Woman and Dinner Party Essay Example for Free

Woman and Dinner Party Essay Many men these think that women don’t know how to stay calm in a situation. They say men know how to control their emotions way more than women do. The short story the Dinner Party by Gardner carries out a message. The message is that women can have just as much control as men can. The story starts off at a fancy dinner party in India at a colonial official’s house. A young woman starts a discussion on how women have overcome the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era. A colonel disagrees with this and says that a woman’s first reaction in a crisis is to scream. He thinks men have more self control than women because even though they make feel like screaming they don’t. An American naturalist was present at the dinner party. He decides to look around the room and notices a strange look come across the hostess face and her muscles contracting. She then whispers to the native boy behind and his widen and brings in a bowl of milk. In India this means bait for a snake. He comes to the conclusion that there is a cobra in the room. He looks around the room but the room looks clear. He knew the snake was under the table and he his first impulse was to jump back and warn the others but he had stayed calm. He then tells the people in the room what they must do. He said he wanted to test the self control that the people had and told them about the snake. The snake does not strike and everything under control. The host speaks up and tells the colonel that he was right and that men have more control. The American asks the hostess how she knew about the snake and she then says â€Å"It was crawling across my foot.† He we can see that the colonel was wrong and that women can have just as much control as men. Mona Gardner carried out the message by showing us the self control of men but also showed us that woman can have the same control and that they have overcome that stereotype.

Character Essay :: essays research papers

Character Essay Characterization, a method that an author chooses to develop his/her character, is a very important element in a story. In â€Å"Lamb to the Slaughter,† Roald Dahl, effectively develops the protagonist both directly and indirectly; however, the use of indirect characterization is more dominant because it reveals her actions and how she deals with her conflict, her words, and creating a dynamic character with her words, and her personality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, she seems like a typical house-wife longing for her husband to return, but something is odd about this particular day; â€Å"There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did†¦was curiously tranquil†¦the eyes, with their new placid look, seemed larger, and darker than before† (108). It was almost as if she is expecting something unusual to happen, and that she is preparing for that specific moment. In addition, her actions change from being a wife-pleasing-husband, to a self-conscious woman that knew all of a sudden, exactly what to do, as if she had been prepared for months. Also, in the beginning of the story she is described as a inoffensive, harmless person, but immediately after her husband reveals his burden, she becomes unstable and almost naturally she hits her husband. She â€Å"†¦simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb†¦and brought it down as hard as she could†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (111). And as strange as it looks, she goes somewhat through a metamorphoses, from being a content house-wife, to a maniac, possessed woman, to the point of killing her husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Second, she reveals through her words, her duplicity and deceitfulness by exterminating all the evidence left. When the police arrived she trying to hide evidence, asks for her husband’s whiskey, â€Å"‘Jack†¦would you mind giving me a drink?’†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢You mean this whiskey?’†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Yes, please’†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Why don’t you eat up that lamb that is in the oven?’†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (115,116), and the reader realizes that she tries to convince others with her deceitful lies, and with a concrete set of credible words, she gets away easily; â€Å"She tried a smile. It came out so peculiar†¦The voice sounded so peculiar too†¦She rehearsed it several times more†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (112). Mrs. Maloney, had thought about it even before the incident happened, for she tries to look as normal as possible, by acting it out her daily routine.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Finally, her personality creates in her a dynamic characterization, and as the reader observes it when she is talking to the shopkeeper, by saying something very odd: â€Å"’I got a nice leg of lamb from the freezer†¦I don’t much like cooking it frozen†¦but I’m taking a chance on it this time.

Reaction Paper †Fiction: Short Story

â€Å"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall† is a small story written by Katherine Anne Porter, the American writer. It was published in 1930 along with other short stories alike, as part of story collection called â€Å"Flowering Judas†. The reaction to this fiction story from a reader’s point of view I’m going to express in this short essay. The whole setting of this story is drawn around the bed of Ms. Weatherall, where she is spending the last moments of her life. The author is focusing her attention on Granny’s thoughts in form of her own self-monologue. The other characters present in the final scene of Granny’s life are: her own daughter, Cornelia, Dr. Harry, the priest, and her grandchildren, who are invited to visit their grandmother before she dies. The fact that Granny Weatherall is having a serious illness is concealed from her by the doctor and the relatives. Being close to death Ms. Weatherall is staying in bright mind and is rehearsing her own thoughts of the past and is fantasizing about present as what she would do if she did not have to stay in bed. The other characters in the story display little action, like quiet talk of Granny’s daughter to the doctor that irritates Ms. Weatherall as she starts feeling more concern about herself. The doctor, on the other hand, is trying to cheer Ms. Weatherall up by telling her that she is looking good and referring to her as â€Å"little girl†, which is inappropriate with ladies of her age. The author is mainly concentrating on Granny’s thoughts in this story. In her memories she goes back into past, sees her husband that died many years ago, and, even against her will, she reminds about events that happened to her when she was a teenager. The author is writing the story the way readers can see not only old woman dying among her relatives but as she watches her own life before her eyes before she passes away. The other people who surround Ms. Weatherall seem not to destruct her from her own thoughts with their actions. The concept of this inner journey is to introduce the reader to Ms. Weatherall’s personality and what her life was about. All the sudden the old lady is seeing things that happened to her many years ago, the memories she either regretted or kept hidden through her entire life. These memories become so lose that she almost experiences them over again after so many years. The author makes it obvious that the old lady has given her heart and soul to being a mother and wife up to her final breath. The whole flow of the story changes as Ms. Weatherall gets close to dying. It seems like the flow of her thoughts is becoming more emotional. Granny starts denying her critical condition and it seems like sh e loses control over the situation. She recalls, once when she thought she was close to dying twenty years ago she did not feel that way and she did not expect death coming. This event has given her the experience of not being afraid of it. She survived that day, and from that point on death has become something invisible to her. Granny almost fell as she could get up of the bed and return to her daily activities. In her own thoughts she acts as she has got things to do tomorrow. She displays incredible stubbornness and will to continue as her death comes closer. The author wanted to make connection between the simple rehearsal of thoughts to almost euphorical state of mind as death comes closer. Ms. Weatherall was always an honest catholic, and her faith in God is inspiring her even now. She remembers, when she was young her faith helped her to overcome any obstacles, and everything she was about to take on could easily be accomplished. â€Å"Thank God there was a little margin over for peace: then a person could spread out the plan of life and tuck in the edges orderly†. Finally Granny Weatherall rests in peace like her long lived father who was her hero and whose image she kept in her mind until her final hour. I personally like the story and how it is told. I found myself relate to this story because a year ago I went through the same period of sorrow when my grandmother was passing away. In this story I felt not only sympathy to Ms. Weatherall as I read it, but I was pleasantly impressed of her courage and will to live even after knowing that she was close to dying. I think this is because she is not only courageous person but she truly has God in her heart. I think this is a really good work by the author as she found a very interesting theme of life and death. I read somewhere that each person before dying sees their own life flashing before them. This was a really good example of interpretations of final thoughts of person and emotional preparation to the end of life.

