AGENDA:
Read and discuss Bruce Holland Rogers' essay on magical realism.
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/realism.shtml
EQ: What are the elements of magical realism in The Enchanted?
In small groups, use your discussion guides to focus on a discussion about the novel. Have someone be the group's recorder and write up a one pager (single-spaced) report for the group of at least 5 questions from the guide. Be sure to include all group members names.
Work on Sokol, Gannon entries.
SOKOL: http://www3.libraryweb.org/ffrpl/programs.aspx?id=494591
GANNON: http://www.gannon.edu/Academic-Offerings/Humanities-Education-and-Social-Sciences/Undergraduate/English/Poetry-Contest/
MLK Jr. Essay Contest:
http://www.rcsdk12.org/cms/lib04/NY01001156/Centricity/domain/1/bulletin%20board/MLK%20ESSAY%20CONTEST.pdf
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http://www.writing-world.com/sf/realism.shtml
EQ: What are the elements of magical realism in The Enchanted?
In small groups, use your discussion guides to focus on a discussion about the novel. Have someone be the group's recorder and write up a one pager (single-spaced) report for the group of at least 5 questions from the guide. Be sure to include all group members names.
Work on Sokol, Gannon entries.
SOKOL: http://www3.libraryweb.org/ffrpl/programs.aspx?id=494591
GANNON: http://www.gannon.edu/Academic-Offerings/Humanities-Education-and-Social-Sciences/Undergraduate/English/Poetry-Contest/
MLK Jr. Essay Contest:
http://www.rcsdk12.org/cms/lib04/NY01001156/Centricity/domain/1/bulletin%20board/MLK%20ESSAY%20CONTEST.pdf
The poem "Poem for My Son in the Car" is very strange, yet exquisite in the way it's so unorthodox. The author continuously uses words that are synonymous together, and even if they are not she makes it seem like they are with how she groups and pairs them—as if the words themselves /should/ be synonymous. For example, one of my favorite lines "Inside there are vestibules, clapboards/
ReplyDeletetrapdoors, baskets,/there is cargo," creates such effect.
There is also a certain way it is read that resonates with this dreamy tone the poem sets, especially with how chopped the lines are, and the reader is able to enunciate with each separate line of the poem.
In Sweeney's 'Poem for My Son in the Car," she examines the attitudes and conversations her and her son have while driving. She uses figurative language to describe what is inside a body, giving him a literal and figurative answer to the question he asks in the beginning of the poem.. She also describes the car's environment beautifully by saying it's a place of peace and quiet before the day becomes hectic and stressful. She ties these two themes together personalizing the question to the narrator, who is provoked by her son's question--thus creating this poem.
ReplyDelete"inside there are vestibules, clapboards
ReplyDeletetrapdoors, baskets,
there is cargo,
there is the self carrying the self"
Just thinking about the incredible "self" that is the body fascinates me. I'm sure that doctors and others who must study anatomy begin to see the insides of a human being like a machine with pumps and wires and tubes, etc.(a a thoracic surgeon friend once described it to me). But it can also be described with geographical magery (as in this poem) or even as a house with different rooms as quoted above.
Still, it is where we all carry our responses to the world, literally and figuratively, in the aches and pains that we feel, in the strength we possess when faced with obstacles we must overcome, in all of our hopes, desires, and fears. The darkness inside the body--the self carrying the self.
This is not a writing style that I think we are used to, because the author writes in such a way that, even if we've read what the author intended for the poem to say and reread the poem a few times, some of the lines were still unclear and seemed to be disconnected. However, I think that this was the author's intention and that she didn't mean for the poem's lines to make sense right away, which can give it a sort of mysterious effect. The different line breaking and punctuation helps add to this in that it forces the reader to really examine the poem a few times in order to understand it.
ReplyDeleteI personally thought the poem was okay, it wasn't anything special to me. I feel like Sweeney wrote the poem how she did because it added to the intensity of the poem. The question; "Is there dark inside my body?" could be answered in many ways. The lines after that tell her answer. Your darkness can be hidden away in the darkest and deepest of places within you. My favorite line is "Your darkness lives in that potential, snowblind aurora pulse shore", because it tells her child that's where the darkness could be.
