From Chapter 13 Ofblack Boy, by Richard Wright

A Hunger for Books

from Chapter 13 ofBlack Boy, by Richard Wright

Argument Clinic 1

That night in my rented room, while letting the hot water run over my can of pork and beans in the sink, I openedA Book of Prefacesand began to read. I was jarred and shocked by the style, the clear, clean, sweeping sentences. Why did he write like that? And how did one write like that? I pictured the man as a raging demon, slashing with his pen, consumed with hate, denouncing everything American, extolling everything European or German, laughing at the weaknesses of people, mocking God, authority. What was this? I stood up, trying to realize what reality lay behind the meaning of the words . . . Yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes, for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use them as a weapon? No. It frightened me. I read on and what amazed me was not what he said, but how on earth anybody had the courage to say it…

I ran across many words whose meanings I did not know, and either looked them up in a dictionary or, before I had a chance to do that, encountered the word in a context that made its meaning clear. But what strange world was this? I concluded the book with the conviction that I had somehow overlooked something terribly important in life. I had once tried to write, had once reveled in feeling, had let my crude imagination roam, but the impulse to dream had been slowly beaten out of me by experience. Now it surged up again and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing. It was not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I read, but of feeling something new, of being affected by something that made the look of the world different.

As dawn broke I ate my pork and beans, feeling dopey, sleepy. I went to work, but the mood of the book would not die; it lingered, coloring everything I saw, heard, did. I now felt that I knew what the white men were feeling. Merely because I had read a book that had spoken of how they lived and thought, I identified myself with that book, I felt vaguely guilty. Would I, filled with bookish notions, act in a manner that would make the whites dislike me? . . .

Steeped in new moods and ideas, I bought a ream of paper and tried to write; but nothing would come, or what did come was flat beyond telling. I discovered that more than desire and feeling were necessary to write and I dropped the idea. Yet I still wondered how it was possible to know people sufficiently to write about them. Could I ever learn about life and people? To me, with my vast ignorance, my Jim Crow station in life, it seemed a task impossible of achievement. I now knew what being a Negro meant. I could endure the hunger. I had learned to live with hate. But to feel that there were feelings denied me, that the very breath of life itself was beyond my reach, that more than anything else hurt, wounded me. I had a new hunger. [word count = 552]

Argument Clinic 1

HOMEWORK: [due at the beginning of next class, date______]

Choose a quotation from a book, song, or film that “made the look of the world different” for you. Write a paragraph (200-300 words) in which you explain why the quotation is meaningful to you. Responses should be typed, double-spaced and include the proper MLA heading, header, margins, and a word count.

THE WRITER’S POSITION: DETERMINING WHAT “THEY SAY”

SAMPLE QUOTATION
“The making of illusions—misleading images or ideas that appear to be authentic or true—has become the primary business of our society. Included in this category are not only the false promises made by advertisers and politicians but all of the activities which supposedly inform, comfort, and improve us, such as the work of our best writers and our most influential leaders. These promises and activities only encourage people to have unrealistic expectations and to ignore facts. - Adapted from Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image
UNFAMILIAR / KEY WORDS
(Identify and define.)
PARAPHRASE
(Write the quotation in your own words.)
DISCIPLINE(S)
(i.e. science, social studies, mathematics, technology, ethics, politics, philosophy, sociology, etc.)
CONTEXT
(Imagine the antecedent situation that prompted this quotation.)
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
ABSTRACT IDEAS / Leaders=corrupt, shallow, empty
Advertisements=misleading, objectified, illusion,
Writer=sell-out, dishonorable,
Politicians=

Day Two and Day Three Quotations Carousel…

In class on Day Two and Day Three, students will work in groups and follow teacher instructions to complete the charts on Pages 5-8.

Day Two: Students complete the unshaded boxes and then complete the Day Two homework task (see page 8).

Day Three: Students will share their homework responses and then complete the shaded boxes. Using these completed notes, students will begin to generate personal evidence to support their initial response to the claims in the quotations. For homework, students will narrow their focus to THREE quotations and complete the homework assignment (see page 9).

For the circle of reflection, you need to ask

“How does this affect…

YOUR TURN:

In your small groups, complete the following charts on pages 5-8.

