How The Scarlet Ibis, Flowers For Algernon and The Lottery pass on their added messages

"The Lottery", "The Scarlet Ibis" and "Flowers for Algernon" are very well written stories that carry added messages reflecting our society in a negative light. It takes quite a bit of skill to write a story with an added message that the reader will catch on and think about so how did James Hurst, Shirley Jackson and Daniel Keyes do it?

Well, Flowers for Algernon does not have a definite end. It ends with Charlie Gordon planning to leave New York but Daniel Keyes did not write about what happened after Charlie left New York. This adds not only suspense to the story but also makes the reader wonder what will happen next and thus, read up on it. Reading up on it may result in the reader finding out about the message from other people or the reader may try to predict what happens next or find out why the story is written this way, which all leads to the reader getting the message of the story.

In The Scarlet Ibis, the main theme is to reveal that there is a pride dimension in love. This message is successfully conveyed because James Hurst describes the story in great detail and beautifulness, causing the reader to feel as though as they are in the story and thus understand what is going on to a very great depth, thus receiving the message.

Finally, the added subliminal message in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is conveyed due to the mysteriousness of the story. Most readers will not understand what is happening and try to find out more about the story or keep reading it and try to infer what is happening. Once they realise what is happening, they will understand the purpose of the story and thus, the message is conveyed.

Regards,

Chong Kai En, 1I106

Comparison of "The Scarlet Ibis", "Flowers For Algernon" and "The Lottery"

A similarity between all three short stories is of course the element of death and the presence of sadness. All portray Man in a bad light but in different aspects of it. Flowers for Algernon show how Man mistreat people and other animals which are what they believe to be inferior, The Scarlet Ibis shows how Man has too much pride even when they do something good while The Lottery tells us how hypocritical and uncaring Man is.

However, the narrative style used to convey these messages are all different. Flowers for Algernon used a first person diary writing format so as to put the reader in the character's shoes and allow the reader to experience what a mentally retarded person experiences. The Scarlet Ibis emphasized more on the details of the settings and events than the events themselves. The recounting method was probably used because the writer wanted to emphasize certain points , which the reader may not catch, by using reflection from the narrator. If you imagine the narrative styles as someone filming a video, for Flowers for Algernon, the camera man will be Charlie Gordon, for The Scarlet Ibis, a satellite photo, and for The Lottery, a person hiding in a tree at the village square.

However, they all convey the same message: Man only cares about himself/herself and no one else. Stories are usually an exaggerated reflection of society, but do you think that this particular message is exaggerated... or not?

AAP Assignment

---

This advertisement uses these camera angles:

Establishing shot -- Shows where the drivers are and the cars they are driving.

Reverse Angle with some Swish Pan-- Shows that the two drivers are rivals.

Close-up Shot -- Shows that the facial expressions of the drivers. The red car driver is skeptical that the other driver will win the race while the other driver is not bothered. It also shows the traffic light and shows that the race is about to start.

Medium shot -- Shows the position of the two cars on the road, to convey the message of a race.

Aerial shot -- shows that the white car has not move.

Medium shot -- Shows the red car speeding unsteadily away. Also shows the woman in the white car getting up from her hiding place and the body language of the man and woman that they probably love each other. At the ending, it is used to show the details of the car.

Decoding The Lottery

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. You may not have heard of that story but I will advise you to read it. "The Lottery" is as puzzling and hard to predict as a lottery itself. It takes a perfectly normal setting of villagers gathering to take part in a lottery but the prize is not one of wealth, joy or happiness. It is the prize of death. "The Lottery", like some other stories, is an exaggerated reflection of society. The last post I posted talked a bit about "beautifully written stories". This certainly is not one. It does not focus on the settings and people, but the events. Also, it expects you to infer about what the story is trying to say by yourself. Due to the human factor, some interpretations could be even deeper than what the writer intended or could be much shallower. "The Lottery" certainly was not solely written for entertainment. The events in the story is evidence.

My interpretation, which may not be correct, is that firstly, the writer, a female, is depicting a sexist society, which is exactly what the world is. All the important people are all males while the females all stand on the sidelines.

Secondly, the story shows that people care more about their own survival than their family and close friends. Albert Einstein once said, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile" but the characters in "The Lottery" certainly do not believe that. They would rather stone a family member than reap bad harvest.

Next, the story shows just how hypocritical Man is, they do not mind if someone else is suffering as long as they do not suffer else well. An example was when Mrs. Hutchinson was about to be killed. She protested that "it isn't fair, it isn't right." because she was about to be killed but had she not stoned other people to death the year before and the year before that?

Finally, the story shows that society does not care for a strange or different person and that person is singled out. They also do not want to come into contact with that person. My evidence is that the villagers stoned Mrs. Hutchinson instead of using other methods such as a knife as they want to put distance between themselves and the different person.

The Scarlet Ibis with some comparison with Flowers For Algernon

The Scarlet Ibis focuses more on the settings, details and feelings, in contrast to Flowers For Algernon, which focuses mainly on events. The Scarlet Ibis is what people would call "beautifully written" due to the detailed description of the settings, the very in-depth feelings of the narrator and et cetera. The Scarlet Ibis is supposed to be more emotionally upsetting than Flowers For Algernon due to the reader reading a lot about Doodle and thus bonding more with Doodle, whereas in Flowers for Algernon, Algernon only appears only once or twice and the reader does not have much chance to know more about and like Algernon and in the end, Doodle and Algernon died. However, many people and I felt more sad after reading Flowers for Algernon than The Scarlet Ibis. Why?

