AGENDA:
1. Second person short stories: Due Friday, Jan. 10. Continue to work on your short stories by revising and editing if you have a first draft. If not, work on completing your story.
2. A Prayer for the Dying: THINK, PAIR, SHARE
Discuss with a partner the following questions and post a response on the blog:
6.
How would you describe the relationship between Jacob and Doc? How do
their different ideas about the world lead to different strategies for
handling the outbreak in Friendship?
7. How does Jacob’s relationship
with Marta affect his behavior in the outbreak? How do his priorities
as a father and husband conflict with his responsibility to the town?
8.
How do you interpret the book’s ending? What is Jacob choosing when he
returns to Friendship? What do you imagine happening to him next?
9. Is Jacob sane at the end of the book? How does the author demonstrate the changes in his mind as conditions worsen?
10.
“You’ve stopped believing in evil,” the narrator says of Jacob early in
the story (p. 6). “Is that a sin?” Is there evil in this story? Does
Jacob come to see it by the end?
11. How do the book’s two epigraphs relate to each other? Why do you think the author chose them?
12.
Jacob is committed throughout the book to saving Friendship, and
willing to sacrifice himself if necessary. Is he naïve? Does his
commitment to principle do more harm than good in the end?
6) The relationship between Doc and Jacob feels one-sided at times. Doc seems to be the real authority between the two, deciding not to post quarantine for a few days, ordering Jacob not to drain the bodies, and making comments on Chase that Jacob disagrees with, but doesn’t respond to. Even though Doc and Jacob obviously have differences in philosophy, Jacob tends to obey Doc, with a few exceptions, but even those he does quietly. It just feels like Doc, as the older man, has more authority in their relationship and he seems to command more respect.
ReplyDelete7) Jacob’s relationship with Marta affects his behavior at the outbreak because he feels obligated to somehow protect her from the disease and send her away, but he has a stronger obligation to the people of friendship. As a result, he has a large internal struggle about his desire to see her and his daughter, Amelia, safe, but he needs to show that nothing’s wrong yet so he holds off sending them both away and out of danger. Ultimately, this leads to both their deaths, so he agonizes over what he perceives as his fault, driving him crazy.
8) I interpret the book’s ending as Jacob, having failed in his other two duties, returns to the town to be their undertaker and at least make amends that way. Jacob is choosing a life of solitude away from all the people he might infect and ultimately that means death since he can’t really take care of himself in the long term. I imagine Jacob making coffins for all of the people he can find, burning the rest of the town, making himself a coffin, and then drinking Paris green lying while lying in it. He can’t live very long, considering his mental state and his actual state of affairs, so I think that the death that he so abhorred in someone else he might come to accept for himself.
9) Jacob is definitely a little insane by the end of the novel, as so clearly demonstrated by his idea that Marta and Amelia are somehow talking to him and his shooting of Bart. He seems to have gone crazed and descended into the “Crazy Jacob” that the children of the village call him, because he’s now actually talking to dead people. When he shoots Bart and actually kills someone who wasn’t already going to die, it shows how far he’s gone from being the moral sheriff to the crazy undertaker.
10) I don’t think there’s evil in this book, but I think there is desperation. It wasn’t evil for Jacob to board people up in their houses so that they would die, because he was trying to protect people. His shooting of Bart was a sign of his madness, but it wasn’t evil- it was him desperately trying to save the survivors. I think Jacob comes to see everything as evil because he’s so confused how he could have been the instrument that brought disease to everyone, but it’s not actually evil. Disease isn’t evil; it’s just brutal.
11) I think that the two epigraphs relate to each other because one is saying how essentially human compassion doesn’t die, which is something independent from faith in God. Jacob always tried to help people, even when his sanity was slipping and he began to have dark thoughts about God. In fact, you could argue that it was his compassion for all the people who were falling sick that made him question his faith in God, and made him hate God.
12) Jacob is naïve in his initial desire to bleed the victims of the sickness and his ideas about good, but that hardens away after multiple people (Amelia among them) begin falling sick. That initial act of what he perceived as good damned them all.
Gena and Nate and Ethan
ReplyDelete6. Jacob and Doc are colleagues, but their differing philosophies create barriers between them. In handling the epidemic, Doc proves to be more clinical and cynical than Jacob. Jacob gets hung up by his complicated views on morality, which often put him at odds with Doc. Despite their differences, they maintain a polite interest in one another and are concerned for each other's well being. Their different views are illustrated in jacob's reflection, "You didn't tell Doc that you bled him, that you rouged his cheeks and combed his hair just so... You didn't tell Doc because he wouldn't understand," (O'Nan 61).
