Dear Readers,
This is my thesis, a culminating experience of my undergraduate work at Michigan State University. I feel it is necessary to explain my journey to this thesis for two reasons. First, you get to know the person beyond the paper. Second, to welcome they that hesitate to do what I have done: try something new for the sake of passion and curiosity.
Until about a year and a half ago, I was resolutely an English Education Major. I did not do science or math; I passed my requirements and the most interaction I would have with the two in the future was baking in the kitchen. My niche was filled with graphic novels, Shakespearean plays, Norton Anthologies and worksheets I made for my imaginary classroom.
My stance as an academic would be profoundly shaken with one honors required course. I took “Cognitive Science and the Literary History of the Mind” simply because it was the only class that could fit into my schedule. Feeling incredibly stupid surrounded by people double and triple majoring in Neuroscience, English, Microbiology or some combination thereof, I stuck out the class. With a patient professor (now a co-thesis director) and some serious googling of science terms, I found out that I like science. Well, specifically Cognitive Science. I listen to NPR science Fridays, read books entitled, “Proust and the Squid” and can explain to my cousin what is happening in her son’s dyslexic brain. Like so many others, I have been sucked into the complex mystery of the human brain by science and literature.
This thesis will combine my two passions, English Education and Cognitive Science. I made the choice to combine English and Education because, as we will see later, I use a neuroscientific experiment on reading to discuss the implication of the results on the teaching of reading. Thus, English Education. I believe that these two fields have a lot to offer to each other, thus my target audience for this thesis is both the neuroscientist and the secondary education teacher, the cognitive psychologist and the Jane Austen professor.
Before I delve into the analysis and meat of this paper, I want to first address the issue of combining education and neuroscience. After fleshing out the arguments, we move into the experiment itself, ORDER ORDER ORDER
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Quick Note
Just a quick note:
I have moved into the drafting stages of this thesis, which is why I haven't posted anything in about two weeks.
A few things:
I have chosen APA formatting. Though I really despise "citation styles," the paper is geared towards educators and what seems to be educational psychologists, since those are the people most often cited in the neuroscience/education papers I have read. I also prefer Chicago Style or MLA, but I think the audience deems APA.
Also, worldcat.org is the coolest citation generator!
I've really hit a stride with finding new papers. This is late in the game, but once I found the right ones, it just spilled into new ones that I should have been reading weeks ago. Oh well. It's just a draft for now!
Recently saw a direct connection between a cogsci paper and a a participant's paper! Also, APA prefers "participant" to "subject" since the former acknowledges the participation and contribution of the human. Interesting.
Gotta get back to reading and writing!
peace, love and interdisciplinary work.
I have moved into the drafting stages of this thesis, which is why I haven't posted anything in about two weeks.
A few things:
I have chosen APA formatting. Though I really despise "citation styles," the paper is geared towards educators and what seems to be educational psychologists, since those are the people most often cited in the neuroscience/education papers I have read. I also prefer Chicago Style or MLA, but I think the audience deems APA.
Also, worldcat.org is the coolest citation generator!
I've really hit a stride with finding new papers. This is late in the game, but once I found the right ones, it just spilled into new ones that I should have been reading weeks ago. Oh well. It's just a draft for now!
Recently saw a direct connection between a cogsci paper and a a participant's paper! Also, APA prefers "participant" to "subject" since the former acknowledges the participation and contribution of the human. Interesting.
Gotta get back to reading and writing!
peace, love and interdisciplinary work.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Awesome Research Book Says Awesome Things
"Precise demonstration of truth is important but not as important as the communal pursuit of it" Wayne C. Booth (xvii)
"It [writing a formal research paper] will change the way you think, but only by giving you more ways of thinking." (13)
Though in reference to writing, I think this is a great argument for the combination of English Education and Cognitive Science. We are changing the way we think of each discipline (roll with me that English Education is one subject) by allowing other practices to influence how we think about those practices themselves. The goal of this project is not to threaten the integrity of either discipline, but rather let the best of each flow freely into the other as to help us understand the human experience of reading a literary text.
Thesis question: How can we enhance our understanding and teaching practices of reading through this neurological-based study on Jane Austen?
