Today we're going to build on the character you discovered on Wednesday, build meaning we're going to build it. You starter will be to quickly answer some questions about the person you created. If you miss class, use this worksheet to flush out what you know about this character. Give yourself ten minutes to answer these questions. Try to find the things you know about your character immediately. These things that you are certain about are the flecks of dust around which you'll build the "snowflake" of your character.
We'll then talk about The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara and how to interpret the rather unpleasant main character in this story. There is a lot here to discuss and we'll continue talking about this story next week. Today we're going to talk about what the character wants, both consciously and unconsciously, and what's keeping her from getting what she truly desires. Character have conscious desires, but they also have deep yearnings that are often unconscious that truly control their emotions and push them to do things even they can't explain.
We'll end outside again with another physical exercise that will allow you to create a second character, one that is significantly different than the one you found on Wednesday.
Assignment for Monday, September 15th
Next Friday you will turn in a journal entry, a letter, a monologue, or a poem in the voice of specific character that you create. We'll do a powerwrite in class next week to get you started, but you'll have to turn in a revision by Friday. You can either use one of the two characters you discovered in our walking exercises OR you can draw on a character in another story you've already written OR you can create an entirely new character. You have control over the form of the piece you will turn in as well.
For Monday, choose the character you want to use this character writing exercise. Look through the attached spreadsheet of Greek Gods and Goddesses. Choose the god or goddess that most closely matches your character and be prepared to tell us why you picked that God or Goddess. You don't have to read the whole spreadsheet. Start in row 13 and read the Archetype. If it matches your character start reading down that column to see if the life pattern fits. Here is the spreadsheet in MS Excel and here is a PDF (you'll have to zoom into read the PDF).
Reading is going to pick up this next week as I want to keep hitting you with different styles and give you material that relates to the many different aspects of character and different type of point-of-view.
Read the first two character poems in the packet by Tuesday. Everything we're talking about in terms of image and character can apply to poetry as well. I'm including these poems in our reading so you can see how the ideas we're talking about work in poetry land.
Read Thank You, Ma'am by Langston Hughes