AGENDA:
1. Second person short stories: Due Friday, Jan. 9. 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: Finish the book for essay test on Thursday
In the meantime, THINK, PAIR, SHARE (refer to text)
Discuss with a partner the following questions and post a response on the blog:
4. What role does religious faith
play in the story? How does it influence Jacob, Chase, and other
citizens of Friendship? Is their faith rewarded?
5. Jacob is a
veteran of the Civil War. How does his experience there affect the way
he behaves in the crisis in Friendship? How did the war change him?
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?
Jaymee and Grace
ReplyDelete4. Faith plays a significant role in this story in that Jacob is a priest in the town. The people are heavily religiously influenced and the chase colony kept their foundation in faith and would not evacuate.
5. The war caused Jacob to be more alert and responsible. He feels he has the duty to protect humanity.
6. The relationship between Jacob and Doc is controversial in tha5t Jacob believes that he needs to alert and protect everyone, whereas Doc believes that it shouldn't create such a widespread panic.
7.Jacob thinks about evacuating them but doesn't follow through because he is too attached to his family.
8. In the end, Jacob found himself contemplating his faith as well as his life. When he returns to Friendship after evacuating the town he is faced with the destruction of the town and the death of everyone he loved. If the story were to go on further I could imagine him becoming closed off and living alone somewhere, like the hermit he felt connected to.
9. Jacob is not necessarily sane or in his right mind at the end of the story, but his conscience is still there. He does things that are immoral and off the wall, but still carries feelings of remorse.
10. There is no 'mystical evil', but Jacob through his experiences that human nature and nature itself can be as cruel as 'evil' in the biblical sense.
11. The epigraphs in the book are representative of the inner conflict within Jacob throughout the story.
12. There is a naivety in Jacob with thinking he can save everyone from something like that, but not expecting sacrifice anything; especially not his wife and child.
4. Religon is used to unite and ease the people that are seeing their last moments.
ReplyDelete5.Jacob's experience has made him more calm and collective in the heap of trouble. He also has great and last resort survival skills, and a companionship that puts the dying in a state of peace before they died.
6. Jacob attempts to run tests and cure them while coaxing them with religion. While doc believes that the sick should be irradicated and buried.
7.since marta is a father and husband he cannot invest all of his time to the town of Friendship.
9. Jacob is on the silver lining of sane and he then accepts the fate that Friendship is ruined and is in turmoil.
4) Religion essentially serves as an omnipresent force or reason for which things occur in the eyes of the citizens. The word of God is seen as an unquestionable power, the consequences of which are inescapable. Jacob's faith is steadfast compared to the other citizens, but they equally crumble when directly confronted with tragedy. This ultimately makes their faith unrewarded, as they perish without clear reason or recourse.
ReplyDelete5) Jacob’s war experience makes him come across as a more hardened individual. He’s cautious, avoids sickness, and doesn’t succumb to sadness or despair that afflicts the other citizens. However, it has also changed him into a much bolder man, almost intimidating to everyone. This comes across most often when he accidently scares or hurts someone he becomes frustrated with.
6) Doc and Jacob more work out of desperation than familiarity. Their synergy is almost a natural progression, as Doc serves more for logic and understanding, while Jacob is meant to enforce his suggestions. However, Jacob’s more personal connection to the townspeople makes him more concerned for their safety. Doc is a more isolated individual, who is more confrontational and jaded in his decisions for the greater good.
4. Religious faith plays a big part in the story. Jacob, Chase, and the Doc all pray multiple times over the dead bodies.
ReplyDelete5. He feels like he has a job to protect the town.
6. They have a strong relationship but different views. Doc wants to keep the epidemic low. He doesn’t want to make it a big deal. Jacob, however, wants to tell everyone about it.
7) The outbreak forces Jacob to decide between what he believes is right and what is best for his family. At the benefit of not losing his morality, he becomes less cautious and more personal in caring for his family, which ultimately means doing nothing for them at all. Jacob knows he is helpless to save them and that makes the situation all the worse for him, as he repudiates the use of remedies when he knows the eventual outcome.
ReplyDelete4. Religion plays a very large role in A Prayer for the Dying.considering that Jacob, the main character, is the towns priest. The all pray however Jacobs prayers are never rewarded.
ReplyDelete5.The war causes him to assume the role of the leader, he feels supremely responsible for the town and spends his time protecting it.
6. The have contradicting opinions Jacob spends a lot of his time trying to protect everyone and Doc believes that he should not make the epidemic such a big deal.
7. The outbreak forces Jacob to decide between the towns best interest and his families best interests. Jacob loses his sense of caution which ultimately ruins his families life.
8. I believe that Jacob will continue to live in Friendship however he may lose his faith in his god. HE probably will just die alone.
9.I believe Jacob is more sane then ever t the end of the book. He realizes that he cant save anybody, including his family.He also begins to doubt his faith.
7. His relationship with Marta affects his behavior greatly. He has to choose many times between his family and the town.
ReplyDelete8. I think Jacob will stay in Friendship, but he will be lonely since the town is destroyed.
9. I think Jacob is sane, but not as sane as he was at the beginning of the book. He has partially lost his mind.
10. I don’t think there was evil in the book. I think what happened is just life, and sometimes people die, while others live.
11. The two epigraphs relate to each other because they represent the main question of the story.
12. I think Jacob is determined not naive, but I think that his downfall was being so determined.