"How to Talk to your Mother (Notes)"
Remember: discussions are worth 20 points (10 for your posting, 10 for your responses) each, and you must post your response to the Message Board no later than the due date in order to get credit. After the class has posted to the Message Board, read what everybody has to say about the discussion topic and respond to any or all of them (at least three if you are trying for maximum points), and feel free to respond to responses over the next couple of days :)
back up all of your conclusions with examples (documented quotations)
Our textbook discusses many "literary elements" (character, plot, setting, etc.), but I suggested that at the heart of any analysis there are two things to look out for, and these should (maybe) make your life easier: 1) patterns, 2) peculiarities. Especially in short fiction, repetition and oddities stand out, and they are rarely accidental (the author wants you to notice these things; they are significant).
"How to Talk t your Mother (Notes)" certainly has both, and they are easy to spot, though what they suggest might take a little thinking
Here is your topic for this week's discussion:
There are lots of odd repeated "things" in this story. Ginny makes several references to artificial hearts; there are four presidents mentioned; there are different kinds of music running through the story; there are several birth/death references; there are many instances showing compliance vs. rebelliousness; there repeated references to artifical hearts, and so on.
Look at only one of these categories (such as the four presidential references) and explain how they fit literally/logically into this "journal"; then explore what they suggest about Ginny and how they might help us to understand the character and, maybe, the meaning of this story.
Why on earth is this story told backwards?
What is the purpose of telling this in second person (with imperatives and the words you and your)?
try not to bunch up
That is, once several people have written about one pattern (for example, the increasting gap between generations), look at a different pattern. Otherwise, the later posts and responses will just be copying the earlier ones, and those later posts won't earn many points.
for added fun
After there is plenty on the board about those patterns, you may also want to explore in your responses (not posts) two obvious peculiarities in the story and how those patterns you discussed might relate to these peculiarities:
Note: 1. and 2. above are much shorter questions than the main question, but they are harder questions to answer fully; they require a fairly complete understanding of the story :)
Once again, as always, your posting should be about 300 (or more) words; each of your responses should be about 150 (or more) words.