Student artwork based from "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" Can you tell who is who?
Wow! SO MANY SYMBOLS have been uncovered in the past two days! It is sometimes difficult whether or not something is a symbol, or really just important details which give us a bunch of information. So, to recap, let's see what you guys have found over the last two days, starting with profound words spoken by two gentlemen. When I asked 4th period to define true evil, Jimmy Huynh stated that "true evil is so evil that it is not aware of its consequences. It simply acts and affects in a negative way." Julio Gonzalez countered, stating his disagreement: "I don't believe that's true. Evil can only be pure if it is absolutely aware of what the consequences are, and acts anyway."
I think there is truth to both statements. Evil that is conscious registers itself as evil to its recipients because we believe there is no other possible intent. But, when evil strikes simply because it is motivated by evil...so many people are affected that it is almost impossible to comprehend the fallout afterward. A popular example is the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Yes - I absolutely agree that the men who crashed those planes and killed those people knew exactly what they were doing. However, did they believe that the United States would counter with a war - a war that eventually cost thousands of lives? Did they believe that innocent lives would be questioned for practicing Islam in the United States? Or...were they so obtuse to their own desires that they even cared?
This brings me to the Grandmother, or "Gma." Gma is a piece of work, no doubt. She is racist, bigoted, rude, demanding, selfish, self-centered, and hypocritical. She is PROUD. Does she realize that having her son take the wrong turn would be the entire family's undoing, or does she even care? She seems so much more invested in either maintaining her self-image or staying out of trouble, that by the time she realizes how deep she is, she carries the undoing with her - Pitty Sing. That poor cat...you really do have to feel a little sorry for it. After all, it went immediately for Bailey after it escaped...
Now, as for symbols, we talked today about Red Sammy being a representative of the Satanic archetype, or a devil figure. How did we know?
-Let's start with physical characteristics: Red skin, sagging gluttonous gut, sweaty, works over fire all day.
-Personality: Charismatic (with Gma), demanding (with wife), persuasive (remember the road signs?
-His own wife tried to warn the family not to trust him, that he spoke false.
-Gma thought he was a good man! Are you really going to let her be a proper judge of character?
The last big symbol we covered together today was the dirt road. You know, that dirt road that climbed hills, as the car seemed to touch "the blue tops of the trees" and then entered a "red depression." Well, the obvious reading is that the "blue tops" visual is the meeting of the trees and sky, but O'Connor did not use green to describe the trees, the obvious choice. Instead, she used blue to juxtapose against the red depression. Falling down into a red hole. When I asked you to consider colors as symbolic on Monday while covering your notes, you all used adjectives to define the colors...which is fine. But did you notice how some colors seemed to be opposites of each other?
Bottom line: If red and blue represent hot and cold, why can't we combine that with some Christian symbolism and evolve them into heaven and hell?
Now, you guys know that this family is in for some judgment, but who is going to be their ultimate judge? Because the Misfit kills them, we assume he is in charge of this judgment...but if he is a symbol too, who does he represent? I know that so many of you have come close to figuring it out, but you need to go back, read, and find the clues! Be ready to tell me who the Misfit represents, and what evidence you have to back that up.
The sooner you tell me tomorrow, the sooner I can give you time to work on your case study. :-)
Until tomorrow,
Ms. B
I think there is truth to both statements. Evil that is conscious registers itself as evil to its recipients because we believe there is no other possible intent. But, when evil strikes simply because it is motivated by evil...so many people are affected that it is almost impossible to comprehend the fallout afterward. A popular example is the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Yes - I absolutely agree that the men who crashed those planes and killed those people knew exactly what they were doing. However, did they believe that the United States would counter with a war - a war that eventually cost thousands of lives? Did they believe that innocent lives would be questioned for practicing Islam in the United States? Or...were they so obtuse to their own desires that they even cared?
This brings me to the Grandmother, or "Gma." Gma is a piece of work, no doubt. She is racist, bigoted, rude, demanding, selfish, self-centered, and hypocritical. She is PROUD. Does she realize that having her son take the wrong turn would be the entire family's undoing, or does she even care? She seems so much more invested in either maintaining her self-image or staying out of trouble, that by the time she realizes how deep she is, she carries the undoing with her - Pitty Sing. That poor cat...you really do have to feel a little sorry for it. After all, it went immediately for Bailey after it escaped...
Now, as for symbols, we talked today about Red Sammy being a representative of the Satanic archetype, or a devil figure. How did we know?
-Let's start with physical characteristics: Red skin, sagging gluttonous gut, sweaty, works over fire all day.
-Personality: Charismatic (with Gma), demanding (with wife), persuasive (remember the road signs?
-His own wife tried to warn the family not to trust him, that he spoke false.
-Gma thought he was a good man! Are you really going to let her be a proper judge of character?
The last big symbol we covered together today was the dirt road. You know, that dirt road that climbed hills, as the car seemed to touch "the blue tops of the trees" and then entered a "red depression." Well, the obvious reading is that the "blue tops" visual is the meeting of the trees and sky, but O'Connor did not use green to describe the trees, the obvious choice. Instead, she used blue to juxtapose against the red depression. Falling down into a red hole. When I asked you to consider colors as symbolic on Monday while covering your notes, you all used adjectives to define the colors...which is fine. But did you notice how some colors seemed to be opposites of each other?
Bottom line: If red and blue represent hot and cold, why can't we combine that with some Christian symbolism and evolve them into heaven and hell?
Now, you guys know that this family is in for some judgment, but who is going to be their ultimate judge? Because the Misfit kills them, we assume he is in charge of this judgment...but if he is a symbol too, who does he represent? I know that so many of you have come close to figuring it out, but you need to go back, read, and find the clues! Be ready to tell me who the Misfit represents, and what evidence you have to back that up.
The sooner you tell me tomorrow, the sooner I can give you time to work on your case study. :-)
Until tomorrow,
Ms. B
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