Friday, March 8, 2013
Answers for the Story, "The Eye"
Put your answer to the question you received in class today as a comment to this post. Please identify which question you are answering first, before your paragraph. A good answer will range from 150 to 200 words and use one or two short quotations. It will be easier if you relate your answer to the overall "gist" of the story (how does the element you discuss fit within the story in other words). I will provide a model answer here by Saturday noon.
Also, remember to annotate your story before coming to class next week. Bring your annotated story and word processed answer to class. Thank you!
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What effect does the author's point of view have on us and the way we view the work? (from Questions about Point of View)
That Alice Munro tells the story through the eyes of a child, a girl between the ages of five and six years old, definitely affects how a reader will view her story, “The Eye.” On the first page of the story readers are immediately presented with an interesting narrator, one who says of her mother’s certainty that a baby brother is what she “had always wanted” is “fictitious but hard to counter.” The narrator thus demonstrates to us something many of us have experienced in childhood: our mothers speaking on behalf of what we should think about something. Munro, through her narrative choice, allows us to experience directly a child’s move from dependent thought to independent thought. At the end of the story, Munro also succeeds, through her narrator, to help us see how a child moves from believing in something irrational (that Sadie’s “eyelid on my side moved”) to the more rational of not “[believing] it anymore.” Alice Munro shows her mastery by using a limited omniscient narrator who can show us how a child sees things while, at the same time, allowing her (by using memoir) to show an adult’s insights.—192 words
P. 1 Setting (place) #2
The sensuous qualities on this page go from subtle feeling of being manipulated and misunderstood or misinterpreted to a feeling of anticipation for upcoming changes. When the narrator talks about how she had “never been aware of feeling different from the way my mother said” it shows an awakening of a realization that there might be more that was not exactly the way her mother presented it. And it is affirmed by examples given as:“the little girl half hiding round the corner......to shy to come to see Jesus” by her mother pointed out to be her and, she herself “rather wishing it wasn't so”; or when she laughed to the story of Alice in Wonderland even though she “really felt miserable”. When her brother arrived as “some sort of present” for her she accepted that her mother's notions about her and her own differed. And it made her ready for the arrival of celebrity Sadie.......(who showed her to be her self by allowing her to dry the floor by skating on rags, for example). It is important for the reader to feel this uneasiness to understand the little girls reserved behavior towards her mother later on in the story.
(192 words)
I’m answering the question about Setting (#1 What was the social environment portrayed? P 5 – Story)
The unusual social environment is portrayed by a five-year-old girl. It is her first time as she is being taken to the mourning house of her tragically deceased babysitter, Sandie. As a small girl, she hesitates to go, but her mother tries to “encourage” her by being gentle and supportive. Alice “pretends not to notice” mother’s attempts and trays to be herself. She is shy, but pays attention to every new details; such as, mother’s “gloved hand” or “a woman dressed up” differently (not in a casual way). She also notices some difference in the tone of voice people are speaking. Especially her mother’s “more subdued,” soft, “gentle and sympathetic.” There are two women that welcome guests (one of them is “in charge” of the event) and two boys in the kitchen, but rather than being malicious they “stayed quiet.”Finally, she meets Sandie’s parents. When her mother “bent over and spoke to them very respectfully and pointed” Alice out, the woman burst with grieving emotions. The reaction of strangely behaving woman scares her a little bit, but she stays calm. Even though the small girl finds herself in an unusual event, she bravely overcomes all of the oddities. - 199
“Discuss the ending ”
At the end of the story, the little girl, munro, trusted firmly that sadie’s eyelid was lifting even though she knew sadie was dead. She treated that as a secret between them and held it afterwards for a long time until she became a teenager, when something which was deeply believed by her disappeared completely. The narrator used the description: “you once had another set of teeth, now vanished but real.” to describe this change. This little girl is used to listening and obeying her mom’s thoughts all the time as while as other authorities like Sadie’s. Although she is confused about her feelings sometimes, but she is too young, “only 5 or 6 years old,” to have the ability and power to insist her own thoughts and view her own insight. So she “never questioned ” about that “unnatural display”. Along with her growing up gradually into a more mature and independent person, her points of view has been varied. Finally, instead of the pure insides she had before, there is a dime sort of hole left , but with her own belief and confidence inside as well.--186words
Plot (P.8 discuss the ending)
Alice Munro implies two hidden life message at the end of story. This short story uses mostly space to describe the relationship between Sadie and the narrator. Munro wants to emphasize that they are really close. Her mother thought that the narrator feel depress, sorrow when Sadie is dead, and she can’t forget Sadie. However, in the end of story, the narrator tells us “Sadie faded rather quickly from my mind”, in fact, nothing is important in the past but looking forward. Time and experiences are good treatment. The last paragraph, we can find that the narrator is very innocent when she is a child; she believed in everything no matter how unreasonable it is. Sometimes she will think and feel suspicious about something, but she still chooses “never questioned” and “believed”. When she is gradually growing up; she has experiences, and she knows everything is not as simple as she think, now she has changed into the attitude of “I didn’t believe it anymore”.
