THE RIVER WHY PAPER PROMPT:
In David James Duncan's The River Why, the narrator Gus defines native intelligence as:
A native is a man or creature or plant indigenous to
a limited geographical area-a space boundaried by mountains,
rivers, or coastline (not by latitudes, longitudes, or state and
county lines), with its own peculiar mixture of weeds, trees,
bugs, birds, flowers, streams, hills, rocks, and critters (including people),
its own nuances of rain, wind, and seasonal change.
Native intelligence develops through an unspoken or
soft-spoken relationship with these interwoven things:
it evolves as the native involves himself in his region. . .(it develops)
through long intimacy with an intellignet native. . .with your
native world.
(Duncan 72-73)
Gus is implicitly suggesting his desire to become a native and to develop his own native intelligence. Gus is a non-native when he rejects his family, companionship, society, spirituality, and free will. Gus especially demonstrates non-native behavior when he becomes irreverent towards spirituality, committed to self-love, distraught about the meaninglessness of life and the preponderance of death, and misanthropic from witnessing environmental destruction to the point of hopeless despair and inaction.
PAPER QUESTION:
What are the defining moments in Gus's life that allow him to "come of age," travel through and overcome the depression, misanthropy, skepticism, selfishness, and existential despair young man in order to become a(n) loving, faithful, ecocentric, and spiritual sdult who possesses native intelligence?
Key categories to explore are Gus' evolving views of:
1) family
2) environment
3) mortality
4) spirituality
5) love
6) fate / free will
6) perception and knowing
7) natives
8) concordia discors
Key transformative moments / people:
1) Anvil Abe and death
2) Bill Bob's Garden World and mortality / afterlife
2) Eddy and love
3) playing the Chinook and love
4) the w h y in the river and environmentalism
5) Thomas Bigeater and environmentalism
6) Wolf Clan story and environmentalism
7) Tillamook boy:"the source is everywhere" and spirituality
8) the scar in Nick's palm story and spirituality
9) the mecca must be inside you and “source is everywhere spirituality
10) Titus, Bill Bob, Eddy, Thomas, Nick and Hu as natives
11) H2O and MA as native and non-natives
12) Titus on Gus’s misperception
13) w-h-y and raven perspective in the river and perception
14) raven perspective and play the chinook and Concordia discors and inner equlibrium
15 “wish I knew: and spirituality”
Working Definitions to establish:
"In order to define __________, it is helpful to define what it is not. The opposite of ___________ is ______________________________. However, __________ constitutes __________________________________________________________.
CONCEPTS TO DEFINE IN YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: IN THIS ORDER
-NON-NATIVE (in your Introduction)
-NATIVE (in your Introduction)
-NATIVE INTELLIGENCE (in your Introduction)
CONCEPTS TO DEFINE IN YOUR ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS:
-“SEEING---> PERCEIVING---> KNOWING”---> "ACTION"
-ECOCENTRISM
-THE SOURCE IS EVERYWHERE
-MECCA INSIDE YOU
-INNER EQUILIBRIUM
-UNLOOKED FOR HELP
-ECOLOGICAL INTERCONNECTIVITY
-CONCORDIA DISCORS: faith stems from the knowledge of the reconciliation of opposites at any one moment in time
STANDARD ESSAYS: CONCEPT DEFINITION-COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER
-develop four passages in The River Why that show how Gus transforms according to two categories.
-one passage that analyzes non-native Gus in a category and then one that analyzes native Gus in a category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-develop four “working definitions”. You will define native and non-native and native intelligence, but choose at least one more concept. See above.
-compare and contrast non native Gus to native Gus for each category in which Gus evolves.
HONORS ESSAYS: CONCEPT DEFINITION-COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER
-develop six passages in The River Why that show how Gus transforms according to three categories:
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in a category and then one that shows native Gus in a category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-compare and contrast non native Gus to native Gus for each category in which Gus evolves.
-develop six “working definition” concepts in analysis: native and non-native and native intelligence must be defined. Add at least three more. See above.
-apply three passages from The Transcendentalist Collection: quote from Emerson's "Nature" or "Self Reliance" and / or Thoreau's Walden
-use the Transcendentalist passages in the way that you used The Hero's Journey stages passages: they will occur after the passage on Gus and will serve as fodder to enhance your analysis.
---For example, if you are writing about Gus's pantheistic belief that nature is interfused with spirit, then you could quote from Emerson's nature in which he states "(nature) is the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to the individual...behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present..." (Emerson 226). You would then use phrases from this passage to elevate your analysis of native Gus's realization and faith that a spirit is interfused in nature.
