Day One: My primary focus for the day will be to discuss the narrative structure of the novel. Throughout the novel most of what we are given of Mrs. Forrester comes through Neil Herbert's impressions of her. I want to ask the students to evaluate Neil's interpretations of Marian. Is his a reliable portrait? Do other characters have different opinions about her? What do these various interpretations tell us about Marian? About Neil? About the town of Sweet Water? I want the students to question the reliability of the text's primary narrator, Neil, and in doing so, investigate how gaps within his narrative revel as much about the characters as do the descriptions given to us by Neil and others.
Day Two: Today is the collaborative learning day. By this time, I will have asked the students to finish the novel so they have a thorough knowledge of the text. After dividing the students into groups of five, I will have them investigate what Cather means by the word "lost" in the title of the novel. By looking at specific scenes, characters, and images, I will ask them to offer suggestions on what this term represents, and to whom and/or what it could refer. When the class reconvenes as a whole, we will compare and contrast each group's answers and attempt to arrive at some sort of consensus. They will also turn in response papers today.
Day Three: I will spend the first part of class by bringing up issues students addressed in their response papers. For example, if there seems to be some contention or disagreement on certain aspects of the text, I may use these contentions to structure a sort of debate among the students. I would like to spend the last part of class addressing the social, economic, and gender issues that permeate the text. Hopefully, the collaborative learning assignment will have given students some idea of these issues already. I will conclude and summarize the text by examining how several of these issues could be expanded and combined into potential papers.
Collaborative Learning Assignment
Begin by selecting a group recorder who will read the collaborative task aloud to the group. The recorder will also be responsible for taking notes on the group's discussion and later for relating the group's conclusions to the rest of the class. You will have approximately 25 minutes to discuss this task before we reconvene as a class
What do you think Cather means by the word "lost" in the title? What is this word's significance in terms of how it describes Marian Forrester and Neil's perception of her? In exploring this issue you might consider the contradictions that Cather sets up in terms of characters and images throughout the text. For example, look at the antithesis Cather creates between men such as Captain Forrester and Ivy Peters (if stuck, look at passages on pp. 89-90 and pp. 138-39). You could also examine how the Forrester house serves as a contrast to the town of Sweet Water (pp. 3-4 and pp. 117-118). How do these contrasts illuminate exactly what, or who, is lost in this text--an image, and identity, an illusion, etc.?