Flannery O'Connor's "The Geranium"

"The Geranium," a short story by Flannery O'Connor,  is about an old man (Old Dudley) who has moved to New York City, at the request and perceived duty of his daughter, "She was doing her duty. She had brothers and sisters who were not"(6). The family is from the South and Dudley still holds onto his Southern ideals and prejudices.  

Old Dudley is a dislocated elderly gentleman. He reflects upon his past life in the back hills of the South along the riverbanks of Georgia and contrasts these memories with his observations of the bustle and rush of the city. He finds himself no longer exploring or acting as the man of the house but rather he feels he is a pest and in the way. “The next week he had become more conscious of the daughter and son-in-law and their boy – no place to be out of their way” (6). He believes that his daughter feels obligated to occupy his time or create conversation with him, but he would rather she didn't because it causes him to remember the life he left behind. When Dudley is reflecting on the geranium, he remembers how Lutish would have been able to make anything take root and “his throat was drawn taut. There wasn't much he could think of to think about that didn't do his throat that way” (3). He instead spends his time acting occupied as he waits on the geranium that sits across the alley.

 This geranium acts as a physical representation of Old Dudley. The sad state that the flower is in offers a parallel to Dudley's own state. “The geranium didn’t look like a flower. It looked like the sick Grisy boy at home and it was the color of the drapes the old ladies has in the parlor and the paper bow on it looked like the one behind Lutish’s uniform she wore on Sundays” (9). When Dudley is struggling to ascend the stairs he is described as having “to take it more slowly. It tired him going up. Everything tired him, looked like” (11).  Furthermore, the aging flower provides a window to his past and is a symbol of the frailness of life. At the end of story, when the flower has fallen six stories down one can connect the fall to the fall of power that Dudley takes. One can also associate the number of stories as being the same as the number of feet down one is buried.

There is a power shift from Dudley to other characters. The new black neighbor acts as though Dudley is incapable and in need of help this is in direct conflict with how Dudley used to be treated by Rabie and Lutish, who treated him with respect and in a power of control. This shift of power is first presented when Dudley is pretending to hunt along the stairs and then sits to rest only to be helped up by the new neighbor helps him back to his daughter’s apartment. This idea of a power shift is made clear when Dudley is unable to make eye contact with the neighbor, “Old Dudley shook his head, looking at the door. He hasn’t looked at the nigger yet. All the way up the stairs, he hadn’t looked at the nigger” (13).

 O'Connor chooses to tell this story in a limited 3^rd person narration. The audience is only able to see the characters' actions. Dudley's thoughts are never directly offered, but rather are commented upon through the narration. All inner dialogs in the story are spoken or implied. O'Connor makes a point of personifying the verbal communications, giving a vivid word picture; for example, the exit of Dudley's daughter after her attempt at forcing herself to hold a conversation with her father. "She moved out of the room, leaving an audible sigh, to crawl over him and remind him again of that one minute--that wasn't her fault at all--when suddenly he had wanted to go to New York to live with her" (4). Here the reader is able to hear the action, and then watch it as the sigh crawls over Dudley. O'Connor's writing is very concise in that she knows the effect of each word she chooses and fills each sentence with the emotions of the characters to facilitate the story through internal development as well as through characters' actions. The story is not driven by the plot but instead by the characters' journey and growth through the story.

As a reader, I had trouble accepting that Dudley would rather sit in his chair where he feels unwanted and alone, without even his ill geranium to gaze upon bring him joy, then to risk seeing the black neighbor again because he might try and help Dudley or worse touch him. I understand that Dudley's character was developed by O'Connor to hold these racial boundaries but I can't help but to wonder how the story would be different if Dudley were the black man and the neighbor white. I am interested to see this story from the reverse race perspectives. To work through his conflicting power reversals and find a place of acceptance for Dudley I continually reminded myself that this story was writing about a time where racial lines were things that one did not question or break. Because I have never had experience with racial prejudices I find them difficult to understand but open mindedness is just as important at understanding differences as it is in accepting them.

