A third element of ABC's narrative focuses on Jin and "how he manages—and doesn’t manage—to fit in [which] form[s] the heart of the novel. American Born Chinese’s ability to deal honestly with the pains of adolescent isolation make it so compellingly readable. Perhaps Gene Luen Yang’s occupation as a high-school teacher gives him the authenticity this novel uses so effectively, or perhaps he truly can tap into the angst and agita of the teenage years. Either way, it works so well that you can’t help but feel immediately moved and caught up in it."

In the next 45 minutes, I'd like you to consider what made this book so compelling for you.  In other words, what caught you up and moved you? 

If nothing appealed to you, you have two options:  1: LIE or 2: argue why you felt there was a lack of authenticity or readability. 

For class on Friday (In case you can't open the files on MyMC)

En001: Friday Make-up

Fall 2010

These two assignments are both due on Monday, September 27^th

Writing assignment

Directions:  First, do some research on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (fair warning:  this is a challenging text, so you might want to read some explanations of it as well).   Then, explain what the Allegory of the Cave suggests about knowledge AND explain how this has relevance to ABC.  This response should be 1-2 pages typed (double space and all that jazz, just like your essays). 

Chapters 2 and 3

1.     Jin retells a story in the beginning of chapter #2.  What does the story suggest about Jin and how he will react to the move?

2.     Page 29 has only three frames.  The last two are almost silent.  Why would the author choose to end the scene in this way?

3.     Why do Jin and Suzy avoid each other as much as possible?

4.     Why does Jin first want to beat up Wei Chen?  Why do they become friends?

5.     Write one detailed paragraph describing Chin-Kee in all his goofy glory!

Written response:  Compare OR contrast Danny and Jin (I’m thinking three paragraphs will work, intro, one body, conclusion).  

Starting anew

Today we started Unit #2.  It will focus on getting more comfortable with sentences and with the characters and ideas from ABC.

Today, we introducted (or prepared to introduce) CONJUNCTION

Conjunction Junction (click here for a ridiculously fun School House Rock out)

When you want to blend two simple sentences together into one sentence to show a realtionship between the ideas, you'll want to use coordination. 

Today was the best day.     Tomorrow will be even better.  (Notice how each simple sentence has a subject and a verb).
We can use a conjunction to help our reader see these ideas belong together: 

• Today was the best day, and tomorrow will be even better.  (Notice that each still maintains its subject and verb). 
• Notice that a comma was used to signal a change in normal, expected sentence structure. 

• And that a conjunction followed to express the relationship. 

Active v. Passive

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/ActivePassive.swf

Some structure and some style!

Today, we accomplished two big goals: Sentence Structure and Description

Sentence Structure: we built off of subjects and verbs and added the whole concept of "Completion of Thought" by looking at prepositional phrases.

Consider the following sentence:

• Irma travels to different countries on her vacations from school. 

Irma is the subject (who or what the sentence is about)
travels is the verb (the action the subject performs)
to different countries, on her vacations, and from school are the prep. phrases.  Notice how they start with a preposition and follow through to the object (thing being pointed to)

Description is our new mode of development that will help tell the narrative we have chosen in a more complete and accurate manner. 

check out the link...notice how description is being blended with the overall narrative?  Cool, huh?

Remember that description uses all 6 senses to help the writer re-create something for the reader to expereince (just like James re-created death for us)!

cartoon from narrative

http://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-2010/portrait-cartoonist-woman