! Journey to the Center of the Swamp

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1 Journey to the Center of the Concept: The Journey Primary Subject Area: English Secondary Subject Areas: Culture, Religion Common Core Standards Addressed: Common Core Standards Book: landia Grades 9-10 Grades Key Ideas and Details Key Ideas and Details o Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide and objective summary of the text. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas o Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g. how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). o Analyze the impact of the author s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g. where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). Craft and Structure o Analyze how an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g. the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or traffic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. Plot and Character Development: Common Core Standards 1

2 Journey to the Center of the Overview: Lesson Plan This lesson will help students recognize and understand the journey aspect of landia, as well as the influence of the journey archetype on all stories. Book: landia Materials: Copies of landia Whiteboard or Chalkboard Computer Access (Optional) Objectives: After this Lesson the students will be able to: Recognize and identify the different phases of Campbell s Hero s Journey, as well as the smaller steps within each of the phases. Be able to analyze stories for each of these phases and identify the point at which a character takes a turn and completes one of these phases. Analyze landia for these phases for each of the characters and how their journey s interact with each other s. Warm-Up Activity: Have the students name a few major stories where some form of journey takes place, i.e. the character leaves home to do things he or she has never done before, then returns a changed person. Write the suggestions down on the board, and then see if students can name any stories without a journey cycle archetype in them. Make this into a separate column on the board. In the end this column might be blank. If this column is not blank, have the student who suggested the story explain the plot briefly. See if you can identify any semblance of a journey within the story. Short Lecture & Partner Activities: Other Resources: Discussion/Comprehension Questions Key Vocabulary Text References Link to Joseph Campbell s Hero s Journey. mbols.com/heroadventure.ht ml A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his[/her] fellow [people] The above quote is from Joseph Campbell himself. Have one of the students read it out loud. Then show students the website that explains the Hero s journey. Go through each of the phases of the journey, including the smaller steps. The departure is made up of five steps: the common world, the call, the refusal of the call, the supernatural aid, and the crossing of the first threshold. After reading the article on this, discuss what they think each of these steps means and ask for examples of the steps they can think of in popular stories these days. Do the same thing with the other two phases, explaining each of the smaller steps and coming up with examples from stories that are well known. Go through Initiation and Return this way. Make sure that the students write down the entire sequence in their notes or somewhere that they will remember. Plot and Character Development: Lesson Plan 2

3 Lesson Plan Journey to the Center of the Discussion Wrap-Up: Book: landia The archetype of the journey has been around since stories began. This particular plot line family meltdown, family gets back together is not all that original. How it is done is what makes the story unique. First discuss what each phase of the journey means with the students. What are some of the things that make this journey so different from the ones you have read previously? What kinds of journey have you found that the novel incorporates? Do any of the characters in this story have a typical life to begin with? Do you think they will return to something completely different? Are they all going to be changed in the same way upon their return? Why or why not? What changes do you think will occur? Some of the journeys that stories portray are only mental, some only physical, and others are both. How would you classify the journeys that each of these people is going through? Did the mother go through a journey too? How so? Do you think the children will realize this and move on? Writing Activities/Evaluations: Analytical: In literary analysis the most important thing to remember is that a good story isn t necessarily unique in its ideas; what makes it innovative is its style and structure. Write a short essay on why you think stories, and the tale of someone s journey through an adventure, fascinates people. Why have these sorts of stories captivated us for thousands of years? Why do we still cheer the hero and boo the villain? Do you think stories will continue to hold our minds more firmly than any technology? Creative: Try and map out a journey for a character of your own. See if you can write a brief explanation of something, anything, that you think would be an original construction or version of a journey. Try and fit in the different stages of Campbell s flow chart on your handout, but you do not have to conform to it precisely. Plot and Character Development: Lesson Plan 3

4 Discussion & Comprehension Questions Journey to the Center of the Book: landia What does the red Seth seem to represent to Ava? Why does she decide to bring it along with her and the Bird Man? Ossie seems to be experiencing something strange. Do you think that her ghosts are her imagination? Or are they real to her? Ava seems to doubt her ability to deny their existence, why? Is her sister s own delusion so powerful that it transfers to her? Chief Bigtree has been on a business trip for a long time. What do you think that he has been doing? Is he really in the city? Kiwi s journey is changing him. Are his friends necessarily a good influence? Are they helping him? Are they the kind of people you would associate with? What are your feelings about the Bird Man? What is his role in all of this? Do you as a reader trust him? Is he a good person? When he immediately believes and listens to Ava does this give off a good or bad feeling about the man? The dredgeman s revelation is a heavy load. It adds an air of mystery to the entire swamp as a place of magic and wild things. Does this make it seem more realistic? Does the superstition make the world Russell has created seem more tangible to the reader? Does it add reality to what Ossie has been seeing and doing? Why does Ava want to be like her mother so badly? Is it a yearning for her to return? Or a wish to make her mother proud? Does she think that if she becomes a good alligator wrestler she can induce her mother to come back? Plot and Character Development: Discussion & Comprehension Questions 4

5 Key Vocabulary Journey to the Center of the Word: Exogenous Definition: Book: landia 1. Originating from outside; derived externally. Detritus 1. Rock in small particles or other material worn away or broken away from a mass, as by the action of water or glacial ice. 2. Any disintegrated material; debris Gesticulating 1. To make or use gestures, especially in an animated or excited manner with or instead of speech. 2. To express by gesturing. Inappetence 1. Lack of appetite Epiphyte 1. A plant that grows above the ground, supported nonparasitically by another plant or object, and deriving its nutrients and water from rain, the air, dust, etc.; air plant; Aeorphyte. Plot and Character Development: Key Vocabulary 5

6 Journey to the Center of the Text References Book: landia (Pages ): The employees of The World of Darkness got paid on a biweekly basis The new hire grinned, shook his head. He waved good-bye before disappearing down the stairs with his ward. (Pages ): The dredgeman had a name, Louis Thanksgiving Auschenbliss His real life had begun less than a year ago. I m next. (Pages ): Wednesday was the same, and Thursday- she stayed out all night Put the Chief s mainland phone number on it, let him deal with this. (Pages ): Quiet rode outward like wildfire after that, engulfing the ditch and me inside it It s rumored that even the Florida Wildlife Commission employs them when the more traditional methods of animal control are attempted, fail. (Pages ): Do you know any way I could, uh, supplement my income? Huh. Forty-five thousand dollars. And how does one enroll in the, uh, the flight school? (Pages ): Whip Jeters was some intermediary age between the Chief and Grandpa Sawtooth, and Be safe, Ava. Plot and Character Development: Text References 6

7 Title Field: Class Handout Name: The Hero s Journey Departure Initiation Return Common World Call to Adventure Refusal of Call Supernatural Aid Crossing of First Threshold Road of Trials Supreme Ordeal The Ultimate Boon Refusal of Return Crossing the Return Threshold Master of Two Worlds Plot and Character Development: Class Handout

8 Title Field: Supplementary Materials Chart Category of Resource Diagram and Explanation Description of Resource Potential Educational Uses of Resource Link to Resource This is Joseph Campbell s theory of the Hero s Journey, and explains what the phases of a fictional character s journey are. It is mostly related to myth, legend and fireside tales, but also applies to the modern literary world as well. This will teach students to look at a character s journey in much more depth, and give them an explanation of what the different stages of a person s change in a story is. It will allow them to pick out what parts of a story go where and to further narrow their vision on their analysis. om/heroadventure.html