No, we are not done, but we are getting very close. Chapters 14-15 are very short, but obviously critical. All groups, no matter how solid their report, have "missed a bet" here or there in terms of connecting with prior elements, and this becomes a special challenge with these last two chapters. I will be expecting excellent "filling in" from the class on anything that gets left out by the final presenters. But final presenters, a sign of your own excellence will be that there is not a lot for the rest of us to fill in!
FOR TOMORROW
There are two things I want you to consider from today. This is thinking (and perhaps note-taking), but NOT to turn in. However, I will be culling your collective brains in class on Wednesday.
The first element is GINGER: one group was fairly complete with this today, but two were not. Recall that ginger has been mentioned in three earlier contexts: the sweetish smell that sometimes drifted across Lake Superior in Detroit, the smell that helped reduced the gag response from the dogs' odor which permeated Circe's mansion, and the Hansel and Gretel reference (ending in gingerbread) at the beginning of Chapter 10.
But for today's chapters (12-13) there is at least one additional reference. A) Find it. B) What, overall, do you think the odor/fragrance of "ginger" means in this text?
The second element is a spin-off from something that two groups mentioned today. Notice the language at the end of Chapter 13 (319):
Suddenly, like an elephant who has just found his anger and lifts his trunk over the heads of the little men who want his teeth or his hide or his flesh or his amazing strength, Pilate trumpeted for the sky itself to hear, "And she was loved!"
It startled one of the sympathetic winos in the vestibule and he dropped his bottle, spurting emerald glass and jungle-red wine everywhere.
[Do not use my blog format as a guide to correct MLA formatting.]
OK, so for one thing, pay attention to "elephants" / "jungle" imagery wherever else you may see it.
But part of this is looking back at something everybody skipped over.
Part 1: Remember when Milkman first noticed his legs were different lengths? Yes, he was in the bathtub. Some groups got all wound up in the FDR comparison and kind of overlooked the water. But pay attention to water--what does the rain do/for Hagar? Well, besides ruining all her new stuff?? Now Milkman--what kind of encounters with water has he had on his trip? List them . . .What does each one signify? How is his experience the same as or different than Hagar's?
Part 2: Back to the shorter leg. When, exactly, does he no longer have this impediment?
Re-read sections of the bobcat hunt in Ch. 11 starting shortly after Milkman has become pretty separated from Calvin's lamp. He sits down to rest: start reading carefully at nearly the middle of p. 275 (blue book--if you're in something else, find the paragraph beginning "At last he surrendered to his fatigue and made the mistake of sitting down instead of slowing down . . .." Then read CAREFULLY for the next five or so pages, noticing how Milkman's physical senses are starting to take over from his rational mind. Notice how he had felt "cradled" by the rootes of the sweet gum tree shortly before Guitar attacked him--something the "earth" had told him just before it happened. . . (but lots of other references along these 5 pages).
NOW, the culminating point of this is the last few sentences before the break on p. 281 (blue book again, but all should have the extra spacing at the end of this section). Finally accepted by the locals, Milkman was laughing with them on the way back to the car, willing to be the friendly butt of their jokes (butt of their friendly jokes?):
Really laughing, and he found himself exhilarated by simply walking the earh. Walking it like he belonged on it; like his legs were stalks, tree trunks, a part of his body that extended down down down into the rock and soil, and were comfortable there--on the earh and on the place where he walked. and he did not limp.
Why do you think I think this is important enough to put in a blog? Be prepared to explain the significance--but don't attempt to do so without re-reading the full five or so pages before this.
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