We have now come to the end of our blogging journey. I do hope you had
an interesting and engaging time using the technology to apply concepts
learned in class to your own reading.
For our last blog task, you are going to assume the role of a character in a novel
you have read for class this semester. Imagine he/she has been surfing
the net, and happened upon your blog and read your entries.
CONSIDER:
What
would he/she have to contribute to the discussion surrounding the
journey and its stages?
What would he/she write as a response?
What tone (attitude of the speaker) and dictionwould your character use?
Your character can respond to your blog in general about the journey archetype or the character can respond to a specific blog entry. If you decide to do the latter, be sure to identify the blog entry addressed in your opening sentence. Remember, your character has NOT been studying the archetypal journey and characters found in literature, like you have this semester. Therefore, he/she would be reacting to your insights about this approach to stories, and he/she would be making text to self or text to world connections.
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon plays a Harvard grad and math genius who has lost his way. Robin Williams plays his psychologist and mentor in the film. Check it out! It's a great movie from the late 90's.
A young Miep Gies
"Behind every success story is either a coach, parent, teacher, friend, or some other person who is the hero's mentor" (Heroes). This week, consider the mentors you have encountered as you have read your novels this year. As we saw in Freedom Writers,
there can be many mentors in a story, and they don't always have to be
someone who is alive or someone whom the protagonist has met. Anne Frank
and Miep Gies (the woman who hid Anne) were mentors for the Erin
Gruwell's students.
Discuss one or two significant mentors
from your novels. You should
compare and/or explain the reasons they are mentors for your protagonist-heroes.
describe the ways in which they
provide support, new knowledge, or inspiration for your characters.
select the mentors you find particularly memorable and justify your choice.
For one of your ideas, provide a QUOTATION (Note: this is the last blog that will use a quotation) as support.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is an archetypal mentor as seen in the Star Wars films. He guides, teaches, and protects Luke Skywalker. He is one of only four characters to appear in all six of the original movies.
What exactly does this stage of the archetypal journey look like?
The hero, hearing the call to the adventure, intially may hesitate, reluctant to leave the comfort and tasks of his/her everyday existence.
Why? Perhaps he/she does not see the importance of the call because
he/she is engrossed in his/her current life. Perhaps he/she has
responsibilities or does not want to leave his/her family.
Ask yourself this: Why are certain steps in the archetypal journey, specifically refusal of the call, significant to contemporary narratives?
SOME POSSIBLE ANSWERS
(So consider if they apply to your novel)
*
In your novel, if you have already experienced your hero's call to
adventure, and his/her refusal to respond positively to that call, has
this refusal frustrated you or the other characters, creating tension in
the story?
* The inclusion of the hero's refusal may make him more human and make us further bond with him/her. The refusal may also illustrate the hero's initial frail state, before the transformation occurs in his/her journey.
* The refusal may be linked to an important part of the plot. There may have been some significant conflict
(a tragedy or a disturbance) that has occurred. The hero is initially
shocked by this, so he/she refuses the call while he/she bargains for
some alternative (such as sending someone else).
YOUR TASK:
Identify
the event that represents the refusal of the call in your current
novel. Considering the above ideas and reasons, attempt to explain the
significance of the event you have identified. For your explanation, remember my advice for justifying the importance of an event or character: simply stating that "if ____________ would not have been in the story, _______________ would not have happened, or ______________ would not be like this." This is weak logic and does not show insightful thinking. Justify the significance of an element by linking its existence to another element of text (characterization, suspense, reader engagement, plot development, theme etc.)
The ordinary world is the place where he or she feels the most comfortable and safe. For example, in the movie Up,
Carl's ordinary world, leading up to his journey, includes meeting and
marrying his love Ellie, painting the house, working towards the
adventure of Paradise Falls, losing a child, but then having to spend
the money on other needs.
Using a book you are currently reading (or have just finished), describe the protagonist's ordinary world.
Identify and describe the protagonist and then describe the key elements in his/her ordinary world, including people and objects.
Once you have described the protagonist's ordinary world, select an appropriate image to help convey the character's feelings for the people and objects in their ordinary world , and a direct quotation from the book to help your classmates see how the protagonist reacts to and functions within his or her ordinary world.
