In this comment I will focus on the narrator perspective because I think it's a huge decission that authors must make when writing a novel. Your presentation made me think about why Atwood chose to write her novels in such ways. The narrator in her novel is not only the traditional biased, single, first-person narrator, but it is morr than that. Atwood furthers the meaning of her novels by creating a narrator so biased that it will evoke stronger reader responses through indignation mainly. Your presentation helped me realize that the narrator does not only depict a story, but also determines the way in which the reader will perceive the characters, the setting and every other element of the novel. Also, I think it is important to note the relationship between the type of narration and other stylistic devices. Rhetorical devices serve to characterize the narrator, and at the same time, the narrator determines how impactful such devices will be.
To capitalize on the relationship between narrator perspective and other devices, I want to discuss the imagery and parallelism in your novel. I think it is interesting to note how neither one is more important. One could even call this a symbiotic relationship, because the type of narrator can determine how relevant and impactful the imagery will be and how effective the parallelism will be in your novel. On the other hand, however, the imagery and parallelism will characterize the narrator and create a voice, which ultimately is the messenger for the author´s meaning.
I thought that it was interesting that you focused on the author's desire to draw a reaction from the audience because I think my author really tried to do that as well. I think that the world around the authors is what really influences them to send a message to their society and readers. it seems both our authors focused on how they would send the message (through narration and characterization) before they did it because they wanted to get the strongest reation possible, and I think that really shows the need to plan the whole series of events in a novel before really diving into it.
I really enjoyed your presentation on Margaret Atwood. I read The Blind Assassin for my summer assignment and I saw many similiarities between the books. The main difference however, is that Iris, an oppressed wife, eventually does break free of her husband and lives independently. Maybe her purpose in doing so is that some women are strong enough to break free and some are not; what do you think?
You did a truly amazing job with this presentation! I found your analysis of your author’s writing style very insightful. I particularly liked the way you discussed the relationship between Offred’s name and her identity. I know that this is a relationship I’m going to continually look for when analyzing literature on the AP test and beyond because it has been prevalent in other works we have read throughout the year, like The Namesake and my independent novel, A Far Cry from Kensington. I also found it extremely interesting that your author ended the book by informing the readers that Offred wasn’t actually the narrator. I think you discussed well that by taking away her voice and her control over her own story, this was the ultimate proof that she lost her identity. This was very strong connection between the language choices of your writer (who the narrator was) and how that created meaning (her loss of identity). I thought you made an excellent point by connecting this to your author’s purpose to create anger within her readers, thus calling them to action. Similarly, you did a great job with your conclusion. I liked how you included what you got out of your book and how it allowed you to gain a new perspective.
One aspect that I took valuable knowledge away from in your presentation was your topic of narrator perspective. In any piece of writing, particularly on the AP exam when trying to determine the correct meaning, the speaker can be a powerful language tool to convey a message to a reader. Mentioning how the first person narrator creates bias reminded me of one of my novels for the project, Written on the Body, in which the ambiguous first person narrator plays a direct role in conveying Winterson’s message to the reader about love’s universality much like narrator perspective in Atwood’s writing is designed to create a response within her readers. While the narrator’s voice, along with their opinions and personal experience, can be revealed through a first person narration I agree that it is important to remember the skew that this can create on the novel because it creates a defined lens upon which to view the story’s events, sometimes detracting from the wider, less-biased picture. The idea of identification with the reader is also paralleled in this example because the view opened up by the voice of the first person narration can provide a more emotional and empathetic ground for the audience to become open to the point that the author is trying to convey. Adding on to the general idea of first person narration, the idea of this narration being limited can further direct the reader to the meaning that the author is trying to steer the audience to. The fact that no male perspective was shown in Atwood’s novel makes me wonder if a feminist perspective may be available for analysis. Either way, your presentation demonstrated the importance of looking at the bigger picture of the speaker who is narrating and the purpose of the author as a guide in analyzing the language.
I really enjoyed your discussion on her writing style and her first person narrative. I did a lot of research on different unique writing styles of many authors to get a better understanding of why authors use the style they do. For example, my authors used two different first person writing styles to illistrate one main point. And you did a good job at discussing why your author chose her first person narrative style and how that affected her writing.
Do you think there are any similarities between this first person narrative style and the style a journalist would write with? I think your on Chronicle so I was wondering if you drew any comparisons. Because I know being on MBC, when I researched my author I drew many, many comparisons to traditional journalism, his journalism and his first person narrative. And do you think each first person narrative style is the same? Because just between our authors' first person narrative styles I drew similarities and differences.
Atwood’s novel A Handmaid’s Tale seems very interesting, and your explanation of it made me want to read it. Also, I loved your introduction to the PowerPoint. While it was sad to look at, it did a good job of opening up your topic and introducing the themes that you found through your author. Something that I would have liked to see was a little more of a description of exactly what the story in A Handmaid’s Tale was. You touched on it briefly, but didn’t go into the detail that I would have liked and that would have helped me to understand the themes and meaning presented in your novel. Overall however, I thought your presentation was solid and captured the points that you were meant to go over in the presentation. Something that I found to be interesting about your author and her novel A Handmaid’s Tale was the similarities it had to my author, Jane Austen. In Austen’s novel Emma, there is definitely an oppression of women evident. They are fit into the roles of a domesticated wife, who’s only job is to care for the husband and children. These similar gender roles and oppression of females seems to be very present in Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale. The women seem to be objectified and given the sole role of reproduction, suffocating their voice and rights to their own life. The similarities between the two author’s and their representation of females in their novels could be of use on the essay portion of the final AP exam.
