A Clack of Tiny Sparks- Jill, Ryan, Mujtaba, Briana, Kaylie

[Jill Ferraguto]

Already I see the author is using vivid diction. The way he described the girl's actions in the first paragraph was very descriptive. For example, he said, " ;from Mr. Hubbley's point of view, Theresa was engrossed in the value of  X, but I knew otherwise."

[Jill Ferraguto]

The author also uses long, complex sentences for a type of syntax. For example, on page 315, he writes, " I watched her erect, angora back as she sauntered out the classroom door." The author didn't need to include the descriptive words he did, but it makes the piece more formal rather than informal and casual.

[ryan gallagher]

you can tell right away that the author uses good diction for example on page 315 he says "a fastidious, aproned mother who radiated calm, maternal concern; a ruddy, stoic father..." these are all really good describing words that show you things. 

[Mujtaba Khan]

I believe  when the narrators asks his mother what "fag" means is a significant part of the story. This is kind of like the turning point because the narrator hopes that there's a different meaning to it. He says, "...but hoped against hope it was not what I thought; maybe fag was some French word, a harmless term like naive"(316). However, his mother gets worried after she hears that question and this really impacts the narrator. The reaction of his mother kind of symbolizes the narrator's society and how they look at homosexuals in a negative point of view. This scares the narrator because then his brain gets bombarded with different thoughts of whether he is really gay or not. He realizes that if he really is one, he wouldn't be brave enough to tell anyone because he's afraid that the society will not accept him like that so he tries to ignore this fact. After already seeing his mother's sudden reaction, he worries how the others in his community would take it if they found the truth about him.

[Mujtaba Khan]

I believe the author doesn't an excellent job in expressing his feelings through his words and description. You can see the speaker's attitude through the negative tone of his words. The author is really upset about the fact that he's one of those aberrant individuals who is really different from most of the society. He says, "I shook with reverberations from that afternoon in the kitchen with my mother, pained by the memory of her shocked expression"(316). In this part of the story, the readers could easily assume through the author's words that he has an acute stress, which is bothering him a lot. His thoughts are driving him crazy and wanting him to run far away from his society.

[Kaylie Johanns]

On page 315 at the bottom of paragraph 5, the author says, " I emulated Grady in the belief that being seen with him, being like him, would somehow vanquish my self-doubt, would make me normal by association." I think that this quote means that he will try to be around Grady as much as possible to try and change the way he is. By doing this, he is not solving the problem.

[Kaylie Johanns]

the narrator uses syntax when he is describing how his mother looked and felt when she found out someone called him a fag. The way the narrator described his parents relationship and his, you could tell that they were very close and he thought he would be able to easily tell his parents how he felt. But once he found out how his mother reacted that's how he thought the rest of society would react too.

[Ms. Bafumi]

Good reference to style.

[Kaylie Johanns]

On page 319 in the beginning of paragraph 4 you can see the author using diction to describe how he felt walking in to Mr. Kendrick's room. He uses long descriptive sentences when he describes his embarrassment and how he thought Mr. Kendrick would react to the note.

[Kaylie Johanns]

@Mutjaba

I agree with what Mutjaba said about when the narrator described how his mother reacted to when he was called a fag in school. The way the narrator described his parents relationship, it made it seem like they were close and he thought that he could tell them anything. But now that he's seen how his parents reacted, then he feels that maybe it's not a good idea to tell people and how would the rest of society react?

[briana mcloughlin]

i like the author's syntax in this story because he doesn't use short, punchy sentences. he uses long, descriptive sentences for example, on page 316 "for weeks after, i shook with the reverberations from that afternoon in the kitchen with my mother, pained by the memory of her shocked expression, and most of all, her silence." he could've made that sentence a lot shorter and less descriptive by saying "it's been weeks and i haven't been able to forget about the incident with my mother in the kitchen" by the author taking the time to write a great sentence like he did, it makes the reader more interested in the story because we aren't reading boring sentences after sentences. we're reading long, descriptive sentences that say a lot about what the author is talking about and really feeling.

[Jill Ferraguto]

The author of the story also used figurative language which creates a formal type of short story. For example, on page 319, the author wrote, "Before us sat a tortured scrub, a wardrobe-worth of wire hangers that were bent like branches and soldered together." His words are very descriptive and it is easier to create the imagery in your head rather than how it would be if he used literal language.

[Kaylie Johanns]

@Jillian 

I agree with Jillian that the author didn't need to use the long, descriptive words to show how he felt, but beause he did, you get a better sense as to how the author was feeling.

[Jill Ferraguto]

@Kaylie Johanns

The author of this novel seems to always be about figurative language and diction. Instead of saying, " She dropped what was in her locker onto the floor," on page 319, he said," She was cleaning out her locker, blithely dropping the sum of ts contents- pens and textbooks and mimeographs- into a trash can." As you can see, he was much more descriptive in the second sentence.

