I hope you liked the short story, "October Island" as much as I did. This week, we are going to do some writing. We will start with a brief discussion of the story. Then I will assign different questions to different students. Your task then, will be to find examples of what I request to bring to class on Wednesday/Thursday. You will need to be able to cite with direct quotes. Among the topics are: 1. parallels to "Genesis" and what this means to the text as a whole; 2. an analysis of Irma as a protagonist but also as an antagonist. She does some awful things but we also get an idea of why she is as she is; 3. An analysis of the Barnfields' marriage; 4. the impact of imperialism on the events in the story; 5. An analysis of Sam Barnfield; 6. an analysis of Hansen and the circumstances of his birth; 7. All the fertility images and how Irma reacts to them. There will probably be a few more, but those are the ones that came to mind.
Your homework then will be to find those concrete examples. You will not have to find them for all the categories, only the ones assigned to you.
As for classwork, we will continue with reading "Hamlet" aloud and taking notes. The same will be true on Wednesday/Thursday, though part of Wednesday/Thursday will be spent in talking about the story from those various perspectives.
Remember to bring your vocabulary books on Wednesday/Thursday. Remember to have completed the exercises for Friday.
Over the weekend, I will assign a prompt and you will write an essay about "October Island." I will probably give you a prompt--not necessarily related to the one you researched--and you will answer a question, supporting a thesis with paraphrased passages and by carefully selected direct quotes.
