Understandably, many of the initial answers to the essential questions stayed at the general level. Now we have read Tobias Wolff's story, "The Chain."
What happens when you apply the specifics of that story to one of the ideas emerging from those initial comments--either your ideas or someone else's? Or maybe the story has prompted additional thoughts; feel free to discuss those, if so.
To help build discussion and discovery, make your comments as clear, specific and developed as possible. I look forward to your thoughts. As the blog builds, we move in the direction of collective conversation, and away from the teacher-question-student-answer model.
Finally, we are exploring how to use this blog venue to our advantage. In the process, I imagine, we will begin to discern differences between writing here and producing paragraphs or essays offline. I often find it helpful to ask three questions when writing: "What am I writing and for whom? What is the writing's central purpose? How can I best shape the writing for this particular audience and purpose? Let's keep these questions in mind, as we explore the course questions in this venue.
I found it interesting that the story went from following the lives of specific characters to opening up to a broader range of people. I believe this was intended to show that an act of revenge--and lack of forgiveness--can affect multiple people. For instance, the story started with Ana being bitten by the dog. This set off a chain reaction of events that culminated with Gold smashing Barnes' car. Little did Gold know that this act would lead to the death of an innocent boy.
ReplyDeleteIt was also ironic that the boy who died was described as a "peacemaker," which was the element lacking throughout the entire story.
Finally, I want to speak to the essential questions. At the beginning of the story, it seemed like Gold had a very difficult time forgiving others; he had the dog killed and took a crowbar to Barnes' car in revenge. At the end of the story, however, I think Gold is hit with the fact that forgiveness is an important virtue. In the last scene he is seen grieving the death of the boy. The full impact of his actions hit him and now he must confront the hardest task of all: forgiving himself.
When we finished reading the story, I started to think about the meaning of the name, "The Chain." Initially, I thought it was just referring to the chain the vicious dog was attached to, but then I tried to look for a deeper meaning of the name. I think that the name, "The Chain", really refers to the chain-reaction that was caused by the initial killing of the dog. By Tom killing the dog, Gold felt he owed Tom. Then, when the time came around, Gold felt obligated to carry out the vandalizing of the car for Tom. That then triggered Vics reaction, which then resulted in the death of an innocent teenage boy. If Gold had forgiven the dog, releasing the feeling/need for revenge, all would have been avoided.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, I noticed that emotions play a huge role with forgiveness. Both the father in the beginning and Rourke, let their frustration and anger get to them, giving them the need for revenge. Had they been emotionally stable and been patient as we discussed today, perhaps they would have forgiven the dog and Vick.
ReplyDeleteAlso I just noticed that the father was depending on the law system to get his justice but in the end he ends up breaking the law for his buddy's revenge.
Good points appear in each of these first three posts. Later commentators can now build on any of these existing ideas, or add new ones of their own. As we move through the course, let's try to take turns posting first, so that everyone has a chance to experience different locations in the discussion sequence. I notice that people have already identified ideas worth examining in extended off-line writing, but we can use this space--i.e., the blog--to examine the ones that spark further discussion. For example, when you see someone else's idea, you may want to toss it around in your hands, flip it over and upside down, maybe like a piece of fresh dough, to see what kind of potential it has. Will it rise, if you put it in the oven? Has it been sufficiently kneaded, or does it need more before it will produce a tastey and nourishing loaf? SO far, I like the blog's ability to help us work with the dough--by talking about it.
ReplyDeleteI also think it was an interesting story. Like Sebastian, I thought the chain referred to the chain the dog was on but at the end I figured out that it was more like a chain reaction. I think this is the most important part. A lot of times we do things and sometimes we don't really think about its affect on others. Little did they know it would go so far as the death of an innocent boy. Similar to Cindy's point, I think if they thought about the situation more and calmed down they wouldn't have acted on their emotions which wouldn't have occurred in that unfortunate chain of events.
ReplyDeleteI think that this story shows what happens when people initially react to an event. Brian Gold and Rourke were so frustrated with the law of the chain as well as the dog that they were willing to do anything to protect Gold's daughter. Their intentions were good, however their reactions were unjustified. Forgiveness plays a big role because this is a case where people let their frustration get the best of them.
ReplyDeleteI think that this story speaks to how little we think about the repercussions of our actions. One action always triggers another action or emotion in another and so on and so forth which becomes a chain on actions and re-actions. This is th natural order of things but the problem occurs when people do not pause to think about the next link in the chain after their action. The dog for example has no power of higher thinking and cannot process that information but when Gold was going off to destroy Vick's car for Tom, he was fully conscious and aware of what he was doing. he wanted revenge for his friend however he naively thought that the chain would end there. He did not consider that His actions would trigger another re-action in Vick which would eventually lead to the death of an innocent boy.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the story "The Chain", I could not help but think about the chain of reactions (hint hint) that unfolded due to peoples unwillingness to forgive. Had Gold forgiven the dog for attacking his child, then the rest of the events, particularly Marcel's death, would of been avoided. In my opinion, Gold should of focused on the fact that his daughter came away from the attack unscathed. Yes, its frustrating that a dangerous dog is allowed to roam around the childrens' park, however, maybe Gold should of taken a more appropriate approach to the situation. I think he should of talked and voiced his concern to the dogs owners. The whole situation could of been avoided. Forgiveness would of saved Marcel's life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kimiko that Gold should have tried harder to contact the dog's owners. I wonder why he didn't. I also wonder what effect is created by our never actually seeing the owners. As Erin points out, by comparison people do have higher order thinking than the dog. Why don't we use it sometimes?
ReplyDeleteThe combination of Bobby's and Melissa's comments reinforce the idea that relatively simple emotions like frustration can lead to unforeseen consequences.