Consider how you might answer the following prompts before you select and provide an explanation for the image and quotation:
What pressures exist for the character in his/her ordinary world? Who creates conflict or peace here? Which elements create the most or least comfort? Why is the character reluctant or excited to leave this world behind? etc.....
_________________________________
Make sure that you use the proper citations for this borrowed material (author, title page) for a direct quotation and MLA style bibliography for the image from the Internet (see link for: Easybib).
The MLA style Bibliographic entry for the the house image selected for this page is:"Up! House Image" KSL Radio. KSL.com, 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 May 2012. The proper MLA bibliographic format for citing websites is:
Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site.
Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the
site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available).
Medium of publication. Date of access.
? What Greek myth is mentioned in the first verse of this song?
? What 90's movie is this originally from?
____________________________________
____________________________________
During
our study of the hero thus far, we
have looked at the classic
definition of the
hero and applied this to an ancient story, that of a Greek hero.
This week, talk about the hero of one of your novels - or an emerging hero. What qualities do you see in your protagonist that you might consider to be (or will become) heroic in nature?
Expand your view of what it means to be a herofrom our archetypal study; what other qualities do you see in your novel's characters that are heroic?
In an organized paragraph, respond to the prompts above, and include an excerpt from the novel to help you support your claims. Be sure to also include a proper citation. A Student Example... I see Danny's mother, Catherine as the hero in my book, The Second Trial. She is very strong and independent because she was able to leave and report her abusive husband to the authorities, which can be a difficult thing to do, especially when you have children with that person. She has moved past all that, and even though her son Danny is extremely angry with her for making them move, she continues to fight for a good life. During a tense argument with her son, readers can see the determination of this mother: "Catherine closed her eyes and bowed her head. She looked up at him and half-whispered, 'Please, I don't want to do all this and have to fight you too' " (Boll 102).
To me, a hero is someone who perseveres through certain struggles and makes a difference, in both his/her life, and in the lives of others. Her strength, perseverance, and courage are what make her a hero.
We have just reviewed character archetypes in class.
For the seven archetypes, you have highlighted the main points in the descriptions of the archetypes, found examples of the character archetypes in ancient and modern stories, applied the characteristics to a family member, andlinked them to career paths.
This week, let's examine what possible character archetypes are present in the novel(s) you have read so far.
The Shapeshifter
SELECT one of the characters you have met through reading, IDENTIFY the archetype he or she is most like, and DESCRIBE how he/she exemplifies the qualities of that archetype.
N.B. Do NOT choose theHERO, as we will be examining and exploring this archetype in classes to follow.
If
you find that the character you select shares some qualities of an
archetypal character, but generally is very different from the
definition you have been given, you may also wish to discuss how the character is atypicalof the archetypal characteristics.
The Herald
PROVE IT:
Incorporate at least one well chosen excerpt (direct quote) from the novel to help support the ideas in your comparison.
Remember to begin your post
by introducing the book source and the author by title and name, and
properly citing this source following your direct quotation (Author, Title page #). ______________________________________________________ Here are a couple of examples from last year to help you get started...
In the novel, The Gathering by Kelly Armstrong, one of the characters named Rafael is a perfect example of a shapeshifter. He can physically shift into a cougar, but he also shifts his loyalty in order to achieve what he wants. You never really know if he is telling the truth. Often he wants information from Maya, the hero. He changes his attitude and honesty to makes himself irresistible, so she will let her gaurd down and fall for him. In the beginning, Rafael is trying to be the cool guy, but to get Maya under his controls, he acts more like himself.
Rafael could also be Maya's mentor beacuse he helps explain many of the questions she has about herself: "Real skin-walkers, like us, go back to before Columbus 'discovered' America. It's a kind of supernatural race. We're born into a family of skin-walkers" (Armstrong, The Gathering 251).
In the novel The Perfect Cut, by Julie Burtinshaw, the protagonist's father is an example of the SHADOW. Bryan's dad always treats Bryan and his mother badly, and he makes Bryan feel worthless and unwanted. He makes Bryan feel like his son will never compare to his late daughter Michelle. Bryan's father is part of the reason Bryan suffers from depression, which is why he could be considered the shadow. Bryan's father is rude, cold hearted, and insensitive. His father is all around a negative person to be around, and I think this represents the shadow.