 Looking at this text with the theoretical approach of Peter Barry’s five summary points of critical theory, “Politics is pervasive, Language is constitutive, Truth is provisional, Meaning is contingent, and Human nature is a myth” (35). These points have led me to believe that this text proves an example of conflicts and contrasts. O'Connor holds the politics of segregation and racial prejudices as being pervasive, yet she still explores how they act to isolate an old man from other community members with whom he might be able to have the camaraderie that he is lacking and missing from his home in the South. Her use of language is concise and pointed so as to portray her meaning without the need for excessive flowery phrases. The concept of self is explored in the character of Old Dudley because of his need to feel as though he has maintain his old identity of the southern country man and feels lost and useless  at discovering his new self of elderly age and the city. O'Connor does not just tell the audience what her point is, or about the situation that Old Dudley finds himself in instead she shows the reader through her descriptive language.

Discussion Questions:

1.      How would the story be changed if Dudley were black and the neighbor white?

2.      What myths of human nature are present in O'Connor's story?

3.      Aside from race, what themes are prevalent in this text?

4.      What role does the daughter play in her father's isolation? Is she to blame? What do her intentions count for?

5.      If this story were to be rewritten in today's context, what would be the conflict?

Continued Lessons from MLK

During this weekend's MLK events I partook in the Reading by Dana Johnson and the Community Talk Back with Wilbert Smith, producer of “A Hole in the Head.” I did not have the opportunity to watch the film before attending the talk back, but I don't feel as though this has limited my experience at all. Speaking of the readings first: Johnson read a section from her book of short stories that chronicles a young African American girl as she moves from the inner-city to the suburbs and explores her journey growing up in that divided culture. The passage Johnson shared was about the main character's outing to a Dodgers game with her father, best friend, cousin and crush. Along the way the family's car breaks down on the side of the highway; they are then found and picked up by a middle aged white man with his daughter. This passage speaks to the theme of community among Dodger fans and expands that to include all people.

Johnson writes into a genre of multiculturalism allowing readers from all backgrounds to enjoy and appreciate her stories. She has a good concept of character voice and that allows her to effectively switch from an older character to a younger character. I have not had a great deal of exposure to the western culture that she was writing about, so that was interesting. I also have not had a great deal of experience with racial differences; by adding the African American dialect and Latin American references, Johnson opened a new door for me. I found the reading to be culturally educating. The novel could be a useful tool when I begin teaching. It could help me understand the mentality of students who have recently moved, as well as those from California. It would also be an interesting book to teach because it shows multiple cultures in one area, and several perspectives on those cultures and unifies the character and the reader through human experience.

The second event I attended was a talk back event for students, staff and community members in the Goshen area. The producer Wilbur Smith of the film, “A Hole in the Head” was the guest speaker. Smith commented on importance of finding these individual stories and creating a larger national narrative from them, a national narrative that reflects both the good and the bad of our nations history, as well as narratives from multiple different races and cultural backgrounds. His film is the story of a man who was the test subject of radiation testing. At age five he was subjected to radiation testing to get rid of scalp worm, however he was exposed to too much and was left with a hole in his scalp. He hid this from the public afraid of what others would say about him for 71 years until he told his story to Smith. I find this idea of a larger narrative particularly interesting. It could be a nice jumping point for a writing project.

Toward the end of the discussion, the theme of forgiveness came up. Comments were made about how the main character in the film never complained or blamed anyone for what had happened to him. This brought up the idea of faith and the concept that forgiveness is a transfer of power. Meaning that forgiveness acts as a transfer of power from the aggressor to the victim. I feel like the comments about the power of forgiveness would be an interesting topic to explore more, perhaps in a convocation session. Smith made the statement that you cannot be angry and have your heart be in the right place, and that statement has really stuck with me. The idea of power struggles and forgiveness could become a topic for a reflective writing piece, a larger group discussion, a debate or even just a spring board for a conversation about how you should treat others. It would also be possible to look at the theme of forgiveness in literature.