What sensuous qualities does the author give to the setting? (What does it sound like, look like, and feel like?)
The sensuous qualities given by the author were sounds like a car screeching on a “little bit of gravel road”, “some honking and yelling”. It feels dusty with “whipping around too fast”, and there seems to be a lot of confusion after “the dancing was over”. It looks like to be dark because there, “was no doubt thinking cars could see her” and “she was hit from the back”. Sadie also appears to be hammered because she “behaves as if it was everybody’s business to get out of her way”. These sensuous qualities created a wild impression in the story. The impression has been created to show how raucous behavior can become a major cause for a death. Sadie has to bear the consequences of losing her control and irresponsibility. Lastly, the pains are the outcomes of doing wrong things which will last forever in our and others lives.
-150 words
How do the characters relate to one another? What pleasures and conflicts do their relationships with one another cause? ( Question about Character)
Sadie is easy going person that can get a long with anyone. In the short story on page two on the first paragraph. Sadie relates two the people on the farm by sharing the loneliness of being a lone. Anyone could tell by the song she sang on the third line "Lookin' down the twilight trail. For my long lost pal-" Sadie song relieve the pain her and the farmers shared. But, other educated people in town just made fun of her and her choice of song she sang in the local station. Alice Munro's mother and Sadie relationship is like a teacher and student. Munro's mom want to help Sadie's language skills. But, Sadie like the way she speaks and does not want to change anything about herself. Sadie and Alice Munro get along better then anyone else. With Alice, Sadie knows that the little girl won't judge or change her and vice a versa. Ones impression is that Munro and Sadie are equal for example at one point when "Sadie heated water on the stove and washed the dishes with me."Sadie is an outgoing person that can relate with anyone But,some people have a hard time relating with her.
(words-199)
The whole 5th page of the story “The Eye” is all about Sadie’s place. Mother and daughter arrived to say “good bye” to Sadie. Alice Munro creates a sense of sadness through a sense of touch and through the sounds, but not the detailed description of the place, people and places. In a beginning the mother tried to be gentle with her daughter: “She touches my hand to give me a chance to hold hers, ” “My mother touches me lightly to get me to say hello…” but it seems to be factitiously. Then the girl noticed that her mother's tone changed “into something more subdued, softened”, when the door had opened. Lately she even became aware of her mother’s “especially gentle and sympathetic voice”. Even the small girl understood than her mother acts unnaturally. On the other hand, the author shows us a deep bitterness of Sadie’s mother through an almost animal sound: “the woman sitting there let out a howl.” Her gesture emphasized her desire that the guests should have been gone. Sadie’s parents looked like “they did not quite understand why they were here.” The author managed to convey the impression of grief using almost only sounds and tactile sensations.
-203 words
How do the social environments portrayed affect the characters?
The story “The Eye”, appears to be set in a time long ago. The manner in which Sadie acted throughout the story made her seem “free spirited” for that era. Sadie liked to go out dancing without the company of a man and “she paid her own way there too”. I understand that at that time it was probably unheard of for women to go many places by themselves, and probably never paid their own way. Once they “played the last dance she bolted for home”. She really didn’t have any interest in settling down into anything serious. She was an outcast, by the way the author wrote about how “she wasn’t like some, she didn’t mean to get caught”. It would appear that most people her age were probably married and possibly had children. I think the young girl’s mother really liked how Sadie took care of her, but didn’t want her child to act or think in some of the manners that Sadie did. If Sadie was a person in this modern era she would be perfectly normal, however based on when this story was set, it made her a social outcast. -194 words
In Alice Munro's story there is an external conflict between two main characters--mother and her small daughter. The small girl is along child because she doesn't have "any town friends at Sunday school." Also there is no close relationship between mother and daughter because the mother doesn't have enough time to pay much attention for her daughter: "No time for her to manage that anymore." Moreover, the mother doesn't try to understand her daughter's feelings and opinion; she forces the child to say what she want to hear. So, as the daughter says, "something in me was turning traitorous, though she didn't know why, and I didn't know why either." The small girl needs a friend and Sadie becomes her close friend instead of her mother. The girl loves Sadie; she even worships her. The mother doesn't like this situation; she guesses that her daughter finds her replacement in Sadie. This is the conflict of the Alice Munro's sad story. (161 words)
Pg.8 Char. #5 Do they have conflicting attitude about something? Do they understand themselves? Do they experience epiphanies? When, why and what do their epiphanies reveal to them, to us?