Paige likes it. We are not guaranteeing answers, but rather engaging in discussion in search of more questions and answers!
"It [writing a formal research paper] will change the way you think, but only by giving you more ways of thinking." (13)
Though in reference to writing, I think this is a great argument for the combination of English Education and Cognitive Science. We are changing the way we think of each discipline (roll with me that English Education is one subject) by allowing other practices to influence how we think about those practices themselves. The goal of this project is not to threaten the integrity of either discipline, but rather let the best of each flow freely into the other as to help us understand the human experience of reading a literary text.
Thesis question: How can we enhance our understanding and teaching practices of reading through this neurological-based study on Jane Austen?
Paige likes it. We are not guaranteeing answers, but rather engaging in discussion in search of more questions and answers!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Scattered Thoughts
So I've been thinking a lot about attention during reading. Obviously.
I wrote in an ENG classroom the other day that "Reading is a socially individual experience." And not to toot my own horn, but I think I hit something here. Someone can't read for us, thus it is individual. However, we have tons of other things in our brain besides squishy grey snot. We have reading strategies taught to us by teachers, other languages/dialects, movies, books, texts, poems, conversations, lectures and even that nagging feeling that I left the door unlocked. Besides all of that, during the actual reading process there is evidence that we actually place ourselves in the narrative, our brain activates motor cortex to perhaps mirror the actions occurring in the book and drawing on social experiences to dissect the story. Thus, reading is also incredibly social. I want to either prove or explore this idea in discussions of the experiment.
I tried so hard to prove that we learn to interact socially by reading books because I do believe it, despite no scientific evidence. I think we can prove that a lot is a happening in the brain during reading by this experiment, or rather, it is already proven and we get to talk about it in a different way! We also draw on our social experiences to enhance our reading. English Education majors constantly talk about student-to-text connections to deepen learning. How do you relate to this character or situation? Is there another text that relates to this? We draw on prior knowledge to engage students (as in SHAKESPEARE IS STILL AND ALWAYS WILL BE RELEVANT TO HUMANITY) and foster perspective analysis on both their and the text's social situation. But is this automatically happening in the brain. "Reading in the Brain" by Daehaene clearly states language happens in the brain, but what else besides that?
"Reading is a cognitive, social and cultural activity..." (71)
Also, "...our individual command of reading varies greatly from person to person, depending on how we learn to read." (71)
What are these differences in the subjects' brain? How do we as secondary ed teachers, who often are not the first people to teach students to read initially, deal with the variances in reading styles? I wrote earlier about reading strategies and this is an attempt to teach reading, but also kind of level the playing field. As we teach strategies, we also are attempting to get everyone reading at the same level, a loaded term. I would hope it's impossible to get everyone to read the same for that would diminish the unique interpretations and essays. However, ensuring everyone can read and process texts of the same density and complexity is a good goal.
To move in a direction closer to what we can see, what areas are being activated? Is it worth the teacher's time to teach close reading? Are there more effective ways to teach close-reading? What are the benefits of spending precious class time having students pleasure read?
I read a study called, "Properties of Attention During Reading Lessons" (1992) that I had some serious problems with, but still was able to draw something from it. They watched 2/3 graders while each read aloud and based on physical appearances determined if the students were paying attention or not. Urg. Anyways, the silver lining.
"Probably what happens when a text becomes too difficult and errors rise is that children's strategies break down and they become discouraged." (171) The authors go on to posit that too easy reading does not foster learning and neither does super hard reading. Instead, like Goldilocks discovered, it's the middle ground that is the best for children, or the zone of proximal development. The article also cites Gaffney and Anderson who say, "Moreover, whether a particular child will find a particular book easy or difficult depends upon the context in which the book is read and the conditions surrounding its use." (171) This idea of external influences is interesting in our experiment.
At the upcoming think tank, I want to talk about external influences since they are a huge part of education.
I will end it here for tonight. More to read! Happy thinking!
