English 2, Section 80231: College Composition
Fall 2009: 12:30-1:45 Tu&Th in Room 704
Office Hours & Place: 11:30-12:20 Tu&Th in Cafeteria & After 3:20 in Rm 701
Instructor Dave Badtke
(707)334-4882
Dave@Badtke.com
Online Reference: www.Badtke.com or www.QCounty.com (follow link to Solano College classes)
Assignments
Week 3, beginning 8/31/2009:
l
tic
An
Emotional Engagement
Tuesday:
• Last week we graphed the plot of “Samuel” as a checkmark story structure, a structure consisting of exposition,
conflict, complications, turning point, climax, anti-climax and resolution. While not all stories will have such
a linear plot structure, the need for some level of tension – conflict – is paramount if a writer is to maintain
reader interest, so even less linear stories like Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in
Heaven,” which you’re assigned to read over the weekend, will depend critically on plot because, as E. M.
Forster pointed out, “. . . plot not only
answers what happened next, but it also
suggests why. The psychologist James Hillman
Checkmark Story
has explained in Healing Fiction that plot
reveals ‘human intentions. Plot shows how
Structure
Climax
it all hangs together and makes sense. Only
when a narrative receives inner coherence in
terms of the depths of human nature do we
Turning Point
ax
have fiction, and for this fiction we have to
ns
have plot. . . . To plot is to move from asking
o
ati
Resolution
lic
the question and then what happened? to the
p
m
o
C
question why did it happen?’” (Charters 9).
Exposition
• But as Charters states, “If you are like most
Conflict
people, plot is what keeps you going when
you first read a story, and character is what
Time
stays with you after you have finished reading
it” (11). This is to be expected since the plot
happens because of the characters’ actions and intents. If the boys had not been reckless, if the women had
not scolded the boys, if Samuel had not been imprudent, if the man had not pulled the emergency cord, there
would have been no story, at least no interesting story that we
would be studying. Characters need to act and the characters’
Character
actions need to be coherent relative to the plot and consistent
with their nature for verisimilitude to be achieved. But clearly we Properties
don’t need to know very much about the characters for a story
to be compelling. While the “Samuel” characters are static and
Static
Dynamic
flat, the story remains compelling because we know what the
characters did and have enough of an understanding of why they
acted as they did to understand them. What Louis Menand says
of the unity of effect, the frisson a story strives to achieve, is also
true of its characters: “Every word in a story, Poe said, is in the
service of this effect . . . at the end there has to be the literary
equivalent of the magician’s puff of smoke, an outcome that is
both starling and anticipated” (Charters 6).
• Whether a character is flat and static like Samuel or round and
dynamic like Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, each character action must be
consistent with both plot and must enhance the unity of effect as the plot plays out and as the character moves
inexorably toward an epiphany. As Menand states, “The difficulty of putting into words the effect a story
produces is part of the point. The story is words; the effect is wordless. . . . James Joyce called the effect an
‘epiphany,’ a term whose theological connotations have led, over theyears, to a lot of critical misunderstanding.
What Joyce meant by an epiphany was, he said, just ‘a revelation of the what-ness of a thin’ – a sudden
apprehension of the way the world unmediatedly is (Charters 6).
• Using these ideas and adding setting, POV, voice and style, we’ll look in detail at Oates’s story as well as
im
Round
Flat
Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” but before we do, I’ll give you a short quiz on both stories.
Homework due Thursday:
1. Reading Assignment: 1) Read Chapter 26 in Literature and its Writers, pages 1743 to 1761, focusing on
the student paper on pages 1754 to 1755.
2. Journal Assignment: Address the following questions regarding the student’s paper: 1) What is the thesis
of the paper? 2) Is the information presented in the first paragraph consistent with this thesis? 3) What
is the topic of the second paragraph? How does it relate to the thesis? 4) What is the topic of the third
paragraph? How does it relate to the thesis? 5) What is the topic of the fourth paragraph? How does it
relate to the thesis? 6) How does the final paragraph relate back to the thesis and title? 7) What works in
this essay? 8) What needs more work in the essay?
3. Extra: Memorize A. E. Housman’s “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now,” page 765, and drop by during
office hours to recite the poem and discuss with me its journey.
Thursday:
• We’ll continue discussion of Chapters 3, 26 and Eudora Welty.
• Look in particular at the questions on pages 22-23 and the story elements on pages 22 to 23.
Homework due next Tuesday & Thursday:
1. Reading Assignment for Tuesday: 1) Read Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in
Heaven,” pages 31 to 36, and 2) Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” pages 89 to 101. Of course be prepared
for a brief quiz on both these stories.
2. Journal Assignment: For each story do the following: 1) Detail the plot’s journey. 2) What is the POV
and how does this affect the story? 3) With whom does the protagonist primarily interact? 4) What role
does setting play? 5) How do voice and style help you understand the characters and their conflicts? 6) If
you were to interview the protagonist at the end of the story, what might he or she tell you about what she
learned from his or her experience? 7) Is what they tell you consistent with what you think they should
have learned?
3. Reading Assignment for Thursday: 1) Read John Updike’s “A & P,” pages 547 to 552, and 2) ZZ Packer’s
“Brownies,” pages 472 to 488.
4. Journal Assignment: Address the same questions above for these two stories.
“Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson.