If you liked "Scales"..
If you liked Louise Erdrich's "Scales"....
then you might also enjoy ”What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie and "The Loons” by Margaret Laurence. For Friday, read the first of those stories and post a 4-5 sentence reflection/reader response here as a comment to this blog post. You also need to REPLY DIRECTLY to 2-3 of your classmates comments (think: Instagram/Facebook feed, but slightly more detailed than a series of emojis or five word responses!) as part of this assignment. There's no need to include actual textual evidence in either your original response or when you comment on classmates' work, but you certainly can. If you're having a hard time generating ideas, feel free to look back to the short story questions we used last term. I just want to get a sense of what you thought about the story you've chosen; there's no pressure, so have some fun and be creative. I can't wait to have a virtual discussion with you all!
then you might also enjoy ”What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie and "The Loons” by Margaret Laurence. For Friday, read the first of those stories and post a 4-5 sentence reflection/reader response here as a comment to this blog post. You also need to REPLY DIRECTLY to 2-3 of your classmates comments (think: Instagram/Facebook feed, but slightly more detailed than a series of emojis or five word responses!) as part of this assignment. There's no need to include actual textual evidence in either your original response or when you comment on classmates' work, but you certainly can. If you're having a hard time generating ideas, feel free to look back to the short story questions we used last term. I just want to get a sense of what you thought about the story you've chosen; there's no pressure, so have some fun and be creative. I can't wait to have a virtual discussion with you all!
The theme of disappearing is recurrent throughout "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" by Sherman Alexie. The main character Jackson explains that he is the one who would leave others lives slowly, saying, "piece by piece, I disappeared. And I've been disappearing ever since" (Alexie 438). Even though Jackson says that he is the one who was and still is disappearing, it is the supporting characters such as Junior, Rose of Sharon, and the Aleuts who disappear from Jackson's life. Jackson seems to blame himself for the disappearances of his lovers and family, but in the story he simply acknowledges the friends who leave by saying what ultimately happened to them, not by blaming himself for making them go. This change in character happened before the story and after his failed marriages, and it is subtle but shows how Jackson has changed from youth to adult and how it affects his decisions throughout the story. Jackson seems to find purpose via his grandmothers regalia and that causes him to be present and stay so that even if he disappears, his grandmother and entire family history will stay.
ReplyDelete--Kate Golson
I love your focus on disappearing in this story...it feels like there's a parallel to the disappearance of American Indians as well. Is it optimistic, then, that he is present in the end and reconnects with the regalia?
DeleteYes! I think the cars stopping as he danced in the street show that others see him, and that he has brought back the spirit of his grandmother by dancing, and brought himself back by being seen by others and not moving out of the way.
DeleteI also love that all of those people help him achieve his goal...it's not clear that anything will actually change for him, but those little moments of connection and help + that beautiful scene of him dancing and reconnecting with his grandmother's spirit is so lovely.
DeleteTo add on to Dr. Hynes' first comment, there seems to be parallels to the disappearance of American Indians as mentioned in the short story "Scales." The recurring conflict between the police and Gerry always result in his "disappearance," whether that be his disappearance from jail or the outside world, which demonstrates the othering of Native Americans. This extreme marginalization is exhibited when Gerry hides in a reservation the last time he fled, but was met with "federal agents and armored vehicles" who intruded the only community in which he deemed safe. Additionally, similar to Jackson, the resolution of "Scales" provokes Dot and the narrator to contemplate the significance of Gerry's disappearance, which is represented by the weight of Dot and Gerry's baby.
DeleteFantastic connections between the stories, Sofia!
DeleteIn "The Loons" by Margaret Laurence, the title characters, the loons, represent human emotion and loss that happens in the story, and their disappearance means the characters have to carry on the mourning in the loons place. When the loons are present they make a mourning sound as if to represent loss, yet while they are present, all is well within the cabin by the lake. The last time the main character, Vanessa, hears the loons sad song is during a happy time in her life, right before her father passes. It is as if the loons were singing of what was to come, as their final song to the main character and trying to hold back the bad by being the sad ones. After her father's death, Vanessa stays away from the lake where the loons stay and grows up to see the girl her father helped, Piquette, become a happy woman. Her father's legacy lived on through Piquette who tells Vanessa of the joy she feels getting married and thanks Vanessa for all that her father did that summer by the lake. Vanessa leaves town and forgets about the loons, the lake, and Piquette until she learns of Piquette's death. Vanessa goes back to the lake that summer with her friend, and finally revisits the beach, only to discover quiet, the loons and their sad song have left. All that remains is Vanessa to mourn her father and her father's legacy where the loons can't. The loons have left, and since the lake has been a place of mourning via the loons song since "before any person ever set foot here" as the father points out, the mourning must continue even now that people have driven the birds away (Laurence 935). So as the story begins with a mournful tone and Vanessa sitting at the lake, the story ends on the same note, now with the loons song representing much more than just a bird call.
ReplyDelete--Kate Golson
Im bringing all the stories back to the theme of disappearance and reappearance now because that theme is the most prevalent. All of the stories deal with disappearance in a fascinating way, and the order in which they are read matters. In the first story, "Scales" Gerry disappears from jail, and ultimately Dot and her child's life as Sofia pointed out (thanks for that amazing comment!), which could represent the disappearing legacy of Native Americans. Then in "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," a character who has disappeared his whole life reappears to save his grandmother's legacy (representing the legacy of Native Americans who came before him). Then finally in "The Loons," Piquette is helped to become mentally and physically strong and finds herself and her purpose, trying to reappear, but she passes away shortly after finding herself (disappearing). Yet the main character keeps trying to make a connection between nature and Native Americans, thinking Piquette must be connected to the natural world around her. The narrator is almost correct however, because the loons represent the sadness and loss of Native Americans and Piquette. The loons are nature mourning the loss, and even the mourners of the lost get driven out, and only Vanessa is left to mourn the disappeared.
Delete--Kate Golson
Great job, Kate...I love how you've pulled together all three stories AND Sofia's fantastic comment from earlier in the thread. That theme of disappearing and appearing is so fascinating in the context of American Indians in all of these stories, as is the somewhat mythologized idea of connection to nature. I also like the symbolism of the loons and what you do with it...it feels like the narrators in each story learn something significant by the end.
DeleteLike Dr. Hynes said above, the theme of appearing and disappearing is really interesting, but the story also seems to have a circle of life element to it as well. As you said in your analysis, the story begins and ends in the same place, but also on the same note, which is death. The story went full circle, with the beginning and the end having a disappearance of some kind.
DeleteNice point, Ronik! Your idea works well with the importance of nature and the cycle of coming of age/maturity in the short story.
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