[Ms. Bafumi]

Aberrant! NICE WORK!

[briana mcloughlin]

after reading this story, i wish that the author actually told theresa that he was a "fag". if he told her then i wonder what the story would be like. would he have met her friends that are "fags"? would he have told his mom about his new friends and then come out and say that he doesn't like girls? personally, i think that if he did tell theresa, that he would have met her friends and then he wouldn't have gone to the make out party and kiss girls, trying to fight the fact that he doesn't like girls and that he would just except who he is.

[briana mcloughlin]

@kaylie i agree with what you said when you said that he's trying to cover what he is up, but being around grady isn't solving the problem. it's just avoiding it

[Mujtaba Khan]

The narrator's society made me connect to the world and how people tend to convert themselves in what the majority of the people like so they are accepted in public. The author of the story followed this similar logic and show himself doing it too. For example, when the narrator realized that he might be gay, he tried to prove himself wrong by going to the make-out party. Over there, he believed that if he kissed a girl, he finally might start to have feelings for the opposite sex rather than thinking about guys. This plan doesn't workout for him because he says, "It didn't matter whom I held..my experiment was a failure; I continued to picture Grady's wet chest, and Debbie would bellow 'change' with such fervor"..(318). The narrator noticed that no matter what he did, he didn't have feelings for any girl that he was with. All the people in the party had feelings for the opposite sex besides him and this made him upset. Therefore, the narrator tried to become what the society likes, but he realized that this didn't workout for him because he was not an ordinary individual in the party.

[Mujtaba Khan]

@ Jill Ferraguto

I agree the author includes many examples of figurative language in the story. Cooper tried to make this an excellent piece of writing by including many literary devices and one of them I really liked was symbolism. The narrator had said, "I could hear the clack of tiny sparks and see them flare in the dark like meager, short-lived stars" (318). The narrator said this after he tried to evoke feelings from inside him when he saw many girls, but wasn't able to. I believe the "tiny sparks" that the narrator refers to are the emotions and feeling that every boy and girl had for each other in the party. These emotions that they had with each other were like sparks that the narrator was able to hear while he was there. These sparks that the narrator called bothered him because he wasn't able to produce them and this was the specialty of the party. He wasn't able to do something that everyone was doing easily and it made him more miserable every time he heard the noises. 

[briana mcloughlin]

@ mujtaba i agree with you on connecting this back to our society because it's true. people do tend to try to convert them selves into someone their not.

[briana mcloughlin]

the author never mentioned that he was afraid of people's reactions to him liking the same sex so why did he try to change himself? i thought that since he was trying to change himself because of his fear of people's reactions, but he never once mentioned anyone teasing him, or talking about him. so was he scared to except himself?

[Jill Ferraguto]

@Mujtaba

I agree with your thoughts on the narrator's society. His society is very similar to ours in my opinion. People today care very much what other people think of them. No matter what they say, their is a little part of them that does. This may be why the author placed the story in this time period. For other readers that also may be homosexual, this may be a conflict they are going through if they are debating what sex they may have feelings for. Teenagers in high school are going through so many changes now a days and want to always try and be their best or impress other people. That just made the conflict for Bernard so much harder than it already was. If this was taken place in a time period when he was older in age, other's reactions may have changed or not have mattered to Bernard.

[ryan gallagher]

i think its very interesting how the author uses the scene from the party to names the story after "a of clack of tiny sparks"  this shows obviously how important of a scene it was. this is the moment when he finds out that he is actually gay and its confirmed. this is a very important moment for him so i thinks it right that that is part of the title. 

[ryan gallagher]

@briana 

i totally agree with you about the author using long descriptive sentences. they really develop the story well and describe the scene and whats going on. also i agree that they show how the author is feeling it really gives the reader a good understanding of whats happening. 

[ryan gallagher]

@mujtaba 

i think your right when you talk about how the main character asks his mother whats the word fag meant. seeing his mothers reaction only makes his curiosity for the word grow. this is a reason why he went to the library and looked up the word and then eventually realized who he was. 

[ryan gallagher]

@jill your right when saying how he used figurative language this is another tool the author uses to describe in this story. this and the long descriptive sentences really help make the story easy to understand. 

[Mujtaba Khan]

@Briana

I agree with Briana that the author never uses short sentences and he's actually really detailed when he's describing different actions. I like this too because it creates imagery in the reader's mind and also makes a person interested into the story due to the vivid description. For example, the narrator said,"As I chiseled a beetle and listened to rain pummel the earth, Gerald handed me an envelope and asked me to take it to Mr. Kendrick.."(319). I thought it was brilliant how the author described the background before he described the action. This made me picture the whole scene first before I read what happened to the narrator at that part of the story. Therefore, the author's details and explanation for each part of the story made me like the plot because I was able to feel the narrator's emotions through his words.