In the following excerpt, the reader has access to the mother's internal thoughts, giving insight to the effect that Bryan's dad has on him: "She reflects on how Bryan just looks down when Dad berates him, how he does exactly what he's told, even if he disagrees, how he almost believes that he is as useless as Dad intimates" (Burtinshaw 52).
Since the start of the year, we have been examining different motifs
and patterns developed in ancient stories and how these patterns are
duplicated in our contemporary storytelling. These motifs and patterns
help us to connect strongly to past and present stories. We have seen
this week how J.K Rowling connects and synthesizes her knowledge of
ancient stories and history with details from her own life to create the
fictional world of Harry Potter. The 100+ million readers of the Harry
Potter series have certainly shown us that this can be a powerful
connection.
This week I want you to write a
blog post where you discuss a part of your novel that reminds you of
something else or connects in some way to a personal experience, to what is
going on in the world, or to another text (media, digital or written).
What I want you to do is make a personal, textual,
and/or worldly connection to the novel you are reading.
By
discussing these connections, you will be showing how you can synthesize
(= bring together unlike or like parts to make meaning) concepts and
texts.
AS PROCESS:
If you are not familiar with the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, watch this winning video made for the book as an entry for a contest.
Then watch this interview with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief.
Listen carefully for insights into the connections he has made to the
reality of his own life, and then presented as fiction in his award
winning novel.
NOW COMPOSE YOUR POST:
Step 1: To begin your entry,
select a brief quotation (20-30 words) from the section of your book
that connects you to some other experience. Be sure that you use
"quotation marks" around the direct quotation, and that you provide a
proper citation following the quote using the correct format (Author's Last Name, Title Page #) .
Step 2: In the body of your entry, make
the connection you have made clear to your readers (max 100 words).
Here you are to explain with specific details the type of connection you
are making to your novel.
Step 3: Add an image, a video or a link to text that illustrates or emphasizes the connection you have just made with your novel. A good introduction to posting videos is to use a video from youtube.com. Here's how you do it.
On the posting tool bar, select the director's clapboard and this will take you to the necessary page.
Select "From YouTube", then type in your search words. Choose a video and then press the "select button". This action will immediately paste the video into your post. Voilà!
To get you started, think about how you would finish this paragraph:
The
(character, event, place) reminds me of (a place, a real event,
another person/character, another text, a real world situation) in the
following ways . . . . __________________________________________________
Here are two student samples, one with a video and one with a link to a newspaper article:
Student #1
"Reef takes a deep breath. 'I need you to stay away from the street kids who hang out at Safe Haven Unitarian Church on Eighth Avenue Southeast' '" (Aker, The Fifth Rule 5).
From this story of a teenage boy trying to improve his life after years of overcoming obstacles, I am seeing an excellent example of a significant character trait from real life. In this section of the novel, I see how Reef the main character has done some bad things in his life, but he has changed over the last 10 years. He learns from the his past and tries to be a better person. In doing so, he develops the character traits of perseverance, and being kind and caring person to others. This gives hope to teen readers who may be struggling with social issues like drug and alcohol abuse.
I think the outcome of the character (Reef) will be a positive one because he has learned from his mistakes and he is trying to be a better person which will help in his future and in the story.
As a text to another text connection, I picked the song "The Climb" because the song is about falling down, but it also says to never give up and to keep climbing until you get to the top. Reef doesn't give up, even when he fails, and he keeps climbing until he achieves his goal.
Student #2
" Illegal Fireworks Suspected in Church Blaze: Pastor Injured
Wrightsville
Beach, NC - A fire destroyed historic First Baptist Church on New
Year's Eve, and investigators suspect illegal fireworks" (Sparks,
The Last Song 3).
One
of the main events that happens in this book is the fire that burns
down the church. It connects many of the other events that happen in
the novel. Two teenage boys used illegal fireworks and were responsible
for the fire. This reminds me of a newspaper article I read about two
men in east Texas who were charged with intentionally setting fire to
a church and were suspected in a string of similar blazes.
The outbreak started with a fire set New Year's Day, which is also
similar to the book because the fire in the novel was set New Years'
Eve. This is one of the text - to - world connections I made while
reading The Last Song.