ReplyDeleteThe author of the poem asks herself the question, 'Is it dark inside my body, and she goes in detail about the different possible types of darkness inside of herself. The line that stuck out to me is the line, 'there is the self carrying the self,'This probably alludes to the fact that the narrator of this poem possibly has some selfishness inside of herself, and possibly connects that to darkness. That's because selfishness is a sin and sin is darkness is some Christian beliefs so she is probably has real darkness inside of herself.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn "Poem for My Son in the Car" Sweeney tells of a trip in the car. Describing the pouring rain and uses words that make you think. Instead of telling directly what she wants to say Sweeney uses figurative language that keeps you engaged. Phrases like "The wipers sweep to overlapping hills / on the glass," and lets you see into her thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis poem, "Poem for My Son in the Car", written by Jennifer K. Sweeney, utilizes very abstract language and purposeful line breaking, emphasizing particular words and phrases over others. Though it is very well-written, this poem does not appeal to my preference, being too abstract for me to completely follow and understand. It flows very effortlessly, though, despite my inability to totally comprehend it, and shows the author's appreciation for her son and his curiosity during something as trivial as riding in a car. My favorite line was "Today: Is it dark inside my body?" (Line 5), as it allows the author to delve into her own thoughts on the topic and cause the thoughts that develop the poem.
ReplyDeleteThe writing style was unique to what were used to. I personally thought the poem was different because of the figurative language and structure she uses inside of the poem to describe the images.
ReplyDeletePoem for My Son in the Car, by Jennifer K. Sweeney, was a relaxing poem to read. The vibe the poem gives off is cool and calm, and the line breaking is interesting to follow.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the line, "Dark as the oyster's clasp in its small blind pocket and the word pocket a tucked notion set aside in-case-of." I can't try to explain exactly what this line means, but I can say that it reaches out to me more than any other line in the poem.
- Serita McKenzie
In "Poem for my son in the car" I believe when she says " Today: Is it dark inside my body?" is a way of asking herself "Am I going to feel empty/alone today?" My reason behind this is, the word "dark" in my opinion is like the feeling of loneliness, emptiness, depression, lack of emotion, and fear. Things like that, so when I hear " Is it dark inside my body?" I hear "Do I feel empty/alone today?" Which explains my belief of what I think "Is it dark inside my body?" means.
ReplyDeleteThe poem "Poem for My Son in the Car" is a perfect example of how everyday occurrences, such as driving around in a car, can become a moment of reflection and deeper exploration of oneself and the world. A simple question from her son, that was most likely random, turned into an extended metaphor as she delves into the meaning of a person and their life force. My favorite line was, "heartwood, clockwork, crank and tender/ iron in the mountain belly," (Sweeney ll. 24-25) because of the explanation of the body as clockwork, so many intricate pieces that mesh together. Also, although I am not completely sure what it equates too, the last image that she creates there is powerful because of its originality. Overall, Sweeney takes a simple situation and personifies it in a way that is truly poignant and intriguing.
ReplyDeletePoem for My Son in the Car by Jennifer K. Sweeny portrayed a common physicality like driving in the rain with her son to something deeper and more uncommon; the thoughts of a person lost in the rain, driving. Her structured line breaking and uneven lines revealed the true moment of thought at random times. Being inside the body was something more and she saw it as a working mechanism, an earthly metaphor.
ReplyDelete"Poem for My Son in the Car" by Jennifer Sweeney, is a poem she writes for her son. She uses magical realism to take the poem further beyond the limitations of the car and the windshield, just as it carries her son's imagination further. My favorite lines state "Outside of and woven into, you are/ the knowledge you can't touch/ the desire you can't locate,/ unnameable questions unnameable answers". I like this portion of the poem because it discusses those questions and how important they are. How they are never ending and continue to allow people to think outside of the lines.
ReplyDeleteThe poem "Poem for My Son" is intriguing however I cannot quite pin what she is talking about. To me it has to do with the stream of consciousness that everyone experiences when life slows down in this case sitting in the car as the windshield wipers go. This poem highlights deep human thought, even though I don't completely understand what she is talking about I can relate. She makes a lot of things in the body that we can't grasp or conceptualize tangible with the use of word choice describing them as mountains and rivers. My favorite line is "we are quiet against the squeaky metronome as we often are" in my opinion the metronome also relates to the heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteThe poem uses imagery to describe the inside of the body in a figurative sense to her son while driving in the car. she also describes the car as a place of peace before a chaotic day ahead. a lot of people take their cars for granted but thinking about it, it is a place of peace and a lot of the times, a place where families can have time together and Sweeney realizes that and includes it inside the poem. although this isn't a writing style that we're not used to writing it was interesting to see how she used line breaking like this, it was actually successful, which isn't at all easy to do.
