Essay Instructions: Write THREE postings. For the first two postings, choose one topic from topics 1-3 (topics on "A Rose for Emily") and post a response. And then choose another topic from topics 4-6 (topics on "A Good Man is Hard to Find") and post your second response. Your first postings need to cover these two texts. The third one is to responds to what other person said to the question.
** Avoid doing pure summary in your posting. You should have a mini thesis statement so that your posting has a focus.
In your first two postings, you are required to incorporate quotations to support your ideas. There should be an analysis that comes after the quotation.
Topic
(1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRMHXwdxsiQ&feature=player_embedded
Before you answer the topic, click on this youtube clip and listen to how this teacher analyzes the "timeline" of "A Rose for Emily." However, instead of talking about the "timeline" of Miss Emily's life, I want you to examine how Faulkner presents the story of Miss Emily and his use of perspectivism. In other words, why does Faulkner choose not to tell Emily's story in a chronological order? How does this arrangement create multiple perspectives? Is there a definitive narrator in the story? Who is this narrator?
Here are a few questions that can help you think about the relationship between time and perspectivism in "A Rose for Emily"::
1. The story begins and ends with Miss Emily's funeral. Trace the chronology of the intervening sections. No need to summarize the text. Instead, think about the function of Faulkner's ordering of the detail.
2. Discuss the transition between section I and II. In what ways are the two episodes parallel? What is the effect of such parallel?
3. Describe Miss Emily's funeral before the upstaris room is opened. In what way does that scene serve as a foil to what follows?
4. Consider Faulkner's introduction of the rat poison into the story in section III. What is the narrator's avowed reason for bringing it up?
Do NOT simply choose one of the questions above and answer. Rather, use these questions as the starting point to tease out the issue of time and perspectivism in Faulkner's story. Make sure that you have an argument and a quotation in your posting. Your quotation should come with an analysis--it should not be a filler quote.
(2)
For this topic, let's try to answer one of the most basic but the most confounding question regarding Faulkner's story: Why is this story called "A Rose for Emily"? Does the text even mention "rose"? Is it ironic that Faulkner gives his story a title that seems to run counter to the characterization of Emily? If so, what is this ironic effect intended for? With this title, does it show that Faulkner has a different position from the story-teller(s) in the story? How do we define Faulkner's attitude toward Emily?
This topic can be challenging but it is a fun one. The challenging part is that you must use textual evidence (quotation) to examine the connection between the story and its title. You are also encouraged to situate the story in its historical context. Make sure that your posting has a mini-thesis statement.
(3)
Before you answer this topic, make sure you read the Lecture Notes on "Southern Gothic" and "Southern Renaissance." Then in your response, examine how Faulkner uses the figure of Emily to articulate historical consciousness and address a shift from tradition to a modern way of life. In what specific ways is Emily the very embodiment of the Southern tradition?
Here are a few questions that can help you to examine the historical dimensions in "A Rose for Emily":
1. In what specific ways is Emily "a fallen monument" and "a tradition"?
2. Why does narrator label Miss Emily's House " an eyesore among eyesores"? Also, at the beginning of section IV, the townpeople think Emily will commit suicide, and they think "it would be the best thing." Why? How would you describe the relationship between this community and Miss Emily? Why do the townpeople think Homer Barron an inappropriate companion for Miss Emily?
3. Define the opposing forces in the confrontation that occupies most of section I. How does Miss Emily “vanquish them”?
4. Apart from her black servant, Miss Emily has three men in her life. What similarities are there in her attitudes toward them? Why does Miss Emily's servant disappear after her death? What is the symbolic meaning with his disappearance?
5.Discuss the role of dust in the last few paragraphs of the story. Most importantly, why does the story end up with "a long strand of iron-gray hair"?
You do NOT need to answer all the questions. Make sure you have a mini-thesis statement, a quotation followed by an analysis in your response
(4)
For this topic, you have to examine the issues of family and race in "A Good Man is Hard to find." From the very beginning, O'Connor presents us a realistic portrayal of a dysfunctional family taking a road trip. As the story unfolds, this journey of the family is also a journey that shows the class divide and the inextricable memory of the southern past.
Here are some questions for you to start thinking about the issues of family and class:
1. How does O'Connor characterize the grandmother and her family? Why does O'Connor make "the children's mother" such a nonentity? How about John Wesley and June Star? What would have been the result had O'Connor characterized them as something other than totally obnoxious? Why are these kids obnoxious? Why does the grandmother bring Pitty Sing on the trip? Why does the grandmother dress so nicely for the trip?
2. Why does O'Connor make the grandmother the central character? For instance, what does O'Connor accomplish by distinguishing the grandmother's response to the scenery and the trip with that of the children? How would you describe the character of the grandmother?
