Respond to Peers:

Respond to at least two of your classmates' initial posts. Each response should be at least 75 words in length and should address two or more of the following points:

• Do you agree with your classmates' perspectives? Why, or why not? Be specific.

• Ask a specific question to encourage further discussion on the topic.

• Challenge your classmates' interpretation of literature and/or point of view.

• Do a small amount of research and share what you learn with your peers about the topic discussed in this post.

• Krysten Younger

75 Word count Response

Short Story: How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro

Core Conflict

Edie is a young, uneducated, teenage girl working her first job away from home. She has often thought about romance but has never experienced it as she talks about it in conversation with her friend, "Muriel said her two girl cousins used to try with a toilet paper roll that one of them was a boy. We wouldn't do anything like that; just lay and wondered."(Munro 1974) She later learns the difference between genuinely loving someone versus being infatuated with someone.

Theme I believe the theme to be coming of age. As we grow older, we become wiser. We learn new things every day. In Edie's case, she learns about what is expected of her at her new job working for the Peebles'. While working for them, she meets Chris. What she, later, comes to realize is that he was never going to send her a letter like he said he was going to. She had this infatuation with him that she could not let go. After realizing that she then goes on a date with her now-husband, the mailman who always looked forward to her smile.

Theme

I believe the theme to be coming of age. As we grow older, we become wiser. We learn new things every day. In Edie's case, she learns about what is expected of her at her new job working for the Peebles'. While working for them, she meets Chris. What she, later, comes to realize is that he was never going to send her a letter like he said he was going to. She had this infatuation with him that she could not let go. After realizing that she then goes on a date with her now-husband, the mailman who always looked forward to her smile.

Elements/Techniques:

1. First-person point of view: Edie, the main character, is the narrator as she tells the story from her perspective. Her perspective gives the reader insight into the character herself such as her age and how naive she is.

2. Imagery: You can imagine the bathroom and how the carpet she steps onto feels when she says, "The light had a rosy cast, and the mat sank under your feet like snow, except that it was warm."(Munro 1974)

3. Dramatic Irony: After Chris leaves it does not take long to realize that he will never send her a letter. The story takes place during the summer and Edie does not come to understand Chris is not going to write her until, "One day walking back with the hydro bill stuck in my hand, that was all, looking across at the fairgrounds with the full-blown milkweed and dark teasels, so much like fall, it just struck me: No letter was ever going to come."(Munro 1974) The entire time leading up to that, not long after Chris had left, would you already know that there would never be a letter.

Reference:

Clugston, R. W. (2014). Journey into literature (2nd ed.)

• Keesha Paul

75 Word Count Response

Describe the core conflict represented in the story.

The core conflict of the story was the younger son wanted his share of money and the father gave it to him. He left home and run through all of his money and became broke and was starving. So he returned home to his father.

Describe the theme of the story. The Theme of the story was the younger son thought he could make it on his own because he had money, but he had no discipline. He left his loving father but than had to return home because he had no money and was starving. He thought about how foolish he were, and came clean to his father about how non deserving he was to be called his son. But in the end, the father was happy he was there and threw a party.

Select three literary elements/techniques in the story and describe them.

The Climax was when the son returned home to live with his father and the father was happy.

The Rising Point was when the older brother learned that his brother was back home and a party was being thrown for his younger brother. He became very angry with his father and told his how long he had been serving him and how he had threw money away. He was very upset.

The Situational Irony was when the son left and the father didn't know if he would ever see his younger son again; but he did return home. "Situational Irony is when a situation ends very different than expected" (Clugston, R. W. (2014)

Explain how the elements/techniques illustrate the theme and conflict expressed in the story.

I think the elements/techniques illustrates the theme and conflict expressed in the story because it leaves the reader/audience in suspense until everything starts to unfold. For example, The son returns home, the shocker of the older brother to learn that his baby brother was home, and the fact that the father doesn't know if his son will return home.

References

Clugston, R. W. (2014). (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Journey into literature (2nd ed.) [Electronic version].