7. Jacob wants to protect his wife and his daughter Amelia, because he feels that they are all he has. As a father and husband, he wants to prevent his family from being affected by the outbreak, but his responsibility to the town and subsequent interaction with the infected make that impossible. The dichotomy between his responsibility to his family and town is illustrated in his argument with Marta over whether to leave town. "'We can leave,' Marta says for the fifth time tonight... 'We can't,' you whisper," (29).
8. When Jacob returns to Friendship he is choosing not to start a new life. He is deciding to return to the place that he loves so much, because he can't let go of his home, just like he couldn't let go of Amelia and Marta. Even without the people he loves, Friendship will always be his home. "A man who's lost only wants to go home... Tonight, you think, you need to be with the ones you love," (195). Next, he may become even more unhinged, living in an abandoned town, or maybe he'll catch diphtheria and die.
9. Jacob is not sane at the end of the book, and he has quite gone mad with grief. Jacob is in denial about Marta and Amelia's death, "You give her a kiss and return her to Marta, get up to check on your cornbread, but at the doorway you turn back to look at them, to admire them sitting there, the ones you love, and count yourself lucky, yes, even blessed, having almost lost them," (125). Jacob's deteriorating mental state is not apparent to others, however, because he continues in his police duties and refuses to tell anyone about his family's death.
10. The evil in the story is the injustice of tragedy. Jacob becomes less naive, and sees that the world is full of injustice. "You can't bargain with God, buy Him with pieties. This is what you've found out-that even with the best intentions, even with all of your thoughtful sermons and deep feelings and good works, you can't save anyone, least of all yourself," (195). This is a contrast fro the beginning of the book, when Jacob thought that his duties as a priest were so important.
6. The relationship between Jacob and Doc is professionally friendly, but Jacob is very aware that Doc is his superior taking order from him on several occasions but also always doing what he thinks is right. For example because of Jacob's military background he often pays more respect to the bodies of the deceased. Also, by the end of the book Jacob has more trouble with the epidemic and its effects than Doc is seeming to have.
ReplyDelete7. Because Jacob has such a strong connection to his wife Amelia, he feels a strong need to protect her and their daughter Amelia even after they can no longer be protected. However, he also has an obligation to the town which he feels is stronger. After Marta and Amelia die, in order to maintain a sanity believable by the townspeople he manufactures stories about them in his mind after their death, pretending they are still alive.
8. Jacob returning to Friendship is really a symbol of his dedication to his family and the town of Friendship. In his head he feels that he has caused a large oart of the spread of the epidemic, killing his family and some of his friends. By returning to Friendship he is choosing to be alone rather than risk anyone else's life for his selfishness. Eventually Jacob will die because he is not capable of taking care of himself to a necessary standard.
9. By the end of the book Jacob's mind is mostly departed from having any sanity at all. The grief he is suffering from his wife and daughter's death is having quite a big impact on him sending him into a spiral on conscious denial. He continues to believe his wife and daughter remain living, demonstrating how much of an impact they have had on his life. As his conditions worsen he becomes less of the person he used to be, making the major change from the Sheriff and Undertaker to another crazed person in the town.
10. With respect to Jacob's religious background, he is becoming a sinful person. In the Bible, actions such as challenging God or killing people or their property as he has done several times would be considered a sin. Although he committed this sin for the good of the town, his devoutness should have disallowed him from committing these atrocities because of above all a human life is being lost in every situation when it didn't need to be.
11. The two epigraphs directly relate to this book because of Jacob's inner struggle with the traumatic events that happen by the end of his life. Also they seem to go together as well as contradict each other in a way that relates to the story line. As Jacob loses his family, he does not immediately change his feelings toward the people in the town. Also the second epigraph, which describes Jacob's struggle with his relationship with religion as God seems to be taking out some sort of wrath on him.
12. In the beginning he is naive in that his beliefs of respecting the dead are of any consequence. By bleeding those who are dead and continuing to build nice coffins he is showing a respect for them, the same he would show for his own family but in the end none of it mattered because mostly everyone died anyways. Jacob's commitment to Friendship by the end of the book is somewhat naive because rather than saving himself and believe he has a higher importance somewhere else, he chooses to stay in the ghost town that Friendship becomes. In the end, his dedication does him more harm than good because he is choosing a life of solitude over a life of potential happiness in another town.
