Christopher Serrano

English 112B

Dr. Warner

Beyond Appearances, Closer to Ourselves

As a child, I often watched a cartoon called “Tom & Jerry” and in it, the cat named Tom would always be trying to catch and eat Jerry, the mouse. In the course of the chase, Jerry would receive a great deal of punishment some instances of which are quite violent. Looking back, I always sympathized with Jerry and felt that Tom deserved every bit of pain he received. Thinking about it now, I really had no reason to want Jerry to win those skirmishes; he was a, possibly disease carrying, rodent, who stole from humans, and it was Tom's job, as a house cat, to eat him.

I asked a grade schooler, who I tutored, why she wanted Jerry to hurt Tom, and, without hesitation, she replied that Tom was evil. When I suggested that maybe it was Jerry who was evil, as a thief and trespasser, but she said that he was so cute that he couldn't be evil.

Appearances are essential for younger children to identify things. Good/bad, like/dislike, want/despise most are recognized in a split second because children do not take the time to judge all the characteristics of things, or are as of yet incapable of understanding their complexities. Case in point: my niece will wear anything with her favorite cartoon character on it, while her mother, my sister, will spend up to an hour digging through her closet to assemble an outfit. As children grow older, it becomes more and more important that they come to understand that there are more to the workings of the society than appearances.

As young adults, students must begin to strengthen their ability to critically assess the world and the things in it. The unit I propose will focus on questioning the accepted appearance of things at first glance. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an excellent read related to the unit in that: Draco Malfoy instigates a false charge against Hagrid and his animals, Hermionie's strange class schedule and stranger temper, Scabbers and his disappearance, and finally, Sirius Black is assumed to be the book's villain while he has only been a victim since the incident where thirteen “Muggles” were killed. Coincidentally all these false appearances tie in together to reveal to Harry secrets and truths that save his godfather's, Buckbeak's, and his own, life.

The goal of this unit is for the students to not just be passive thinkers. They must know what they believe and the reasons they are lead to believe what they know. Why is this seem right/wrong to me? Is this good/bad? Can I trust what I'm hearing/reading? What are the dangers of being a passive thinker? All these questions are what this unit will try to help them answer with their own thoughts.

Launching the Unit

(Optional) Watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and ask the students to evaluate who counts as a hero or a villain and have them prepared to explain why they chose as they did.

1. Have the students come up with a list of heroes from tales cartoons or any other story.

l + Be sure to add Jack from “Jack and the Beanstalk” or Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl, if there are no objections.

l + Have the class try to pick out traits that make each of these characters heroes

2. Repeat (1), but with “villains” as the subject and add Wolf from “Little Red Riding Hood”

3. Show them the “Billy the Bunny” comic and Plato's poem on character, Inner Man. Ask the students what the comic and poem mean. Then ask if there are any heroes or villains that might fit more than one category or maybe better off in a “neutral” classification.

+ For the heroes, planted “Jack” examples, and any others you can find, try to shoot them down by revealing the rather non-virtuous characteristics or actions.

+ For the villains find as many as you can find that have circumstances that “force their hand” (ex. Wolf- it is his nature to want to eat meat) and as he students if there are circumstances,or actions in which these villains' reputations might be redeemed.

4. (assignment) Have the students write their own criteria for evaluating a person as a good (heroic) or bad (villainous) person. Have them find ten heroes and villains, not mentioned in class and include them in their criteria assignment.

While Reading

1. It would be best to assign 4-5 chapters per day depending on schedule so that you may have time to use additional texts from the “Extending the Unit” list included with this plan. The older, more dense works should have more time spent on them than the Harry Potter book.

2. Have the students keep a running journal on assumptions made by the characters

(Note: This is in relation to new or developing news, hearsay, rumors, and stories told/heard)

+ Have them mark instances where these stories are found out to be false or not the whole truth.

3. Make sure to to have regular class discussions and quizzes to keep the class on track and thinking about literature. Topics include, but are not limited to:

+ Character discussion; such as, “Why do you think Hermione/Hargrid is so attached to Crookshanks/Buckbeak?”

+ Action discussion; such as, “Should Mr. and Mrs. Weasley informed Harry of Sirius Black? When should adults try to regard children as 'old enough' to be given straight talk?”

+ Value Discussion; such as, “Should Harry have been punished for the revenge he had on his aunt Marge?” or “What problems (would/wouldn't) we have if people could look into the future.

4. (assignment) Have the students write on situations where they, or someone they knew, had been misinformed. How would it have been better, or worse, had the truth been known. Alternatively, they may write what they think would have happened if Sirius had gotten a hold of Harry in the beginning of the book. Could he have convinced him of his innocence? Who else in the Harry Potter books is likely to be “misunderstood”, judged by appearance and circumstance, with their true selves ignored. The point of the assignment is to ask the student, “What is truth? How do you know it? In what ways do you make sure of what you know? How far can you be sure of things before you have to fall upon belief and faith?”

Extending the Unit

There are quite a few books that question what we know or believe. The point of such books is to get the reader thinking for themselves, to become better independent thinkers/questioners. To better relay the me lesson of questioning, these reading materials can be used for the unit.

1. (Recommended) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury:

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires...

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning ... along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames... never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid.

Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think... and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do!

Description from:http://www.raybradbury.com/books/fahrenheit451.html

-A perfect example of a world in which people stop thinking for themselves. Ask students, “Why is it important to question the reasons why we do what we do?”