I would like to explore the idea of using film as a research project. I think that creating a documentary about an event or to create a community narrative would be a good way to incorporate interdisciplinary learning into the classroom. By creating a community's narrative, students would be participating in place-based learning about their local history as well as getting community members involved in the classroom.

I would say the MLK event weekend was a positive experience that allowed for personal growth and understanding and provided ideas for ways to incorporate things learned from these events into the classroom.

Reviewing Racism

Everyone has prejudices the most common of them run along the lines of race. I think that one of the most important aspects of teaching is knowing how you teach your students. There are all types of students in a classroom and whether intentional or not educators can treat students differently based on prejudices. 

Attending the anti-racism seminar was really a great addition to the racism conversations that we had already had in class. I think the idea of self and understanding where each individual is coming from is more valuable than just saying that there is no such thing as race or trying to ignore it. Regina brought up points about self awareness as well as the cultural construct that has shaped our ideals on what is acceptable; because we all come from unique cultural situations we are all slightly different and approach the idea of race differently. 

I feel like the main point I walked away with from the seminar was that we all deal with race differently and that is alright so long as we all understand that it is there, it is an issue, and it is shaped by society and our culture. To address this in my personal life I feel like I need to stop trying to be color blind and learn to look past people and learn to see individuals personalities. In the classroom this would look slightly different because my goal would be to not only know each student's “self” but to also model and teach this philosophy for interaction so that the students could implement it on a peer level. I want to live my life in a way I'd be proud to have my students know about and copy. With this in mind I approach the idea of race.

Reflection of GHS Board Meeting

The board meeting started promptly at 6 pm, on Monday, April 30th as was the listed start time. It took place in a court style room with the board members and the administration of the school sitting behind a bench at the front of the room and the rest of the room filled with seats for the public. There were a few tables at the back of the room reserved for the press and two projection screens at opposite sides of the room of viewing convenience of those present. The public wore a casual dress and the board/administrators wore casual to business attire. It was in no way a dress up function and was conducted in a very informal manner with jokes and personal stories being told throughout. The meeting did not run too long and the business that was discussed was done so for the purpose of getting though the schedule. I think that there could have been more debate but the items up for vote were general items that the boards agreed upon unanimously. This also has a lot to do with who the board members are and their affiliations, opinions and other ties to the community.

I thought the overall the meeting went well and was a success. My favorite part was the student and staff recognition. I enjoyed it and thought it cute that they did it in the beginning because the board knew that most of the people filling the room were only there for that. The fact that the board had the students say their name, school and who they brought with them that night in support was interesting because whether they meant to or not they were offing information to the public about the type of students they were recognizing and from which schools. Though this information should not be taken out of context it would be very possible to receive only this bit of knowledge and draw bias conclusions about the type of students who succeed at Goshen and the students who are allowed to fall though the cracks, so to speak. The recognition also allowed a bit for the board and the public to see who happens in the classrooms and what is the point of school.

I see the board as having the power to regulate staffing, appoint positions, head committees, appoint committees and control funding. I have always thought of school boards as a mini congress, the president is the speaker of the house and the members are just that, members of congress. They vote and have the power to control the happenings of the school as a whole thought not too much on the day to day level or the individual classroom level, thought they do have a hand in the curriculum, school policies and amount of funding that goes to trips, resources and activities.

The Schedule of the Meeting was as follows:

