We worked on analyzing tone and diction by completing an exercise comparing how Hemingway and O'Brien depict the death of soldiers in war. I worked with Joshua on incorporating portions of text into his answers and in forming a topic sentence for a comparative paragraph. We then studied various passages from the two novels for support. Next, I provided instruction on the literary term "tone" and discussed how to infer tone from diction. Joshua then rewrote his homework response to identify the two authors' tone - blunt , nonchalant- and to identify words and metaphors that exemplify the authors' tone.
I first reviewed the symbolic significance of the physical items the soldiers carry specifically the intangibles: loss , fear of death, and guilt. We discussed how the novel's epigraph provides the foundation for the many paradoxes of war such as how courage is a manifestation of cowardice , and how fiction becomes more real and truthful than memory or history. In this regard, we studied the text to examine passages wherein the author discusses how a story is created tying past and present, truth with fiction. We further discussed why returning veterans have such difficulty adjusting to civilian life, noting passage in the novel illustrating this theme.
During the first segment, we reviewed Joshua's final Macbeth essay. I provided instruction on forming a clear thesis and combining sentences by eliminating unnecessary words or ideas. Further , I drafted a model answer that we read and then reviewed noting how the model exhibits the clarity the test essay did not. We then turned our attention to our next novel, "The Things They Carried." I first discussed how to supplement the homework answer . I explained the use of paradox in the novel's epigraph and introduced the author's concept of the difference between historical truth and fictional truth especially when narrating war stories. We then studied the tone, syntax,and diction employed to describe the death of Ted Lavender. I distributed portions of Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms' -which we read- and explained tonight's homework to compare the tone, diction and syntax Hemingway employs to describe the death of soldiers with O'Brien's style.
We began our study of O"Brien's Viet Nam novel ,"The Things They Carried." I provided historical information about the War, the anti-war protests at home , and the plight of Viet Nam veterans upon returning to he U.S. We then discussed the opening pages and the metaphorical significance of the weight the soldiers carry in their backpacks. Joshua did well recognizing the weight the soldiers carry is more than the physical weight of their weapons and clothes but more critically represents the soldiers" guilt, fear. longing for home, and the ghosts of those who have died. We discussed the death of Ted Lavender as lacking glory and meaning and began to construct an analysis comparing Hemingway's view of war in "A Farewell to Arms" with O"Brien's.
For our final session on the play, I first reviewed and demonstrated how to organize an essay using steps or syllogisms. Next, on the board ,I outlined and discussed the elements of tragedy and literary terms such as hamartia, peripeteia , and catharsis. We discussed how Macbeth's character is perhaps redeemed in the final scenes where he recognizes that he has been deceived by the witches' prophesies, and that he has senselessly murdered McDuff's family. We explored how the play's conclusion creates a catharsis by examining Macbeth as a nuanced character who is both a victim of his own ambition and his failure to recognize Fate's deceit.
As Joshua has completed reading the novel, we today explored how and why Aristotle's definition of hamartia captures both the role of character and Fate in the play. In this regard, we identified the role of the witches as representing Fate and Joshua discussed how Macbeth challenges Fate by exercising free will thereby suggesting a more limited role of Fate in Macbeth's downfall. Using this discussion, we then worked on revising Joshua's short essay answer on last week's test in order to clarify his argument about the relationship between Fate and free will in the play. We also noted how Shakespeare builds tension by adding a few almost irrelevant short scenes before we see McDuff exact vengeance on Macbeth.
