Blog prompts

For those of you would like to respond in your blogs to the various texts/films we have been reading/watching, here are some thoughts to get the ball rolling:

--Kite Runner ends with Amir going to Afghanistan to retrieve Hassan's son. While Amir hadn't see Hassan since abandoning and betraying him as a youth, Hassan seems to have forgiven Amir, and his letter indicates that he knows he might never see his old friend again. Amir's guilt over the years must have been tremendous, but was this Amir's purpose for going to the Kabul orphanage? Despite the family ties that existed between Amir and Hassan, and their subsequent revelation to Amir, why do you think Amir traveled to Kabul?

--Also in Kite Runner, Sohrab saves Amir from Assef's brutality by using a slingshot. This scene mirrors the actions of Hassan earlier in the film. Is Amir's defense of Sohrab to General Taheri Amir's attempt to take a stand he didn't take earlier in the film? Or rather, does Amir redeem himself in the process of accepting Sohrab into his home?

--Water for Elephants contrasts the young and old Jacob through flashbacks. How has Jacob changed over the years? What has remained the same?

--Water for Elephants is what is referred to as historical fiction. Did Sara Gruen's attempt to paint a portrait of the Depression-era circus succeed? Or does it reveal more about our current worldview(s)? How have times changed since the Depression Era?

--Jacob, like a few other characters we have read about in the course ("the garage light timed out"--*shudder*), muses on what it's like to grow old. How do you view Jacob's thoughts on aging? How do his thoughts relate to the characters in "Toga Party"?




And finally, for those of you would like to begin responding to The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, what qualities make Oscar a likeable character? Does he remind you of Edwin de Valu in Happiness? Is his peculiar position as a "nerdy ghetto boy" as described on the dust jacket a fair representation? And what about Lola? Does she remind you of Jane in My Year of Meats? Which character(s) do you relate to?

What kinds of cultural barriers are erected in this novel? How do they contribute to your sense of "uncomfortability" we talked about in Monday's class?

Midterm Reflections

My Blogger account has had a little trouble in the past week, so hopefully this post goes up without a hitch.

Your midterm essay reflection should be 2-3 pages double spaced (for each individual group member, not a group essay), and should detail these specifics about your group's midterm project:

--Which text did you choose to focus your project on, and why?
--What does your "reading" of the text add to the discussion?
--Which specific element or scene did you choose to focus on, and why?
--What does the medium you chose add to the interpretation of the text? For example, if you chose a skit, how does acting out the scene add depth or complexity to the initial reading?

See you folks tomorrow, and I really look forward to your presentations!

Blog prompts

We finished Everything is Illuminated on Wednesday. There were a number of possible reasons for the grandfather's suicide that we mapped out together in class, but why do you think he killed himself? And how was his decision to take his life either like to unlike that of the couple in "Toga Party?"


Now that you've seen the first half of Kite Runner, what are your impressions of the film thus far? What do you make of the bond between the two boys, Amir and Hassan? Why did their relationship change after the kite running competition?