Beginning at the End: Another Look at And the Earth Did Not Devour Him - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 23

About This Presentation

Title:

Beginning at the End: Another Look at And the Earth Did Not Devour Him

Description:

Family (Generational Divide) Nora, Lily, Megan, Angela ... Truthfulness Allen, Omar, Roger. Independence Jonathan, Alice, Susan, Leslie ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:990

Avg rating:3.0/5.0

Slides: 24

Provided by: michaelfer

Category:

more less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Beginning at the End: Another Look at And the Earth Did Not Devour Him

1
Beginning at the End Another Look at And the
Earth Did Not Devour Him

Feraco
SFHP
14 April 2008

Can human nature be changed in such a way that
man will forget his longing for freedom, for
dignity, for integrity, for love that is to
say, can man forget that he is human? Or does
human nature have a component which will react
to the violation of these basic human needs by
attempting to change an inhuman society into a
human one?
Man has an intense need for love, for justice,
for truth, and for solidarity

3
These Words Were Written

in Erich Fromms afterword to George Orwells
1984
Fromm wrote this in 1961
Amazing, no?

4
Breaking Down the Question

Can we be forced to forget our longing for
freedom?
Sure see The Matrix, read Platos works, or
take a look at some of Riveras characters
Look for the tipping point

5
Breaking Down the Question

Can we forget our longing for dignity?
Differentiate between the (willing) sacrifice of
dignity and the absence of desire for it
Plenty of people trade their dignity for success
is this the same as forgetting to want that
self-respect?
Have the people in When We Arrive lost their
dignity?

6
Breaking Down the Question

Can we forget our sense of integrity?
In other words, can external forces rob one of
ones moral compass?
Hand in His Pocket
The Portrait
What can cause integrity to collapse?

7
Breaking Down the Question

Can we forget that we need love?
How did you feel about Edna in The
Awakeningnot after class discussions, but when
you first finished the story?
Edna searched for love, independence, and
identity
Riveras characters do as well

8
Love?

Love.
The Night the Lights Went Out romantic love
Any number of stories featuring familial love
(did Edna enjoy such a sensation?)

9
Independence?

Independence from orthodoxy
Independence with respect to control
Again, throw a dart at a list of stories youll
probably hit one where this is a concern

10
Identity

Personal identity as one experiences dramatic
change (A Prayer, Hand in His Pocket, First
Communion)
Communal identity with respect to a common
heritage history, traditions, desires,
obstacles, etc.

11
Man Has An Intense Need

For love
The Night the Lights Went Out
Its That It Hurts
The Night Before Christmas
For justice
There were sixteen dead
The Children Couldnt Wait

For truth
Vignette 1
A Silvery Night
And the Earth Did Not Devour Him
For solidarity
The Lost Year
Under the House
Any story where a person is weakened by their
isolation

12
Theres Something Within Us

One of the central questions in 1984 can we
forget what makes us human? is given a
different spin here
Instead of asking if we can forget, Rivera asks
how we can remember what makes us human
After all, the migrants are willing to continue
living their lives lives of constant
degradation and oppression
If they can remember, they can return to human
existence

13
Theres Something Within Us

Fromm or Orwell wants to know if well stand
up for ourselves
Rivera demands that we do, argues that we must
and gives us two figures who follow through
The man in When We Arrive couldnt be any more
different from the boy in Under the House if he
triedbut theyre sides of the same coin, unique
but unified, different but inseparable

I would like to see all of the people together.
And then, if I had great big arms, I could
embrace them all.
He had made a discovery. To discover and
rediscover and piece things together. This to
this, that to that, all to all. That was it. That
was everything. He was thrilled.
Enlightenment.

15
Enlightenment

Knowledge and understanding can unlock a world of
infinite possibilities if our freedoms,
security, dreams, and identities are locked away,
enlightenment provides us with a set of keys.
The star diagram for each migrant looks pretty
stretched

16
At the End of the Day

The last scene of the book is a significant
moment of self-recognition
The boy is no longer lost
The community hasnt come together yet but the
process has started
After all of the pain, longing, and frustration
of the earlier stories, the novel ends on a
beautiful, transcendent moment of hope

17
And Beyond the End

I love that moment the moment where you realize
that theres a purpose to remembering the
migrants suffering and a hundred others like
it
Rivera has an incredible gift for emotional
writing
He makes you genuinely sad, or genuinely upset,
over the affairs of nameless people
He also has an incredible gift for subtlety for
writing words that contain multitudes of meanings
Finally, his thematic concerns are real and
important, and resonate long after the initial
publication date

18
The Thematic Assignment

I want you to do something more complex than the
scavenger hunt type of thematic assignment
Instead, I want you to look closely at why Rivera
uses the themes you chose at the beginning of the
story.
What is he saying through his decision to focus
on ______?

19
The Standard

3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning
of a selection represents a view or comment on
life, using textual evidence to support the
claim.
You have five themes. Lets start by coming up
with a sentence explaining why each theme is
important. What view (or comment) is Rivera
expressing?
When you are done, I want you to find those who
share your theme and trade analyses with them.
Ill post the theme list on the board