2. (Recommended)1984, George Orwell:

Orwell's classic continues to deliver its horrible vision of totalitarian society. Once considered futuristic, it now conjures fear because of how closely it fits the reality of contemporary times. West's precise pronunciation and strong, intense voice provide the narration and all individual parts. The three major characters are individualized through vocal emphasis, tone and interpretation of each character's personality. West simultaneously weaves the spell of Big Brother while subtly emphasizing the complex emotional and intellectual annihilation of each of the characters. Starting with a detached approach, West intensifies emotions and ends with a finish that leaves the plot firmly embedded in the listener's mind.

Description from:http://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell/dp/0451524934

- A good companion to read with Fahrenheit 451, Orwell shows us the value of freedom by showing us the stark absence of it. It does not tell us how to avoid or undo such a future, but exactly why we shouldn't allow such a future to be a remote possibility. A good book to connect to current politics: How much control should government have over our lives? Our “security”?

3. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card:

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.

Partial Description from:http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/endersgame/endersgame.shtml

-An excellent read bringing up the question of moral responsibility, amongst other questions about social life. Asks, “If you commit harm without realizing it, how responsible are you?” and, “If it is a matter of survival, what kinds of measures is it morally acceptable to undertake?”

4. Seaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card

Three thousand planet-bound years have fled since Ender Wiggin won humanity's war with the Buggers by totally destroying them. Ender remains young-traveling the stars at relativistic speeds, a hundred years or more might pass while he experiences a month-long voyage. In three thousand years, his books The Hive Queen and The Hegemon have become holy writ, and the name of Ender anathema; he is the Xenocide, the one who killed an entire race of thinking, feeling beings, the only other sapient race humankind had found in all the galaxy. The only ones, that is, until the planet called Lusitania was discovered and colonized.

On Lusitania humans found another race of ramen ... a young race, beings just beginning to lift their eyes to the stars and wonder what might be out there. The discovery was seen as a gift to humanity, a chance to redeem the destruction of the Buggers. And so the Pequininos, as they were named by the portuguese-speaking settlers, the "Piggies," were placed off-limits to the colony. The only humans allowed to meet them and speak with them are trained xenobiologists, and then only two at a time. This time, there will be no tragic misunderstandings leading to war. This time...

This time, again, men die-bizarrely killed by the Piggies. Andrew Wiggin is called to Lusitania to Speak the deaths of the two xenobiologists, and walks into a maelstrom of fear and hatred. To Speak for these dead, he must first unravel the web of secrets surrounding the lives of the Piggies and those who study them. He must Speak not only for the dead, but for a living alien race.

Description taken from:http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/speakerforthedead/speakerforthedead.shtml

-An excellent book addressing a subject rarely pondered, “How would we react to an alien species unlike us in almost all ways?” Sci-fi stories often have aliens with some resemblance to ourselves or to some creature we are already familiar with. Before reading, ask the students to write what they think of the piggies and their society. Then when it is revealed how the piggies live, have them explain it in their own words. An excellent paper topic on this book is: “How does the treatment of the piggies reflect the Colonial Era of the New World”

4. “Paradise Lost”, John Milton

The protagonist of this epic is the fallen angel, Satan. Seen from a modern perspective, it may appear to some that Milton presents Satan sympathetically, as an ambitious and proud being who defies his creator, omnipotent God, and wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Indeed, William Blake a great admirer of Milton and illustrator of the epic poem, said of Milton that "he was a true Poet, and of the Devil's party without knowing it." Some critics regard the character of Lucifer as a precursor of the Byronic hero.

Milton incorporates Paganism, classical Greek references and Christianity within the story. He greatly admired the classics but intended this work to surpass them.

The poem grapples with many difficult theological issues, including fate, predestination, and the Trinity.

Description from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_lost

A poem that dared to take an unusual standpoint. A good way for students to see how a a change in the point of view of the narrator can totally change the feeling the reader may get of the characters. Ask students to shift their point of view and write about a fairytale antagonist, like the Big Bad Wolf, and write the character as the main/protagonist character.

Closing the Unit

It is time to revisit the list of heroes and villains and their own writings on what makes a hero or villain. Ask them to see if any of their thoughts on what makes a person/thing/event good/bad have changed. A discussion on which texts or moments that have changed their way of thinking

Closing Assignments:

1. Have the students explain their “limit of control”. How much control should teens justifiably have over their own lives, and why? How much control should government have over citizens' lives?”

2. Have the students explain what information sources they trust. What kinds of news sources can they not trust? Why?

3. Research Paper: Have students research philosophies regarding Epistemology and morality. What philosophies do they agree with? How do the philosophies fit in their lives and actions?

(Note: Have some short digest of various philosophies available for the students

The Inner Man

Beauty depends on simplicity--- I mean the true simplicity

If a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character.

He is a fool who seriously inclines to weigh the beautiful by

any other standard than that of the good.

The good is the beautiful

Grant me the beautiful in the inner man

---Plato

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953.

Orwell, George. 1984. London: Secker and Warburg, 1949.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. New York: Tor Science Fiction, 1991.

Card, Orson Scott. Speaker for the Dead. New York: Tor Books, 1986.

Milton, John. “Paradise Lost.”, 1667

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Back Pearl. Directed by Gore Verbinski. Walt Disney and Buena Vista Pictures.

Rowling, J.K. Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. NewYork: Arthur A Levine Books, 1999.

Plato, "The Inner Man." A Treasury of Poetry. Comp. Sarah Anne Stuart. New York: Lowe & B.Hould, 1996.

Gurewitch, Nicholas. “Billy the Bunny.”http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF106-Billy_the_Bunny.jpg

Wikipedia: http://wikipedia.org/

Amazon(dot)com: http://www.amazon.com/