The Third Born -- Close Reading Post

Close Readings 

The Third Born -- Mohsin Hamid   http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/09/24/120924fi_fiction_hamid  Page 1.  

"The Third Born" by Mohsin Hamid is a second-person narrative about the struggles of life in the worst conditions in the Middle East.   The imagery, language, and details used helps bring the reader into a world they have never been before.

There is no shortage of Imagery in "The Third Born".  From the very first sentence the reader is born into a "cold, dewy morning" where they are an unwanted third child clinging to life in a one-room mud shack.  When the almost unlivable conditions are described, Hamid opens up a whole new world.  The description of the father may not be "appealing" to the senses, but it is vivid: "...his leather sandals unslung at the rear, their straps flapping free, his chapped heels callused, crustacean-like".  Of course, in keeping with the narrative, the young boy who the reader is supposed to be has probably never seen a crustacean, but it works.  We understand who the father is; a bit uncaring, poor, and incredibly worn-down.  Hamid is not trying to have us be sympathetic towards the father, but instead see why he is gruff towards his children and unsatisfied with his life. 

Hamid's story is focused around the struggle to live in such a bad area.  The third child, who is likely to die, is one of many before him who have died.  The language he uses to describe this familiar process is that death exceptional.  "She feels your death push forward a few decades, take off its dark, dusty head scarf, and settle with open-haired familiarity and a lascivious smile into this, the single mud-walled room she shares with all her surviving offspring."  Death has a dark, dusty head scarf!  It settles into the room!  What a thing to say!  This is, of course, figurative.  It's not a fact.  Yet the reader is left feeling sad, and concerned for the boy who knows what death looks like.   

The first page of "The Third Born" is extremely descriptive, containing more information than plot.  The details are abundant, but they all are useful to the story.  Most of these details are told to bring the reader into this foreign world.  We don't need to know that the river which is used for bathing, drinking, and washing is also used as toilet by this family, and by hundreds of families up the river, but Hamid tells us anyways.  We could have understood that the father was a cook with no regard to quality or taste, but knowing that his "His food burns the tongue and clogs the arteries" brings the reader one step deeper. 

Open Prompt -- September 16

1978 Open Prompt using The Picture of Dorian Gray
September 16, 2012 

1978. Choose an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or character in a work of fiction or drama of recognized literary merit. Write an essay that explains how the incident or character is related to the more realistic of plausible elements in the rest of the work. Avoid plot summary.  

Imagine what it would be like to have a body which hid your evil doings by never growing old, with only a haunting portrait to remind you of your corrupt soul.  The 19th century British novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde tells this story of a physically beautiful man with a corrupt and ugly soul, his secret hidden within a fantastic painted portrait.  The portrait, which decays as Dorian commits one evil deed after another, is an unrealistic event which changes the life of Dorian forever.  While it is both implausible and unrealistic, the portrait relates to the realistic elements within the novel, creating a whole and understandable story. 

The changing portrait is not something anyone can relate to.  However, readers of the novel can relate to Dorian's struggle with his outward appearance.  He feels like his beauty is his greatest asset, and that he is a worthy person because of it.  Dorian later despises his perfect appearance, saying that it is not worth being haunted by the portrait.  His obsession with looks is only magnified by the portraits existence, making it an element that the reader can associate with.  

Dorian goes to all sorts of extremes within this novel.  He even reaches the point where his actions are controlled by the portrait, leading him to kill another man after he shares his secret with him.  Being controlled by a desire or secret is a very realistic element many readers can relate to.  While I'm sure none have committed murder in order to guard a secret, it is fair to say that many people have things about themselves they wish not to share and will protect from others.  For example, I have friends who will never, under no circumstances, leave the house without makeup for fear of being seen without.  Is this not unlike Dorian Gray, doing all he can to guard the secret of his inner corrupt being?  I think not.  The portrait is more than a portrait to Dorian, and the reader can understand how they have similar "portraits" they hide.  

It's an absurd idea, that there really could be a "picture of your soul", but Oscar Wilde weaves it in to the point where the reader can't doubt its existence, even if it only is alive in Dorian's head.  And while it may be crazy, it fits. It adds a whole new fantastic level to the novel, while still being familiar and relevant to the reader.

Response:  

At first, 40 minutes seemed like a long time, until I was working on the last paragraph and saw I had 2 minutes to finish it up, and was still planning on writing another paragraph.  It was also difficult to think back to last year when I read the book, and instead had to rely on past knowledge.  As I went on writing it started to all come back, but a review of it would have been very helpful before I started writing!

Response to Course Material -- Week 1, Sept 9th

Response to Course Material Week 1, September 9th 

The prezis I took notes on were filled with good ideas on reaching your audience so that your writing accomplishes something.  This got me thinking of the audience I will have come May when I'm taking the AP test.  The audience will all be very knowledgeable when it comes to literature and English, will have read many, many, other students' writing, and will be comparing what I say and do to the other students.  

So to please this audience, the tips in Essay Writing Basics are all beyond useful.  It's important to keep in mind the "Speaker/Persona; What kind of person do you want to seem like?"  And while I first thought it was silly to mention, "answer the prompt!" certainly has its uses too.   A summary of the facts is not good enough, but going deeper and asking WHY and HOW sets the good AP-student apart, and that is something I need to remember.  Quoting evidence, even while the audience has read the selections close to a million times, is key to a good grade.  The terms MUST be said and in the correct ways, to show those judges I know what I'm talking about.  And the essay must be persuasive, which leads into what The Rhetorical Situation was talking about. To be persuasive, your argument should be logically organized. It seems like I've understood the need of a strong intro, body, and conclusion since the 3rd grade, and for the AP test that's no exception.  This foreseen "act of communication" must communicate what I want it to in May, and it's never to early to begin thinking about it!