In the story "Killings," by Andre Dubus, a family is heartbroken because their son was murdered. The father, Matt Fowler, and his family have to deal with the horrible murder of their son, Frank Fowler. The story starts off at the funeral of Frank and the father is depressed by his untimely death. His son was shot by his lover's ex-husband, Richard Strout, in the head. The man is still free to go as he pleases. The father struggle's to contain his inner revenge to avenge his son's death.
Matt doesn't have what it takes to kill someone but Richard is the total opposite since he has no remorse for killing an innocent boy. He wanted revenge for seeing his ex-wife with another man and so he took it upon himself to make him feel better by hurting her and her new family. Matt suffers through confusion on what to do about the situation.
After Matt kills Richard he is overwhelmed by grief. He has probably caused pain for Richard's girlfriend. After he kills him, he doesn't get the satisfaction that he thought would come to avenge his son's death. He feels more alone then he ever did. He now has to live with the guilt of killing another person.
I wasn't sure if this was your intro or not, however, if it was, it was very detailed and provided a lot of information about the story. Even though your blog post title says "Reader Response" I couldn't find exactly what part of reader response you are doing. For example, Horizons of Expectations, "Gaps", "Signals". The paragraphs seem more like a complete summary of the story.
ReplyDeleteOverall, your word choice is nice and clear and it presents nice images of the story. I just think you should probably elude to what part of Reader Response you are doing.
I chose to do Reader Response for my blog post, as well as using the short story "Killings". While reading the story I felt like I had many ways to go with reader Response--alluding to signals used by the author and using moral themes to tie together the gaps in the story--once I got started this posed to be much more difficult than I was imagining. Once I received feedback though, I realized that I was not being clear on whether I was using Reader Response or New criticism; it was more of a broad mixture of both. Reading your post it seemed like you were dealing with the same issue. Looking closer at the text and the requirements of both New Criticism and Reader Response again, this story (for me at least) seems like it may be easier to deal with a paradox and irony for New Criticism since there is so much of both throughout the text. I am still playing around with this, but just thought I'd give you some insight since it seems like your at about the same place as I am.
ReplyDeleteJess,Reader Response "Killings" #2 Jess Cantu
ReplyDeleteYou write, “In the story "Killings," by Andre Dubus, a family is heartbroken because their son was murdered. The father, Matt Fowler, and his family have to deal with the horrible murder of their son, Frank Fowler. “ These two sentences can be easily combined if this is the summary you’ll use in the paper. They say roughly the same thing.
“The story starts off at the funeral of Frank and the father is depressed by his untimely death.” This is EXPOSITION (the portion of a narrative that introduces characters/provides background information, so you might use the term.)
“His son was shot by his lover's ex-husband, Richard Strout,” – careful with pronouns; as is, this suggests Matt’s son was shot by Matt’s lover’s ex-husband. Whew! A complicated relationship that would be. ☺ When you’ve got two or more people of the same sex in the same sentence, look carefully at pronouns and default more to given names for clarity’s sake.
“ The father struggle's to contain his inner revenge to avenge his son's death.” Is the story’s main conflict/main inner conflict? You may want to point this out.
“Matt doesn't have what it takes to kill someone but Richard is the total opposite since he has no remorse for killing an innocent boy.” Is this a “clue” or “signal” , then, that leads the reader to empathize with Matt? The contrast in characterization that you imply here might point this way. You might also consider who is characterized first and how much more information you have about Matt and his family compared to info about Richard Strout. Could/does this act as a signal of sorts?
“He wanted revenge for seeing his ex-wife with another man and so he took it upon himself to make him feel better by hurting her and her new family. Matt suffers through confusion on what to do about the situation.” Is this confusion part of the Matt’s intenral conflict? Is this conflict growing stronger/more intense?
“After Matt kills Richard he is overwhelmed by grief.” Does this killing resolve Matt’s internal conflict?
“After he kills him, he doesn't get the satisfaction that he thought would come to avenge his son's death. He feels more alone then he ever did.” Any irony here? Did you expect Matt to feel vindicated, or do textual clues lead you to expect that he won’t?
“He now has to live with the guilt of killing another person.” How does this wrap up in terms of expectations? Textual signals?
You’re moving in the right direction, but you aren’t actively dealing in the language and concrete concepts of Reader Response. I hope the questions and suggestions help you expand.
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