Michael McGinn--Thoughts at Midterm

Plot: Although its definition is something that I grew up learning and studying in English classes throughout my educational career, I often forget about its complexity. Elements like flashback, foreshadowing, and in medias res are all tools of plot employed by authors to captivate the reader. Most plots follow a certain pattern that begins with answering the simple questions of Who, what, when, where, why. After this background information, or its exposition, a complication appears in the story. This is anything that shakes the present situation in the story. Due to its complication, a rising action begins that usually consists of intense dialogue or violence that leads to the climax. This moment of great intensity will then inaugurate the falling action that releases this great tension and allows it to dwindle into the final resolution. The resolution is the final resting place in the story that places the characters, once again, in a stable situation.

Character: Characters are the life and blood of the story. They are relatable, and detestable, villanous, and herioc, but to put it plainly, they are either flat or round. The flat characters are simple, and stereotypical and merely a few strokes of the authors pen. I would say that Charlie Brown's school teacher is the quintissential flat character. THe audience only knows her droning voice that labels her as the stereotypical, boring teacher. In fact, the audience doesn't even know what she looks like! She is simply a tool to advance the plot. The round character is Charlie Brown--the character the reader falls in love with. We see his sadness, happiness, and his emotional complexity.

Theme: Theme is the meaning derived from the story. One type of thematic approach is the allegorical tale which points to a parallel sequence of symbolical ideas. The use of a microcosm,"a 'small world' that reflects the tensions of a larger world outside.," is employed in numerous works. Franz Kafka's Metamorphoses and the film Requiem for a Dream are two of my favorite works of art that serves to challenge the status quo by mirroring social problems in smaller settings involving only a few characters.

Activities:

The activity where we stripped words and phrases from articles to compose a poem was certainly a new activitity for me. I would have liked it, but I have a hard time exelling in projects with arts and crafts, and the act of using words from another source to create poetry was interesting, I just didn't like the images we had to draw.

The icebreaker we did the first day of class where we had to "find someone who..." was fun. I thought it was an quick and easy way to let the class mingle and get to know one another.

The activity where we looked at the many images of the mountains, streams, and beaches and wrote a reflection paper on them I thought was interesting. It allowed the class to hear different interpretations of the same images--a glimpse into another's thought process.

Conclusion: We have learned a great deal about writing strategy in this class. Our understanding of complex plot styles, intricate characterization, and different thematic approaches has equipped this class with great reading and writing skills. Our learning will help us comprehend sophisticated writing, and communicate effectively.