ReplyDeleteSweeny's line-breaking in the "Poem for My Son in the Car" serve as the quintessential backbone for the basis of the emotion throughout. She contrasts the inside of the human body with landscapes and objects that can metaphorically represent our bodies. "Outside of and woven into, you are the knowledge you can't touch" portrays this.
ReplyDelete2. The audience learns that the lady is incredibly good at her job despite its overall difficulty and heavy subject matter. For example, when she talks to York, it becomes clear that she has been doing this for a very long time and has learned a great deal about a criminal’s mind. The lady, however, still has her weaknesses, such as claustrophobia; this shows that she is imperfectly human just like the narrator and those also on death row. In my opinion, the lady has a certain equality about her: whenever the narrator describes her or when she is in a scene, the lady does not act entirely superior to the prisoners, which is a common stereotype that is applied to prison workers in the media. Furthermore, the priest is characterized as a prisoner himself right in the first pages of the novel. In other words, the narrator says that the prison “freezes” its inhabitants (Denfeld 3). Although the priest is not a prisoner, the narrator hints the effects that the prisoners endure like depression and detachment still apply. The audience learns all this from the narrator himself, meaning he has been there for a long time, is very observant, and has learned how to cope enough to take in his surroundings effectively.
ReplyDelete3. Due to the legal and prison system’s treatment of criminals like York, he begins to think he is “meaningless” rather than misunderstood (12). The lady, however, understands York and how his sociopathic wiring prompted him to commit murder. She sympathizes with York and other inmates as hinted by the narrator; she treats them like people, which is sadly a luxury in the death row prison. The lady finds great difficulty in this case because York gave up and accepted his given fate, which denounced his appeals and prior tries of getting off death row. His execution date is set and the lady has less time than usual to investigate a monumentally more difficult case. The extra description of the lady working on York’s case establishes this as a great influencer to the plot and the story’s conflict.
4. Once York gave up, he figuratively reached the point of no return, sealing his fate as another criminal to be executed. This decision got the attention of empathetic public citizens and lawyers like the lady. As more information about York and his defeat are learned, the audience discovers why the lady decided to take York’s case: she is similar to York in that she feels completely alone despite the attention they receive. This poses multiple conflicts that have the potential to surface as the story progresses, such as the lady getting emotionally attached to York and his case despite its near inevitability to fail and end with his execution.
2. Each of these characters are connected with the common fact that all of them are roaming in the prison. The narrator is their observer, as York is being defended by “the lady” and as “the lady” is discussing York’s case with the priest I’m pretty sure it’s going to be more introspective on each of their relationships as time passes. We learn that the lady and the priest are observing each other quietly, like they’re opposing players with a chess board in between them. The lady is wary of the priest, and the priest is fearful of the lady. Often the priest is described with an adjective of “fallen” (Denfeld 2) which may hint that the lady has purpose in being wary of the other, yet she still depends on him because she too is scared: “I can hear pleading in her voice… But he doesn’t” (Denfeld 3).
ReplyDelete3. I believe York wants to die because he believes he deserves to die. He describes himself as a “messed up guy who doesn’t know why he does what he does” (Denfeld 12), basically sociopathic, he is aware that he is a threat and seems to be disgusted with himself that he can’t seem to cease what he does or even understand himself and his actions. Despite his actions though, there are various hints of remorse—though that could be possibly from narration bias, which I highly doubt due to how skillful the narrator seems to be at being so close to touch, but being careful not to touch at all—throughout his conversation with the lady such as: “”When you kill people, it’s supposed to make sense. But it doesn’t. It never does” (Denfeld 12). So although he doesn’t deserve an execution, per say, I feel like York needs time to learn his consequences safely in prison, where he can be examined and understood. The lady goes about gathering evidence in York’s past trials, delving more and more into each mistake the system seems to give him (such as Grim and Reaper being his previous lawyers, infamous for not doing anything) and more than her research she’s devoted. Her devotion in saving him, despite all odds, are sometimes what you need most in cases like these. Though I am unsure of her choice, I am aware of her character and most likely her strong sense of morality, a contrast to York, will propel her choice.
