Week Three

Rich For One Day

small amount of money

sleep

simple art - making it

Movies

Happiness

The out-of-doors

Life itself

Self - peace of mind - alone time - sense of well-being

Can we derive some conclusions about her psychology/thinking from this list?

There's something admirable about her, but she seems very in her own little world, and may appear to lack motive.

She seems a bit flaky and “like a hippie”

Pierced to have a kind of childish mindset although she's probably in her 20s.

Why do we have these judgments?

CONTEXT

We live in a culture where we are driven by many outer “needs” that may actually not be that important or valuable.

Maybe it is the societal definitions that are the problem.

Hey, why not be made happy by simple things? Why not be easily amused? Why not be satisfied by simple obvious easily accessible activities?

Our culture schools us to be much more dissatisfied - unhappy people will do almost anything to fix it - especially BUY THINGS

What is Rich? What is value? What is happiness? What is a good life? 

Many of us set a “line” and we think “if I cross this line then something will happen - i.e. Will be happy, I'll be satisfied, and I will know that I've “made it”, etc

The truth is you keep seeing a new line in front of you and create the idea of the goal – The happiness or whatever – forever on the other side of that line, that keeps getting further away

What do I really want?

How do I get it?

What will it do to me if I do get it?

The Boat, page 261 Echoes

Summative

Group assignment

Come up with an analysis of the story that can be presented in some format like Prezi, Keynote, PowerPoint, whatever.

Each group will generate a plan for analysis, which will then be broken into parts and assigned to different group members.

You have a complex short story, it is very long, it has many parts, and you need to figure out how best to analyze it for meeting.

Then you need to present your findings in a format that makes sense to show your deeper thinking.

Plot, setting, character, theme

Symbolism - kind of dealt with this more indirectly - one thing means something much bigger

Context

Universal ideas

Personal interpretation

Archetypes

Marking

Check listing those elements above:

Evaluating presentation skills 

Evaluating “showing your thinking” - the reasoning is on the page

Digging deeper than simple surface meaning

Applying the elements we discussed in class, and that way of thinking to this new story - ASSOCIATIONS

Synesthesia

The brain has different areas that focus on different elements of perception

Perceiving something involves many parts of the brain working in concert

See a dog - know things about dogs - hear sounds, linked to dogs - remember a dog that you had - Focus on details about this dog makes it different, etc

Or do you just see a dog and know that it's a dog and not think about it anymore?

Synesthesia is a mixing of these different elements

Colors may have sounds, smells, tastes.

This shouldn't seem too weird because it's the same brain, getting messages, firing different parts at different times

Things are interesting to us might be things that are different and make the brain fire in different ways

novelty might = good - you might get more happy brain chemicals - endorphins, dopamine

This mixing of “brain part excitement” (different parts of the brain all firing in concert) is probably also good

This process literally creates your brain when you're a baby

HARRISON (light) - CURTIS (donut)

The exposure to a world and all the perceptions thereof literally create the pathways of the brain - forming the brain, the person, the self (in combination with the in-built elements)

Those brain pathways ARE YOU!

Novelty is CRITICAL! 

Exposure to new things literally creates new pathways literally creating new brain area

Mr. Lobb is not a neuroscientist and this is all reductionist and ridiculously simple and later you will laugh because this all so stupid

What can we learn from this?

Problems are good

All experiences are good experiences (within reason)

Why is Selena laughing?

The difference between expectation and outcome. 

incongruity - “Huh? Oh! Right!”

You want to think about this when you're building description

You want to think about this when you're analyzing something

Trying to get past the obvious.

We're trying to have more complex and interesting associations

•  How does the plot structure work in The Boat?
• Exposition: The “present” story of the narrator, seems to be setting “the scene” for something larger, clues to a past - why are these things happening? Why does he get up so early? Why does he hear these noises? 
• Inciting Incident: What begins the story or problem? tug of war between family & future, jumps back to youth and stark contrast to the present
• Rising Action: 

Alistar MacLeod’s, “The Boat” 

ASSIGNMENT: Due Tuesday, September 29 

Working in a group you will focus on one aspect of the story to analyse and break it out into some kind of presentation - audio, visual, pictorial, Prezi, musical, artistic in some way. 

• Each person in the group will take on an element of story story analysis and “dig deeper” into one element of their topic
• Plot
• Setting
• Character Analysis
• Theme(s)
• Deeper thinking
• you could focus on mood and tone, or information, or it could be a combination 
• it could answer a why, a how, or it could be a creative reaction to some aspect of the story

PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF YOUR THINKING…

In your answers or responses you need to show me a line of reasoning and logic that led you to your answer. => THE THESIS

MAIN ARGUMENT (is supported by) Reasoning A, B, and C. 

Symbolic Elements

Character Arc of the POV character

Character Analysis of the two parents

Use of imagery to create mood and atmosphere. 

Closer Look/Analysis: 

Characters

Mother vs. Father

• what do the physical spaces these characters live in, tell you about their relationship?

Mother - doesn’t “like” what father does 

              doesn’t approve of outsiders; daughters working at the restaurant and marrying “city               boys”

              tough on he children; physical abuse, not appreciating gifts from children - coming                   from the outside 

              her space in the house is orderly, clean tidy - all accept the father’s room

Father - likes to come home and read 

wearing rubber boots (as with every other fisherman), full body underwear, brass chain bracelets

smokes and rolls his own cigarette

his room - the only space he has - messy, dirty, books, mother refuses to go into room, has  not entered since the birth of last son (narrator) 

Significant “Props"

The Boat

Salt: “Salt of the Earth” - refers to blue collar men/women, dedicated, hard working, gruff/tough

        cleansing properties - used on wounds to heal/treat (i.e.. rinse mouth with salt water to cure cankers) 

• father’s reaction to the salt water
• the sea water is what keeps the family “afloat” 
• ultimately the sea wins the battle 

Bracelets: become the “hand cuffs” to the sea

• long story about women and necklaces… being “collared and tagged”

Rubber Boots: “galumphing” they are used solely on the boats

• boots/feet are the things that connect us to the physical earth and also to the boat
• become the only “connector” between the two worlds

Books

Ocean 

“Our Earnest Hemingway”