4 th Period: Friday, March 11, 2016

1. 4th Period: Friday, March 11, 2016 Put away phones Read SSR Book

2. Commentary: Story Beginnings (John McNally) • Consider tone. The beginning of each story also establishes psychic distance, the relationship between the reader and the events in the story, and, more importantly, the relationship between the reader and the story’s narrator.

3. Story Beginnings • 1. It is August 4, 1977, and it’s snowing. • This sentence is pure exposition. There is no character, no precise setting, only information. The reader attaches him- or herself to a sentence such as this one almost entirely on an intellectual level. If the reader happens to respond on an emotional level, it’s because of some personal connection to August 4, 1077, or some memory of snow, but not because of any emotionally resonant moment in the story. • 2. A large man walks out of a restaurant and into the snowy night. • If you think of this sentence in terms of a scene in a movie, it might be the opening shot, perhaps a bird’s eye view of the scene, filmed from a helicopter. Neither the man nor the bar is specific. The details are general in nature, unspecific. • 3. Joe Worthington steps out of the Sunset Bar and Grill and shivers. • We have specifics. These specifics, in turn, give the reader a sense of personality and place. The Sunset Bar and Grill has more character than “a restaurant.” As a result, the reader starts feeling closer to the scene. • 4. Joe Worthington, stepping out of the Sunset Bar and Grill, thinks about how horribly cold it is. • For the first time, the reader is privy to Joe’s internal thoughts. This is significant because the reader now has a consciousness to hook into. The fictional world is no longer viewed objectively; it is being filtered, at least in part, through Joe’s point of view. • 5. Damn, it’s cold, Joe Worthington thinks, stepping out of the Sunset Bar and Grill. • The difference between # 5 and # 4 is that the reader is now privy to Joe’s direct internal thought. We are more fully inside his head. We are probably more likely to have a visceral response to what Joe thinks and what he does. • 6. Damn, it’s cold! • In terms of psychic distance, this is as close as we can get. We are directly inside Joe’s head. In # 5 above, we felt the presence of the author who provides “Joe Worthington thinks.” Not here. If the story were to continue in this vein, we’d call it “internal monologue.”

4. Journal: • Use this story beginner and compose a brief narrative: • He’d never noticed a door there before.

5. FANTASY • Uses magic and supernatural as part of plot, theme, and/or setting; steers clear of technology • Roots in mythology • High Fantasy vs. Low Fantasy

6. High Fantasy • setting is completely made-up world. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien • serious in tone • fantastical elements such as elves, fairies, dwarves, magic or sorcery, wizards or magicians invented languages, and quests • Most high fantasy storylines are told from the viewpoint of one main hero. Often, much of the plot revolves around his heritage or mysterious nature. In many novels the hero is an orphan or unusual sibling, often with some incredible ability. He begins the story young, if not an actual child. Some examples of this are J.R.R. Tolkien's Frodo Baggins • Typically, the hero slowly gains knowledge of his past through legend, prophecy, lost-and-found-again family members, or encounters with "mentor" characters who know more about him than he does. With that knowledge comes power and self-confidence; the hero often begins as a childlike figure, but matures rapidly, experiencing a huge gain in fighting/problem-solving abilities along the way.The plot of the story often depicts the hero's fight against the evil forces • Typically has a wise, old man as a mentor. This character is often a formidable wizard or warrior, who provides the main character with advice and help. Examples would be: Tolkien's Gandalf, Rowling's Dumbledore, Merlin in Arthurian Legends • Good versus Evil is a common concept in high fantasy, and the character of evil is often an important concept in a work of high fantasy. In many works of high fantasy, this conflict marks a deep concern with moral issues; in other works, the conflict is a power struggle, with, for instance, wizards behaving irresponsibly whether they are "good" or "evil".

7. Low Fantasy • Setting in real world with fantastical elements (Matilda) • Characters are typically haunted by dark pasts or character flaws and where conventional fantasy elements (such as magic, elves, or dwarves) are lacking or absent. • In low fantasy, there are many shades of gray, where the "main character" is often an anti-hero.