QUOTATION #1
“We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give." – Joan Didion, American author / QUOTATION #2
"Nature seems (the more we look into it) made up of antipathies: without something to hate, we should lose the very spring of thought and action. Life would turn to a stagnant pool, were it not ruffled by the jarring interests, the unruly passions, of men." -- William Hazlitt, British essayist (p 267) / QUOTATION #3
"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (p 335)
UNFAMILIAR / KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
ABSTRACT IDEAS
QUOTATION #4
"[The] Internet creates a vast illusion that the physical social world of interacting minds and hearts does not exist. In this new situation, the screen is all that is the case...The new world turns the most consequential fact of human life--other people--into seemingly manipulable half presences wholly available to our fantasies." -- Lee Siegel, American nonfiction writer (p 570) / QUOTATION #5
"It is not, of course, the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be--or to try. What is accepted by most women as a flattering idealization of their sex is a way of making women feel inferior to what they actually are--or normally grow to be. For the ideal of beauty is administered as a form of self-oppression...Nothing less than perfection will do."-- Susan Sontag, American writer (p 589) / QUOTATION #6
"The national myth of immigration, the heart-warming saga of babushka-clad refugees climbing to the deck of the tramp steamer for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty ("Look, Mama, just lie the pictures we saw in Minsk, or Abruzzi, or Crete"), is just that, an image out of aging newspapers or our collective pop-memory banks. Today's arrivals are more likely to be discharged on a beach and told to swim ashore, be dropped in a desert and told to run, if they survive at all." -- Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born American writer (p 430)
UNFAMILIAR / KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
ABSTRACT IDEAS
QUOTATION #7
"There is something deeply conflicted about the devotion to work, vocation, career as an ideal in any society, but especially in one that has zealously cast off so many of its other repressions...We (Americans) have all been so oversocialized that unnatural devotion to toil leaves its mark on every area of life. It could even be argued that the most highly prized pleasures have themselves become a form of work, complete with their own uniforms, disciplines, and special lingo." -- Christopher Clausen, professor (p 122) / QUOTATION #8
"Certain kinds of tragedies make an impact; others don't. Our perceptual apparatus is geared toward threats that are exotic, personal, erratic, and dramatic. This doesn't mean we're ignorant; just human...We aim our resources at phantoms, while real hazards are ignored." -- K.C. Cole, science writer (p 134) / QUOTATION #9
"Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction, but waits only to be provoked..." Katherine Anne Porter, American author and essayist (p 475)
UNFAMILIAR / KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
ABSTRACT IDEAS
QUOTATION #10
“Our cherished notions of what is equal and what is fair frequently conflict. Democracy presumes that we are all created equal; competition proves we are not, or else every contest would end in a tie. We talk about a level playing field, but it is difficult to make conditions equal for everyone without being unfair to some.” – adapted from work by Nancy Gibbs, American essayist and editor / QUOTATION #11
“It is actually those who promote ‘diversity’ who ask you to deny your individuality and your humanity by insisting that you assume a collective identity as a member of a racial or ethnic or cultural group. Membership in these groups is reductive; it restricts your horizons and diminishes the likelihood that you'll be successful even in articulating your own personal aspirations, let alone achieving them.” – Greg Lewis, American professor / QUOTATION #12
“[Before] I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” – Harper Lee, American author
UNFAMILIAR / KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
ABSTRACT IDEAS

HOMEWORK due date: ______

Choose SIX of these quotations from pages 5-8 (at least some with which you agree and some with which you disagree) and TYPE a two to three sentence response for each discussing the modern relevance of the issues referenced. [Label each response with the quotation number and either AGREE or DISAGREE.]

Argument Clinic 1

THE WRITER’S CRAFT: GATHERING EVIDENCE

Compose a complete and thoughtful sentence expressing the main argument.
(THEY SAY) / Write a complex sentence stating your original position.
(I SAY) / List two to three experiences that connect to your argument. Include who, what, when, & where.
QUOTATION #
SAMPLE
#12 / Harper Lee suggests that we as human beings should learn to love ourselves in order to project that love to other people. / Because people use social media to communicate with others, it makes it difficult for them to interact with others outside the real world.
QUOTATION # / Since we do not always understand the mindset of those trying to help us, we easily become frustrated with them.
QUOTATION # / Although hate is often taught and based on what happens in society, love is not taught; it simply comes naturally.
QUOTATION # / In today’s society, social media brings the mindset to women that they are obligated to look beautiful because celebrities and models have set the standard unrealistically high.

Complex Sentences

In order to develop your skill for both expressing a position and articulating your reason for having that position, practice stating your idea in a complex sentence. What makes a sentence complex is the presence of both an independent clause (a full statement that can stand on its own as a complete sentence) and a subordinate clause (a modifying component which is connected to the idea in the independent clause but is not a complete thought and cannot stand on its own). For the purpose of this exercise, you will be crafting sentences in response to the quotations you have chosen. Follow this format:

Subordinate clause (reason/support/concession) + , + your position.

Begin your subordinate clause with a subordinating conjunction – (e.g. although, while, because, since).

In your independent clause, avoid saying “I think that” or “I agree/disagree” or “So-and-so is right/wrong” when stating your position. Simply speak your mind. “I agree thatsmooth peanut butter is better than chunky.”

Examples: (1) Although there are many excellent high schools across the state of Alabama, Guntersville is by far the very best. (2) Because Guntersville students are driven by an innate desire to succeed, they seldom require external motivation to do their homework. (3) While some would argue that Guntersville is a pressure cooker that promotes detrimental levels of peer-to-peer competition, the opposite is actually true; Guntersville students are well-adjusted and happy and sleep a minimum of 8 hours a night. (4) Since learning is the priority at Guntersville, it is a wise decision for parents to send their children to school here.

