Week 4

Creative writing in response to literature is a way for students to respond to literature in a personal way. Creative writing provides a way for students to practice critical thinking and develop a stronger understanding of literary criticism while showing creativity and a bit of their own personalities. For this creative writing assignment, you will do a character analysis to allow you to get inside the mind of one of the characters.

Step 1: Review

· Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” Vol 2, pp. 1357-1366

· Refer to the grading rubric for this assignment using the link in the Gradebook.

Step 2: Reflect

“The Garden Party” is told as a third-person narrative, not as a first-person narrative. The difference is that a third-person narrative presents the characters to us in the words of a narrator rather than from the words of the characters themselves. The story contains descriptions such as “Laura did this” or “Laura said that,” but it’s not as if the character Laura herself is telling everything from her perspective. Of course, sometimes Laura speaks in the story, but she does not get to tell the story or what she’s thinking or feeling. It is up to the reader to determine what Laura might be thinking or feeling.

Step 3: Respond

For this assignment, try to get into the mind of Laura. Be imaginative and creative. Pretend you are Laura writing in a private journal about her feelings about her mother both before and after she finds out about the accident. In this journal entry you can put down whatever thoughts Laura might have using absolute frankness and honesty. Remember, you are Laura for this writing assignment.

Criteria:

· Write a minimum of 500 words in paragraph form, using Times new roman 12-point font (or similar) with double spacing. A title page is not required.