4. Initially I thought him strange, after all he seems so different because he is different. Unable to understand his own actions, his behavior is sociopathic. Yet there is this feeling that he wants to understand, that he wants to learn what he’s done wrong and is aware that the things he’s done are wrong. Even with the other characters, you can’t help but pity the man who wants to die. Look at the conversation between two guards, for example: “‘I… Might have a hard time actually killing the asshole…’Me, too” (Denfeld 24). So that questioning nature I initially had is changed to pity and sympathy. Because although I am aware of his actions being heinous, the way he is portray makes it difficult not to emotionally connect with him in any type of way. That is what happens to the lady, who initially is frustrated with York’s nonexistent will to live. Then, as she talks to his relatives, such as his elderly aunt, she becomes more and more aware of how he was raised and who raised him. Though I am unsure how it truly affects how she sees her own life after understanding York’s, it can be safe to say her understanding of the world grows larger, as it always does when you learn something outside of the “safe space” of your own childhood.
1.The narrator calls the place enchanted because they’re trapped in a cell most of their time and having no contact with the world you begin to become enchanted with everything. You see everything in a new light. He sees inanimate objects “come to life”. He escapes the walls of his cell by the stories he reads. The narrator finds beauty in almost everything from the books he reads to the walls he sees. This tells us that the narrator wants to try and live out the life he has left and live it well.
ReplyDelete2. The woman trying to get York off of death row is shown early on as good at her job. She excels in what she does and finds beauty in life. The woman wants to do everything in her power to save him. The priest is also trying to show that life is worth living. York, although he finds beauty in life he’s tired of living. He wants his death to come quickly. He doesn’t want to be on death row any longer and would rather be over with it. We learn that both the woman and the priest want to get York off of death row and will do what they can to convince him that life is worth living.
3. York wants to die because he hates being trapped in the cell. He feels like he has no meaning in the prison. He is clearly afraid of the other inmates. He has lost his interest in life and the only thing giving him a will to breath are the books he reads. He tells how he only likes to go into the meeting rooms because of the window in there. He likes to watch the birds and peer at the sky. York is worth saving because of how he views the outside world. He views it as delicate yet beautiful. The woman asks York questions to try and understand more about his life. She tries to get to know him on a personal level to learn how he thinks and grasp a better understanding of how he works.
4. My first impression on York was that he is an insightful man. He really tries to understand life and think about why he is there. My outlook changed as the story went on as I was able to get a better understanding of him. It changes her outlook by working harder to get him to want to live. With York giving up it changes her outlook on life by wanting this for York more than he wants it for himself.
The poem "Poem for My Son in the Car" is very eerie yet introspective. While the poem is largely figurative, there is also a sense of reality to it when she answers her son's question of "What is inside a body?" What stuck out most to me as the line "everything purposeful" as it can be examined in several different ways. Following Sweeney's trend of blending figurative and realistic language, "everything purposeful" could mean tangible things like organs, veins, ect. More figuratively though, it could mean things that aren't necessarily tangible, such as emotions, perception, and relations. Having your organs is purposeful in your body in that it helps your body run, but having emotions, relations, and perception shape who you are and, in a sense, also help your body run.
ReplyDelete2. These characters are connected by the fact that they are just roaming throughout the prison with little to no hope; York has very little hope that he will get out of this place and the lady and presumably the priest feel the same. From the narrator, we learn that the lady is in the prison to meet with York and discuss his case and the priest is there observing. The lady and the priest are almost on opposite sides; the lady is very wary of the priest while the priest is almost afraid of the lady.
ReplyDelete3. York wants to die because because he feels like he is worthless and deserves to die, although, the lady sees that something mentally wrong with York caused him to commit those murders, which she sees as a reason for saving him. As suggested by the narrator’s description of the meeting, she sympathizes with him and tries to treat him as much like a person as she can in the light of always being cut off from human contact. York is worth saving; he’s realized why he’s in prison and has accepted that. The whole point, or supposed point, or prison is to rehabilitate, which York is, but the constant state of not knowing whether or not he’s going to die takes a toll on him. York’s execution date is set and he is ready to die, which gives the lady less time time to try and find as much information to get him off as she can. This in it’s own respect is difficult, but, with the added pressure of it being such a difficult case, it creates a sharper conflict within the story.
4. My first impression of York was that he was odd, in his own regards, considering he didn’t really understand repercussions. As the story progressed it is understandable as to why he’s decided to give up. In investigating York’s past, the lady begins to become upset with him because of his incessant will to die. As she interviews friends, family, ect. she begins to understand this will and it adjusts how she sees her own life, in that, she’s begun learning details outside her “comfort zone” in a way.