The Psychological Approach and the Adventurer

Over the past weeks, we've read Into the Wild and viewed "Fantastic Mr. Fox." We've also been studying critical approaches and looking at these texts through the Psychological Approach lens. Now, it's your turn to put it all together.

For this blog post, you will need to make a psychological statement about both Into the Wild and "Fantastic Mr. Fox." Remember to refer to your notes for questions you might answer and the different motives you have been looking for. It is possible to write just one statement about both, or you might choose to write multiple statements and respond to each text individually. You must, however address both texts in this post. Maybe you will address the adventurer's spirit or look at a specific relationship between characters. It is up to you to determine the direction of your approach.

After you come up with a psychological statement, use this as a topic sentence for your response. Include your own ideas/interpretations along with examples/support from both texts. Be as specific as possible. This means citing page numbers with examples from Into the Wild. For "Fantastic Mr. Fox," use specific scenes and characters in your response.

Remember, the more support, the stronger your case. Your response should be at least 3 paragraphs.

Blog Post #2: Psychological Impact on Human Makeup

 

Use your journal entry in order to guide a formal blog post supporting one of the following ideas: the impact of the physical brain (“The Brain” History Channel program) is greater on an individual than the mental attitude of the individual (Mindset), the impact of the mental attitude of the individual is greater than that of the physical brain, or that these two are equally impactful on an individual. Practice the process of Synthesizing and organizing your ideas throughout your post before you publish it. Provide specific evidence from the two texts.

Blog Post #1 2013-2014

1.       In the first paragraph, reflect on the ideas we have examined in class so far: personal narrative, single stories, community, generation, and beginning cultural factors. Which of these ideas have you been drawn to the most? Which of the stories/texts we’ve explored so far has been most interesting? Explore the ideas above.

2.       Use your list of cultural factors to write about the most influential factor in your life and the least influential in your life. Then, write about how these cultural factors might impact people around the world.

3.       Find an article online and link to the article from this blog post. This article should back up your ideas about your writing about a cultural factor’s impact around the world. Write a paragraph with evidence from the article that supports your ideas from the paragraph above.

Reader Response Activity (Blog Post #8)

Today, your goal is to explore the Reader Response Critical Approach through a text of your choosing. This text might be a short story, a music video, a short Youtube film, an informational article, an opinion column, song lyrics, etc. Make sure that the text you choose has literary value. Find a text that tells a story or personal narrative. 

The first part of the assignment is to read the text through at least once. While you are reading, be mindful of what you are thinking during the reading. Record your ideas on a word document: connections you draw to other stories, experiences you’ve had in life, other characters you’ve known, etc.

Next, use your ideas to write 2 paragraphs that define both the “actual reader” and “implied reader” reader of your chosen text. Who was the the author’s implied reader? What experiences and connections did you bring to the text that enhanced the work?

Finally, there are critics of Reader Response Criticism. Do you believe it is important to consider the reader when it comes to interacting with texts? Why or why not? Use examples from your life to back up your response. 

Blog Post #7: "The Social Network"

Blog Post #7: "The Social Network"

For this next exploration of critical approaches, we will be exploring multiple perspectives, approaches, and texts in order to give you more options to how you approach the texts, which texts you approach, and from what angle you approach the texts. For this assignment, you will be asked to complete one blog post  that addresses one of the new critical approaches (Feminist, Marxist) and one of the old critical approaches (Philosophical/Moral, Psychological) in conjunction with the film. We will be showing “The Social Network” in class over the next few days. Please write a 3-5 paragraph blog response regarding these approaches and texts.