9.The Key to My Father

This is an open blog forum for Coben's very short story "The Key to My Father". You decide what you would like to post. You may like to consider characterization/the descriptions of the father, genre/point of view, the symbol of the key, your response to the text and so on.

8. Adolescence

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Rebel Without a Cause and "The Continued Myth of Adolescence" all address the thorny issue of the transition from childhood to adulthood.

TASK ONE
Write a brief character analysis of Connie, Arnold Friend or Jim Stark.

TASK TWO
Underline all the references to music in Oates' story and consider at which points music is integrated into the story. How do these references help to create meaning?

TASK THREE
Nichols makes a number of hypotheses as to why youth has been devalued over time. To what extent are her arguments justified? Can you see any of the effects of this devaluation on Connie? On Jim Stark? Justify your answer with reference to the texts/film.

TASK FOUR
Compare and contrast the main points Nichols makes about adolescence with your observations and experience of Turkish society.

TASK FIVE
Write 2-3 possible final exam questions which synthesize 2-3 of these texts (Oates; the film; Nichols), just as we did before the midterm: evaluate; compare/contrast; discuss; argue, etc.

7. Family ties

The three texts we read on the gay marriage debate force us to look more closely at marriage as an institution and what it means to society. Maggie Gallagher's insistence on marriage for procreation and the protection of children raises some interesting and debatable questions about what exactly constitutes a 'family'. This brings us neatly to our second course theme, FAMILY TIES. From now until the end of the semester, we will be exploring this concept through our readings, films and oral presentations.

So, in order to set the theme, please explore the following questions:

What exactly is a family? Is it a group of people bound together by love? By marriage? By blood? By history? By shared memories? By economic dependency? By habit? What unites family members and what divides them? Does family denote only a traditional nuclear family or also a family broken by divorce and blended by remarriage? (all questions taken from The Blair Reader, p.78).

In answering these questions, consider your observations of Turkish society as well as your own personal experiences.

6. And Of Clay Are We Created

TASK ONE
Locate all references to distance (emotional and physical) in the text. How does the concept of distance change as the story progresses? How are these changes related to notions of subjectivity and objectivity? How do they relate to Rolf Carlé? To the narrator?

TASK TWO
What ironic contrasts can you find between Azucena's and Rolf Carlé's journeys in the story? What role does the theme of religion/spirituality play here?

TASK THREE
Comment on the role of photojournalism in the modern world.