I wrote in an ENG classroom the other day that "Reading is a socially individual experience." And not to toot my own horn, but I think I hit something here. Someone can't read for us, thus it is individual. However, we have tons of other things in our brain besides squishy grey snot. We have reading strategies taught to us by teachers, other languages/dialects, movies, books, texts, poems, conversations, lectures and even that nagging feeling that I left the door unlocked. Besides all of that, during the actual reading process there is evidence that we actually place ourselves in the narrative, our brain activates motor cortex to perhaps mirror the actions occurring in the book and drawing on social experiences to dissect the story. Thus, reading is also incredibly social. I want to either prove or explore this idea in discussions of the experiment.
I tried so hard to prove that we learn to interact socially by reading books because I do believe it, despite no scientific evidence. I think we can prove that a lot is a happening in the brain during reading by this experiment, or rather, it is already proven and we get to talk about it in a different way! We also draw on our social experiences to enhance our reading. English Education majors constantly talk about student-to-text connections to deepen learning. How do you relate to this character or situation? Is there another text that relates to this? We draw on prior knowledge to engage students (as in SHAKESPEARE IS STILL AND ALWAYS WILL BE RELEVANT TO HUMANITY) and foster perspective analysis on both their and the text's social situation. But is this automatically happening in the brain. "Reading in the Brain" by Daehaene clearly states language happens in the brain, but what else besides that?
"Reading is a cognitive, social and cultural activity..." (71)
Also, "...our individual command of reading varies greatly from person to person, depending on how we learn to read." (71)
What are these differences in the subjects' brain? How do we as secondary ed teachers, who often are not the first people to teach students to read initially, deal with the variances in reading styles? I wrote earlier about reading strategies and this is an attempt to teach reading, but also kind of level the playing field. As we teach strategies, we also are attempting to get everyone reading at the same level, a loaded term. I would hope it's impossible to get everyone to read the same for that would diminish the unique interpretations and essays. However, ensuring everyone can read and process texts of the same density and complexity is a good goal.
To move in a direction closer to what we can see, what areas are being activated? Is it worth the teacher's time to teach close reading? Are there more effective ways to teach close-reading? What are the benefits of spending precious class time having students pleasure read?
I read a study called, "Properties of Attention During Reading Lessons" (1992) that I had some serious problems with, but still was able to draw something from it. They watched 2/3 graders while each read aloud and based on physical appearances determined if the students were paying attention or not. Urg. Anyways, the silver lining.
"Probably what happens when a text becomes too difficult and errors rise is that children's strategies break down and they become discouraged." (171) The authors go on to posit that too easy reading does not foster learning and neither does super hard reading. Instead, like Goldilocks discovered, it's the middle ground that is the best for children, or the zone of proximal development. The article also cites Gaffney and Anderson who say, "Moreover, whether a particular child will find a particular book easy or difficult depends upon the context in which the book is read and the conditions surrounding its use." (171) This idea of external influences is interesting in our experiment.
At the upcoming think tank, I want to talk about external influences since they are a huge part of education.
I will end it here for tonight. More to read! Happy thinking!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
On Test Essays
One thing that drew my attention was the question of what factors made reading harder. I tallied the responses as followed. The language of concerns actually varied little, so I was able to group them easily.
Factors that made reading harder:
Not being able to write/mark the texts: 5
Not being able to flip/reread: 4
Not being able to FLIP and WRITE: 6
None:1
Use outside resources: 1 (also flip/write)
PhD students use the reading technique of annotating texts. Some specify what they would underline (repeated words/phrases, important quotes, in the margins) and some noted it helps them to organize and make sense of the text.
As a student of English education, we learn about how to teach reading strategies and the importance of those strategies.They help struggling readers to focus on the text , organize it and connect on a personal level with it. They also push advanced readers to consider the text beyond a basic plot level, encouraging them to make intratextual connections, to other works and most of all, ask questions. Reading strategies can also be a scaffold for later class activities and assignments. This action is mirrored in the experiment by the need to mark the text, one particular reading strategy.The amount of people needing to annotate the text shows how much students rely on the strategy to succeed in reading. It is not safe to say that it helps the readers since we don't have any evidence, but we can say that the readers use it to succeed in close-reading. I'm not sure how much this relates to the brain imaging because we don't have images of annotating brains versus non-annotating brains. I think this is important because it shows that readers who are highly invested in reading (they are English PhD students after all) engage in the text by writing in it, they don't, except for one, just read it.