In this comment I will focus on the narrator perspective because I think it's a huge decission that authors must make when writing a novel. Your presentation made me think about why Atwood chose to write her novels in such ways. The narrator in her novel is not only the traditional biased, single, first-person narrator, but it is morr than that. Atwood furthers the meaning of her novels by creating a narrator so biased that it will evoke stronger reader responses through indignation mainly. Your presentation helped me realize that the narrator does not only depict a story, but also determines the way in which the reader will perceive the characters, the setting and every other element of the novel. Also, I think it is important to note the relationship between the type of narration and other stylistic devices. Rhetorical devices serve to characterize the narrator, and at the same time, the narrator determines how impactful such devices will be.
ReplyDeleteTo capitalize on the relationship between narrator perspective and other devices, I want to discuss the imagery and parallelism in your novel. I think it is interesting to note how neither one is more important. One could even call this a symbiotic relationship, because the type of narrator can determine how relevant and impactful the imagery will be and how effective the parallelism will be in your novel. On the other hand, however, the imagery and parallelism will characterize the narrator and create a voice, which ultimately is the messenger for the author´s meaning.
DeleteI thought that it was interesting that you focused on the author's desire to draw a reaction from the audience because I think my author really tried to do that as well. I think that the world around the authors is what really influences them to send a message to their society and readers. it seems both our authors focused on how they would send the message (through narration and characterization) before they did it because they wanted to get the strongest reation possible, and I think that really shows the need to plan the whole series of events in a novel before really diving into it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your presentation on Margaret Atwood. I read The Blind Assassin for my summer assignment and I saw many similiarities between the books. The main difference however, is that Iris, an oppressed wife, eventually does break free of her husband and lives independently. Maybe her purpose in doing so is that some women are strong enough to break free and some are not; what do you think?
ReplyDeleteYou did a truly amazing job with this presentation! I found your analysis of your author’s writing style very insightful. I particularly liked the way you discussed the relationship between Offred’s name and her identity. I know that this is a relationship I’m going to continually look for when analyzing literature on the AP test and beyond because it has been prevalent in other works we have read throughout the year, like The Namesake and my independent novel, A Far Cry from Kensington.
ReplyDeleteI also found it extremely interesting that your author ended the book by informing the readers that Offred wasn’t actually the narrator. I think you discussed well that by taking away her voice and her control over her own story, this was the ultimate proof that she lost her identity. This was very strong connection between the language choices of your writer (who the narrator was) and how that created meaning (her loss of identity). I thought you made an excellent point by connecting this to your author’s purpose to create anger within her readers, thus calling them to action.
Similarly, you did a great job with your conclusion. I liked how you included what you got out of your book and how it allowed you to gain a new perspective.
One aspect that I took valuable knowledge away from in your presentation was your topic of narrator perspective. In any piece of writing, particularly on the AP exam when trying to determine the correct meaning, the speaker can be a powerful language tool to convey a message to a reader. Mentioning how the first person narrator creates bias reminded me of one of my novels for the project, Written on the Body, in which the ambiguous first person narrator plays a direct role in conveying Winterson’s message to the reader about love’s universality much like narrator perspective in Atwood’s writing is designed to create a response within her readers. While the narrator’s voice, along with their opinions and personal experience, can be revealed through a first person narration I agree that it is important to remember the skew that this can create on the novel because it creates a defined lens upon which to view the story’s events, sometimes detracting from the wider, less-biased picture. The idea of identification with the reader is also paralleled in this example because the view opened up by the voice of the first person narration can provide a more emotional and empathetic ground for the audience to become open to the point that the author is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteAdding on to the general idea of first person narration, the idea of this narration being limited can further direct the reader to the meaning that the author is trying to steer the audience to. The fact that no male perspective was shown in Atwood’s novel makes me wonder if a feminist perspective may be available for analysis. Either way, your presentation demonstrated the importance of looking at the bigger picture of the speaker who is narrating and the purpose of the author as a guide in analyzing the language.
I really enjoyed your discussion on her writing style and her first person narrative. I did a lot of research on different unique writing styles of many authors to get a better understanding of why authors use the style they do. For example, my authors used two different first person writing styles to illistrate one main point. And you did a good job at discussing why your author chose her first person narrative style and how that affected her writing.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there are any similarities between this first person narrative style and the style a journalist would write with? I think your on Chronicle so I was wondering if you drew any comparisons. Because I know being on MBC, when I researched my author I drew many, many comparisons to traditional journalism, his journalism and his first person narrative. And do you think each first person narrative style is the same? Because just between our authors' first person narrative styles I drew similarities and differences.
ReplyDeleteAtwood’s novel A Handmaid’s Tale seems very interesting, and your explanation of it made me want to read it. Also, I loved your introduction to the PowerPoint. While it was sad to look at, it did a good job of opening up your topic and introducing the themes that you found through your author. Something that I would have liked to see was a little more of a description of exactly what the story in A Handmaid’s Tale was. You touched on it briefly, but didn’t go into the detail that I would have liked and that would have helped me to understand the themes and meaning presented in your novel. Overall however, I thought your presentation was solid and captured the points that you were meant to go over in the presentation.
ReplyDeleteSomething that I found to be interesting about your author and her novel A Handmaid’s Tale was the similarities it had to my author, Jane Austen. In Austen’s novel Emma, there is definitely an oppression of women evident. They are fit into the roles of a domesticated wife, who’s only job is to care for the husband and children. These similar gender roles and oppression of females seems to be very present in Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale. The women seem to be objectified and given the sole role of reproduction, suffocating their voice and rights to their own life. The similarities between the two author’s and their representation of females in their novels could be of use on the essay portion of the final AP exam.