Fiction and Oral Tradition

• Critical thinking involves considering serious issues and is crucial when something impacts your life.
• Critical thinking steps include reading, listening, observing, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation.

Literature

• Literature encompasses everything written and spoken.
• Humans interpret literature differently as opposed to creating it.

Oral Tradition

• Oral tradition involves passing information along by word of mouth.
• A pro of oral tradition is the sharing of information.
• Cons include the possibility of alteration or removal of story elements.

Fiction

• Fiction consists of something not real or shaped in the mind.
• Narration involves telling a story.
• Verisimilitude means true to life.
• Didacticism is teaching a life lesson.
• Novels are long, new stories.
• Short stories can be read in one sitting.
• Fiction is not psychology; one is connected to something because of the way they are.

Samuel

• The setting is New York City.
• The boys knew the subway system.
• Boys take more risks than girls.
• Mothers see the woman as dangerous.
• Men understood the boys.
• The person who pulled the emergency cord should be tried.
• Someone should have said something to help.
• One man's actions affected many people negatively.
• Racism is present.
• Names include Alfred, Calvin, Samuel, and Tom.

Point of View

• Point of view deals with perception.
• Omniscient means all-knowing.
• Limited omniscient means knowing some things, not everything.
• Settings deal with the physical location.
• Environment is everything external that influences the character internally.

Love in L.A

• The largest cities include NYC, LA, Chicago, Houston, and Arizona.
• Finding love is a key aspect of "Love in LA".
• There is a greater chance of getting scammed in big cities.
• Jake relaxes when he notices a girl, assuming she will be easy to manipulate because girls aren't smart.
• The first priority is taking care of his own situation.
• In a big city like L.A., you have to seize your opportunities.
• She does not realize that Jake is lying.
• Characters include Jake and Marianna.

Miss Brill

• The perspective is told by an older woman, who is assumed honest and harmless, therefore trustworthy.
• Every Sunday, this woman sits and people-watches on the same seat on the same bench, which gives her the best view to the park.
• Assumptions are wrong, but everyone makes them and acts based on them.
• Miss Brill enjoys watching people and treats herself to an almond cake from the bakery.
• A young couple made fun of her, causing her to leave the park.
• This incident needed to happen to her so she can understand that she needs to be alone so that she will also leave other people alone.

Style

• Style is how a writer arranges words.
• Diction relates to a writer's selection of words.
• Formal diction uses sophisticated words.
• Neutral diction uses common language.
• Informal diction uses plain, ordinary language.
• Tone reveals a writer's attitude.
• Irony is the unexpected.
• Situational irony is when the unexpected happens.
• Verbal irony occurs when the speaker says the unexpected.
• Symbolism involves an image that represents something and creates meanings.
• Allegory is a story or part of a story that represents and creates meaning.
• A parable uses religious principles to teach a Christian or moral lesson.
• Aesop's fables feature animals with human characteristics to teach a moral lesson.
• Myths use gods and goddesses with philosophical and secular principles to teach a humanistic lesson.

In the Land of the Free

• An Asian family tries to regain custody of their child from the government.
• The father could have prevented the whole ordeal if he had let his son be born in America instead of China.
• The family was separated for 10 months.
• Chinese children were being detained.
• Chinese individuals were being picked on.
• The mother and father's perception of America changed.
• They do not consider themselves really free.
• There is a theory that it was not worth it since the child won't remember anything from China.
• The family in San Francisco would have eventually exposed him to the culture.
• Hom Hing is the father and Lae Choo is the mother.

Plot

• A plot is the sequence of events.
• Conflict is a natural part of the human condition that builds strength.
• Man vs. Man occurs when your struggle is against another person.
• Man vs. himself occurs when your struggle is within yourself.
• Man vs. Nature occurs when your struggle is against something out of your control.

Character

• A character is a reasonable copy of a human being.
• Round characters change and grow (dynamic).
• Flat characters remain the same (static).
• The protagonist must overcome the conflict aka the hero.
• The antagonist causes conflict in the protagonist's life.

Story of an Hour

• Death never matters how you tell it, it still hurts.
• Spouse is the closest relationship you'll ever have.
• Her reaction to her husbands death was normal.
• The window represents opportunities.
• Women were doing domestic abilities.
• The house was a woman's separate domain.
• Women who wouldn't have married would suffer a lot.
• Marriage felt like bondage/ not being free.
• Successful marriage is about compromise and sacrifice.
• Louise did not want to marry her husband for love; she married him for his wealth.
• Louise should get all his money.
• Many women seeked love, but never found it.
• Women are still expected to be a wife.
• Louise died of a "joy that kills."
• The male doctor believed she died of happiness when her husband came home, as she was too joyous to handle it.
• Characters include Louise, her sister Josephine, her husband's friend Richard, and Brently Mallard (her husband).
• The idea/theme is a lesson learned.
• The reading message may be different depending on who reads it.

Shout

• The dad works in construction on a very hot day.
• Characters are Mexican immigrants.
• The hard hat becomes symbolic.
• The hard hat is always with him to not be stolen and to protect his heat from the things going on at home.
• Every day when he comes from work, he has to bang on the screen door.
• The screen door is latched to protect the kids from leaving the house.
• Dad is tired from work, and the mom is overwhelmed because they have three kids all under the age of 8.
• The parents argue.
• He chugs a few beers.
• The temperature and tension keeps rising.
• If there's stress in our lives, we are the ones who create it.
• It is common to not see the sacrifices that men make.
• He still loves his wife, coming home at the same time every day.
• Later in the bedroom, they have a conversation and find out she's pregnant.
• He still loves and defends his wife and family because when the neighbor was yelling, he defended her.