One criticism I have of the question is that it doesn't specify when the readers use the strategy; close reading or pleasure reading. We would assume it's during close reading but we can't say for sure. Does pleasure reading include annotation and physical reading strategies? Or is that solely a feature of close reading?
However, does the need to annotate justify the need to teach it in schools?
I myself used to use sticky notes to write down my thoughts, I've also learned about a color-coded system of sticky notes (blue for questions, pink for personal connections, green for figurative language etc...) graphic organizers and a code system to write in the actual text.
I would also be curious as to what subjects underline versus what the they brainstormed and then wrote.
Factors that made reading harder:
Not being able to write/mark the texts: 5
Not being able to flip/reread: 4
Not being able to FLIP and WRITE: 6
None:1
Use outside resources: 1 (also flip/write)
PhD students use the reading technique of annotating texts. Some specify what they would underline (repeated words/phrases, important quotes, in the margins) and some noted it helps them to organize and make sense of the text.
As a student of English education, we learn about how to teach reading strategies and the importance of those strategies.They help struggling readers to focus on the text , organize it and connect on a personal level with it. They also push advanced readers to consider the text beyond a basic plot level, encouraging them to make intratextual connections, to other works and most of all, ask questions. Reading strategies can also be a scaffold for later class activities and assignments. This action is mirrored in the experiment by the need to mark the text, one particular reading strategy.The amount of people needing to annotate the text shows how much students rely on the strategy to succeed in reading. It is not safe to say that it helps the readers since we don't have any evidence, but we can say that the readers use it to succeed in close-reading. I'm not sure how much this relates to the brain imaging because we don't have images of annotating brains versus non-annotating brains. I think this is important because it shows that readers who are highly invested in reading (they are English PhD students after all) engage in the text by writing in it, they don't, except for one, just read it.
One criticism I have of the question is that it doesn't specify when the readers use the strategy; close reading or pleasure reading. We would assume it's during close reading but we can't say for sure. Does pleasure reading include annotation and physical reading strategies? Or is that solely a feature of close reading?
However, does the need to annotate justify the need to teach it in schools?
I myself used to use sticky notes to write down my thoughts, I've also learned about a color-coded system of sticky notes (blue for questions, pink for personal connections, green for figurative language etc...) graphic organizers and a code system to write in the actual text.
I would also be curious as to what subjects underline versus what the they brainstormed and then wrote.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
A Change of Scenery
This post marks a different point in my education as a student of CogSci, Education and English. So please, take the posts before with a grain of salt, seeing as I departed highly from an academic tone which often we frown upon and I am afraid will stain my credibility. However, I no longer want to hide and deny the person and writer I once was. I am constantly evolving and believe in "emerging thinking," meaning that not all writing, speech or text needs to be perfectly polished. Instead, this is a safe place for me to think about my topics in a pattern of speech that makes sense to my audience, mostly me and my two outstanding directors whom I cannot thank enough!
I am working on my Senior Honors thesis concerning a study on Jane Austen and reading attention with the focus on English education.
I was asked why do I want to do this. I've been fumbling around for the right answer, and I'm starting to think it's many.
After a great semester with Dr. Phillips, I am really interesting in studying the brain. There is so much that we don't know about it, but I believe that the more we study and know it, the better we can manipulate it to do the things we want it to do.
I am highly invested in English Education. A running theme through my courses at MSU has been teaching has no formula because the classroom changes everyday due to external and internal factors. So I've been on a mini-quest to see how we as a collective teach. Are there running patterns throughout our American or even global classrooms? This search is problematic because ascribing a formula to teaching can make it into that which we do not want it to be: detached from students, teacher-centered and most of all...boring! In my study of CogSci, I want to look at how understanding the brain's functions can deepen, or improve, the classroom.
Looking back to high school junior year, I did my big research essay on how school is killing students. And you know what, I really think I was on to something. "Teaching with the Brain in Mind" by Eric Jensen makes a point to note that high schoolers have different sleep patterns than the current school system, thus we end up with sleepy teens in our class. I made this point in my research paper (though far less eloquently and with considerable more angst) and I still believe that today. If we start to integrate new knowledge into the schools, I really believe we can start to teach to students better.