8. Peter Pan By: James Matthew Barrie What do you know of Peter Pan? How many of you have seen… The play? The Disney cartoon version? Hook? Finding Neverland? Read the actual unabridged book? Many controversies exist with Peter Pan. For this unit, we’ll explore Barrie’s influences in writing it, the different perspectives of “parents/children,” “innocence,” and “growing up.”

9. Basic Plot PeterPan, an orphan with magical powers, arrives in the night nursery of the Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael. He teaches them to fly and introduces them to the Never Never Land inhabited by fantastic characters, including the fairy Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. 

10. CHARACTERS Mr. Darling: Father, wanted to be just like the neighbors, viewed position in community as extremely important Mrs. Darling: Mother, wanted everything just so, prudent, loved her children, organized, neat, tidy, coddles children Nana: Newfoundland sheep dog, guardian, caregiver, babysitter, kind, watchful, conscientious

11. CHARACTERS John: Second and middle child, striving for attention Wendy: Oldest child, loving, mother-like, orderly, neat Michael: Youngest child wants to be taken care of, pampered

12. CHARACTERS Tinker Bell: Fairy, jealous of Wendy, friend of Peter Pan Peter Pan: Boy who never grew up, child in all of us, wants to have a mother, adventurous, mischievous, rebellious Capt. Hook: Pirate, scoundrel, hates peter pan, afraid of crocodile

13. James Barrie J. M. Barrie was born May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Scotland.  Margaret Oglivy raised him in the midst of 10 other children, the mother he adored.     When Barrie was six, his older brother David (the mother's favorite) died in a skating accident, and Barrie spent the rest of his childhood trying to replace his brother for his mourning mother.  This attempt to replace a forever-young David would take it's toll on the rest of Barrie's adult life and his writing.  Barrie could be described as small and shy.  As a man, he stood little more than five feet, was quiet and awkward around women.

14. Barrie’s biography of his mother, Margaret Ogilvy, 1896 “The room was dark, and when I heard the door shut and no sound come from the bed I was afraid, and I stood still. I suppose I was breathing hard, or perhaps I was crying, for after a time I heard a listless voice that had never been listless before say, “Is that you?” I think the tone hurt me, for I made no answer, and then the voice said more anxiously “Is that you?” again. I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to, and I said in a little lonely voice, “No, it’s no’ him, it’s just me.” Then I heard a cry, and my mother turned in bed, and though it was dark I knew that she was holding out her arms… After that I sat a great deal in her bed trying to make her forget him, which was my crafty way of playing physician.”

15. Fortunately for Barrie, he was a success as a writer.  He got his start as a writer for the Nottingham Journal after graduating from Edinburgh University.  Before this time though, Barrie had already been captivated by the theater and after having short stories and several successful books published, Barrie finally wrote his first play--Ibsens's Ghost (1891).  He followed this with Walker, London, during the production of which he met his future wife--the actress--Mary Ansell.  The marriage was not a success, but in it's duration Barrie wrote his most successful plays, including The Little Minister (1897), The Admirable Crichton (1902), and his most memorable work--Peter Pan (1904).

16. Barrie wrote Peter Pan as a tribute to the sons of his friends Sylvia and Arthur Llewelyn Davies.  It was distinctly different from the previous, more mature material that Barrie had written and would write.  Peter Pan was a fantasy, but not any mere fairy tale.  Like Peter Pan himself, Barrie was a boy who refused to grow up.  Barrie took such elements of life as his awkwardness with, yet dependence opon women, his love of children, and his own longing for childhood and shaped them into one of the best-loved stories of all time.

17. Peter Pan was Barrie's greatest success.  In 1912, he turned it into a book, called "Peter and Wendy".  However, after writing Peter Pan, he went on to write more plays.  What Every Woman Knows (1906), Dear Brutus (1917), and Mary Rose (1920) were all very well received plays.