6. Jacob's and Doc's relationship is on a professional level. At times they do not meet eye to eye. For example, Doc has a different strategy on how to handle with the epidemic. Doc wants to stop the plague as soon as possible and Jacob wants to save the people of Friendship. At the end of the novel he ends up alone.
ReplyDelete7. Jacob's relationship with Marta effects his roles to Friendship. Even though he knows he's the carrier he tries his hardest to save his family form the outbreak. As the role of undertaker, he doesn't take his family bodies out of the town. Jacob, feels he has more responsibilities to take care of the town.
8. I interpreted the ending as if Jacob had no one else to save. At the end of the book when Jacob tried saving the rest of Friendship, that's when it dawned on him, only He can souls. Jacob failed and tried to punish himself for not "doing his duty". I believe Jacob packed his things and repeated the second and third paragraph (on page 195) to himself. Once he knew for sure there was no more saving.
9. I don't think Jacob is sane. something just had to happen to him for him to realize God's intervention in Friendship. Jacob lost his family, and blames himself because one he was the carrier and two he failed at saving them. Jacob's mind just has to settle down and take in reality for once in his life. the author demonstrates Jacob's attempted suicide when the situation worsens.
10. Throughout the book he commits sinful acts. As the sheriff he burns property down to stop the epidemic and he killed a living thing Cyltie. He went against God by doing his duty, which is a huge sin. Jacob stopped believing in evil but he was evil towards the end of the book.
11. The two epigraphs relate to this book because Jacob inner thoughts and what he does to cope with them are unreal. Which Jacob's belief with God negates his inner thoughts. Jacob challenges The Almighty, but make promises to him when he has to lay another person down. "God have mercy." I think the author choose them to show what Jacob goes through when he has to play three roles that clash with each other. It tell the reader what's Jacob actions when he deals with the lost of his family.
12. I believe he's naive throughout the book. He as an ex-soldier believes in caring about the dead. When Amelia and Marta dies he still believe they'll come back only if he freezes them and play tricks with his mind, telling lies to himself and the town that they're okay. at the end of the book when he attempts to kill himself he's even more naive thinking this'll do some good for the town of Friendship, but he ends up alone after all of that, which he's commitment of principle does harm to at the end.
6. The relationship between Jacob and Doc is a very professional relationship. It is sometimes one-sided and Doc is sometimes the authority figure for the both of them. Their different ideas about the world lead to Jacob doing what Doc says but with his own exceptions. Because Doc is a little older than Jacob it kind of gives him the responsibility to take on the authority figure role.
ReplyDelete7. Jacob’s relationship with Marta affects his behavior because he feels responsible for protecting her from disease. He wants to send her away. His priorities as a father and husband conflict with his responsibility to the town because he wants to send his daughter and Marta away, but he doesn’t want his feelings to be noticeable.
8. I interpret the book’s ending as Jacob failing as a husband and father. Jacob is choosing being alone when he returns to friendship. Imagine him dying next.
Kayli Zeluff and Carly Swift-Horth:
ReplyDelete6. The relationship between Jacob and Doc is very uneven. Doc seems to have complete control over Jacob at times and also seems to influence Jacobs thoughts. Doc seems to be like the parent of Jacob rather than a friend or an equal. Jacob, however, doesn't seem to mind being over powered by Doc.
7. Jacob's relationship with Marta greatly affects his behavior. He is supposed to be the ruler and idol of the town but when it comes to her everything changes. He feels a need to protect her from the diseases and such. However, he can't save her because he has a big responsibility over the town and has to protect the people.
8. By returning to Friendship, Jacob is choosing to be alone because of the things he did. He was supposed to save people but he ended up helping spreading the disease and, in a way, killed his family. He would rather live alone than put someone else's life at risk. Jacob will probably end up dying due to him being unable to support himself.
9.Jacob by the end of the novel is far from being sane. He witnessed the spread of disease throughout his town, and the death of his family. Even though they are dead, he believes that they are still alive, which proves his insanity.
10.Yes the spread of disease is the evil. And in a way so is Jacob himself. He commited sin throughout the entire book. He seemed to be a very religious person however he went against his religion and did things he knew was sinful. Even if it was for the giood of the town it was still evil.
11. the epigraphs that are choosen for the novel are very related to each other because they are dierctly relatedm to the novel itself. The inner problems that Jacob faced throughout the novel relates a lot. The epigraphs also contradict each other in a weird way since they each go with different parts of the novel.