1. Pledge of allegiance
2. Opening remarks
3. Approval of minutes of April 9
4. Superintendent report
   1. Student & staff recognition
   2. Android apps for Goshen schools
   3. IB reports for 2010 and 2011
   4. Energy star leader award
   5. TAP implementation
   6. 2012 performance grant winner
5. Kindergarten enrollment numbers for 2012-13
6. Music together program
7. Reading adoption
8. 2012 first quarter financial statement
9. Board reports
   1. Parks & recreation
   2. Music
   3. Athletics
   4. Building trades
   5. Child care
10. Negotiations
11. Legislation
12. Goshen redevelopment commission
13. Public comment on non-agenda items
14. Conceit agenda items
15. Claims numbered 1508-1786
    1. Emotional disabilities & functional skills extended year program
    2. 8th grade overnight trip to Washington dc
    3. July annual cruise in staging at GMS
    4. GHS rocket club overnight field trip
    5. Agreements with Elkhart county scholarships
    6. Renewal agreement with Oaklawn
    7. Late arrival ace dual
    8. Personnel approvals
16. Action items ---- approval of student activities and award of funds for trips and building modification.
    1. Sale of farmland located off Birkey ave
    2. Administrative pay
17. Miscellaneous board items
    1. Spring dates of interest
    2. Schedule board policy committee meeting
    3. Open house for Dr Stahly
    4. End of yr staff recognition
    5. NSBA national conference report
    6. Retirement party planning
18. Miscellaneous administrative items
    1. GMS and GHS student handbooks
19. Adjournment
    
    Board Members and Administrators Present were:
    Diane Woolworth
    Barry Younghans
    Tamra Ummel
    Judy Beard
    Jane Troup
    Maynard Hartsough
    Jon Jesse
    Perry Haines
    Marceil Roger
    Bruce Stahly

The Nine Goals of Postive Successful Teaching

There are nine basic goals and ideals that a successful and positive teacher should observe. These include things like being cultural diverse, to making it a point to have experiences with different situations to observing and studying their peers. I was always told in teaching it is not only acceptable but encouraged to beg, borrow and steal from other teachers. To more clearly define the nice actions or goals I mentioned earlier I'll break them down and give a few examples of what I believe them to mean as well as sharing some personal experience I have had with a few of them.

The first action is being able to get experience with all types of learners and their families, meaning a teacher should be prepared for whatever type of student comes into their classroom. This can mean culturally diverse students and families or students and families that are working through a financial situation, social issue or even a disability. The second action ties into this in that becoming critically active means that you as a teach have to be ready and willing to join into discussions or situations that are for the betterment of the community as a whole. It is imperative to remember that a teacher is not just someone seen in a classroom but rather they are community members and role models. A huge part of keeping this in mind is your willingness to participate with organizations that embrace people who are different then you. Community outreach, involvement and volunteering are not only things that should be taught to children but should be modeled by teachers to inspire students. As a teacher , you believe education is important so make sure to tack all aspects of your own education and training seriously. This means to maintain professionalism, promptness, respect and when appropriate be willing to accept that you may disagree with someone but you will still try to see the situation though their eyes. One way to continue this education and training for your improvement is to study your fellow teachers and observe what they do in particular situations. Going back to that beg, borrow and steal, there is nothing wrong with taking what works for one teacher and applying it to your own classroom. With this observation and studying you will also be networking with fellow teachers, educators, administrators and those involved in the fields of education this is where you meet help. Finding people to work with to create teams helps to reduce the stress not only on yourself but also on those you work with. It is better to come together for a goal then to each struggle on your own. This can also be seen through the employment of democratic principles in that it is perfectly OK to agree to disagree or to settle things with a vote. The key to democratic principles is maintain a fair and level voting that is unbiased. With all the things a you need to remember and try to accomplish as a teacher it is important to remember to take time for yourself. Find something that you enjoy that can be just for you, something as small as reading the newspaper to taking a vacation just something that allows you time to be recreated and return to the classroom in your full potential.

While I am still a teacher in training and can not truly claim that I have sufficient experience and knowledge in these areas, I do believe that I have a bit of experience with getting experience with all types of learners and their families. My younger brother is on the autism spectrum so I attend meetings and support groups for families and students with special needs. This really opens my eyes to what students are facing with the education system as well as what some teachers are trying to work through and find effective ways of helping these students overcome their setbacks. I really appreciate this shared knowledge and information because it allows for doors to be opened on personal experiences. I think that the more you know and understand the people you are trying to work with or teacher the more effective you will be and the more understanding you will be. I am also involved with a local church youth program whose goal is to provide tutoring help to students who come from broken or socially difficult families and home lives. We work with foster children, single parent children and children who come from homes where finances are a large struggle. I think for this experience I have learned how to appreciate how blessed I am but also how to gauge and understand what a child is dealing with personally and how that can manifest itself as behavior or in his/her grades. I know that I am a getter teacher and a better person for having had this opportunities.