18. On a more personal note, Barrie's wife--Mary Ansell--divorced him in 1908.  That same year, Arthur Llewelyn Davies died of cancer and in 1910 his wife Sylvia followed him, with the same disease.  Barrie was left to take care of all five Davies boys, whom he treated like him own children.  In later years, Barrie was made a baronet and received several honorary degrees on account of his literary figure.  He died in 1937 after a long life.

19. Excerpts from the Novel "I don't want ever to be a man," he said with passion. "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies."

20.  She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies… Still, he liked them on the whole, and he told her about the beginning of fairies. "You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”

21. Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children's minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day… • When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.

22. It made Peter kick instead of stab. At last Hook had got the boon for which he craved. "Bad form," he cried jeeringly, and went content to the crocodile. Thus perished James Hook…  The lateness of the hour was almost the biggest thing of all. She got them to bed in the pirates' bunks pretty quickly, you may be sure; all but Peter, who strutted up and down on the deck, until at last he fell asleep by the side of Long Tom. He had one of his dreams that night, and cried in his sleep for a long time, and Wendy held him tightly… 

23. NEVERLAND… I don't know whether you have ever seen a map of a person's mind. Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your own map can become intensely interesting, but catch them trying to draw a map of a child's mind, which is not only confused, but keeps going round all the time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a card, and these are probably roads in the island, for the Neverland is always more or less an island, with astonishing splashes of colour here and there, and coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers, and a hut fast going to decay, and one very small old lady with a hooked nose. It would be an easy map if that were all, but there is also first day at school, religion, fathers, the round pond, needle-work, murders, hangings, verbs that take the dative, chocolate pudding day, getting into braces, say ninety-nine, three-pence for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on, and either these are part of the island or they are another map showing through, and it is all rather confusing, especially as nothing will stand still.

24. Thought… What does Neverland symbolize?

25. Challenge: We all have a place like Neverland in our own imaginations where time stands still and everything is just the way we want it to be.  Create a picture of what your Neverland looks like as you see it.

26. Reflection Read the editorial about Peter Pan. Write a ½ page reflection to it. Then, consider the questions on your handout. Respond to 3 in detail, but be prepared to discuss them all.

27. Article Questions 1. What shocked you most about the article? 2. What new insights about Barrie do we learn? 3. Do you agree/disagree with the “Bloodthirsty nature of children” in Peter Pan during the Victorian age? Why change it (like in the Disney version), and why leave it the same for kids today?

28. Discussion What are your thoughts about the editorial? 1. What do you think about living forever as a kid and never growing up?  Would you be interested in doing that?  What are the good parts of that?  What would you miss if you never grew up? 2. Peter Pan is also about the idea of "play vs. work".  Do you still make believe, pretending you are Peter or Wendy or Hook?  At what age do you think we start to tell children to stop pretending?  Do you think kids get embarrassed when someone catches them playing make-believe?  Do you think we should always be able to pretend?  3. Mr. Darling becomes Hook in Neverland.  What questions does that make you ask about parents in 1904 when this play was originally written?  Do you know a Hook-like adult?  Is this a good or bad thing?

29. Discussion 4. Neverland is a fantasy world, but it is not perfect. There is danger there in the form of pirates and the crocodile. Why do you think Barrie didn’t make this world perfect? 5. What does Wendy bring into Peter and the Lost Boys' lives?  6. What is it about being able to fly like birds without a plane that is appealing to humans?  7. The Lost Boys eat imaginary food in Neverland.  It seems that no one ever gets hungry or tired.  Why is this imaginary food so satisfying and fulfilling? Why not make it real? 8. What is a world without adults to you?  What would be the pros and cons of being able to live forever as a kid?  Would you be interested in trying it, taking the risk that you would like it? 10. There is a certain level of violence in Peter Pan, which cannot be denied.  How do you feel the violence was handled?