Thinking about the readings from this Module, write a 200 word discussion board post in which you explore one or more of these questions: · How does the theme of good and evil present itself in the story? · Is it accurate and truthful (is the "good guy" really good and the "bad guy" really bad)? · What are some of the topics that seem to be recurring? · What kinds of social and cultural changes were going on to influence the author? · Does this reflect some sort of timeless social issue (oppressive government, racial, socioeconomic or gender bias)? After writing your post, be sure to review and edit before clicking "Submit." Then, respond to 2-3 classmates with a substantive reply... You can ask questions, agree or disagree, expand on their ideas, or make connections between their post and yours. Replies should be 3-4 sentences each. Module 7 Discussion: Unreliable narrators No unread replies.No replies. Narrators are responsible for telling the action of the story. Unreliable narrators (typically first-person narrators) often have a twist or some sort of inability to be honest. This is true in film as well. For this discussion, write a 250 word discussion board post over a film, tv episode or story where an unreliable narrator is used. A film example is The Usual Suspects, where the actual "bad guy" is the person everyone would least expect. Identify the unreliable narrator and explain how it works and affects the text. Feel free to use one of the stories from this unit or you may find another story as long as you are able to support your claim. Writers that use unreliable narrators tend to tell really interesting and engaging stories so this should be good! After writing your post, be sure to review and edit before clicking "Submit." Then, respond to 2-3 classmates with a substantive reply... You can ask questions, agree or disagree, expand on their ideas, or make connections between their post and yours. Replies should be 3-4 sentences each. Module 7: Lesson and Notes What is narration? To know what an unreliable narrator is, it is important to be familiar with how narration works. · Narration is the process of telling a story or recounting an event.  · The narrator determines what details are included and how they are arranged. · The narrator is, essentially, the one determining point of view and the facts (or lies) that the reader gets to know.  The different kinds of common narration, or point of view (POV) in literature are: · Third-person: This kind of narrator is not typically a character in the story, but instead is outside of the characters. This type of narration allows the reader insight to the action from several different perspectives. · There are three types of third-person narrations: · Omniscient (all-knowing): This type of narrator is able to give insight and perspective from several characters, mostly just the main characters (but a few minor characters as well).  Because they are not a character in the action, they ...

1. Thinking about the readings from this Module, write a 200 word
discussion board post in which you explore one or more of these
questions:
· How does the theme of good and evil present itself in the
story?
· Is it accurate and truthful (is the "good guy" really good and
the "bad guy" really bad)?
· What are some of the topics that seem to be recurring?
· What kinds of social and cultural changes were going on to
influence the author?
· Does this reflect some sort of timeless social issue (oppressive
government, racial, socioeconomic or gender bias)?
After writing your post, be sure to review and edit before
clicking "Submit." Then, respond to 2-3 classmates with a
substantive reply... You can ask questions, agree or disagree,
expand on their ideas, or make connections between their post
and yours. Replies should be 3-4 sentences each.
Module 7 Discussion: Unreliable narrators
No unread replies.No replies.
Narrators are responsible for telling the action of the story.
Unreliable narrators (typically first-person narrators) often have
a twist or some sort of inability to be honest. This is true in film
as well.
For this discussion, write a 250 word discussion board post over
a film, tv episode or story where an unreliable narrator is used.
A film example is The Usual Suspects, where the actual "bad
guy" is the person everyone would least expect. Identify the
unreliable narrator and explain how it works and affects the
text. Feel free to use one of the stories from this unit or you
may find another story as long as you are able to support your
claim. Writers that use unreliable narrators tend to tell really
interesting and engaging stories so this should be good!

2. After writing your post, be sure to review and edit before
clicking "Submit." Then, respond to 2-3 classmates with a
substantive reply... You can ask questions, agree or disagree,
expand on their ideas, or make connections between their post
and yours. Replies should be 3-4 sentences each.
Module 7: Lesson and Notes
What is narration?
To know what an unreliable narrator is, it is important to be
familiar with how narration works.
· Narration is the process of telling a story or recounting an
event.
· The narrator determines what details are included and how
they are arranged.
· The narrator is, essentially, the one determining point of view
and the facts (or lies) that the reader gets to know.
The different kinds of common narration, or point of view
(POV) in literature are:
· Third-person: This kind of narrator is not typically a character
in the story, but instead is outside of the characters. This type
of narration allows the reader insight to the action from several
different perspectives.
· There are three types of third-person narrations:
· Omniscient (all-knowing): This type of narrator is able to give
insight and perspective from several characters, mostly just the
main characters (but a few minor characters as well). Because
they are not a character in the action, they are not limited to any
one character's perception.
· Limited omniscient: This narrator is generally tells the story
around one of the major characters, focusing primarily on what
this one character sees, feels, and perceives. There is very little
revealed that this particular character does not know.
· Objective: Objective narrators tend to tell just the action of
the story without focusing on any specific character and without

