Why does Joseph Boyden use two narrators to tell the story of Three Day Road?

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Three Day Road

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why does Joseph Boyden use two narrators to tell the story of Three Day Road? What effects does he create by interweaving Niska’s and Xavier’s narratives?

2. Niska tells Xavier about the stories her father told her family. “Sometimes his stories were all that we had to keep us alive” (p. 35). What role do stories play within the novel?

3. Why does Niska spend so much time telling Xavier stories of the past? Why does she say that she “feeds” him stories? What effect do her stories have on him?

4. Early in the novel, Thompson asks Elijah if he likes combat and killing, to which Elijah, “It’s in my blood.” But Thompson doesn’t ask Xavier, who thinks, “Does he sense something? How am I different?” (p. 75). How is Xavier different from Elijah? How do they each feel about combat and killing? In what ways are they alike?

5. Elijah has a dream in which three of his dead fellow soldiers tell him: “Do what you can.There is nothing sacred any more in a place such as this. Don’t fight it. Do what you can” (p.282). How does Elijah interpret this? Are these spirits right in suggesting that in war nothing is sacred and that a soldier should do whatever he can—even if it involves killing innocent people—to survive and win?

6. In what ways is it significant that Xavier and Elijah are Cree? How do their fellow soldiers perceive them? What aspects of their traditional ways of life affect how they perform during the war?

7. How does Niska begin to cure Xavier of his despair and morphine addiction? What does this cure suggest about the difference between Native Canadian and Western views of medicine and healing?

8. Niska has the gift of receiving visions. What do her visions reveal to her? How do they guide her?

9. What does the novel as a whole say about war and what it can do to those who must kill in war? How are Elijah and Xavier changed, physically and spiritually, by their experiences in war?

10. In what ways is Three Day Road relevant to our own time and circumstance?

What is the author’s purpose for writing the essay? Who is the author’s target audience?

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Analysis Essay Assignment

Source: One essay from the list above. No other sources may be used – this is a limited analysis. Papers that use other sources will receive a zero. Both in-text citations and a works cited page will be needed.

The works cited page will only list the literary work that you analyzed in your essay.  use the current 8th edition MLA format when documenting your source.

For this essay, you will analyze the author’s use of rhetoric (rhetorical elements) What is the author’s purpose for writing the essay? Who is the author’s target audience?

Does the author effectively reach that audience? What tone does the author use and is it effective? What appeals – logical, ethical, emotional – does the author use? In your analysis, you will need to examine how the author achieves his purpose with the target audience.

 

How is human learning different from other organisms’ learning?Can science create a soul?

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What does it mean to be human?

Some things to consider, based on our conversations this summer:

Is “human” an adjective in addition to being a noun? That is, can organisms demonstrate human qualities without themselves being human?

Language and communication: is one the domain of “human” more than the other?

How is human learning different from other organisms’ learning?Can science create a soul?

Does the presence of a soul (or spirit?) reveal humanity?Is “human” born, or made—or both?

To what extent is science blurring the lines between human and not-human? Will that distinction become more or less meaningful with time?

 

 Discuss the perspectives on the assigned work in the context of other similar literature, and identify the historical data.

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Mickey’s Harvest_Howard Terry.pdf

Students will read samples of literature written by or about d/Deaf individuals.

Discuss the perspectives on the assigned work in the context of other similar literature, and identify the historical data.

 

 

Why does this seem like an important scene to you? What called your attention to this particular scene?

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at least two (2) themes, questions, or key scenes relating to Woolf’s novel in the space provided below. These can be preliminary ideas–i.e., you don’t need to have an answer to your question or to be able to fully explain your chosen theme–but they should be explained in clear and concise language. You should, however, strive to identify themes that are complex, nuanced, and open-ended.

Identify specific scenes for discussion, try to say a bit about what makes them interesting and what you would like to analyze in them. Why does this seem like an important scene to you? What called your attention to this particular scene?

Compare/Contrast the Hallmark film version and a stage version of the play.

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The notes about The Piano Lesson in the Blackboard lesson folder are meant to instigate critical thinking about the play. After you look at the topic choices below, review those notes and questions about the text. Hopefully the questions and prompts below will give you some ideas of what to write about. You do not need to answer all the questions in the prompts below. They are only there to get you thinking about the topic choices.

1. Review the literary elements associated with drama. Analyze how one or a few of these elements contribute to an understanding of the play. Your thesis should make an assertion about what considering that element helps you understand.

2. Compare/Contrast the Hallmark film version and a stage version of the play.

Identify the important elements of an Argumentative Essay and an Argumentative Research Essay

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Argumentative Research Essay

This module will introduce you to the Argumentative Essay and the Argumentative Research Essay. You will read and analyze Argumentative essays from different authors and will follow a recommended process to write your own Argumentative Research Essay.

Upon successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

Identify the important elements of an Argumentative Essay and an Argumentative Research Essay

Write an Argumentative Essay with a specific audience in mind Perform research and incorporate outside sources into your writing to create an Argumentative Research Essay with a specific audience in mind.

 

What are the distinctions between professional, social, and personal writing?

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What are the distinctions between professional, social, and personal writing? Do you have a different approach for each? Do you see yourself as strong in one or two areas but needing work in another?

How does the play function as a commentary on men and women, and the divisions between their lives?

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English writing

Trifles premiered on August 8, 1916 at the Wharf Theater in Province town, MA. This one act play was based on a murder trial that Susan Glaspell covered as a young reporter in Des Moines, Iowa.

Using careful timing, Glaspell delivers subtle revelations that draw the audience and the reader into this play. She definitely intended to sting the conscience of her audience and challenge their perceptions of justice and morality, while also focusing on the different experiences that men and women might have to the exact same objective fact or event. The play raises some interesting questions. Does justice change with perspective? If so, is it possible to handle it fairly?

Since it’s first production in 1916 Trifles has become one of the most anthologized works in American theater history and is frequently cited as one of the great masterpieces of American theater. And It is now rightfully considered a masterpiece of the early feminist movement.

Later in her career, Glaspell also retold this play as the short story A Jury of her Peers.

This is a wonderful play that was once widely known. It shouldn’t linger as a hidden gem, and I encourage you to read this play and then share it with your friends.

 

1. Both the men and the women are doing investigations of the situation. Compare the two investigations. How are they similar? How are they different? Whose methodology works best?

2. Hale says “women are used to worrying over trifles.” What’s meant by the title Trifles? What “trifles” does the title refer to? Is there irony in Glaspel’s use of the word “trifles”?

3. What is the significance of the quilt? What role does it play? Why does it recur in the dialogue?

4. How does the play function as a commentary on men and women, and the divisions between their lives?

5. Why do the women find the evidence instead of the men?

6. What does this fact reveal about what is important to women and what is important to men?

7. Why do Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters suppress the evidence they find?

8. What seems to be the point of this play?

9. Can Trifles be considered a feminist play? Explain.

10. What props on the stage have symbolic significance?

 

Explain how do the house and fire function as characters and draw a comparison?

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Supporting evidence must come from the attached short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”.
Explain how do the house and fire function as characters and draw a comparison?