AGENDA:
VIEW: Master Class Joyce Carol Oates Monologues
READ: "Lethal" and Eudora Welty's "Where is This Voice Coming From?"
Tillie Olsen's "Tell Me a Riddle"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/07/06/where-is-the-voice-coming-from
http://web.mit.edu/norvin/www/somethingelse/welty.html
https://www.westada.org/cms/lib8/ID01904074/Centricity/Domain/5474/Where%20is%20the%20voice%20coming%20from.pdf
https://eudorawelty.org/news-flash-where-is-the-voice-coming-from-teaching-unit-coming-soon/
“Where is the Voice Coming From?”
1. Identify at least three specific lenses through which you might
relevantly analyze this story. For each lens, record at least 3 insights
(substantial discussion points), with specific textual references to support
your ideas.
2. Examine your insights and choose one you think is most powerful.
Write a strong thesis statement in which you incorporate a complex
and meaningful message or truth conveyed by the author (the WHAT)
and the means by which she conveys this message (the HOW).
3. What would be a good alternative title for this story and why? Offer a
few solid possibilities.
WRITE: Use one of Oates' ideas to write a monologue for a story
Worked on monologue.
ReplyDeletedid nothing <3 jkjk i worked on my monologue
ReplyDeleteI worked on my monologue. Still a work in progress.
ReplyDeleteworked on monologue
ReplyDeleteWork on Joyce Carol Oates exercise, not Craddock monologue
DeleteDeveloped my monologue.
ReplyDeletemonologueeeeee
ReplyDeleteWorked on monologue, finished blog post from last class.
ReplyDeleteI wrote.
ReplyDeleteWorked on monologue.
ReplyDelete1. Speaker, reader, history.
ReplyDeleteUltimately the speaker sees his actions as okay, because he is trying to take back the white’s power and freedom. He goes to say, “It’s still a free country… He’s out planning still some other says to do what we tell ‘em they can’t.”
The readers (well most of us) think that his actions are absurd and in no way justified. In my opinion, I see that the speaker may be envious or have hatred for the fact that the Summers family have nice things, because he says “That nigger wife of his, she wanted nice grass! I bet my wife would hate to pay her water bill. And for burning her electricity.”
Looking through the lens of history, we understand that this is from the perspective of James Earl Ray on the night he assassinated Martin Luther King.
2. Eudora Welty conveys the message of white supremacy, that is still relevant today, through the perspective of the narrator.
3. “Sing a-down.” At first it makes no sense, but it captures attention. This is in the last sentence of the monologue, so it comes full circle. As the story/ monologue continues we begin to understand why the narrator assassinated Roland Summers and how it becomes justifiable. In the end when he takes down his guitar and sings, it represents his lack of concern for what he’s done and that it was “the right thing to do.” Other possibilities could be “Taking Back the Power” or “Summer Heat.”
1. The first lens is that of the narrator, or a racist white man in the south during Jim Crow. This lens reveals how Southern racists resent the push for equality--the narrator seeks to kill the black man seeking "equal time." Moreover, the story establishes the setting in which these men lived, namely a hot, antagonistic one. But the lens also portrays the softer side of the racists by displaying their affection for their wives and other interests like the narrator's "old guitar." The second lens is that of black civil rights activists. Not much of their influence is present throughout the story, however the murder of the black man demonstrates the adversity they faced. Moreover, the affect of the NAACP's presence was displayed by the couples contempt for them--the wife complains "you could have got you [killed] somebody better." The third lens is that of the modern day reader. Those who read the short story will be shocked by the complete disregard the narrator has for the lives of blacks--the scene in which he kills the man is only described briefly and without any consideration for the feelings of the black man. Modern day readers will also have a better understanding of the challenge civil rights leaders faced and those who led the opposition.
ReplyDelete2.Welty examines the mind of a white supremacist and how their hatred grows and the resulting effects by taking the perspective of one in her story "Where is the Voice Coming From."
3. I think a good alternative title would be one that comments on the heat in the story. Scorching heat is a major theme of the story and heat itself is often symbolic of feelings of rage and hatred. Thus, I would name the story either "Heat Rising" or "Town on Fire."
1. A reader can analyze the story from the perspective of the narrator, civil rights activists, and their own interpretation of the story. The lens of the narrator and civil rights activists offer different perspectives of the same conflict and why these people think oppositely on the matter. Through the reader themselves, they can analyze the impact of the adversities and challenges faced by many black citizens by the hands of ignorant, cruel white men.
ReplyDelete2. The most powerful lens is the perspective of the narrator, or more specifically the white supremacist in the short story. This is because Welty explores ignorance that breeds hatred to people different from the narrator in his society.
3. I would choose a title that focuses on a symbol or motif throughout the story such as heat. I'd also just title the story "Heat" as the word itself is powerful and leaves an idea in the audience that the symbol may have significance as they continue reading.
3.
1, The first lens is the narrator who is a racist male in the south. The second lense. The second lense is an african american. The third lens is from someone's perspective of today. Each lens has a different perspective on the conflicts that are happening around them.
ReplyDelete2. The lens of the narrator is the most powerful. I think it's the most powerful because of how deep it touches on race and it has that real feeling of someone who is a white supremacist.
3.I think a good title would be something that touches upon the overall them of the story incorporating all of the different lenses and conflicts that are being represented.