Impressionism- Examples
Impressionism- Examples
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We will be comparing Doerr's lyrical writing style to that of the Impressionist painters.
What is the history of the Impressionist movement? What are the hallmarks of Impressionism?
How does the novel use the interlocking quality of images and syntax to suggest the interconnectedness of mankind? What images do we see repeated in Marie-Laure and Werner's chapter that remind us that their stories are linked?
Example: Nightmares (66 & 68) and the inevitability of war (61, 64, & 69)
Find 5 more examples of interlocking language from the first 70 pages of the novel. Be sure to include the quote (or partial quote) from each chapter and some commentary on any additional meanings you derive from the image.
In pgs. 95-116 Doerr returns to where the book began, the bombing of Saint Malo. The Part 2 chapters are particularly Impressionist in their imagist and symbolist language, their focus on light and motion, and their departure from straightforward plotting. They invoke a strong TONE because of the emotional quality of the language. Today's creative assessment challenges you to find a moment from the text that has a particularly VISUAL quality and to craft a representation of its tone visually.
Prevailing Image Journal: Choose 1 of last night's chapters and then identify a prevailing image- one that carries weight, that lingers with you. Complete a journal page (notes, writing, art, etc) of your choice focused on this image and what Doerr is accomplishing with it. Is it symbolic? Does it connect back on the spiral? Is it part of a larger motif? Does it develop the character further?
"Some of the boys... develop a fondness for firing volleys into the trees to see how many birds they can hit. The tree looks uninhabited and calm; then someone fires, and its crown shatters in all directions, a hundred birds exploding in to flight in half a second, shrieking as though the whole tree has flown apart. In the dormitory one night, Frederick rests his forehead against the glass. 'I hate them. I hate them for that.'" (185)
"... down here Werner hears only the radio voices of his childhood... He sees a forest of dying sunflowers. He sees a flock of blackbirds explode out of a tree." (15)
In "Weakest (#2)" Doerr alludes in obvious (and subtle) ways to Yeats' Modernist nightmare vision "The Second Coming". Read and listen to the audio, and make annotations based on connections you see in the chapter.
“The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
--Something Beautiful, Something Terrible--
"Werner tries to see what Frederick sees: a time before photography, before binoculars. And here was someone willing to tramp out into a wilderness brimming with the unknown and bring back paintings. A book not so much full of birds as full of evanescence, of blue-winged, trumpeting mysteries." (221)
Extension Journal: Click on any of the 3 images to go to the Audubon Society's 2022 Photograpy Top 100. Scroll through the images. Imagine being Frederick- try to "see" the birds through his eyes. Choose an image and write a short reaction to it. What is the TONE of the image? What do you think Frederick would appreciate about it?
Make a quick sketch of the bird you've chosen and label it.
Hazen's Art Journal Reading Section SketchNote Sample Pages
Hazen's Art Journal Reading Section SketchNote Sample Pages
"Inside the House"
"I Hear You"
"One Pure Thing"
"He is Here"
Window Quotes
Window Quotes
Choose a quote(s) that speaks to you in some way- its beauty, its power, its horror- and write it on the window
Bean Bag Chat
Bean Bag Chat
Take your book/journal to the bean bag circle and discuss last night's reading
Puzzle Pieces
Puzzle Pieces
Build a puzzle from yesterday's pieces. Make new puzzle pieces from any of the readings.
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