For my first reading response I choose the story Next Door. Before class when I read the story on my own, I didn’t recognize the large amount of symbolism, or the deeper meanings hidden within the text. Before taking this class, my past teachers have stressed the importance of describing characters in a strictly physical or a strictly mental sense. But now I see the mental aspect of a character and their physical attributes together is what makes up a character. After all we as people are not strictly mental or strictly physical. I also realized that if you truly understand the mentality of the character the physical nature of them can be inferred and vice versa. For example the wife in Next Door is probably conservative in her attire. I doubt a woman who gasps at the neighbors nighttime antics, would be found wearing a pencil skirt or a tube top. As Dr. Davidson said it’s important to have a balance of the abstract and concrete, but with a larger focus on the concrete. In Next Door Wolff uses strong concrete images to develop the characters without giving them a name, or describing their features. But those added details are not needed since you can construct the character yourself based off his actions and verbiage. It is my goal to grasp the concept of the 80/20 balance between the concrete and the abstract.
So, let's see you do it!
ReplyDeleteHere's your assignment: use Wolff's story as an "improv": that is, borrow his structure. At the beginning, he has his narrator say something about some other people. Then a person close to that character--in his case, the wife--says something to him about the people, etc., etc. Just use different characters. Don't worry about where it's all going. Just imagine a parallel scene. Avoid hyperbole and keep it subtle.