1. First this week we have three short but intense readings: "Not Waving but Drowning" (p. 458), "We Real Cool" (p. 500). and "Harlem" (p. 617). I mean for you to take the time to listen to these on Youtube. I am not saying you will like all three, but one or two of them I am sure you will. Read them several times, listen to them, and then answer the Discussion Board questions and discussions. As always be certain to reply to other students' posts.
First, which poem did you like the best? Why? What is "Not Waving but Drowning" (p. 458) about? If you watched the Youtube video did this help at all? In Brooks' poem, she is writing about an attitude. What is the attitude she is writing about? Can you find that attitude today? Where? Are there words in Brooks' poem you might have to look up? "Harlem" has always been a very popular poem. What is the mood conveyed by the poem? Do the words or images help create that mood? Are the similes vivid? Do these similes convey images or ideas or both? Please give examples for all of your responses--longer is better.
2. This week read Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" in our textbook and then go to Youtube and view and listen to Plath herself reading her poem "Daddy." Then while there listen to oliviam16 read Plath's poem "Mirror." After you are finished, return to the Discussion here and answer the following questions:
1) How different is the experience of reading "Daddy" as opposed to hearing Plath read it and seeing the video? Explain?
2) Does the poem, "Mirror" work with the mirror itself as the poem's narrator? Why or why not?
3) What do you particularly like or dislike about either poem? Explain and give examples.
4) How does Plath use the imagery of Nazi Germany in her poem? Does it work? Why? How?
5) What does the narrator of "Daddy" mean when she says, "If I have killed one man, I have killed two"? Explain.
6) Does the narrator seem to love or hate her father? Explain.
7) Is the poem "Mirror" about change? If so,m what change?
8) If you have anything, any comment, any question, anything at all further to post on either poem, please do so.
3. This week after reading Tim O'Brien's classic war story "The Things They Carried," post responses and discussions to some of these questions from the story:
Why do most students like this story?
What is the importance of the title? Does the title work for you as a reader?
How does the story move from the physical things the men carry to the more intangible?
Which of the two things they carry is the heavier burden? Why?
Which of the men carries the most? Why is this so?
Does Lt. Cross's name have any significance? Explain.
Does Lt. Cross think he will go back home and marry Martha?
How are the letters like the pebble? What do both mean to Lt. Cross?
Is there a common denominator for what the men think about? What would that be?
Lt. Cross is about 25 years old. When he is 50 will he still remember any of these experiences, in other words carry them? Why?
What is it that frustrates the soldier about the letter he mailed to his dead friend's family?
These men were in Viet Nam. Is there a chance that something like this happened in Iraq? In Afghanistan?at Gettysburg?
4. Juan Rulfo's "Tell Them Not to Kill Me"
After you have read the story, think about the following questions and post substantive answers to several of them:
Who is the main character"
What is this story actually about?
Why does the colonel speak to the main character but not look at him?
What is the son's attitude toward his father, saving his father, carrying him back home?
How is this the story of two sons?
What do the sons have in common? Which one suffered the most?
What is the theme of this story if you had to break it down to one line?
Is the setting of the story important? How?