3. revealing the characters internal thoughts. Stories with
objective narration use dialogue and action to reveal how the
characters think and feel, much like a movie.
· First-person: This narrator is typically a major or minor
character telling their own story or the story of someone. This
narrative style is mostly commonly uses the pronoun "I" .
· First-person narration reveals the internal thoughts and
perspectives of only one character.
· The action of the story is clouded by the opinions of this one
particular character and how they experience things.
· Unreliable narrators: The unreliable narrator tends to also be
first-person and often uses the pronoun "I".
· Unreliable narrators are often insane, unstable, and,
intentionally or not, tend to mislead the reader. Or they could
be incredible brilliant.
· This type of narration forces the reader to come to their own
conclusions about the action of the story once they figure out
that the narrator is compromised.
· These stories could be told from the perspective of the "bad"
guy, or villain.
· Sometimes the reader doesn't know that they have been
deceived until the very end of the story when it takes a twist
and gives an unexpected ending like in Ambrose Bierce's
"Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".
· Unreliable narrators aren't always crazy or bad. Sometimes
they are sheltered or naïve. For example, the story could be told
from the perspective of a child or someone innocent that doesn't
know the value of what they are telling.
Complete these readings from the textbook:
· Literature
·
· "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe (pg. 174)
· "The Yellow Wallpaper" By Charlotte Perkins Gilman
· Chapter 3: Narration and Point of View

4. Remember that academic reading is a skill you develop over
time.
Here is my best advice for scholarly reading.
Module 6: Lesson and Notes
The Nature of Good and Evil in Literature and Why It Matters
The conflict between good and evil isn't a new one. It is as old
as time itself and accompanies humanity as a shadow, taking
many forms and manifesting in as many ways as there are
different kinds of conflict. A few things about this concept:
· There are different ways of defining what is "good" and what
is "evil."
· The definitions aren't concrete, and never can be, but instead
are left up to interpretation by individuals involved or by
society as a whole.
· For example, the act of murder is an evil thing. However, we
often hear stories of people committing murder to avenge an
attack on a loved one and the act is forgiven. Revenge for love
changes the game.
· The nature of good and evil follows closely with the common
conflicts: man vs nature/self/man/supernatural/fate, etc.
· It is one of the methods authors use to help present conflict in
the story line.
· This theme is often represented by foil characters, which are
characters that are complete opposites in order to illuminate
certain personality traits (Think "Cinderella". The wicked step-
mother seems so wicked because Cinderella is so good, and
Cinderella seems so good because the wicked step-mother is so
wicked). This makes is easier to determine who is good and who
is evil in the story. But it's not always that simple (the good
guys sometimes make bad decisions and the bad guys sometimes
do heroic deeds).
· Sometimes, you really, really want to like the bad guy... this is
called the anti-hero. Think, Captain Jack Sparrow from "The

5. Pirates of the Caribbean". Click here for a quick read about the
(awesome) anti-hero. (Links to an external site.)
The beauty of literature is that, over time, it has captured the
crazy spectrum that is associated with good vs. evil, and been
able to tell of it from every angle. Often, this resonates with
readers either by speaking to a personal conflict and relating to
a current social conflict.
Popular Examples
Shakespeare has plenty. Don't groan, we aren't reading
Shakespeare, I promise, but we will look at one example:
Macbeth- Macbeth was an incredible warrior and very loyal to
his king, King Duncan. He is influenced by a trio of witchy
sisters that tell him of a prophesy in which he becomes king.
Maddened by his new found ambition, he kills the king and
assumes the kingship only to meet his demise in the form of a
ghastly and gruesome death.
Pretty solid good vs evil, right?
But consider:
· Although it appears that Macbeth is evil, it is important to
know that Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, had even more
ambition than Macbeth and pushed him to commit the murder.
He didn't necessarily want to and when he couldn't go through
with all of it, she taunted him, doing much of the work herself.
· There were supernatural influences and witches were known to
cause trouble, just for the sake of causing trouble.
· Was Macbeth really evil? or was he just easily influenced by
others that forced his hand?
· How is evil defined here?
· As one action/ multiple actions? One person/ multiple people?
(We will stop there with Shakespeare. Whew.)
Far from Shakespeare, let's look at a popular fairy tale, Hansel
and Gretel. For being such a simple story, the nature of good
and evil here is very complicated. In the story, a father takes his
two small children deep in the forest and left them there. Twice.
Eventually the children are lost in the forest and encounter an

6. old witch that captures them to eat them. The children trick the
witch, push her into the oven intended for them and escape
home to their, seemingly, very grateful father.
Initially, the evil in the story seems to be the witch. Or is it?
Consider:
· The father in the story is forced to take his children into the
forest by their step-mother (wicked step-mother, anyone?)
· The only one to commit murder, an evil act, is a little girl.
· Therefore, who is the evil one? Step-mother, witch or Gretel?
This fairy tale was based on an early 14th century famine so
fierce that families were starving and forced to make
unspeakable choices, like the one that the father made. What if
sometimes evil is defined as survival?
PreviousNext
Complete these readings from the textbook:
· A Good Man is Hard to Find- Flannery O'Connor
· Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne
· Those Winter Sundays- Robert Hayden
Remember that academic reading is a skill you develop over
time.
Here is my best advice for scholarly reading.