The attitude conflict was between the mother and her daughter. In the story “The eye”, the mother never asked her daughter how she felt or what she like to do instead she decide (as mom do to a five years old).On the last page of the story, when they were outside the house, after they visited Sadie’s funeral; the mother give her daughter a squeeze in her hand and said, “good for you” on how she behave during the visit. She did not ask her how she felt about her experience.In my opinion, the girl is grown to understand what her mother wants. On the other hand, the mother need to give her daughter more attention; what she doesn’t know her daughter is so brave than she think. The only realization in this story was life is too short. Finally the girl, soon she realized what she saw at the funeral was just a fraction of her imagination. It quickly faded from her mind than she expected.
168 words
Alice Munro created this uncommon atmosphere in “The Eye” to show you how it was back in the day. Women were not suppose to go dancing by them selves, with no intention of meeting a man?. The character Sadie loved to dance, nothing more. “She went to dances every weekend but she went by herself. By herself and for herself ”. In this time woman were not going out to dances, they were at home with their families or creating them. By creating this atmosphere Munro is showing you how Sadie felt about woman dancing, she didn’t think it was wrong of her to do so, she was not married and wanted to have some fun. This was frowned upon in the settings time. Munro created this atmosphere, to give readers an understanding on the situation Sadie was in. to understand where she was coming from. I think the younger girls mother was surprised about how much her daughter took a liking to Sadie, the mother didn’t seem to mind but I think she wondered what kind of influence Sadie had on her daughter. Munro did a great job showing the readers the atmosphere Sadie was in and how different it use to be a long time ago. Today Sadie would have been a regular girl, who enjoyed dancing and was independent.
-221 words
Q: What the social environments of the characters (manners. customs, and moral values)(page 3)
In that time the conventional against women were still in people’s minds. Showing off in the public alone was a challenge and also make gossip spread. But many women like Sadie was reduce their sense of being different from men. Sadie “always like to pay her own dime,”. She thought to pay the money by herself will make her feel existence and her self—consciousness was rising. She was proud of that she was an independent person to attend any social events rather than to be someone’s girlfriend or partner. Even men started to accept women like Sadie as a interesting and a special women, some of men have totally different ideas. When she was dancing on a platform, they were laugh at her all the time. They knew that they can not control which way women think about themselves. They created another angle to repudiate women. Sometimes the situation went to a little violence. In the midnight the things may go worse. Women were warning to go out late. It was danger.-174words
(Character : what problems do the people have on page 4 and how they attempt to solve them?)
There is a tension between Alice and her mother. Both of them have round and complicated characters. The mother is imposing her own ideas to Alice. She is trying to form her daughter`s character as she wishes. Unfurtunately she ignores Alice and her needs. She keeps her away from the society and prevents her making friends. Instead of understanding and accepting her as what she is, she dictates her almost every things. Alice knows something is wrong with her mother and doesn`t recognize her as a good and sympathetic mother. She is also confused and wondering whether she is a good girl or not; I got it from the sentence that she says: “A boy would not be so complicated.” It seems her mother always describes her as a complicated and unusual child. The mother also doesn`t allow the father to interfere the issues which are related to Alice and her mother, so the father always shows himself impertial. Although Alice is not good and interested in singing, she doesn`t want it to stop because she really feels lonely and has found being with Sadie a way to escape from that solitude. _ 192 words
Pg. 2 char. #6 Do the characters have speech mannerisms, gestures or modes of dress that reveal their inner selves? In Alice Munro short story (page two) mainly described about two main characters mother and the Sadie. The character mother: a mature, serious, and very organized lady. She was a teacher before become a mother. She clearly divines her job with Sadie, time (nap time); and dressing up on afternoon, “when she got up she put on a different sort dress”. As I indicated the teacher speech is perfect and well pronounced, so the character of the story “mother”. The Sadie is totally contradictory of the character of the story-“mother”. Sadie is remarkable, emotional, and influential girl. She sang songs on the radio about: “loneliness and grief”. A young girl, (sixteen to twenty years old) Sadie, has her own dialect- she said- “youse”. She had always spoken different from others. Sadie is full of energy and confidence, happy to talk and mostly to talk about herself. Sadie has a great influence, by telling about her life experience, on the little girl. The two main characters of the story: “The Eye” greatly opposite from each other being described in page two.
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