HOMEWORK due date ______:

In this step of the process, you will begin to generate evidence to support your ideas for THREEof the quotations from pages 5-8(at least one with which you agree and one with which you disagree). This evidence should come from yourpersonalexperiences and observations-- loosely defined as a specific something that happened to you, someone you know personally, or in a news story you witnessed. Your goal is to be specific in your details and to provide the experience in a nutshell. Your responses should be TYPED in the format modeled in the chart above and ready to hand in at the beginning of next class.

THE WRITER’S CRAFT: PARALLEL STRUCTURE

A writer keeps grammatical form, creates fluency, and maintains interest by employing parallel structure. By definition, items in a series – words, phrases, and clauses – must be parallel in a sentence. Nouns are paired with nouns, adjectives with adjectives, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, etc. Take a look at the following excellent examples.

"It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover." -- (Leonardo da Vinci)
"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature." (Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker, 1980)
"A good ad should be like a good sermon; it must not only comfort the afflicted--—it also must afflict the comfortable." (Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, Macy's, Gimbels, and Me: How to Earn $90,000 a Year in Retail Advertising. Simon and Schuster, 1967)

IN CLASS PRACTICE: For the following sentences, underline the portion of the sentence that demonstrates faulty parallelism and record how you would correct it to make it parallel.

We must either raise revenues or it will be necessary to reduce expenses.
Stoics deny the importance of such things as wealth, good looks, and having a good reputation.
In his farewell address to the army, the general praised his soldiers for their unsurpassed courage and gave thanks because of their devotion.
The police have a duty to serve the community, safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent against deception, and they must respect the constitutional rights of all.
Sir Humphry Davy, the celebrated English chemist, was an excellent literary critic as well as being a great scientist.
The Johnsons, who behaved generously, were cheerful, knowledgeable traveling companions. //
The delegates spent the day arguing with one another rather than working together to find common solutions.
My sister's promotion means that she will be moving to another state and taking the children with her.
A company is not only responsible to its shareholders but to its customers and employees as well.
Examples of aerobic exercises are distance running, swimming, cycling, and walking. //
Consuming too much of a fat-soluble vitamin can be as harmful as not to consume enough.
If you hire a contractor to make home improvements, follow these recommendations:
Find out if the contractor belongs to a trade association.
Obtain estimates in writing.
The contractor should provide references.
The contractor must be insured.
Avoid contractors who ask for cash to dodge paying taxes.
The new instructor was both enthusiastic and she was demanding.
It is a truism that to give is more rewarding than getting.
A battery powered by aluminum is simple to design, clean to run, and it is inexpensive to produce.

THE WRITER’S CRAFT: INCORPORATING DETAIL AND IMAGERY

Read the following excerpts from Richard Wright’s Black Boy and notate particularly strong use of detail and imagery.

There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows of red and green vegetables stretching away in the sun to the bright horizon.

There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality when dew came on to my cheeks and shins as I ran down the wet green garden paths in the early morning.

There were the echoes of nostalgia I heard in the crying strings of wild geese winging south against a bleak, autumn sky.

There was the yearning for identification loosed in me by the sight of a solitary ant carrying a burden upon a mysterious journey.

There was the disdain that filled me as I tortured a delicate, blue-pink crawfish that huddled fearfully in the mudsill of a rusty tin can.

There was the love I had for the mute regality of tall, moss-clad oaks.

HOMEWORK due date ______:

Choose FIVE of the following sentence starters. Complete the sentences with relevant and poignant details and imagery that connect to the personal evidence you recorded in your chart (p. 9). At least two of your responses should demonstrate parallel structure. TYPE the original quotations(s) and your response(s) before the corresponding sentences. This assignment is due next class.

There was the delight I caught in seeing…
There was the vague sense of the infinite as I looked…
There were the echoes of nostalgia I hear in the…
There was the tantalizing melancholy in the tingling scent of…
There was the teasing and impossible desire to…
There was the yearning for…
There was the disdain that filled me as I…
There was the aching glory in…
There was the incomprehensible secret embodied in…
There was the experience of feeling death without dying that came from watching…
There was the great joke that I felt God had played on…
There was the thirst I had when I watched…
There was the hot panic that welled up in my throat and swept through my blood when…
There was the speechless astonishment of seeing…
There was the cosmic cruelty that I felt when I saw…
There was the saliva that formed in my mouth whenever I smelt…
There was the quiet terror that suffused my senses when…
There was the aura of limitless freedom distilled from…
There was the suspense I felt when…
There was the drugged, sleepy feeling that came from…
There was the bitter amusement of going…
There was the fear and awe I felt when…
There was the greedy joy in the…
There was the all-night ache in my stomach after…

Brave Pakistani schoolgirl tells it like it is in U.N. speech