Field Trip Tips for Safe, Fun Learning Success

New teachers might naively think that field trips are easier and more fun than a typical day in the classroom. But throw in crises like a lost group of children or wasp stings, and field trips can go from fun to frantic in no time. But if you adjust your expectations you can come up with a new, more practical way to approach field trips and minimize the chances of drama and mayhem. Tips for a Successful Field Trip Follow these field trip tips and youll likely create fun learning adventures for your students: Explicitly discuss field trip behavior rules with your students beforehand. Teach, model, and review appropriate field trip behavior with your students for at least a week before the big event. Drill into their heads that field trips are not the time or place to mess around and that any aberrant behavior will result in non-participation in any future field trips that school year. Sound serious and back it up with consequences as needed. Its good to have your students scared of testing the boundaries on field trips. Emphasize that they are representing our schools reputation when they are off-campus and that we want to present our best behavior to the outside world. Make it a point of pride and reward them afterward for a job well done.Give your students a learning task ahead of time. Your students should show up for the field trip with a base of knowledge on the subject at hand, as well as questions to answer before returning to the classroom. Spend some time in the weeks before the field trip discussing the subject matter. Review a list of questions they will be looking to answer during the field trip. This will keep them informed, engaged, and focused on learning all day long.Choose parent chaperones wisely. Field trips require as many adult eyes and ears as you can get, but unfortunately, you cant be everywhere at once. From the first day of school, observe the parents of your students closely, looking for signs of responsibility, firmness, and maturity. A lax or careless parent can be your worst nightmare on a field trip, so choose your parental allies wisely. That way, youll reap the benefits of having adult partners in the field trip process.Make sure you have all the necessary medications. Talk to the school nurse and procure any and all medications that your students usually take during the day. While on the field trip, make sure you administer the medications accordingly. If you have students will allergies, you may need to get trained on how to use an EpiPen. If so, the student involved will need to stay with you at all times.Arrive at school early on field trip day. The students will be excited and antsy, ready to go. Youll want to greet the chaperones and give them instructions for the day. It takes some time to organize the sack lunches and ensure that everyone has what they need for the day. And one last pep talk on appropriate behavior never hurt anybody.Give your chaperones the tools they need to succeed. Make nametags for all chaperones and students. Create a cheat sheet of the days itinerary, special rules, your cell phone number, and the names of all kids in each chaperones group; distribute these sheets to each adult on the field trip. Procure and label grocery bags that each chaperone can use to carry the groups sack lunches. Consider getting a little thank-you gift for each chaperone, or treat them to lunch that day.Be proactive with regards to challenging students. If you have a student who causes trouble regularly in the classroom, its safe to assume he or she will cause at least five times more trouble in public. If possible, ask his or her parent to be a chaperone. That will usually limit any potential problems. Also, when you are making groups, split any problem pairs into separate groups. This is a good policy for troublemakers, chatty kids, or bickering frenemies. And its probably best to keep the most challenging students in your own group, rather than pawning them off on an unsuspecting parent chaperone.Count all day. As the teacher, you will likely spend most of your day counting heads and making sure everyone is accounted for. Obviously, the worst thing that can occur on a field trip is losing a student. So count accurately and often. Enlist the help of chaperones in this task, but do it yourself too, for your own peace of mind. Keeping track of each and every student is the number one priority of field trip day.Do a debriefing when you return to the classroom. If you have a few extr a minutes after the field trip and before dismissal from school, put on some soothing classical music and have the students draw about what they saw and learned that day. It gives them a chance to decompress and review what they experienced. The next day, its a good idea to do a more active and in-depth review of the field trip material, extending the learning further and connecting it to what youre working on in the classroom.Write thank-you notes after the field trip. Lead a class language arts lesson the day after your field trip, formally thanking the people who hosted your group. This serves as an etiquette lesson for your students and helps form your schools good reputation at the field trip destination. In future years, this goodwill could translate into prime perks for your school. With proper planning and a positive attitude, field trips can be unique ways to explore the outside world with your students. Stay flexible and always have a Plan B, and you should do just fine.