Group+Four

Book Group Template DATE: GROUP #: MEMBERS:

For your reading of Montana 1948, book groups will meet four times to discuss the novel and address each aspect listed below. Take notes on your wiki for each of your meetings and save it to your group’s Wiki, noting the date and members names at the top.

This is the reading/book discussion schedule. Be sure you have completed each part prior to the book discussion day.

1) Part One, Friday, March 19th 2) Part Two, Tuesday, March 23rd 3) Part Three, Thursday, March 25th 4) Afterward/Epilogue, Friday, March 26th

Directions: Write your notes for every category below on your group’s wiki space. Be sure to discuss in your groups:

• Imagery/ Symbolism ""Whats wrong?" My mother was instantly alarmed. She feared nothing more than disease, but she was not cowardly or meek in its presence. No disease, common or exotic, faces a fiercer foe than my mother. She spent a good deal of energy avoiding it or keeping it away from herself and her family. She would not accept or extend invitations if she knew it meant someone sick might get too close. If we were walking down the street and someone ahead of us coughed of sneezed, my mother slowed her pace until she thought those germs had dissipated in the air. It all sounds silly, but it must have worked."(Watson 28) You can tell that David's mother never wanted anyone to get sick and she would do anything to prevent it. When she saw that Marie was sick she was very nervous and did everything she could to help her get better.

• Character Behavior or Psychology: For Part one you must focus on characterization of the main characters listed below. 1. What the character says 2. What the character does 3. What others/narrator says about the character** You must use textual evidence for each of these three elements of characterization
 * For each character, discuss all three modes of characterization:

Narrator’s Father: 1. The Narrator's Father tries to please everyone. "A portrait of my father in those years, a man who tried to turn two ways at once- toward to my grandfather, he wanted his son to continue the Hayden rule of Mercer County, and toward my mother, he wanted her husband to be nearly himself and not Hayden." (pg 21 Watson) 2. The Narrator's Father is the county sheriff, graduated from the University of North Dakota Law School, he's a father, and a brother. 3. The Narrator talks about how doesn't look like a western sheriff. He wore a shirt, a tie, and a fedora, he had a gun but never carried it on duty or off. His mother didn't think his job fit who he is, she wanted him to be an attorney. The Grandfather talks about how David's father isn't as good as his brother Frank was.

Narrator’s mother (Gail):
 * 1) She's caring and compassionate and wants what's best for her loved ones. "My mother was concerned about my values, but since often the most ordinary worldly matters assumed for her a spiritual significance, she saw the problem as centered on my mortal being." (pg 21 Watson)
 * 2) She wanted to leave Montana in a more quieter region for her son. "There was another reason why my mother wanted us to leave Montana for a tamer region and that reason had to do with me." (pg 21 Watson)
 * 3) The Narrator believes that his mother is caring and looks out for the family. She also does what she can to keep them safe. People also refer to her as a germ freak.

Marie and Ronnie Tall Bear: Uncle Frank (and Aunt Gloria) 1. Uncle Frank comes off as a heartless, racist person and his wife is most likely the same. "Or until she gets worse. You don't want an Indian girl with pneumonia in your house, Gail." (pg 43 Watson) 2. Frank is a doctor, and he is family so he jokes around a lot. "Frank wants to know what her symptoms are." "A high temperature. Chills. Coughing" (pg 35 Watson) 3. Uncle Frank and Aunt Gloria come off as perfect people. They are describes as beautiful and successful. "Frank was witty, charming, at smiling ease with his life and everything in it. Alongside his brother my father soon seemed somewhat prosaic. Oh, stolid, surely, and steady and dependable. But inevitably, inescapably dull. Nothing glittered in my father's wake the way it did in Uncle Frank's. (pg 36 Watson) Grandfather. 1. The Grandfather seems to respect and be more proud of Frank then David's father. He makes it like his other son is not even important. " My father was standing next to me when Grandfather said that. My father did not move. Grandfather did not say, "my son the veteran," or "my son the war hero," or "my son the soldier." He simply said, "my son." And why wouldn't the county sheriff be called on to make a small speech?" (pg 37 Watson) 2. The grandfather just talks about Uncle Frank and how proud of him he is. While his other son is not mentioned and everyone knows it. "But my father didn't move. He just stood there, like every other man in the crowd, smiling and applauding, while his brother stepped up on the table." (pg 37 Watson) 3. "Uncle Frank loves his father, and he knows how proud he makes him. "Uncle Frank had not hesitated either; he knew immediately that Grandfather was referring to him." (pg 37 Watson) • Interesting Passages (at least two passages, cited in proper MLA format) "I couldn't figure out why my mother seemed so angry. I had always felt she didn't particularly care for Frank, but I had put that down to two reasons. First, he was charming, and my mother was suspicious of charm. She believed its purpose was to conceal some personal deficit or lack of substance. If your character was sound, you didn;t need charm. And second, Uncle Frank was a Hayden, and where the Haydens were concerned my mother always held something back.
 * 1) Marie and Ronnie were very important to David. He loves both of them because they take care of him and are always very close with him when they spend time together. "Besides, Marie had a boyfriends, Ronnie Tall Bear, who worked on a ranch north of town. I was not jealous of Ronnie, because i liked him almost as much as I liked Marie. Liked Ronnie? I worshipped him." (pg 26 Watson)
 * 2) "Because my mother worked..., we had a housekeeper who lived with us during the week. Her name was Marie Little Soldier, and she was a Hunkpapa Sioux who originally came from the Forth Berthold Reservation in North Dakota." (pg 24 Watson)
 * 3) "And I loved her. Because she talked to me, cared for me... because she was older but not too old... Because she was not as quiet and conventional as every other adult i Knew.. . Because she was sexy, though my love for her was, as a twelve-year-old's love often is, chaste. (pg 25-26 Watson) You could tell David really loves Marie because of all the nice things she does for him and all the time he loves spending with her.

