Ava wrestle the alligator

1. Ava wrestle the alligator JK WOO

2. About the author Karen Russell born in Miami. Karen Russell graduated from Columbia University's MFA program in 2006. Her stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope. Her first book of short stories, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was published in September 2006. In November 2009, she was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree. In June 2010, she was named a New Yorker "20 Under 40" honoree. Her first novel,Swamplandia!, was published in February 2011. She lives in Washington Heights, New York right now.

3. Characters • "Ava Wrestles the Alligator" is the story of two girls. • Ava, our narrator, who runs the alligator farm that is her family's roadside attraction business • Her older sister Osceola (Ossie) who is sometimes possessed by the spirits of deceased men whom she calls her boyfriends. Ava has a serious case of hero worship regarding Ossie and envies her nightly visits from her 'boyfriends'.

4. Swamplandia! • Swamplandia!, the island’s #1 Gator, Theme Park and Swamp Café. • The girl's mother died the summer before and one suspects things at the alligator farm have taken a serious turn for the worse since then. • Ava talks about how she participates in the feeding and wrestling shows for the local tourists, but all we see is a sad little run down business that no one comes to anymore.

5. Bird Man • She makes an understandable (“I’m lonely, and I want to have a secret with somebody.”) but most unfortunate choice in asking for help from a strange but friendly-seeming drifter called The Bird Man. • Things take a serious turn for the worse and towards the strange when Ava meets a travelling Bird Man.

6. Ossie! Osceola! • Ossiedisappears leaving a note to say that she has eloped with her ghostly lover. • Ossie goes into the swamp. • Ava overcomes her fear of the swamp so that her larger concern, that of being alone, doesn’t happen. • Ava already lost most of her family and she cannot stand to lose the only person she’s got left. • Finally, Ava saved her sister, Ossie.

7. In the novel (Swamplandia) -information • Ava’s mother, Hilola, the star of the family troupe, has just died of ovarian cancer. • Ava's brother Kiwi, who runs away, foreseeing bankruptcy at Swamplandia!, to take a paid job on a much bigger rival theme park on the mainland, hoping to earn money to send home.

8. Q&A with Author Karen Russell • The theme park angle of Swamplandia is brilliant. Where did that come from? •  I wanted to write a story about a child alligator wrestler, who lived on a park that was similar to the mom-and-pop roadside attractions that my siblings and I had visited as kids, both in the Everglades and on the outskirts of Miami. But I wanted this place to feel even more remote to be far from the grid of mainland lights, far deeper inside the swamp than it could realistically exist. (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/one-true-thing/201111/qa-author-karen-russell)

9. The author wants to tell us The importance of family. The fear of being alone.

10. Question? • What do you think if Ossie is normal person? Ava will not feel lonely? • Why do you think Ossie sees other ghosts but not mom? • Why do you think the author defined the word “elope”?