Readings and Discussion Qs - 10/12
By David Foster Wallace
The Daddy was around the side of the house hanging a door for the tenant when he heard the child's screams and the Mommy's voice gone high between them. He could move fast, and the back porch gave onto the kitchen, and before the screen door had banged shut behind him the Daddy had taken the scene in whole, the overturned pot on the floortile before the stove and the burner's blue jet and the floor's pool of water still steaming as its many arms extended, the toddler in his baggy diaper standing rigid with steam coming off his hair and his chest and shoulders scarlet and his eyes rolled up and mouth open very wide and seeming somehow separate from the sounds that issued, the Mommy down on one knee with the dishrag dabbing pointlessly at him and matching the screams with cries of her own, hysterical so she was almost frozen. Her one knee and the bare little soft feet were still in the steaming pool, and the Daddy's first act was to take the child under the arms and lift him away from it and take him to the sink, where he threw out plates and struck the tap to let cold wellwater run over the boy's feet while with his cupped hand he gathered and poured or flung more cold water over his head and shoulders and chest, wanting first to see the steam stop coming off him, the Mommy over his shoulder invoking God until he sent her for towels and gauze if they had it, the Daddy moving quickly and well and his man's mind empty of everything but purpose, not yet aware of how smoothly he moved or that he'd ceased to hear the high screams because to hear them would freeze him and make impossible what had to be done to help his child, whose screams were regular as breath and went on so long they'd become already a thing in the kitchen, something else to move quickly around. The tenant side's door outside hung half off its top hinge and moved slightly in the wind, and a bird in the oak across the driveway appeared to observe the door with a cocked head as the cries still came from inside. The worst scalds seemed to be the right arm and shoulder, the chest and stomach's red was fading to pink under the cold water and his feet's soft soles weren't blistered that the Daddy could see, but the toddler still made little fists and screamed except now merely on reflex from fear the Daddy would know he thought possible later, small face distended and thready veins standing out at the temples and the Daddy kept saying he was here he was here, adrenaline ebbing and an anger at the Mommy for allowing this thing to happen just starting to gather in wisps at his mind's extreme rear still hours from expression. When the Mommy returned he wasn't sure whether to wrap the child in a towel or not but he wet the towel down and did, swaddled him tight and lifted his baby out of the sink and set him on the kitchen table's edge to soothe him while the Mommy tried to check the feet's soles with one hand waving around in the area of her mouth and uttering objectless words while the Daddy bent in and was face to face with the child on the table's checkered edge repeating the fact that he was here and trying to calm the toddler's cries but still the child breathlessly screamed, a high pure shining sound that could stop his heart and his bitty lips and gums now tinged with the light blue of a low flame the Daddy thought, screaming as if almost still under the tilted pot in pain. A minute, two like this that seemed much longer, with the Mommy at the Daddy's side talking sing-song at the child's face and the lark on the limb with its head to the side and the hinge going white in a line from the weight of the canted door until the first wisp of steam came lazy from under the wrapped towel's hem and the parents' eyes met and widened--the diaper, which when they opened the towel and leaned their little boy back on the checkered cloth and unfastened the softened tabs and tried to remove it resisted slightly with new high cries and was hot, their baby's diaper burned their hand and they saw where the real water'd fallen and pooled and been burning their baby all this time while he screamed for them to help him and they hadn't, hadn't thought and when they got it off and saw the state of what was there the Mommy said their God's first name and grabbed the table to keep her feet while the father turned away and threw a haymaker at the air of the kitchen and cursed both himself and the world for not the last time while his child might now have been sleeping if not for the rate of his breathing and the tiny stricken motions of his hands in the air above where he lay, hands the size of a grown man's thumb that had clutched the Daddy's thumb in the crib while he'd watched the Daddy's mouth move in song, his head cocked and seeming to see way past him into something his eyes made the Daddy lonesome for in a strange vague way. If you've never wept and want to, have a child. Break your heart inside and something will a child is the twangy song the Daddy hears again as if the lady was almost there with him looking down at what they've done, though hours later what the Daddy won't most forgive is how badly he wanted a cigarette right then as they diapered the child as best they could in gauze and two crossed handtowels and the Daddy lifted him like a newborn with his skull in one palm and ran him out to the hot truck and burned custom rubber all the way to town and the clinic's ER with the tenant's door hanging open like that all day until the hinge gave but by then it was too late, when it wouldn't stop and they couldn't make it the child had learned to leave himself and watch the whole rest unfold from a point overhead, and whatever was lost never thenceforth mattered, and the child's body expanded and walked about and drew pay and lived its life untenanted, a thing among things, its self's soul so much vapor aloft, falling as rain and then rising, the sun up and down like a yoyo.
Discussion Questions
1. Which story structure do you think best fits this story: journey, power struggle, or connection and disconnection? Why?
2. Who is the protagonist of this story? How do you know?
3. What is the effect of telling this story all in one paragraph, and only in a few sentences?
Discussion Questions
1. Which story structure do you think best fits this poem: journey, power struggle, or connection and disconnection? Why?
2. Does this story have an exposition? If so, which lines contain the exposition?
3. What would you consider the resolution of this story?
1. I feel like the story is a disconnection because it is about a baby being burned to death.
ReplyDelete2. The protagonist of this story is the father. I know it’s their father because he is trying to help and calm the toddler from being burned.
3. The effect of this story is very saddening. Hearing the tragedy of the child burning can be very sad to people. The author was trying to get a very sad and dark theme to this reading.
1. I feel as if this poem is a connection. It’s a connection because the poem shows the boys connection to peace when he lays on his mother’s lap. Also he connects what it was like for his son to lay in his lap
ReplyDelete2. Yes there is a exposition in this poem. The last few lines in the last stanza displays the exposition.
3. I would consider the resolution him singing at the end.
Disconnection, connected to the baby and then disconnected when the baby goes off on it's own
ReplyDeleteThe baby, parents are hurting something that can't defend itself, baby hasn't done anything wrong yet
So many details over such a short event made it seem like a huge deal but also put emphasis on things we normally wouldn't think about
worked with Zoe Brewer, Jackson Klein, Ella Murray
This story shows disconnection, between the Dad and Mom, both blaming each other for what happened to the child. But there is also a disconnection between the child and the parents, because the child won't stop crying, and the parents putting the child in harms way.
ReplyDeleteThe protagonist is the Father, because that is the character going through a challenge, and trying to solve a problem, the child getting burned.
The Set up of the story shows panic and franticness. The characters are desperately trying to help their child. It sad, because as readers we know it could be prevented.
1. the story shows connection and disconnection. There is a disconnection between the father and child but a connection between the father and the memories of his own mother.
Delete2.the story contains little exposition, there is not much background. Its all written in a present tense. we are hearing the thoughts of our main character.
3. The resolution is accepting the mothers thoughts and feelings.
1. there was a disconnection left In the absence of the baby and between the parents. There is also a journey of events unfolding as they try to fix things.
ReplyDelete2. the father is trying desperately to fix things. He is who we are following.
3. for me it was time. Everything happened so quickly which is sad. Everything changed so suddenly.
Ellie terrazas
Delete1)The story shows a journey because it is in chronological order
ReplyDelete2)the protagonist is the father because he is always putting the needs of the child first priority
3)the author which a few sentences is trying to show the speed of the events. this makes the sentences flow smoothly and represents layout more accurately
1. I think this story shows a journey because it is written in chronological order.
ReplyDelete2. I think the protagonist of this story is the father. He did all he could to save his child and he was the one there to comfort him.
3. The author wrote this long story in only a few sentences to show the speed at which the events are happening. The lack of sentences makes the story flow more smoothly and represents the layout of the actual events a little better.
1. disconnect, going from the kids mind to the moms mind, and the only real connection is that they are physically together but nothing else
ReplyDelete2. no I don't think it has a larger explanatory power or specifics about one part, it is more of a generalized story.