Another experience I was grated was a cadet teaching position through my high school. This allowed me to enter a third grade classroom and a sixth grade classroom to observe both the students and the teacher but also to give me a bit of a taste of teaching. I was responsible for minor grading and small group instruction. I think I learned more about myself then what some of the students learned from my lessons but that is to be somewhat expected. I found that if I thought something would work and tried it, I was then able to see why it did or did not. Also, I found that for my small lessons and for classroom management situations I was referring to what my teachers had done and things that I had experienced as a student. It was also important for me to understand that some things about the class could not be changed because the leading teacher had already established it a certain way and it was not fair to ask that it be changed.

While I definitely have some experience with trying to strive for success with these goals there are also areas in which I need to improve. I know that I need to work more at being aware how much of a role model I am seen as. I have a habit of thinking that my days off are actually mine and as a teacher that is not always true. I may be going out and run into students and their families so I must always be ready to present myself as a community member and a role model that parents would want their children to be around and influenced by. Furthermore, what I post on my personal social networking site is a major factor. More so now then in the past because of the acceptability of it and because of the implications and judgments that can be drawn from it. One wrongly phrased comment, post or inappropriate picture can mean being seen as a positive influence and being seen as someone who is immature. It is my responsibility to make sure that I monitor what is being posted on my site, how much I am allowing to be visible to others, and what links are accessible from my site. Social networking has forever changed the game of media opinion.

I also need to work on being more critically active within the community and within situations. I am naturally a sympathetic person but I believe that there is much to learn from going through a hardship on ones own. This is what works for me personally but I need to come to the understanding that, it is not that way for all people and I need to be there and be willing to set up if needed. I need to be willing to speak up for those who have no say and be more accessible to those who are seeking information or assistance that I am qualified to give. If and when I do not have answers I need to have ready contacts and sources to further assist and I need to continuously be researching myself to keep up to date on situations and current issues that are effecting the community in which I live and work. This is not only for establishing myself as someone who is there to help but also as a role model that is there for people who need help and as an advocate for those who are unable to stand up for themselves or who just have not yet learned how.

Tutoring Reflection

I tutored a young girl named Rhia, name has been changed for privacy, she is a GED student in her last class before getting her GED. The class is the equivalent of a senior English course. Rhia approached me to help her with a particular assignment because she is not a confident reader and had no prior knowledge of textual annotation and little on textual analysis. The assignment was to choose a book the met specific given requirements, keep a chapter log on textual events, as well a personal reflections to the text. After reading the text the student was to complete a paper using one of the textual analysis lenses to evaluate it.

The book The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver was chosen. To complete the chapter log requirement we decided to do textual annotations. This method ended up working quite well for bother Rhia and I. It allowed her to remember key events as well as interesting facts. When she had a question she was able to just write it down to be discussed at a later time. This was particularly helpful in the case of vocabulary terms and symbolism.

Looking back I believe that the time line of the assignment could have been rearrange, giving longer time for particularly trying chapters or perhaps giving some type of overview of the vocabulary terms in the book and a general list of archetypes and symbolism. I believe that these ideas could have been implemented as earlier lessons, perhaps even before the assignment of the reading. I thought that the evaluation and use of the textual lenses was very interesting, especially seeing someone who was unfamiliar with them beginning to use them and view the text in a different way.

Over all I feel confident in that Rhia will be able to continue to use the ideas taught through this assignment. I believe she is a more confident reader and she is more willing to accept challenging texts because of the use of annotations and reflections. Personally, I think that there is no better way to read then the use of annotations, but that is my opinion. The one thing I would do different as a whole would be to choose a book that I was familiar with or had already read so that we were not going through the reading and analysis process together. I think that would have allowed for a more defined role of leadership and clarity on my part. I enjoyed this opportunity and will definitely take some things I learned into the classroom with me.