Text EXPLORATION #1

Text-Exploration #1

The passage below is Gan’s reaction to witnessing T’Gatoi rip open Lomas to extract the young tlics (maggots) out of his abdomen. From this passage I am hoping to understand how the horror of the pregnancy affects Gan as a character and how it affects others.

“I knew birth was painful and bloody, no matter what. But this was something else, something worse.”- pg16

Wording: From the word “knew” we are able to conclude that Gan has had a previous idea on pregnancy and what he expected and what he didn’t. While he did have his own ideas on what it was they are thrown out the window when experienced first hand and has an obvious traumatic effect on him. From this we know that Gan actually had understood the concept of humans behaving as hosts for the Tlic’s. What we don’t know for sure is if he was aware that he was going to be the one to undergo the procedure.

Word Definition : According to the OED the definition of the word painful is, “causing or accompanied by mental pain or suffering; distressing, hurtful.” The word bloody according to the OED is, “Covered, smeared, or stained with blood; bleeding.” This was Gan’s previous idea of birth. But the book simply states that birth is painful and bloody which not only applies to the birth of Tlics but to the birth of humans as well.

Connection/Trouble : And yet by humans, the birth of humans is seen as beautiful while the birth of Tlics is seen as cruel while both births contain blood and pain. While Gan has understood that birth was as bloody and painful as this he seemed to be comfortable with the fact that it’ll be his sister undergoing the birth until after he viewed it. Therefore what are the teenagers like Gan showed in the diagrams and sketches that are used to describe the birth? Is understanding that your abdomen gets ripped open sounds as painful and bloody as it really is? (cause I’ve seen the walking dead and yes it really is.)

Syntax: “..something else, something worse.” From this statement we understand that Gan sees the concept of birth a new way beyond what he could’ve imagined and that can only be described as worse than what he had originally imagined.

Paraphrase: It is from this moment on where Gan understands the relationship of the Tlics and Terrans and begins reconsidering it. It is this moment that he describes the last night of his childhood as he questions what is he and his siblings to T’Gatoi and whether he should be the one to undergo the pregnancy.

Formula BETA

Question:What effect does the the blood and gore in the short story Bloodchild have on its story?

Status Quo: Stories that consist of mature scenes of blood and gore have the single purpose of simply disturbing the reader.

Trouble: While the story did have disturbing from the mature details, a lot of depth within the plot is found as well as a much different purpose for the mature sequences other than simply disturbing the reader.

Claim: The blood and gore in the short story Bloodchild has the sole purpose of intensifying the plot and creating an understanding of the decision making of the main character.

Exploratory Writing

Gabriel Hudson

3/6/15

Exploratory Draft

45 minutes

In Octavia E. Butler’s, Bloodchild, is the sci-fi short story of humans who live on a foreign planet with an alien race known as Tlics. Tlics breed humans to use as hosts to reproduce. Each Tlic is given to a family where a male is destined to become the host for the Tlic. Although it is fed to the whole family, the Tlics use eggs to impregnate the destined male (or rarely a female). These eggs are not only found delicious but have a drugging effect. The story is told from the perspective of a young boy named Gan. After seeing the horrible event that is the birth of T’lics he is given the choice of either accepting his position as the destined child or give his position to his older sister Han. Throughout the story are multiple instances of mature, gruesome, and disturbing scenes such as the where a host named Lomas is literally ripped open by T’ Gatoi, or when Qui describes the “worms” eating their way out of a man, or sipping the fluid out of alien eggs, or the blood that T ‘ Gatoi licks as she rips open Lomas and the possibility that she enjoys the taste, or the horrid thought of being cradled by a furry six long armed alien, and finally the graphic impregnation of Gan at the end of the story. The story is hands-down disturbing and is very obvious that it was the intentions of the author to make it so. But explaining these parts to someone who has never read it before, their first reactions are strangely confused. Why read such a story that has such a focus on blood and gore? Such a story has no benefit to you. It makes it much more difficult then to explain how in depth the plot is and the situations within it. With the mind already aware of the maturity of the story it becomes much harder to understand that such a story does have a deep meaning that can be found when looked for and instead of ignored due to the mature parts. Instances within the story where Gan changes his mind on whether having Han take his place as T’Gatoi’s host or the love hate relationship that is formed between T’Gatoi(TG) and Gan or even Gan’s consideration of commiting suicide creates moments of tension and feeling and the character of the charaters can be determined. These scenes have to have the blood and gore that they have to show what Gan is prepared to go through for his sister. This is why the author explains the tight relationship these two have in the beginning of the story. The story continues to have entire other dispute on whether TG is a hero or a villain, good or bad. Is she the villain of this story because of the heartlessness she has when extracting the worms from Lomas, or the licking of his blood to soak it up with the large possibility that she may enjoy the taste, or her commitment to impregnating one of the children not caring which one it is and possibly on the floor? Or is she simply a woman with the desire of becoming a mother, who understands the feelings of those who see the pregnancy, as well as takes responsibility for her new host, and still considers Gan’s family as her own family? It is these questions that can be asked after reading this story and can be debated upon. And so perhaps what may seem like the meaningless description of blood and gore is in fact very vital to the plot and it’s intricacy. And while it may not have the happy ending or the obvious moral at the end of it still is a short story with much depth within it as well as purpose.

Observations for: T.O.T.S.O.T.R.D.F.R.A

Notes

Reflection on Narrative

So far I am feeling very confident from the first semester since I do have lots of room for improvement. I now feel as if I have my own personal list on how not to fail literature. I've now begun getting more organized and created an online folder of which I will store all literacy work done. I've begun to get into the habit of beginning things early no matter how small the assignment is because the mini-essay, despite being small, took WAY more time from my weekend than I expected it to. My only question now is: "How will my first semester grade affect the grade my overall literature grade?"  

Body Paragraphs (DRAFT) Mark 1 ( IN NEED OF CRITICAL HELP)

    
Books and most forms off literature were banned as education became less and less prioritized and people became more and more interested with "pictures". With that in mind the only access to information were the walls which also became the main source of entertainment for the citizens of F.451. And with that shady, unidentified government of F.451 are able to spoon feed the citizens whatever knowledge they want them to believes. This accomplishes their goal of a Utopian society where everyone is like minded. This is easily seen when Mildred, Mrs.Phelps, and Mrs.Bowles come together to watch the brain washing walls. But what is also shown is the difference between those that either continue to read books or at one point actively read them and those that actively watch the walls. 

When Mildred, Mrs.Phelps, and Mrs.Bowles decide to meet together at Montag's house and watch the walls they all seem to almost be the same person. When Montag abruptly disconnects the walls as they're watching it they all seem equally disturbed and annoyed. When they decide to talk about politics to somehow satisfy Montag they have different views but are based upon the same standards of the appearance of politicians instead of their views or morals. When Montag begins to read "Dover's Beach" to them they all seem disturbed and troubled of the thought of even listening to literature. And as Montag does read they are all described to have the face of discomfort that their multicolored wall was now the shade of grey. And in the end they seem to have no actual insight of the poem which angers Montag to the point of insanity. It's as if they were programmed to only live for happiness and entertainment. They seem to not have any thoughts at all but they simply do, similar to the hound.