In small groups, describe the evaluative question you responded to last night and then share your response. Ask your groupmates for their reactions as well.  Once you have discussed that question, move on to the next person's question.

What role does the setting play in this story?  How is it crucial to the ideas/questions explored in this story? Please include at least one direct citation in your response.

What is ironic and tragic about The Misfits?

Irony in The Misfits

            An example of the way Miller equates financial independence with personal dignity is evident in his short story “The Misfits.”  The ironic struggle of the cowboys to remain self-sufficient obviously fits Miller’s idea of the tragic struggle for self-dignity.  In the story, the men are willing to lead poor, transient lives because “Anything’s better than wages” (“Misfits” 132).  The men invoke that saying multiple times throughout the course of the story.  It embodies their desire to remain financially independent, to rely on their own work to earn a living.  The idea of working “so somebody else can buy gas for his Cadillac” is repulsive to the men (“Misfits” 132).  It offends their sense of self-dignity.  The irony of their situation makes their struggle tragic: in order to preserve their independence, the cowboys capture wild horses and sell them for dog feed.  Horses—fleet-footed, noble animals—have long embodied the independent spirit of the West.  To further emphasize this link between the wild horses and the independent men, Miller even has one character describe the one of the horses as “nothin’ but a misfit,” just like the men (139).  Clearly, Miller is implying that, by exploiting the creatures that embody independence, the cowboys are tragically betraying their own values in their futile attempt to preserve their financial independence.

Tonight: Finish your reflection. 

Wesley

Skill-Building Assessment

Step 1: If you had an A- or lower, evaluate your writing on the recent paper. If you had an A or A+, you don’t need to do this.  You will be doing some reading and/or writing enrichment starting tomorrow.

Due date: October 21, 2016

Step 2: Tomorrow, October 21, 2016

What are the areas you feel you need to work on?

1) Writing clear, concise prose

You might want to choose this if your major problems are related to wordiness/language clutter, filler words, vague or empty words, misplaced modifiers, awkward diction or syntax, excessive use of the passive voice and verbs of being.

2) Avoiding comma splices:

 If I circled commas and/or wrote “punc” or CS next to your paper. Comma splices occur when you incorrectly join two independent clauses with only a comma.  Sentence recognition problems (where they end) is the issue here.

3) Writing a focused, detailed and meaningful thesis statement and clearly connected topic sentences for each body paragraph

4) Properly punctuating citations and avoiding floating quotes (according to MLA guidelines)

5) Other problems with punctuation (e.g. proper use of commas, colons, semicolons, apostrophes, etc)

6) Unity and/or coherence: If you tried to talk about too many topics or had trouble creating smooth and coherent connections, this could be an area in need of improvement. Usually personal or societal connection papers focus on a particular central idea and support it with specific details.  Weaker papers use several ideas and support them with abstract or hypothetical examples (especially a problem with personal connections papers that were mistakenly built around a typical academic essay structure)

7) Voice (especially a problem with personal connections papers that sounded and were structured more like traditional academic essays). Personal or societal connection papers which lack a focused central idea or concern also tended to have weak examples and weak voice.

8) Weak or abstract examples

8) Wrong structure/genre for the prompt you chose

9) Some other problem (e.g. redundancy, poor word choices, poor choice of supporting evidence, misinterpretation of the text, etc.)

If you had an A- or lower, you must do the following for tomorrow: Using your own insights, my feedback, and evidence from your paper, write a reflection on what went well and what did not in your paper; focus primarily on identifying the areas you feel you need to work on to improve upon in this paper in particular, and perhaps in your writing in general: