Day 7
Thurs. Sept. 17
Sources of tension in “The Mwiko”
Symbols in literature
Alternate endings to “The Mwiko”
Intro to “Proverbs of Hell”
Reading by Jiaqi
Homework
➤ Read the instructions for Essay 3
Our next essay will be about a character and their relationship with a place. Please read the instructions carefully and think about what character you might want to write about!
➤ Read “Uncle Pat is the Law”
Make sure to check out my annotations in the electronic version of the article! (VPN required.)
Please come to class ready to share one sentence that you feel really characterizes either Uncle Pat or the town of Jean Lafitte. (In other words, a sentence that answers the question: What kind of person is this? or, What kind of place is this?)
➤ Read “The Proverbs of Hell”
Read over the proverbs. (You don’t need to “understand” all of them—in fact, many of them can’t really be “understood.”) Pick one you like or find intriguing, and come ready to tell us: What kind of person do you think would believe this?
➤ (If you have time) start reading “Mazie” or “The Man Who Eats”
For Friday of next week I’ll be asking you to choose one of two longer essays about characters — “Mazie” by Joseph Mitchell and “The Man Who Eats” by Yiyun Li — and read in full whichever one you like most. If you have extra time this weekend you might want to get started on that, since the essays are on the longer side.