CONCEPTS TO DEFINE AND APPLY IN YOUR GUS PAPER:
NATIVE: a person who "indigenous to a limited geographical area-a space boundaried by mountains,rivers, or coastline (not by latitudes, longitudes, or state and county lines), with its own peculiar mixture of weeds, trees,bugs, birds, flowers, streams, hills, rocks, and critters (including people), its own nuances of rain, wind, and seasonal change." A person who sees himself or herself as a member of the ecosystem and a key member of the human community. A person who learns from nature's perspective" of the world as well as from other people's perspectives of the world. A person who has faith in himself and the world. A loving, empathetic, faithful, ecocentric, and spiritual person.
NON-NATIVE: a person who "awakes in the morning in a body in a bed in a room in a building on a street in a county in a state in a nation." A person who views nature from an anthropocentric lens and who does not learn from nature nor the people within his or her community. A person without faith in himself nor the world. A non-native rejects his family, companionship, society, and faith / spirituality.
NATIVE INTELLIGENCE: "Native intelligence develops through an unspoken or soft-spoken relationship with the interwoven things (of his natural and human communities): it evolves as the native involves himself in his region." Native intelligence has a grateful and optimistic perspective on family, faith, nature, society, and self.
CONCORDIA DISCORS: faith stems from the knowledge of the reconciliation of opposites at any one moment in time, faith in the harmony of disagreeing tensions in the world and self. (i.e. illustrative examples: good and evil, loss and growth, war and peace, innocence and experience perspectives, non-native and native, sadness and joy, death and new life...)
ANTHROPOCENTRISM: a human centered view of the world that contends that all things in nature serve the needs of humans.
ECOCENTRISM: an ecosystem centered view of the world that contends that all things in nature serve to support the sustainability and viability of the ecosystem.
LAND ETHIC: "a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." (Aldo Leopold)
"UNLOOKED FOR HELP": assistance provided a person who is faithless, frustrated, angry, and cynical to save them from his or her despair and move them toward faith in the self and the world.
SOURCE IS EVERYWHERE 1: a belief that the origin of all natural objects is connected to all other natural objects and has been forming since the beginning of time. A belief that any one natural object is connected in space and time to everything else in an intact ecosystem.
SOURCE IS EVERYWHERE 2: a belief that the origin of all natural objects stems from a divine force and has been present in natural objects since the beginning of time. A belief that any one natural object is connected spiritually in space and time to everything else in an intact ecosystem.
ECOLOGICAL / SPIRITUAL INTERCONECTIVITY: all natural objects are connected to all other natural objects ecologically through interactions in an ecosystem and that all natural objects stem from a divine force since the beginning of time.
PANTHEISM: finding a divine presence or spirit in nature and man.
WISH I KNEW: the desire to quest toward knowledge that will lead to a faith.
FREE WILL: the belief that one's thoughts and actions are the sole factors in one's self-realization.
FATE: the belief that an unknown outside force is the sole factor in one's self-realization.
FREE WILL WITHIN DIVINE PROVIDENCE: the belief that one's thoughts and actions work in conjunction with God's will in the world.
SOUL POLE: the idea that man is essential or "crucial" in the discovery and implementation of Divine Providence
MECCA INSIDE: the idea that one's mind, one's knowledge obtained by becoming conscious of how one perceives the world is a source of faith.
“SEEING---> PERCEIVING---> KNOWING---> ACTION": the process of moving from observing without thought to grasping concepts from observations to acting on this new knowledge
INNER EQUILIBRIUM: a state of mind in which a person resolves inner tensions, in which the "gnawing dissatisfactions" with the self and the world are perceived as valuable and balanced by the undeserved, "unlooked for" epiphanies that lead to faith in the self and the world.
"PLAY THE CHINOOK" AND HOW TO LOVE: the idea that in order to love well one must be content with one's self and patiently approach a relationship as a journey without a destination, without the desire for possession, without "tension", and without "betrayal."
STOP READING HERE 2022 STUDENTS
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OLD PAPER PROMPT:
THE RIVER WHY PAPER PROMPT:
In David James Duncan's The River Why, the narrator Gus defines native intelligence as:
A native is a man or creature or plant indigenous to
a limited geographical area-a space boundaried by mountains,
rivers, or coastline (not by latitudes, longitudes, or state and
county lines), with its own peculiar mixture of weeds, trees,
bugs, birds, flowers, streams, hills, rocks, and critters (including people),
its own nuances of rain, wind, and seasonal change.
Native intelligence develops through an unspoken or
soft-spoken relationship with these interwoven things:
it evolves as the native involves himself in his region.
(Duncan 53-54)
Gus is implicitly suggesting his desire to become a native and to develop his own native intelligence. Gus is a non-native when he rejects his family, companionship, society, spirituality, and free will. Gus especially demonstrates non-native behavior when he becomes irreverent towards spirituality, distraught about the meaninglessness of life and the preponderance of death, and misanthropic from witnessing environmental destruction to the point of hopeless despair and inaction.