There is also this linguistic divide that has always bugged me. How can teachers access new data coming out if the language is written not written for them but really is important to them? I will explore the challenges I face in writing for multiple audiences, as well as this whole formatting thing, which I believe is a frustrating social construction, but I have to deal with it. I want to be present in my writing because it does not try to hide the fact that I will inherently be biased no matter how hard I try, especially concerning new subject combinations that have less scholarly quotes to plop in.
This taboo divide between science, education and English is really no longer relevant in our highly connected society. Each subject can enhance the other. Humanities can humanize the sciences, sciences can qualify the humanities. The issue of these products is where our future lies. Above all, I believe in the promise of the future that comes from the hard work of today. I realize that my particular interest of study may stomp on some toes, but my study raises questions about each of these subject areas that may have never been raised before.
In the process of trying to answer these questions, we get a deluge of new questions. That space of delightful ignorance is where we grow and improve.
As of this moment, the thesis is: What questions for the English secondary classroom does this study of modes of reading attention in Jane Austen raise?
This thesis is strong because it focuses on questions, not answers.
This thesis is weak because it's not really specific and it just doesn't sit right with me.
I may have been taught this, but I mostly found it out myself after writing 20-30 papers at the collegiate level: write your paper first and then your thesis. For this project, the two instances may not be so distinct. Instead, I see it more as a simultaneous development; as one side evolves, so does the other.
Coming up soon: After reading the PhD student's essays, I want to talk about
1. Almost all noted things on needing to annotate text while reading; what does this mean for teaching reading strategies in the classroom?
2. How brainstorming affects essay
3. Why the researchers asked if the subjects had taught any course and what are the implications there
4. Essay content: lots of focus on Edmund/Fanny and education/intelligence
I am working on my Senior Honors thesis concerning a study on Jane Austen and reading attention with the focus on English education.
I was asked why do I want to do this. I've been fumbling around for the right answer, and I'm starting to think it's many.
After a great semester with Dr. Phillips, I am really interesting in studying the brain. There is so much that we don't know about it, but I believe that the more we study and know it, the better we can manipulate it to do the things we want it to do.
I am highly invested in English Education. A running theme through my courses at MSU has been teaching has no formula because the classroom changes everyday due to external and internal factors. So I've been on a mini-quest to see how we as a collective teach. Are there running patterns throughout our American or even global classrooms? This search is problematic because ascribing a formula to teaching can make it into that which we do not want it to be: detached from students, teacher-centered and most of all...boring! In my study of CogSci, I want to look at how understanding the brain's functions can deepen, or improve, the classroom.
Looking back to high school junior year, I did my big research essay on how school is killing students. And you know what, I really think I was on to something. "Teaching with the Brain in Mind" by Eric Jensen makes a point to note that high schoolers have different sleep patterns than the current school system, thus we end up with sleepy teens in our class. I made this point in my research paper (though far less eloquently and with considerable more angst) and I still believe that today. If we start to integrate new knowledge into the schools, I really believe we can start to teach to students better.
There is also this linguistic divide that has always bugged me. How can teachers access new data coming out if the language is written not written for them but really is important to them? I will explore the challenges I face in writing for multiple audiences, as well as this whole formatting thing, which I believe is a frustrating social construction, but I have to deal with it. I want to be present in my writing because it does not try to hide the fact that I will inherently be biased no matter how hard I try, especially concerning new subject combinations that have less scholarly quotes to plop in.
This taboo divide between science, education and English is really no longer relevant in our highly connected society. Each subject can enhance the other. Humanities can humanize the sciences, sciences can qualify the humanities. The issue of these products is where our future lies. Above all, I believe in the promise of the future that comes from the hard work of today. I realize that my particular interest of study may stomp on some toes, but my study raises questions about each of these subject areas that may have never been raised before.
In the process of trying to answer these questions, we get a deluge of new questions. That space of delightful ignorance is where we grow and improve.
As of this moment, the thesis is: What questions for the English secondary classroom does this study of modes of reading attention in Jane Austen raise?
This thesis is strong because it focuses on questions, not answers.
This thesis is weak because it's not really specific and it just doesn't sit right with me.
I may have been taught this, but I mostly found it out myself after writing 20-30 papers at the collegiate level: write your paper first and then your thesis. For this project, the two instances may not be so distinct. Instead, I see it more as a simultaneous development; as one side evolves, so does the other.
Coming up soon: After reading the PhD student's essays, I want to talk about
1. Almost all noted things on needing to annotate text while reading; what does this mean for teaching reading strategies in the classroom?
2. How brainstorming affects essay
3. Why the researchers asked if the subjects had taught any course and what are the implications there
4. Essay content: lots of focus on Edmund/Fanny and education/intelligence
Thursday, April 19, 2012
All Aboard the Struggle Bus
Fact: Unexplained Migraines for 12 hours are not conducive to doing anything but playing soccer and sleeping.
Fact: I will try!!
So I'm really interested in the Father in CIotDitN. In the beginning of the novel, I think readers empathize with the father. He loyally takes care of his "behavior problemed" son in lieu of his wife dying tragically of a "problem with her heart." But by the end of the novel, the father has knocked out Christopher, killed Wellington and hid 2 years of letters from Chrisopher's mother. Whew. That is a hefty list. In these revelations, I think we as readers adjust our view on him because he commits very culturally taboo acts. Christopher travels from his home to London to get away from his father.
And the way the reader deals with the father is very complicated because we have Christopher's distinctly devoid of emotions narrative. It was Sihrisha who brought up the point that we put our own ToM onto Christopher's narrative. In this essay, I want to explore the father and how we understand him. Is he actually a very emotional character? Is he "good," "bad" or some kind of grey area?
Lists of quotes
"He held up his right hand and spread his fingers like a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs tough each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me." (16)
"I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person.But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can't tel lies." (19)
"And he said, "It's a bloody god, Christopher, a bloody dog." (20) Then Father banged the steering wheel with his fist and the car weaved a little bit across the dotted line in the middle of the road and he shouted, "I said leave it, for God's sake." (21) I could tell he was angry because he was shouting 21
There were tears coming out of his eyes, Wellington. "Yes, Christopher, you could say that, You could very well say that.
I know that they're working out what I'm thinking, but I can't tell what they're thinking...but this was nice, having father speak to me but not look at me 22-23
"Father said he didn't know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn't the moment to be asking questions like that 27
I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced. That was because they has lots of arguments and sometimes they hated each other. This was because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioral Problems like I have 46
47
49
"...I'm not interested in faces" 71
"What is this?" but he said it very quietly and I didn't realize he was angry because he wasn't shouting. "
"Holy fucking Jesus, Christopher. How stupid are you? This is what Siobhan calls a rhetorical question...it's difficult to spot a rhetorical question." (81)
"Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means she gets angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often. But Father was a more level-headed person, which means he didn't angry as quickly and he didn't shout as often. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me."
I had no memories for a shirt while...It was like someone swtiched me off and then switched me on again."
Then he locked the back door again and put the key into the little china jug that is shaped like a fat nun and he stood in the middle of the kitchen and closed his eyes. 83
"I only do it because I worry about you, because I don't want to see you getting into trouble, because I don't want you to get hurt. Do you understand?" I didn't know if I understood so I said, "I don't know." 87
In the fan scenes, never a replication of love
Mother: "I was not a very good mother. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you had been different, I might have been better at it."
"But I said I couldn't take it anymore and eventually he got really cross and he told me that I was being stupid and said I should pull myself together and I hit him, which was wrong, but I was so upset."
"And you father is really pacient but I'm not" 107
"...the two of you together and thinking how you were really different with him. Much calmer. And you didn't shout at one another." 108-109
"Then I could hear that he was crying because his breath felt all bubbly and wet.
Phrases:...I did it for your good, Christopher....I just thought it was better if you didn't know"
"...because I didn't know how to explain. It was so complicated. So difficult. 114
"It's bloody hard telling the truth all the time...I want you to know that I'm trying. I really am." 120
"I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us. 121
"Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn't trust him, even though he had said, "Trust me," because he had told a lie about a big thing" 122
"bastard" 194
196 Fight
"And I don't care how long it takes...if it's one day and two minutes the next three minutes the next and it takes years I don't care. Because this is important. This is important more than anything else." And then he tore a little strip of skin away from the side of the thumbnail on his left hand."
Articles to be used: Keen "A Theory of Narrative Empathy" Palmer "The Whole Mind" Vermeule "Why do we care about lit Characters?"
Fact: I will try!!
So I'm really interested in the Father in CIotDitN. In the beginning of the novel, I think readers empathize with the father. He loyally takes care of his "behavior problemed" son in lieu of his wife dying tragically of a "problem with her heart." But by the end of the novel, the father has knocked out Christopher, killed Wellington and hid 2 years of letters from Chrisopher's mother. Whew. That is a hefty list. In these revelations, I think we as readers adjust our view on him because he commits very culturally taboo acts. Christopher travels from his home to London to get away from his father.
And the way the reader deals with the father is very complicated because we have Christopher's distinctly devoid of emotions narrative. It was Sihrisha who brought up the point that we put our own ToM onto Christopher's narrative. In this essay, I want to explore the father and how we understand him. Is he actually a very emotional character? Is he "good," "bad" or some kind of grey area?
Lists of quotes
"He held up his right hand and spread his fingers like a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs tough each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me." (16)
"I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person.But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can't tel lies." (19)
"And he said, "It's a bloody god, Christopher, a bloody dog." (20) Then Father banged the steering wheel with his fist and the car weaved a little bit across the dotted line in the middle of the road and he shouted, "I said leave it, for God's sake." (21) I could tell he was angry because he was shouting 21
There were tears coming out of his eyes, Wellington. "Yes, Christopher, you could say that, You could very well say that.
I know that they're working out what I'm thinking, but I can't tell what they're thinking...but this was nice, having father speak to me but not look at me 22-23
"Father said he didn't know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn't the moment to be asking questions like that 27
I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced. That was because they has lots of arguments and sometimes they hated each other. This was because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioral Problems like I have 46
47
49
"...I'm not interested in faces" 71
"What is this?" but he said it very quietly and I didn't realize he was angry because he wasn't shouting. "
"Holy fucking Jesus, Christopher. How stupid are you? This is what Siobhan calls a rhetorical question...it's difficult to spot a rhetorical question." (81)
"Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means she gets angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often. But Father was a more level-headed person, which means he didn't angry as quickly and he didn't shout as often. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me."
I had no memories for a shirt while...It was like someone swtiched me off and then switched me on again."
Then he locked the back door again and put the key into the little china jug that is shaped like a fat nun and he stood in the middle of the kitchen and closed his eyes. 83
"I only do it because I worry about you, because I don't want to see you getting into trouble, because I don't want you to get hurt. Do you understand?" I didn't know if I understood so I said, "I don't know." 87
In the fan scenes, never a replication of love
Mother: "I was not a very good mother. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you had been different, I might have been better at it."
"But I said I couldn't take it anymore and eventually he got really cross and he told me that I was being stupid and said I should pull myself together and I hit him, which was wrong, but I was so upset."
"And you father is really pacient but I'm not" 107
"...the two of you together and thinking how you were really different with him. Much calmer. And you didn't shout at one another." 108-109
"Then I could hear that he was crying because his breath felt all bubbly and wet.
Phrases:...I did it for your good, Christopher....I just thought it was better if you didn't know"
"...because I didn't know how to explain. It was so complicated. So difficult. 114
"It's bloody hard telling the truth all the time...I want you to know that I'm trying. I really am." 120
"I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us. 121
"Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn't trust him, even though he had said, "Trust me," because he had told a lie about a big thing" 122
"bastard" 194
196 Fight
"And I don't care how long it takes...if it's one day and two minutes the next three minutes the next and it takes years I don't care. Because this is important. This is important more than anything else." And then he tore a little strip of skin away from the side of the thumbnail on his left hand."
Articles to be used: Keen "A Theory of Narrative Empathy" Palmer "The Whole Mind" Vermeule "Why do we care about lit Characters?"
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