIO (426-427) and the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (449-460).
Please choose at least two question per story below.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”:
1. What insights does the first-person plural narrative voice (the narrating “we”) provide into the town of Jefferson? How would you describe the town? How would you describe the values and assumptions of its inhabitants? Why do you think Faulkner chose this unusual style of narration? What effect does it have on your reading of the story?
2. The narrator describes Miss Emily as a “fallen monument,” “an idol,” and “a carven torso of an idol in a niche,” at various points. What is the significance of these descriptions? What do they reveal about the town’s attitude toward Miss Emily?
3. How is Miss Emily’s house described? What social and economic changes affect the appearance of the house over time? In what ways do Miss Emily’s house and Miss Emily herself function as symbols for one another?
4. Analyze the language and imagery at work in the descriptions of Miss Emily’s face and figure (the physical descriptions). What metaphors and figurative language does Faulkner draw on to describe Miss Emily? To what effect? Why does Faulkner portray Miss Emily as changing so drastically over time?
5. How does this story meet the criteria of “Southern Gothic,” according to the PowerPoint? Provide evidence.

Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find”:
1. How would you describe the grandmother? Do you feel sympathy for her? To what extent is the grandmother responsible for the family’s ultimate fate?
2. How would you describe Bailey, John Wesley, and June Star? In what ways do they seem to confirm the grandmother’s belief that manners and morals are in decline and that “’people are certainly not nice like they used to be’”?
3. Why does O’Connor offer so many details about the ways the characters are dressed? For instance, why is the mother described as wearing a “head-kerchief” that is tied to resemble “a rabbit’s ears”? Why does Bailey’s shirt have parrots on it? Why did the grandmother choose the outfit she’s wearing? What happens to her hat? What’s the significance of these details and descriptions?
4. How is the family’s encounter with The Misfit foreshadowed? Did you see the ending coming?
5. How is The Misfit described? In what ways does he seem similar to serial killers as they are represented in horror stories or horror films? In what ways does he seem different? Is there a character from a film or television show that he reminds you of? Or is he a new “type” for you?
6. Think of the title. What kind of “good” can you find in the ending of the story, if any?
7. How does the story meet the criteria for “Southern Gothic,” according to the PowerPoint? Provide evidence.
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Discussion Forum 3:
Read:
• Read Kurt Vonnegut BIO (342-344) and the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” (link below).
• Read George Saunders BIO (1152) and the short story, “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline” (1153-1165).
Choose two (2) of the literary concepts below and answer the question:
1. Look for an artwork, a film, a television show, or a song that you would define as “Postmodern.” Explain why it is postmodern using some of the criteria in the information you watched/read.
2. Look for an artwork, a film, a television show, or a song that you would define as “dystopian.” Explain using some of the criteria in the PowerPoint.
3. Look for an artwork, a film, a television show, or a song that you would say is “satire” in some way. How? Give examples.

“Harrison Bergeron” or “CivilWarLand in Decline”
Choose one of the stories that interests you the most, and answer the following questions.
1. What were your initial reactions to this story? Why?
2. What is this story trying to critique or mock? How do you know?
3. Find a particular moment in the story (a sentence or two or a paragraph) that stands out to you in some way. Show me a “close reading” of it! Analyze it.
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Discussion Forum 4:
Read:
• Read Toni Morrison BIO (605-606) and the short story, “Recitatif” (607-620).
• Read Jamaica Kincaid BIO (1137-1138) and the short story, “Girl” (1138-1139).
Please answer the questions for both stories.
Morrison and “Recitatif”:
1. What is different about this story than other stories we have read? Is it the content? The form it takes? The characterization? What is left out? How does this affect you as a reader?

2. What do you think about Twyla’s and Roberta’s relationship? Do you know someone like Twyla or Roberta?

3. Maggie is important to the story in different ways. How is she treated? Did you sympathize with her?

Kincaid’s “Girl”:
1. What seems different about this story than other stories we have read? Is it the content? The form? What seems to be missing from this story (based on our understanding of what a story should have)? How does that affect you as a reader?

2. Kincaid has said that this story showcases a theme she has always been obsessed with: the mother-daughter relationship and the relationship between the powerful and the powerless. Have you ever felt like the “girl” in this story?

3. Watch the video below of an interview with Kincaid on writing and voice from 2014:

How would you describe the “voice” in the short story? What one piece of advice do you take away from Kincaid about voice in writing that might be beneficial to all of us as writers?
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Discussion Forum 5:
This is the final discussion forum for reflection.
For this final wrap-up of the course, I’d like each of you to answer the following questions in a thread:

1. Is there a television show or work of fiction or nonfiction that you connected to one or more of our readings in terms of literary movements or terms (a character reminded you of another, for example)? I keep thinking about how Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron,” reminds me of the British and Netflix series, Black Mirror, and how the “postmodern” is turning out to be very dystopian!
2. Which work or works did you most enjoy in this class, and which one or ones did you least enjoy? Give a little explanation for why you liked a reading or why you didn’t like a reading. What one work that we read would you recommend I teach again and why? Please be as specific as you can.
3. Name two things you will take away from this course. Two things you learned, learned more about, improved on, etc. What one suggestion would you give a future student taking this course?