To respond to Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and the idea of naturalism as a world view or concept in American literature, my students are writing “naturalist stories.” They’re creating somewhat dark tales that entertain a not-so-encouraging world view – not because I want them to adopt a naturalist’s world view (I don’t) but because by adopting one, they begin to understand more intimately what that view is.
As we brainstormed ideas, I recounted a few events – real and fictitious – that could fit the framework of a naturalist’s point of view. Then I told this story, which I’ll share here without giving away any further details.
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- Music: Hard Moon Light by E State
- Original image: ‘Wind #2 (diptych)‘ by: Snort McFetch
This post and the story contained here is copyright at A Teacher’s Writes.
March 10, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Whew, can I breathe now? This narrative brought me back to the story of the missing student from NEC a few years ago — do you remember, PJ? He left a party alone one weekend night; it was a cold, dark night and it was snowing pretty hard. The guy was kind of a jerk, so no one reported him missing until the next day. They didn’t find his body until six months later when spring came around — he was probably already dead before they reported him missing.
At what point does the “classic tragedy” become inevitable?
P.S. It’s always interesting that people who are hypothermic think they are too warm — PJ’s clothes were also found in a different location from his body.
March 11, 2008 at 5:35 am
Thanks for using my image on your blog!
Sounds like a great assignment.
March 11, 2008 at 5:56 am
Nice tale. Leaves you thinking…
March 11, 2008 at 11:22 am
Well, nice going, Ma. You’ve completely outed me and revealed my source. I’d actually just finished telling them about the NEC student when we concocted this tale. I’ll have the gal who’s writing another version of the same story ping me so others can see it.
March 13, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] wrote her own version of the story she, Stefanie, and I concocted about a girl getting isolated and desperately using her phone to call for help. It’s called [...]