New African Introductory Writing & Pitt-Rivers Literary Terms

Student Handout for Monday, November 21, 2005

Period 2: Literature & Composition IV

“New African” Introductory Writing Exercise

Choose one of the following prompts and write 2-3 solid paragraphs on a piece of loose-leaf paper in response. Please be sure your name, today’s date, and “New African Introductory Essay” appear in your heading. Please hand it in by the end of the class period.

1. Why are teenagers often embarrassed about their families?
2. What motivates some people to become non-conformists or countercultural?
3. What are some creative, non-destructive ways that people may rebel against their family or culture?
4. Are you a person who likes to declare your personal beliefs in public, or do you prefer to keep such a thing to yourself (obviously to answer this question in 2-3 paragraphs is going to require a detailed explanation of your answer).
5. Why is it hard for parents to allow their children to think for themselves?
6. How would you feel if someone in your family went to jail for defending a cause?

At the Pitt-Rivers Literary Terms

Literary Term	Definition
Point-of-View
First Person Point-of-View
Second Person Point-of-View
Third Person Point-of-View
Third Person Omniscient Point-of-View
Third Person Limited Point-of-View
Allusion

Pitt-Rivers Thories

Poem & Couple Connections

The narrator is looking for the couple when he goes to the Pitt-Rivers to think about some things. He is disappointed not to find them there. Then he talks about the primitive cultures who didn't understand much and went to war with each other all the time. He comments that things have gotten better, despite the fact that we still have war. Nobody wants to remain a child forever. He then returns to the subject of looking for the couple.

This looks like a chiastic structure, in which the two outside references to the couple surround the key idea of "not remaining a child." The narrator then goes on to describe his poem, which is a conversation between a child and an adult.

Pitt-Rivers Theories

Why does the narrator rip up the poem at the end of the story?

I. Represents change in mind set

A. Narrator writes alone, in a special place = poetry expresses his thoughts on life

B. "I suppose you could say I'd learned something else in the Pitt-Rivers by accident . . ."

C. "I didn't think there was anything disgusting about them anymore . . ."

D. Observes a real relationship (intimacy) and it changes his views of relationships

II. Couple was the basis for the poem - couple broke, so poem was meaningless

A. Could have been something else at first, but he keep revising it so the couple could have inspired his revision.

B. He has been working on the poem for a long time. By tearing up the poem, he feels the loss, which connects him to the girl feeling the loss of relationship.

C. Being upset about the couple makes him unable to write.