Group+Three

Book Group Template DATE: March 19, 2010 GROUP #: Three MEMBERS:

For your reading of Montana 1948, book groups will meet four times to discuss the novel and address each aspect listed below. Take notes on your wiki for each of your meetings and save it to your group’s Wiki, noting the date and members names at the top.

This is the reading/book discussion schedule. Be sure you have completed each part prior to the book discussion day.

1) Part One, Friday, March 19th 2) Part Two, Tuesday, March 23rd 3) Part Three, Thursday, March 25th 4) Afterward/Epilogue, Friday, March 26th

Directions: Write your notes for every category below on your group’s wiki space. Be sure to discuss in your groups:

• Imagery/ Symbolism > > > **Imagery** 3/23 >
 * Imagery 3/20**
 * “His Gun looked more like a toy than the western style cap guns that had been my toys” (pg. 18)
 * “Even our small town- really, in 1948 still a frontier town in many respects- tasted to me like pablum.” (pg. 22)
 * **Marie's Mother** “She reminded me of bird who wants to be brave in the presence of humans but finally fails.” (pg. 25)
 * **Marie** “Her cheeks now glowed so brightly they looked painful, as if they had been rubbed raw”
 * “ I loved the sound, heavy clunk of the ball dropped on wood, its rumble down the alley, the clatter of pins, and above it all, men's shouts “Go, go, gogogo!” Get in there “Drop, Drop,” then muttered curses. (pg. 59)


 * **Going Bowling and Having Ollie tall bare going on about how to play.** “I know my father was trying to show his esteem for ollie and his lack of prejudice, but the only thing that was accomplished was that going bowling began to seem an awful lot like going to school.”


 * **Talking about how the wind smells.** “But here the wind smells like mountains, like snow, like stone, no matter how for the mountains are I still feel them out here.”(pg. 65)


 * **Car ride to Grandparents.** “Neither of my parents spoke as we rode, and the silence in the car was as oppressive as the heat.” (pg. 66)


 * **Car Ride.** “My father disliked conflicts so much that he would frequently make a promise or a suggestion- like a family vacation intended to make everyone feel better.”(pg. 67)


 * **The Grandparents house referred by his father.** “This place looks like every Easterners idea of a dudes ranch” (pg 68)


 * **At the dinner table with family.** “I smelt my aunts perfume again, but the lush sweet floral scent so out of place in that rough-timbered room among all those odors of food did not excite me this time.” (pg78)

Imagery Part 3
 * **In the House when raining.** “The rain clattered and gurgled through the gutters around the house” (pg. 108)
 * **In the laundry room where Where Uncle Frank was put.** “In another section of the laundry room was our ancient furnace, a huge, silver bellied monster sprouting ductwork like and octopus's tentacles.” (pg. 110)
 * **Grandparents come over and thinking they have a person in there basement. “** When I think of how calm we all looked, how natural and domestic this scene was, I find it more disturbing than if we had been crawling around on our hands and knees, howling like wild dogs.(pg. 114)
 * **His grandfather all mad about his son putting his other son in jail.** “He had his voice revved up-- after all the grumbling, the motor caught and couldn't be shut off. (pg. 120)
 * **The mother panicking because guys trying to break in and take Frank. “** She raised the shotgun, pumped another shell into the chamber, the ejected empty shell skittered across the linoleum, as if she were as practiced with that weapon as she was with her typewriter.” (pg. 137)
 * **The bad guys leaving. “** At the end of the yard the black truck and its four riders sped off, sending up a spray of gravel and raising dust we could taste even from our distance.” (pg. 139)


 * Well done.**

• Character Behavior or Psychology: For Part one you must focus on characterization of the main characters listed below. 1. What the character says 2. What the character does 3. What others/narrator says about the character** You must use textual evidence for each of these three elements of characterization
 * For each character, discuss all three modes of characterization:

Narrator’s Father **Why is this not complete?**

Narrator’s mother (Gail) **Why is this not complete?**

Marie and Ronnie Tall Bear **Why is this not complete?**

Uncle Frank (and Aunt Gloria) **Why is this not complete?**

Grandfather **Why is this not complete?**

• Interesting Passages (at least two passages, cited in proper MLA format)

