Journal 1: "Fish Cheeks" or "Poor Teeth" For this journal entry, read the stories, see the definitions exercise, choose some key words (at least three), chose one of the stories and write your formal journal entry. Pose your own questions. You can see the questions below for the future readings and model your own questions after them. Or feel free to model wing it. This first entry isn't meant to be overthought. *Don't write your entries in this document. Start your own document. MLA everything.* Journal 2: "This is How I Remember It" by Betsy Kemper Watching Joey pop the red berries into his mouth like Ju-Ju Bees and Mags only licking them at first, then chewing, so both of their smiles look bloody and I laugh though I don't eat even one...then suddenly our moms are all around us (although mine doesn't panic till she looks at the others, then screams along with them things like God dammit did you eat these? and shakes me so my "No" sounds like “oh-oh-oh") and then we're being yanked toward the house, me for once not resisting as my mother scoops me into her arms, and inside the moms shove medicine, thick and purple, down our throats in the bathroom: Joey in the toilet, Mags in the sink, me staring at the hair in the tub drain as my mom pushes my head down, and there is red vomit everywhere, splashing on the mirror and the powder-blue rugs, everywhere except the tub where mine is coming out yellow, the color of corn muffins from lunch, not a speck of red, I told you, I want to scream, and then it is over and I turn to my mother for a touch or a stroke on the head like the other moms (but she has moved to the doorway and lights a cigarette, pushes her hair out of her eyes) and there is only her smeared lips saying, This will teach you anyway. Close Reading What do you make of the characters in this story? When the speaker says "me for once not resisting" what does that mean to you? 1 The image of her mother scooping the speaker in her arms- -do you think the speaker experiences physical affection from her mother often? What does the title say to you? Does it imply that maybe her and her mother, to this day, don't see eye to eye? The scene where the children are sick in the bathroom, does the image of corn muffins reveal anything about the relationships? What do you make of the speaker knowing to not eat the berries and how that contrast with differing mothers among the children? The final line: This will teach you anyway - does this line reveal anything about the iceberg intentions of the mother or the speaker? 2 Journal 3: "Changing the Channel" by E. Ethelbert Miller My father and I have pillows behind our backs. The television is on but we talk without looking at each other. It is better this way, easier for my father to find words, which interrupt his breath like commercials. It is one of those strange moments when our small apartment in the Bronx is empty. My sister is on a date with a boy she can't bring home. My brother is at church lighting candles and saying prayers which will not lengthen his life. My mother is selecting lamb chops over pork in a nearby store, and the price has nothing to do with our health. Now is the time when my father has a good job in the post office and this miracle of rest is what we share while watching old movies that offer no resemblance to who we are. Close Reading ● Any themes? Is religion present? What details give you an idea about the religion: “Lighting candles”; The chanting... Bronx apartment….. probably Seventh-day Adventist people. Why: "Mother is choosing lamb over pork." Are these high-class people, working-class, or low-class? Is someone ill in the story? What do you make of "Now is the time when my father has a good job” ? What Gender do you think the speaker is? Does anything give you a hint to the gender? What Race do you think the speaker is? Does anything give you a hint about the speaker's race? "offer no resemblance to who we are?" Point of View? My father and I... so the POV is first person or I narrator. 3 Journal 4: "Sticks" by George Saunders Every year Thanksgiving night we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he'd built out of metal pole in the yard. Super Bowl week the pole was dressed in a jersey and Rod's helmet and Rod had to clear it with Dad if he wanted to take the helmet off. On the Fourth of July the pole was Uncle Sam, on Veteran's Day a soldier, on Halloween a ghost. The pole was Dad's only concession to glee. We were allowed a single Crayola from the box at a time. One Christmas Eve he shrieked at Kimmie for wasting an apple slice. He hovered over us as we poured ketchup saying: good enough good enough good enough. Birthday parties consisted of cupcakes, no ice cream. The first time I brought a date over she said: what's with your dad and that pole? and I sat there blinking. We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us. Dad began dressing the pole with more complexity and less discernible logic. He draped some kind of fur over it on Groundhog Day and lugged out a floodlight to ensure a shadow. When an earthquake struck Chile he lay the pole on its side and spray painted a rift in the earth. Mom died and he dressed the pole as Death and hung from the crossbar photos of Mom as a baby. We'd stop by and find odd talismans from his youth arranged around the base: army medals, theater tickets, old sweatshirts, tubes of Mom's makeup. One autumn he painted the pole bright yellow. He covered it with cotton swabs that winter for warmth and provided offspring by hammering in six crossed sticks around the yard. He ran lengths of string between the pole and the sticks, and taped to the string letters of apology, admissions of error, pleas for understanding, all written in a frantic hand on index cards. He painted a sign saying LOVE and hung it from the pole and another that said FORGIVE? and then he died in the hall with the radio 4 on and we sold the house to a young couple who yanked out the pole and the sticks and left them by the road on garbage day. Close Reading ● How do you read the first line of paragraph two? Is the dad having a progression or decline in mental health? Are his actions with the pole a sort of meter for his mental health? I.e., was he always a little off? Upon close reading, does the list of “talisman” have a deeper meaning? We see the dad a lot and the mom is only mentioned upon her death. What do you make of that? The lack of mothering elements, is that because of an iceberg, or hidden struggle, and the mother only comes through in small details? Who cut the apples and who made the cupcakes? Why doesn't the date mention the mother? How do you read the ending? Maybe a quiet moment of reality. Is the tone or event absurd? What do you make of painting the pole yellow? Should the title work harder? Is the pole a personification of the father? The pole is adorned with all forms of expression it appears the father cannot express. 5