I call this section "Book Blog" but it's really more about texts. Specifically, the section is designed as an opportunity for my senior English classes to interact with and discuss the texts we are studying this year in class.
Students--and guests--feel free to comment. Try to interact with the question posed as well as other people's responses. I do ask that you keep your posts at under 200 words, that you abstain from using profanity and/or crude talk, and please, be careful how you address each other.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 03:22PM
Consider the following question: If Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is about "the lost generation," does this mean that all the main characters are lost? Is there any sort of “rising above” for any of the characters? How do they do so? [Feel free to define what "rising above" means in terms of the answer you give.]
Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 09:00PM The Unvanquished is a collection of stories that traces the development and coming of age of Bayard Sartoris, the narrator and chief protagonist of the novel.
Consider the following questions:
1. Explain Bayard's perspective on his father. Does this perspective change as the book progresses? How?
Monday, August 30, 2010 at 03:49PM I'm going to try to begin generating an on-line discussion group for the texts we "read" in class. True, some of our texts are films and thus will be viewed, but it's safe to say that in a sense we "read" film in much the same way as we read stories.
To begin with, we'll discuss the film version of Cry, The Beloved Country. Although the film follows the story line of the novel, it is in many ways its own text. Because of this, I've noticed different things than I did while reading.
For example, I'm not entirely in agreement with the way Richard Harris portrays James Jarvis. I don't picture him as being so vindictive in the novel. Rather, he is more shocked and contemplative about his son's murder than he is outraged. Still, what is particularly striking or moving about Harris's portrayal is that we see--we see--the transformation of his character. He shows it in his face, with his words, and with his actions (though, granted, his actions are greater in number in the novel).
Here's my first question for your consideration: Why do you think it is that it sometimes takes a person's death for us to get to know that person?