**Why is this not complete?**

• Questions/ Predictions you have: **Why is this not complete?**

__• Connections to modern life or your personal life part 1__

 * Just like how in the story people were stressed about there life, thinking it was too hard and too much to deal with, because all of your energy ever went in to was taking care of not just yourself, but also your family, your crops, and making sure that your cattle stayed alive. Now, we worry about the same things. Making sure your family has enough money to get everything they need and more than just what they need, and making sure that your work is done too.
 * Girls in the story, just like girls know a days who are not well educated about different things get taken advantage of, without knowing that they are getting taken advantage of. Not only do the unknowledgeable girls get taken advantage of and not know it but they do not tell anyone so it stays unknown. This happened in the time that the story takes places and it happens now too.

__• Connections to modern life or your personal life part 2__

 * Just like in the story how as David was going to his grandparents house with his parents, they do not talk at all in the car. Everyone now, and in the time that the story took place has had an experience were their parents are not talking, because of a big fight about something that they got it, and they have a very awkward trip somewhere because no one is talking.
 * When David looks over to see his uncle and father fighting with each other he notice’s that they have a lot in common. Most people can relate to this because they’ve seen family members fight and by the way they fight you can tell how they are related

__• Connections to modern life or your personal life part 3__
When someone loses someone they care about they get very upset. Even if they weren’t in the best terms with them before they passes away they feel regret and sorrow and wish they could have ended it a different way. Just like how David’s father feels in the story.
 * In the book when David’s mother and father start to discuss how his father should go over to talk to Gloria, Uncle Frank’s wife, his father does not want to go. Instead of going he starts to talk about painting the house with David. David’s father is putting off doing something very important. Everyone does this at some point, people find something important that they have to do and say that they are going to do it and then get scared and change their mind about doing it.

**l In the future, you must be sure that your group fuly addresses all components of the book group posting. The information you are compiling here will help you with a project down the road. Also, when you are using textual evidence, be sure to cite it properly using MLA citiation. 15/20** Interesting passages of part 2 ET

(Watson 96-97) “I sat down and my father rubbed my back, massaging the thin band of muscle on either side of my spine. “What’s the trouble? Can’t sleep? Just that little gentleness, that little thumb-rub blow my neck, was all it took, and the words spilled out of me. “I saw something….” “Really?” His voice was steady and low. “I thought you said you heard something.” “I mean earlier. This afternoon.” “What did you see?” “Uncle Frank. Uncle Frank was here.” “Of course he was. Your mother called him right away when she found Marie.” “No, I mean before. Earlier.” His hands stopped rubbing. “What time was that, David?” “I’m not sure exactly.” “A guess. Take a guess, David.” “Around three.” My mother crawled quickly across the bed to the other side of me. “What are you saying, David?”

(Watson 88) “I stepped into my mother’s embrace, and as I did she leaned her head against my torso in a way that made it clear I was the one offering comfort. “It’s Marie,” she said. “She didn’t make it, David.”

(Watson 88) “Uncle Frank finished his form and stood up so straight he seemed to be at attention. “This happens,” he said to Daisy. “Pneumonia patients can have sudden relapse, their lungs fill quickly… Or the heart can fail from the strain of dealing with the disease. And there may have been a preexisting condition. We don’t know. I see this mush more often, however, in older patients.”

Interesting of part 3 ET

(Watson 160) “But I thought for an instant, for the split second before I saw the blood’s real source. Uncle Frank lay on the floor, his head cradled against my father’s chest. The gash across Uncle Frank’s wrist had already started its useless healing: the edges of the wound had begun to dry and pucker; the blood, what was left in him had begun to blacken and congeal. I could see only his right arm, but I knew the cut there was one of matching set.”

(Watson 130) “I was the first to notice the truck circling the house. From my bedroom window I saw it drive through the alley in back, along the railroad tracks. Four men were in it, two in the cab and two standing in back.”

(Watson 109) “When my mother came home from work, she took one look at my father and asked, “Wes, what’s wrong?” He pointed to the basement door. “Frank’s down there.” Both my mother and I stared at him, waiting for him to go on. My father took his hat and sailed it hard against the refrigerator. “He’s in the basement. Goddamn it! Don’t you get it- I’ve arrested him. He’s down there now.”