Well, most beautifully written stories seem more like a dream and more distant, due to the detailed descriptions of settings and feelings, which makes the story more realistic but distance the reader from the story. Most beautifully written story seems dreamy, because less events happen and the story mainly focuses on the narrator's feelings.

However, in other less beautifully written stories, there are more events, the character's feelings and the settings probably only accounts for one-thirds of the story in total, whereas in most beautifully written stories, the character's feelings and the settings account about three-quarters of the story. Even some beautifully written stories with only one-third dedicated to character's feelings and the settings seem dreamy due to the fact that the action is not really action at all. If you read "The Grey King" by Susan Cooper, you will know what I mean. Beautifully written stories are probably selected through the in-depth feelings of the characters, the beautifully detailed settings and/or the little suspense, which is strangely enough to keep the readers reading the story. Also, The Scarlet Ibis feels distant because it is a recount.

James Hurst titled the story "The Scarlet Ibis" because it is a symbol in the story which represents Doodle. Both died to a storm, an powerful natural force that pushes them beyond their limits and cause them to die of exhaustion. When Doodle died, he looked like the Scarlet Ibis, and the narrator called Doodle his "scarlet ibis" at the end of the story because both are rare: the determination and amazing "resurrection" of Doodle as well as the rareness of the scarlet ibis. Since they are rare and not harmful, they are precious, as said by the narrator after Doodle died. Doodle was the narrator's pride and joy because the narrator put in a lot of hard work to teach Doodle to walk, run, swim et cetera. Also, in the dimension of love, there is another dimension: pride. The narrator loved Doodle, but it was also because of pride that he wanted Doodle to be normal.

The Scarlet Ibis has no clear message. It tells us, of sorts, not to push people beyond their limits but are we not supposed to go beyond our limits, a message repeated many times?

Intrapersonal assignment b

Who would you want to be friends with in the Flowers for Algernon. Explain your choice.

I would like to be friends with Doctor Nemur. Why? Well, Doctor Nemur is the smartest character in the story (excluding Charlie Gordon after the operation) and created the method to increasing human intelligence. I would like to learn from him about how the operation was done and what were the scientific concepts behind them.

Although Doctor Nemur is arrogant and does not treat mentally retarded people with respect, he was still gifted. If he continued developing his experiment and finds a way to make the intelligence increasing operation irreversible, he would revolutionize the world! After all, who does not want to be friends with a famous and gifted scientist, such as Albert Einstein?

Many readers would perhaps prefer to be friends with Charlie Gordon, as he is kind, to be pitied and et cetera. However, that is all because of how the author Daniel Keyes portrays them! The point of view of the story is through Charlie Gordon's eyes, so whatever entries he post are biased towards him, even if he thinks it is not. It is nature that Man thinks that whatever he does is right, or at least not as bad as what other people think it is. If the story had been written in Doctor Nemur's point of view, readers will probably start pitying him. After all, he has gone through so much work to create such an experiment to have it end with Doctor Strauss trying to snatch his fame and finally to have the experiment fail.

In conclusion, I want to be friends with Doctor Nemur not only for his intelligence but also because I feel that no one cares about him.

Regards,

Chong Kai En, 1I106

My learner profile: Intrapersonal

I feel that the Multiple Intelligence test is very interesting as I have never encountered such a logical test to determine your learning preference style.

The Multiple Intelligence test is very helpful as it allows teachers to understand their students better and can thus employ the best method to teach the students. Conventional learning, where everyone learns the same thing the same way makes the chore of teaching simpler but if the multiple intelligence test differentiated teaching method were to be employed, students will learn faster and there would be no need for after-school remedial or repeating of the same lesson.

Of course, the multiple intelligence test differentiated teaching method can not be applied everywhere, like Intrapersonal teaching is unlikely to be applied to Mathematics, and Logical to Language Arts.

The Multiple Intelligence test is rather accurate, at least to me. I agree with the test that I am more Intrapersonal and Logical, and least Naturalistic, Kinaesthetic and Linguistic. However, the test could have more questions to improve on its accuracy, as I do not think that I am more Interpersonal than Linguistic, though that may be because I am not Intrapersonal enough, even if it has the highest mark in the test.

Also, the accuracy of the Multiple Intelligence test depends on the honesty and accuracy of the test-takers, so the test may not even be accurate at all. It depends on how the test-takers view themselves.

Regards,

Chong Kai En, 1I106

Interesting points and the Importance of Realism and the Characters in Flowers For Algernon

Realism is important in Flowers for Algernon (FFA) because the purpose of FFA is to tell people that the mentally retarded should not be mistreated and should be treated with equal respect. Reality will allow the reader to understand the story better, like Charlie Gordon and Algernon better, thus realizing what the mentally retarded are going through and to reflect on how the readers have mistreated the mentally retarded. When they start reflecting on their actions, they will probably start acting on it and thus, the objective of FFA, which is to make people realize that they should treat the mentally retarded with equal respect, will be fulfilled.

Next, about the characters. Charlie Gordon and Algernon started as rivals in the maze race but after Charlie Gordon beat Algernon once, he gained a slight sense of superiority and so started liking Algernon. However, when Algernon died, they became soul-mates. Charlie Gordon also respected Algernon and thus, named the Algernon-Gordon effect the Algernon-Gordon effect. Charlie Gordon put "Algernon" before his own name because he owed it to Algernon to discover the effect and because he respected Algernon. If Algernon had not started to be less intelligent before Charlie Gordon, the Algernon-Gordon effect may not have been discovered. Also, when, Algernon started being uncooperative, he bit Charlie Gordon, drawing blood. When Algernon bit Charlie, there was a physical connection between the two of them.