In William Blake's experienced perspective, we are irreverent and cynical and possess a disillusioned view of nature, humans, and society as imbalanced toward destruction, self-destruction, and evil- all influenced by a vindictive and unforgiving God. We believe we live in an improvidential universe. Non-native Gus is irreverent, cynical, and self destructive and views the world through an experienced perspective.
PAPER QUESTION:
What are the defining moments in Gus's life that allow him to "come of age," travel through and overcome the depression, misanthropy, solipsism, and skepticism of his experienced perspective in order to become a(n) loving, faithful, ecocentric, and spiritual adult who sees the world through organized innocent perspective and who possesses native intelligence?
Key categories to explore are Gus' evolving views of:
1) family
2) environment
3) mortality
4) spirituality
5) love
6) fate / free will
6) perception and knowing
7) natives
8) concordia discors
Key transformative moments / people:
1) Anvil Abe and death
2) Bill Bob's Garden World and mortality / afterlife
2) Eddy and love
3) playing the Chinook and love
4) the w h y in the river and environmentalism
5) Thomas Bigeater and environmentalism
6) Wolf Clan story and environmentalism
7) Tillamook boy:"the source is everywhere" and spirituality
8) the scar in Nick's palm story and spirituality
9) the mecca must be inside you and “source is everywhere spirituality
10) Titus, Bill Bob, Eddy, Thomas, Nick and Hu as natives
11) H2O and MA as native and non-natives
12) Titus on Gus’s misperception
13) w-h-y and raven perspective in the river and perception
14) raven perspective and play the chinook and Concordia discors and inner equlibrium
15 “wish I knew: and spirituality”
Working Definitions to establish:
"In order to define __________, it is helpful to define what it is not. The opposite of ___________ is ______________________________. However, __________ constitutes __________________________________________________________.
CONCEPTS TO DEFINE IN YOUR INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH: IN THIS ORDER
-NON-NATIVE (in your Introduction)
-NATIVE (in your Introduction)
-NATIVE INTELLIGENCE (in your Introduction)
CONCEPTS TO DEFINE IN YOUR ANALYSIS PARAGRAPHS:
-EXPERIENCED PERSPECTIVE (compare to being a non-native)
-ORGANIZED INNOCENT PERSPECTIVE (compare to developing native intelligence)
-“SEEING---> PERCEIVING---> KNOWING”---> ACTION
-ECOCENTRISM
-THE SOURCE IS EVERYWHERE
-MECCA INSIDE YOU
-INNER EQUILIBRIUM
-UNLOOKED FOR HELP
-ECOLOGICAL INTERCONNECTIVITY
-CONCORDIA DISCORS: faith stems from the knowledge of the reconciliation of opposities at any one moment in time
STANDARD ESSAYS: CLOSE READ-CONCEPT DEFINITION-COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER
-develop four passages in The River Why that show how Gus transforms according to two categories.
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in a category and then one that shows native Gus in a category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-close read AT LEAST one of these Blake paintings: see Good and Evil Angels, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Blossom, The Sick Rose, A Poison Tree, The Creation of Adam, Songs of Innocence Cover Page, Songs of Experience Cover Page, The Web of Religion and The Dance of Albion, Ancient of Days, The Laocoon, Illustrations of the Book of Job, The Union of the Soul with God: please consult the William Blake coffee table book in my room for analyses
-develop three “working definitions” in analysis.
-apply the Blake perspectives of Experience and Organized Innocence (counts as two concepts)
-apply Duncan's definition of native intelligence (counts as one concept)
HONORS ESSAYS: CLOSE READ-CONCEPT DEFINITION-COMPARE AND CONTRAST PAPER
-develop six passages in The River Why that show how Gus transforms according to three categories:
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in a category and then one that shows native Gus in a category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-one passage that shows non-native Gus in another category and then one that shows native Gus in another category
-close read one of these Blake paintings: see Good and Evil Angels, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Blossom, The Sick Rose, A Poison Tree, The Creation of Adam, Songs of Innocence Cover Page, Songs of Experience Cover Page, The Web of Religion and The Dance of Albion, Ancient of Days, The Laocoon, Illustrations of the Book of Job, The Union of the Soul with God: please consult the William Blake coffee table book in my room for analyses
-develop six “working definition” concepts in analysis.
-apply the Blake perspectives of Experience and Organized Innocence (counts as two concepts)
-apply Duncan's definition of native intelligence and compare and contrast with Organized Innocence ("Native Intelligence" counts as one concept)
-other concepts to define and apply in analysis paragraphs:
-ECOCENTRISM
-THE SOURCE IS EVERYWHERE
-MECCA INSIDE YOU
-INNER EQUILIBRIUM
-UNLOOKED FOR HELP
-ECOLOGICAL INTERCONNECTIVITY
-CONCORDIA DISCORS: