11.4.15

Discuss: "4th Encounter"

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 * 1)  What is the “strife” that Twyla refers to at the start of the section? What are the mothers protesting, and what are both sides of this conflict representing?
 * 1)  What do both Twyla and Roberta mean when they both say to the other “I wonder what made me think you were different”?
 * 1)  What does Twyla mean when she tells Roberta that the protesting mothers are “Bozos”? What kind of person or system does the “Big Bozo” represent?
 * 1)  Why does Roberta bring up curling hair together as children?
 * 1)  What details emerge about Maggie in this section? What does this reveal about memory? How does this complicate the story?
 * 1)  How are Twyla and Roberta “talking” to each other through the signs they make? What are they really talking about?
 * 1)  What does Twyla mean when she thinks that “Maggie was [her] dancing mother”?

Images related to the integration conflicts alluded to in the last reading: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FJki2BiIBIOnZDEnsS2_FOv-04OSb3d7rhnDrCk0gIQ/edit?usp=sharing

Read: End of "Recitatif" Discuss

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 * 1)  Why did Roberta lie to Twyla about them literally kicking Maggie?
 * 1)  Why did Roberta want to kick Maggie, and what does she mean by “wanting to is doing it”?
 * 1)  What is significant about Maggie’s race and the fact that Twyla and Maggie are confused about it?
 * 1)  Does their age excuse their treatment of Maggie?
 * 1)  What does Twyla mean by her thought that the silence between them “went from the diner past the paper bells on out into the snow”? How has their friendship changed? Are they still friends?
 * 1)  What is important about their last exchange of information about their mothers?
 * 1)  Why does Toni Morrison end the story in the way she does? What do their thoughts about Maggie reveal about their society and the historical context/systems that they grew up around?

Class brainstorm: key symbols and literary devices in the text Period 7: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3AOrExNP7aEMmRYREtWeFVVbF9qaFFuVHdLR1VfRUNWdjdB/view?usp=sharing Period 8: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3AOrExNP7aEWkptbHpHblVNSkZ1bFc5Vm1yTDBzU3Y5NFRJ/view?usp=sharing

No homework, but be prepared to use these brainstorms to do some writing next class.