Fluent Essays

Post 1 (150 words max) Choose any of the works in this module and describe the "act" of travel in as much detail as possible. Why is the travel being undertaken? What are the outcomes? Post 2 (150 words max ) Choose a character or speaker from one of the pieces in this module, and analyze them. . . what motivates them? Do they evolve over the course of the piece? Why or why not? Is there anything else worth saying about the character you've chosen? © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. The Author’s Work: Sherman Alexie’s “Flight Patterns” Fiction © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. * Sherman Alexie (b. 1966) Alexie is a Native American and grew up on a Spokane Indian reservation in Washington. He is a founder of Longhouse Media, which teaches filmmaking to Native American students, and he is involved in several nonprofits that support youth development. * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Flight Patterns “Sir, forgive me for saying this,” the taxi driver said, “but you do not look like the Red Indians I have seen before.” “I know,” William said. “People usually think I’m a longhaired Mexican.” “What do you say to them when they think such a thing?” (60). * The story, from Alexie’s Ten Little Indians, speaks about the indigenous perspective while transcending cultural boundaries. Ask students to identify some examples of multiculturalism in the work—is Alexie irreverent toward political correctness, the arts, and class? What purpose does this blatant disregard serve? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Questions for Discussion How do the themes of family and self-purpose conflict for Fekadu? How does Alexie infuse his ordinary characters with extraordinary traits? In what ways does William transcend the stereotype of a Native American male? What thoughts does he have on feminism, diversity, and class distinctions? * After students have read the text outside of class, we read it orally in class. I have students list each moment in the story when a character disrupts their stereotypical expectation. William is a Spokane Indian who has decided to live off the reservation and raise a family in the suburbs; he wears suits purchased on the Internet and travels on business. They note, likewise, that trained Ethiopian fighter pilot, Fekadu, drives a taxi. Examination of these stereotypes often opens up exploration of themes embedded in the story, such as those of kindness, family, and fear of the Other. * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Questions for Discussion What types of discrimination or stereotyping does William endure and what is his reaction to it? How does he view those outside his race? What is the significance of the title “Flight Patterns”? * Many of my students easily relate to this possible conflict between one's identity and one's skin color and with William's expressed fear of “little brown men” in a post-9/11 world. Simply put, William and Fekadu, like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads. William, through his experiences, is faced with poignant, tragic, and sometimes extraordinary moments of being that test his loyalties, his beliefs, and his notion of identity. * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Group Activity and Write-Up Both William and Fekadu survived traumatic incidents, yet William doubts Fekadu’s stories about piloting aircraft against his own people during the Ethiopian civil war. Do you believe that William’s experience of 9/11 is plausible? In groups, share an incident when you told a story that wasn’t believed by others—what elements of your storytelling may have led to others denying its truthfulness? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Suggestions for Writing Alexie has explained that humor is a “weapon of self-defense,” and that people are more willing to listen to a story when humor is integrated. Where do you see humorous elements in “Flight Patterns”? Find three examples, and explain what makes them humorous: Does humor protect the writer by masking his pain? Does it help relieve anxiety? Do you recognize an uncanny relationship between the narrator’s experiences and your own, which makes you laugh nervously? We think of humor as having a positive and healing effect; but, based on the examples you found, do you believe that humor originates from something positive or negative within us? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Suggestions for Writing The narrator describes capitalism’s effect on the world, particularly in relation to gender in the workplace, on consumer habits, and on what he calls “tribes” or communities formed through the workplace or spending behaviors. Cite at least two examples of capitalist trends and William’s critique of them. Does the narrator view capitalism as beneficial to the modern world, and do you agree with his view? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. LITERATURE THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO Kelly J. Mays * For more learning resources, visit the StudySpace: http://wwnorton.com/litweb © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. LitWeb Workshop: Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” wwnorton.com/litweb Fiction © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. * Flannery O’Connor (1925–64) Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia. She studied at the Georgia State College for Women, and she won a fellowship to the Writer’s Workshop of the University of Iowa, from which she received her MFA. In 1950, she was first diagnosed with lupus, a painful autoimmune disorder that had killed her father and would trouble her for the rest of her brief life. Her first novel, Wise Blood, was published in 1952, and her first collection of stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, in 1955.   * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Excerpt, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” “It was a head-doctor at the penitentiary said what I had done was kill my daddy but I know that for a lie. My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it. He was buried in the Mount Hopewell Baptist churchyard and you can go there and see for yourself.” “If you would pray,” the old lady said, “Jesus would help you.” (par. 117) * Southern gothic has been described as literature focused on “disturbed people doing disturbing things.” As a genre or a topical focus of some southern writing, southern gothic is characterized by its casts of strange characters, its interest in bizarre or macabre occurrences, and the way it uses these “grotesqueries” to explore social issues unique to the American South. Narratives in the southern gothic tradition tend to examine social and behavioral codes by depicting people who are engaged in acts ranging from the out of the ordinary to the eccentric to the taboo. Incest, murder, suicide, lynching, rape, castration, and insanity are not unusual topics within southern gothic literature. O’Connor’s fiction was deeply influenced by her Roman Catholic faith and by her commitment to revealing what she thought of as “the central Christian mysteries,” or moments of awakening, grace, and redemption. O’Connor explained that she found “violence strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace.”       * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Questions for Discussion How would you describe Bailey, John Wesley, and June Star? In what ways do they seem to confirm the grandmother’s belief that manners and morals are in decline and that “people are certainly not nice like they used to be”? How does the grandmother react when she sees a black child on the road? What is her response to the child’s poverty?  How does the story blend comedy and horror?  * That the grandmother imagines and represents the past as a safer place is suggested by her introducing the threat of the Misfit as part of her argument against the journey. In doing so, she implies a necessary connection between the violence and criminality the Misfit represents and the journey to the present and future that she doesn’t want to take. In the past, one knew whom to trust because everyone dressed and behaved according to clearly marked social distinctions. * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Questions for Discussion Does the story offer a discernible point of view on what constitutes “goodness”?  What is the significance of the grandmother’s frequent references to plantation houses? What does the grandmother mean when she says The Misfit is “one of [her] own children”? How do you understand the shift in The Misfit’s proclamations—first, that there is “no pleasure but meanness” and finally, in the last line of the story, “it’s no real pleasure in life”? * Meeting with the Misfit comes about precisely because the grandmother has misremembered the past, forgetting that the plantation she yearns to see one more time isn’t where she remembered it to be. The Misfit, the very embodiment of the violent present, is as obsessed with his own past as the grandmother is and also appears as insistent on social “niceties.” In this story, it becomes impossible to draw the lines between a “good man” and a bad one—yet why does the Misfit persist in using the term “good’ to describe the woman the grandmother might have been? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Group Activity & Write-Up In small groups, brainstorm some alternate titles for this story. Share the results with the class. Do your titles reflect a particular tone (e.g. comic, horror)? * Students can often identify the ways in which the title echoes familiar laments about the difficulty of finding good employees or servants, eligible husbands, or fit soldiers. The laments all imply that the present is worse than the past. Based on the titles students create, do they seem to believe that O’Connor’s story is endorsing the view that the past was better than the present? * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. Suggestions for Writing O’Connor provided her own analysis of this story, insisting that the grandmother achieved grace and redemption in the final moments of her life: “The grandmother is at last alone, facing The Misfit. Her head clears for an instant and she realizes, even in her limited way, that she is responsible for the man before her and joined to him by ties of kinship which have their roots deep in the mystery she has been merely prattling about so far. And at this point, she does the right thing, she makes the right gesture.” Offer an alternative reading of the story in which you consider other ways of interpreting the grandmother’s spirituality, particularly her final moments. * © 2013 W. W. Norton Co., Inc. LITERATURE THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO Kelly J. Mays * For more learning resources, visit the StudySpace: http://wwnorton.com/litweb