1. Announcements!
2. Quick warm-up: How little choices can have a big impact...
"It's my pleasure" vs. "You're welcome"
Morrison sweeps up her readers in a state of tortured yet meaningful confusion.
vs.
Morrison neglects her readers in a state of tortured and insubstantial confusion.
3. Editing the critical review
- Do the opening paragraph and the plot summary clearly and powerfully convey the tone and purpose of the review? If not, suggest places where the writer can clarify and strengthen the tone.
- Do the opening paragraph and plot summary clearly establish the novel's genre, year of publication, structure, and other basic information?
- Do the body paragraphs evaluate the author's craft as effective or ineffective?
- Do the body paragraphs focus on specific elements of the author's craft, such as characterization, setting, symbols, motifs, and themes?
- Remember that the focus here is on how the author effectively or ineffectively creates compelling characters, significant setting, etc.; this differs from straightforward literary analysis.
- Do the body paragraphs justify the writer's claims by bringing in specific examples/quotations?
- Does the closing paragraph drive home the writer's evaluation of this novel?
- Some possibilities for the conclusion: Possible audiences for this book, your projected future for this book, a comparison/contrast to other books by this author...
Please click on the "Writing Reviser" link using FIREFOX, and I will walk you through how to use this tool to edit for active voice, diction, and syntax.
Proofreading checklist:
MLA
heading and title
12 point
font, double spacing, margins, etc.
Headers
on each page (Walker 2)
Quotation
citations (Morrison 28)
Italicized
titles
Properly
spelled author and character names
Formal
punctuation
Omitted words
Works Cited
HW:
1. Final draft of critical review is due Friday.
2. Next Beloved Socratic seminar is tomorrow; reading ticket is on imagery.
David thinks he could be wrong about milk and butter from the barn scene
ReplyDeleteDehumanization
Connecting back to Les Miserables, Fontine and her devolution from a normal working woman to a prostitute selling her hair and teeth
Barns are dirty, representative of dirty actions
Halle and Sethe used to make love in open areas such as the corn fields
Connection between darkness and Beloved, representative of possession?
Dark place could be the womb?
Picture of the blueprint for the slave ship comes to mind in connection of darkness, further, the passage of slaves into America
Ms. Leclaire notes that the middle passage interpretation is legitimate
References of spider webs and vines in negative connotations, while the quilt is referenced in a positive connotation
Is Beloved getting her strength from weakening others? Reference to How to Read Literature Like a Professor: “Nice to Eat You”
Harry Potter reference from Emily
Discussion about page 91, does Beloved understand her story/the story of her family?
Bourne Trilogy reference from Ben
Beloved must have a good understanding of the story
Beloved is still the angry spirit/child that she was
Does Denver know? Class says yes
Tension between Paul D and Beloved, what side will Sethe choose?
Denver does not want her mother to be reunited with Beloved in fear of Sethe losing the happy condition she is currently in
Confusion over a dragon reference from chapter 7, believed to be a reference to the Klan
Why do you think Denver is born on the border between the North and South?
Blue, lots of blue
Denver is then middle ground. She is not technically a slave, yet she is not entirely free.
She is connected to slavery still, due to the reminder on Sethe’s back
Denver is not held back by memory like the other characters are
You can’t mold water, Denver is not molded by the past, Denver was born on the water
Denver is the hope for the future, held back by Beloved
Connection between Denver and her namesake
White trash in the South placed even lower than Blacks