Embedded Video

Requirements: each entry must be at least 125 words.

Homework #1

4^th Entry – Rationalization.  Consider Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”  A common (mis)interpretation of the poem is that it’s about taking the nontraditional path.  However, it seems to be more about a poem about rationalizing one’s actions, as described in the video below.  After reviewing the video, comment on this tendency of humans to rationalize actions.  Why would this narrator tell a story where he/she clearly alters events?

Embedded Video Player: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

HOMEWORK #2

5^th Entry – Creative Nonfiction: In the preface to nonfiction (p. 2803 of your text), the editors tell us that creative nonfiction illustrates that “no direct duplication of reality is possible in language, that all writing is affected by the author’s point of view” (Baym et al, 2014, p. 2803).  Do you think that is true?  Can there such a thing as a truly reliable narrator?  Consider the excerpt from Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying that you read this week as you prepare a response to this question.  How is this point made (or not) in Danticat’s writing?