3. Just before the stop at the Tower, the grandmother reminisces about her old suiter, Edgar Atkins Teagarden. What are the connections between the two episodes? What tower might O’Connor have had in mind in choosing the name for Red Sammy’s establishment? Why is there a monkey in a chinaberry tree feasting on fleas posted outside The Tower? What do we learn about the world at Red Sammy’s? How does O'Connor portray the classism (discrimination based on social and economic class) in these different episodes? What are the symbolic meanings of the Tower, E.A.T. and Red Sammy's?
4. In there a stark contrast between the past the grandmother remembers and the living present as portrayed in the story? What is the function of memory here? Does the grandmother change at all? Was she any different in the past memory she recalls (or constructs)?
Your response does not need to be limited by the questions above. Make sure that you have a mini-thesis statement in your posting and a quotation that serves as a textual evidence.
(5)
The phrase, "a good man," is almost like a mantra that keeps repeating itself throughout O'Connor story and there is a shift of meaning every time the phrase is brought up. For this topic, every participant has to present a quotation where a character mentions "a good man" or "good blood" and examine the meaning of "good man" or "good blood" in the context where this expression appears. The questions below will help you come up with a critical analysis. If you use the same quotation as the previous respondent, you need to come up with a different interpretation, which also means that you MUST read what is being posted earlier. If you repeat a similar argument, your grade will be reduced.
Here are a few questions that can help you analyze the symbolic meaning, the irony in the expression of "a good man" as it appears in O'Connor's story:
1. Why does O'Connor give such an ironic title to her story? What is the ideal of a good man for the grandmother? Does it matter? Who is the good man in the story? Why does the grandmother keep repeating "You've got good blood!" after her encounter with The Misfit? When The Misfit says "I never was a bad boy that I remember of" (1151), what does this "bad boy" mean in contrast to "the good man" grandmother talks about?
2. What is the relationship between "the good man" and the religious references such as "Jesus" and "God" in the story? In what specific ways does this idea of "a good man" reinforce or undermine the faith in God?
3. What is the relationship between the expression of "the good man" and the character "The Misfit"? What is the effect O'Connor has created by giving prominence to "the good man" and "The Misfit"?
In your discussion, you need to have a mini-thesis statement so that your posting can move beyond summary. Your quotation should be followed by a solid analysis.
(6)
For this topic, you are required to examine the characterization of The Misfit. Why is he called "The Misfit"? Is he the real misfit in the story? Read the Lecture Notes on "Southern Gothic" and "Southern Renaissance." In what specific ways might O'Connor identify the South as the misfit?
Here are specific questions for you to approach the character of the misfit:
1. What is the grandmother's reason for bringing up the Misfit at the very beginning of the story? In other words, why does O'Connor have the grandmother introduce The Misfit? Examine the "subconscious" connection between the grandmother and the Misfit. Does The Misfit do or say anything to deserve the grandmother's gesture of concern? Explain The Misfit's final evaluation of the grandmother:"She would of been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life' (1153).
2. Define the Misfit's experience of the world. To what extent can his criminality be blamed on the conditions of his life? Does the Misfit feel any more free outside the penitentiary than in it?
3.How would you interpret the logic of the Misfit's position that "the crime don't matter...because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it" (1152)? To what extent does The Misfit's description of himself apply to everyone? Bear in mind that the whole family is being punished with death for no ascertainable crime.
4. What is The Misfit's attitude toward faith? Why does The Misfit say "Jesus thown everything off balance" (1152)? Why does The Misfit remark that "No pleasure but meanness"? What is the symbolic meaning when O'Connor ends her story with "It's no real pleasure in life."
You do NOT need to answer all questions. But you need to have a mini-thesis statement in your posting. Choose a good quotation and make sure that you have a solid analysis for the quotation you incorporate.
Finally
This is what other person said about TOPIC (3): please write a response about what she said (whether you agree or disagres and why?)
SInce She used topic (3) already, I recommend you not to wirte about topic (3)
The community considers Emily a tradition because she appears to be untouched by time and the changes that are occurring within Jefferson ; as the last Grierson, Emilys existence remains merely a souvenir of the southern aristocracys past. Emily deliberately refuses to embrace changes and to move on: the fact that she cuts her hair to look like a girl after her fathers death emphasizes her need to cling to the past, her childhood and her traditions (487). Emily, like the old traditional-style Southern home she isolates herself in, represents a monument to Southern history andheritage. Faulkner describes her home as an eyesore because it clashes with the industrialization occurring around it (including the paved sidewalks, construction, cotton wagons and gasoline pumps (484, 487)) and because houses of its kind are rapidly becoming a dying breed.
The townspeople of Jefferson seem to have an odd relationship with Emily, for they are both fascinated and repulsed by her at the same time. While they find themselves unable to pry their eyes from herhome and her private affairs, they eventually acknowledge that her decayinghome is a burden to the town: her homes exudes an offensive smell, and she is not paying the taxes required for Jefferson to continue its industrialization and advancement. While the younger generations with [their] more modern ideas, want to integrate Emily into modern society, the older generations, represented by the Judge, have a hard time discarding or altering Emily completely. This mixed attitude towards Emily may symbolize the Souths reluctance to embrace modernity.
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