In this lesson, we discussed whether our external knowledge about the T-rex - as established (for a shared knowledge base) through yesterday's LA Times article and today's anticipation guide - reveals that Bradbury accurately portrayed the Tyrant Lizard in "A Sound of Thunder." Then we reread the scene in which the dinosaur appears (pp. 77-78), and evaluated the emotional and attitude change in Eckels that occurred by identifying adjectives (and text details!) that described him before and after his confrontation with the T-rex. For a second time, we read aloud the description paragraph of the T-rex (as excerpted below), but this time, we highlighted any words or phrases (imagery!) that stood out to us. After sharing our findings, we took several consecutive sentences - student choice! - from the descriptive paragraph and tried to rewrite them to make the T-rex seem less scary and dangerous. By doing so, we realized that Bradbury's purposefully demonizing portrait of the T-rex supported the character change in Eckels. The imagery made the dinosaur justifiably scary, making it seem reasonable for Eckels to panic and exhibit cowardice.
We applied two more vocabulary terms to the text to describe the effect of the T-rex on Eckels: "dynamic character" and "disillusionment."
Vocabulary Latin Element: DIS-
To introduce a key term that we will later apply to the character change in Eckels, we looked at another Latin element, "DIS-." By brainstorming example words that began with that prefix, we filled out the graphic organizer to the right. On a teacher-made chart, we looked at the root words, discussed their meanings, and then added the prefix "dis" and described what happened to the meaning of the word to hypothesize the specific meaning of the Latin element. We grounded the Latin prefix in the lesson by discussing how Eckels's "idealization" of the "biggest game" clashed with the scary reality, "disillusioning" him from his false, advertisement-induced beliefs.
DIS (Latin): Not, To the opposite
DISILLUSIONMENT
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Disillusionment:
A feeling of
disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as
one believed it to be.
Imagery: use of vivid, descriptive language that appeals to one of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell).
Dynamic Character: A character that undergoes an important inner change - like a change in personality, perspective, or attitude - over the course of a literary work. Usually the character experiences a conflict and is changed by it.
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IMAGERY:
"It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air...The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate, even while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the wilderness." (p. 77-78).
The Relationship between Characterization & Imagery: The Effect of the T-Rex on Eckels After reading the text excerpt of the scene in which Eckels encounters the T-rex, we brainstormed adjectives that described Eckels once he saw the dinosaur (i.e Was he courageous? Was he determined? Was he terrified? Was he flustered?). Once we had a solid list, we went back to the text to identify a specific quote that proved our adjectives were accurate. Then we went back to the beginning of the text and analyzed Eckels attitude about time time travel and emotional state prior to his journey back in time (i.e. When he was talking with "the man behind the desk," was he determined, was he excited?). Similar to how we supported our first list with a textual evidence, we pulled a quote to support our brainstormed adjectives for Eckels's initial demeanor. Looking at the juxtaposed lists, we discussed how the T.rex changed Eckels (and classified Excels as a "dynamic character"). Then, on a second reading of the text excerpt, we looked at why the T.rex changed Eckels by highlighting the imagery. After rewriting several lines from the excerpt to make it a more neutral description of the dinosaur's appearance, we realized that the demonizing portrait actually worked to justify Eckels reaction. |