"Sweat"

For Thursday, please make sure you have read "Sweat." We moved Hurston's story up on the revised schedule. Many of you did not know this, so rather than discuss the story tonight, we are going to discuss it on Thursday.

Before Thursday, though, I would like to hear your reactions to the story. Here are a couple of things you might write about, but feel free to write about other topics as well:

1. What does Hurston gain by writing the story in a local vernacular/dialect? What does she lose?

2. On page 714, paragraph 28, Delia shows "a triumphant indifference" to Sykes. How might this phrase be used to describe her choice at the end of the story?

3. On page 713, Delia says, "Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing." Is this what happens at the end of the story? Does Sykes get what is coming to him, or is Delia in part to blame? How does she justify not helping him when he cries out to her?

Thanks. See you on Thursday.

We Real Cool

Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3GAQCLxICo&feature=channel

Buckle up or busted up... The choice is yours.

I sent this story out on my e-mail and got a great response so I thought I would pass it along to all of you. (Sorry Daniel, this has absolutely nothing to do with class, but it has a good moral to it.)

About two weeks ago, my crew and I responded to an accident on the freeway. A 42 year old male had just left the dentist office after he had some work done. The dentist had given him Novacane, a numbing agent, for the procedure. He left the office to head home. As he exited the freeway, he fell asleep and rolled his car into the ditch right off the road. He told us that the Novacane had made him drowsy. He was ejected out of the passenger window, and the car rolled over top of him. His legs were crushed underneath the car. When we arrived, we had to get creative in order to get him out, but we were successful. The entire time the man was conscious and complaining that he couldn't feel his legs. My captain and I yanked, scratched and pinched at his legs and feet, there was no painful response out of him. We called to have AirMed fly him out because of his condition. As we turned him on his side to slide the backboard underneath him, we palpated up and down his spine. About mid shaft, he had a lump the size of a grapefruit. He couldn't feel anything below it.

Later, I spoke to one of the nurses who had cared for him in the ICU and she said his spinal cord had not only sheared, but it had severed completely. This man will NEVER walk again. Had he chosen to buckle up, he would have walked away with minor injuries, of that I am convinced. Word to the wise: ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. 

a thought along the lines of the invisible man...

Recently, we've had some racial unrest at the alternative high school I work at in Provo. This has led me to ponder how much progress as a society we've really made, especially as I read the latest reading. Granted, we just elected an African-American president, and things are nowhere near where they were during Jim Crow. But I have also wondered if maybe we've focused on the wrong things...by this I mean there's channels like Black Starz, Black Entertainment Television, and programs such as affirmitive action. It's a really sensitive discussion, but it just seems to me like if we were truly moving towards a color-blind society, these things are counter-productive. Anyone got an opinion?

Battle Royal

Please choose one of the following prompts and write a one-page response. Remember what we have discussed about analysis vs. summary, and as always, please point to specific examples from the text to help you make your points.

1. Look up the term “allegory” in a dictionary or glossary of literary terms. How is “Battle Royal” an allegory? Or, more specifically, what, in your opinion, is it an allegory for?

2. How is the narrator’s dramatic situation in “Battle Royal” similar to the situations of the female protagonists in other stories we have read? How is his situation different?

3. How did you feel when you read “Battle Royal”? Angry? Uncomfortable? Excited? Guilty? Sad? There is no right answer to this question, but I want you to focus on your emotional reaction. Point to places in the story that evoked an emotional response, and, most importantly, try to ask yourself why you felt that way. Ask yourself what Ellison is doing that creates that kind of reaction in you.

4. Choose three objects or actions in the story that you feel are symbols and explain what you think they symbolize. Don’t use the fight itself as an example. I am looking for something more specific. For example, you might decide that the act of swallowing his own blood during his speech is symbolic, or that the electrified coins are symbolic, or that the dancing blonde’s American flag tattoo is symbolic. Nearly everything in an allegory is symbolic, so there is plenty to choose from.

5. Interpret the narrator’s dream at the end of the story. How does he feel about himself and the choices he has made?

6. "Battle Royal" was originally titled Invisible Man, but since it is the first part of Ellison's novel, also called Invisible Man, it is now commonly called "Battle Royal." Talk about the original title. What does the narrator mean when he says that he is an "invisible man"?

The case of the missing prompts...

I'm not going to lie... I've been on edge all weekend wondering what depths of our imagination is Daniel going to have us dive into for this last story we just read?

Alas. No writing prompts...

I hope we still get to discuss this story in class and if we still need to turn in a writing assignment that the due date gets bumped back.

PEACE!

bRaDy

Thursday 3/5 - Meet in Library

Tomorrow night, Thursday, we will be meeting in the library, Room 207. See you there.

a ThOuGhT...

I always enjoy hearing a feel good thought for the day. One of my favorites that seems to apply to everyone at sometime or another is "Life is like a warm shower, just when you get the water just right. Someone has to come along and flush the toilet on you!" I think whatever the situation may be, things can be going great, then all the sudden something has to change. Whether it be school, a relationship, work, or serious illnesses just when you think that you have conquered it, from out of no where something comes up and it changes everything. Would it not be nice to have the shower always stay warm no matter what the situation is.