3. the resolution is the connection between mother and son
worked with Jackson Klein, Ella Murray, and Zoe Brewer
1. Which story structure do you think best fits this story: journey, power struggle, or connection and disconnection? Why?
ReplyDeleteI saw it as a disconnection because both parents were no watching the kid which led to him getting but I also felt it was power struggle because the Dad was more involved in the comforting a lot, while the mom was there but not fully.
2. Who is the protagonist of this story? How do you know?
The dad because he was more involved when he was comforting the child. Whereas the mom was there but not as affective.
3. What is the effect of telling this story all in one paragraph, and only in a few sentences?
It was harder to read because and try to understand what all was going on in the story. An advantage of reading stories with longer sentence can sometimes keep the audience engaged.
1. connection lies between the parallels. Disconnection is in the unknown of thoughts and time.
ReplyDelete2. yes, it talks about memories of her past with her mom.
3. no, she is left with unanswered questions.
1. I think the story shows connection. The dad seems to be a very prominent character the the child’s life. But yet there is a sense of disconnection I don’t know how to describe it. Maybe because the first article feels more heavy whereas the poem feels light hearted.
ReplyDelete2. The father. I feel like the father is a active character in the article.
3. This article felt heavy. It was worded heavily and has a eyrie sense.
Incarnations of Burned Children
ReplyDelete1. Connection and disconnection- the father is very mad at the mother for allowing this to happen to the child, also a disconnect between the parental responsibilities and the welfare of their child.
Also a power struggle- the father's need to take control of the situation to do what he can to save and protect his child while also being very upset with the mother for her faults with negligence for caring for their child.
2. The father because he's the one we're following and living through his actions.
3. The writing structure makes the story flow like it's happening in real time rather than reflecting on what happened.
The Hammock
1. Connection and disconnection- a connection between the relationships in the narrator's life and a disconnect between knowing what the mother and child are thinking.
2. Yes- "When I lay my head on my mothers lap." "When my son lays his head in my lap."
3. Becoming comfortable with the end/the unknown.
1. The best structure that fits this poem is connection because it has different elements connecting the feelings of the daughter, mother, son and child. There is a lot that cross connects with the different ways that they feel.
ReplyDelete2. I think the story has an exposition in the line " I don't know what my mother's thinking" because it becomes the topic of trying to figure out why they are thinking the way they do or act the way they do
3. I don't really think there is a true resolution to this story in the sense that nothing changed throughout the poem the conflict is internal instead of external
1. power struggle because all characters are fighting for control over different situations.
ReplyDelete2.The father, he does all of the actions in the story and we follow most closely with him.
3. If it's in paragraphs it has as starting and end point but with one big paragraph it makes the story feel more in real time.
1.Connection and disconnection because the narrator starts with her child, disconnects to her life now, and then connects them both.
2.Yes, the first stanza.
3.The last three lines when she is talking about death, and becomes ok with the end.
Incarnations of a burned child:
ReplyDeleteI think that the structure that best fits the poem a would probably be kind of a mix in both journey and power struggle. I think this is due to the baby having a lack of consciousness and or cognitive ability to help himself in the situation at all. I think the protagonist of this story is the father or “daddy” due to him being the firs at character introduced and every detail follows the father’s actions. I think the effect that is produced by telling such a powerful story in little sentences and one paragraph, made the subject more urgent. You could tell that this happened in a matter of urgency and unfolded in seconds when a story is written like this. It was one of the things that happens in life that makes you say “did that just happen”
The Hammock:
I think that this is more of a connection and disconnection structure, but I could also see it as a power struggle. I think it could be a disconnection structure due to the fact that the author is physically connected with their child, yet they don’t feel present because they don’t know what the child thinks about. Like he says “I have no idea what my child is thinking, between two unknowns I live my life.” I am not sure if this story contains an expositions but if there is it would be in the beginning with the title sand first stanza. I am not 100% sure what the resolution is but If there is one I would guess it is in the lines