• Questions/ Predictions you have: Why does Uncle Frank sexually abuse Indian girls? I think that in the end, eventually something bad is going to happen with Uncle Frank.

• Connections to modern life or your personal life : "This remark brought Marie straight up in bed. "No! I don't need no doctor!" With that outburst she began coughing again, this time harder than ever."(Watson 31) No one was sure why Marie was so freaked out for Uncle Frank to come examine Marie's sickness. Everyone goes through a time when they are afraid of the doctor or the dentist. The family just thought she was afraid but everyone gets over their fear. Like Marie, the mother is always their for support and to help the sick one be unafraid.

**Part One: What is done is done well. Just be sure to correctly cite your textual evidence using MLA format. Also, be sure ALL components are done in future posts. 15/20.**

Part Two: Imagery/Symbolism:
 * 1) "My grandparents house was built of logs but it was no cabin, in fact, it was nothing simple or unassuming about it. The house was huge- two stories, five bedrooms, a dining room bigger than some restaurants, a stone fireplace that two children can stand in. The ceilings were high and open beamed. The interior walls were log as well. And the furnishings were equally rough-hewn and massive." (Watson 68) The wind symbolizes calm and peacefulness because when the wind blows it makes Gail feel calmer. "It reminds of North Dakota. My goodness, how Dad used to curse the wind." (Watson 65)

Two Interesting Passages: 2. "I loved Aunt Gloria- she was sweet and beautiful and good to me- yet that day I couldn't bare to look at her. How could she act normal, I wondered, when she was married to Uncle Frank? How could she not know?" (Watson 77) This quote is interesting because David was so close to his Aunt and they had such a great relationship and now he can't even bare to look at her the same anymore. "My mother rested her hand on my shoulder, and I took advantage of that kindness to ask, :Is this bad?" I still couldn't reveal what I knew about Uncle Frank, but again I wanted my parents to let me in. I wanted to know that what I was doing was right and that I wasn't simply ratting on my uncle. But my mother didn't answer me. She patted my shoulder reassuringly, and it was my father who finally said, "Bad enough." (Watson 99) This is after David told his parents that Uncle Frank killed Marie. He was not sure if he did the wrong thing by telling them, and he is unsure of what will happen to Uncle Frank.

Questions/Predictions you have: How did Uncle Frank kill Marie? Why did Uncle Frank kill Marie? Does David's dad believe that David saw Uncle Frank at the house during the day while no one was home? I think that Uncle Frank killed Marie because he was angry that she told his family that he rapes Indian girls. Also, deep down, I think that David's father knows that Uncle Frank is a bad person and he probably believes that his brother did kill Marie.

Connections to modern life or your personal life: David was unsure about telling his parents that he knows Uncle Frank killed Marie. In real life, people go through problems like that. For example, if you know someone stole something from a store and they do not know you know and they think no one saw them, you know it is the wrong thing for someone to do. You are not sure if you should tell someone because you do not know what the consequences will be and you do not want that person getting angry with you. You should always do the right thing and tell someone when you know something bad happened. Whether it is stealing or killing someone, that person should always have to pay the consequences and you should tell someone immediately.

Part 3: Imagery/Symbolism "Dad," I said, "I heard-" "I know," he interrupted. "The canning jars." "He's smashing them," my mother needlessly added. "He's got the into the root cellar," said my father. "He must be breaking every jar in there." (Watson 153) David woke up from the sound of glass breaking. He went downstairs and saw his parents sitting and they told him that it was Uncle Frank smashing glass cans and jars downstairs.

Interesting Passages: "After it went by a second time. slowly, I ran downstairs to see it go in front as well. I crouched below the living room window and peekd over the sill- I didn't want them to see me- and peeked over the sill- I didn't want them to see me- and when it went by this time I recognized one of the men. Dale Paris, the foreman at my grandfather's ranch, was in the passenger seat, his bare arm crooked out the window, his cap pulled low. Dale Paris was the only cowboy I knew who never wore a hat but instead a red-and-black checked wool cap, earflaps tied up in summer and down in winter. I didn't know much about the man. He was simply a lean, silent presence on the ranch. My only contacty with him had occurred when I came back from riding Nutty long and hard one day, and because I was in a hurry or lazy or both I simply unsaddled him and put him back in the stall. I was on my way out when Dale Paris stepped out of the shadows, grabbed my arm hard, and said, "Your hourse needs wipin' down." (Watson 130) This was interesting because no one knew who the men were and it was kind of scary and got your attention. "The other men in the truck were probably also employees of my grandfather. If that were so, it didn't take much reasoning to figure out why they were in town. They had come for Uncle Frank. How did they plan to get him? I didn't care to speculate that far." (Watson 131) David was curious why his grandfather set men up to go to their house and get Uncle Frank out. He was not sure how this plan was going to work and what the outcome would be.

Questions/Preidctions: Why did Uncle Frank kill himself? Is the family really upset because of his death? Do they think it was their fault? I think Uncle Frank killed himself because he could not deal with the guilt of what he has done and rather then live miserably, he would rather be dead.

Connections to modern life of your personal life: Uncle Frank killed himself. I think he feels so guilty about what he did that he did not want to live any longer. In real life, people do bad things like killing other people or breaking the law and they have to deal with the consequences. Before they do, they think to themselves what they want to do. Some people do pick the choice of suicide so they do not have to live with what they have done, just like in Uncle Frank's case.