12. Even though Jacob wanted to help Friendship, it was pretty naive because he believed he was more important than those people who died. He believed he was put on the Earth to do something good for people but in a way he thought that that importance made his life more valuable than the others.
9. Jacob is kind of insane in the end of the book. The author demonstrates the changes in his mind as conditions worsen when Marta and Amelia mysteriously talk to him and when he shoots Bart.
ReplyDelete10. I think there is evil a little bit in the book. All of the things that he did were evil to me. There had to be some kind of evil in him to do the things he did. I think Jacob did after a while to come to see the evil in his actions by the end.
11. The books’ two epigraphs relate to each other because they both represent the ways of god and how much feelings of evil and compassion can over power oneself.
12. I think Jacob is kind of naïve because someone shouldn’t even think of sacrificing themselves for a friendship, which is toxic on his part. His commitment to principle does more harm than good in the end. Especially since all his friends are dead when the intent was to “save” them.
Taina and Jahni
ReplyDelete1.They have a good relationship with one another but Doc thinks that he has more authority because he is older. Older people think that they have more of a say so because he is older and more experience. Jacob looks up to Doc because he has had been through way more than him. Both of them understand the concept of death. They keep calm when it comes to death.
2.He's always calm but everyone in the town is loosing their love ones and he is starting to doubt his self but he still has his faith a little bit. Marta has the sickness but he is trying to keep sane for his wife and Marta is always worrying that jacob will leave her.He wants to be there by his wife and kids side but he does have an obligation to the town.
3.He returns to friendship as if nothing ever happen and he is mentally unstable. Everything that happen to him is effecting him but he is acting like nothing ever happen. He lost his wife and daughter due to this sickness and this sickness took everyone in the town over and he was just traumatized.Jacob is going to either die or catch the disease.
4.Jacob is not sane at the end of the book. He lost people that he was close to, to this disease and its hurting him deep down inside but he is not showing it.He had so much faith but then when it started taking over his love ones he started to doubt himself more and more.
5.We dont think there is evil in the story. As a pastor he had to kill a cow he rather the cow die than the cow live with a weaken disease that the animal will later die from. Yes because he realize that he is talking to dead people and he realize that they are dead.
6.The two epigraphs are the struggles of himself and how he dealt with the disease and the effects it had on his life. His life was kind of torn after the passing of everyone.The second epigraph was about his personal faith and relationship with god. Throughout the book the author illustrated how jacob religious beliefs had contradicted themselves because he question both.
7.No he is not naive and he was an ex soldier and he had faith. His religious belief took him a long way and he just wanted to help people out. It does more harm and he has more structure so he is worried about everyone but himself but at some point you have to think about yourself.
Diamond Proctor
ReplyDelete6) Jacob and Doc's friendship is good business wise, but if the two wouldn't be actual friends in reality. they dont seem to have the same mindset, especially about how to deal with the plague.m Jacob's war experience influences how he deals with the plagu, feeling more sympathy and respect for humans. he does what he feels is morally right. Like when he bleeds the bodies even though Doc tells him not to.
7) Jacob's relationship with Martha affects his behavior because he automatically wants to protect her from the plague and his daughter because they're family, and he wants to hold on to them at a time of mass casualties. His responsibilities conflick his town responsibilities because he's the carrier and wants to try and save the people and not move his family away.
8) I interpret the ending as Jacob's mission wasnt complete, although he tries too be everyone's hero, he feels partially responsible that the plague won. Jacob retuened to Friendship out of diaapointment and respect to his old life and hometown. He may end up dying because he doesnt have any supposrt or anyone to save since he's alone; he's also had a change in his mental state.
9) Jacob is partially insane at the end because he failed at this goal which was to protect Martha and Amelia from dying. He's in disbelief that they are gone and it shows because he's pretendingn they're still alive and there with him. The author demonstrates his state of mind changing by going crazy, from staying sane in a time of crisis.
10) The plague would be considered evil, especially to Jacob because it caused his change in mindset even after he went to war. It also caused the death of many, leading to Jacob's grief and loneliness.
11)The epigraogs relate becaus ethey compare Jacob's mental challenges throughout his life experiences, which demonstrates irony because it cause. He challenges God at a time of crisis and they also talk about his inner issues with saving his family, and the town.
12) Jacob's not naive for trying to save everyone vause he used his morals and it's in most human's nature to try to save another dying human. However he is risking his own life by trying to do this. It ends up doing more bad than good because he loses on both sides.