Your homework for today was the following:
Read and annotate the next 10 pages for work and income, the first ten pages for setting and class, and 10-20 for cultural references.
Write a one-page blog post on the difference between your language and the language of one character in the reading.
Here is what some of you said:
Example One
There is a big difference between my language and the language that Jimmie uses in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Jimmie’s language is very much a product of his setting. He says things such as “Well, it was dis way, Pete, see! I was goin’ t’ lick dat Riley kid and dey all pitched on me” (221). He was trying to explain his actions to Pete. If I was trying to explain the same thing to a friend of mine I would say something along the lines of “This is what I did. I was going to fight back but all the other kids jumped me first.” I would use a lot less slang and abbreviated words in my speech.
Example Two
There are probably differences with all the characters’ language in the story “Maggie: Girl of the Streets” and in my own language, but I am going to talk about the differences between Pete’s language and mine. There is a part in the story where Pete and Jimmie are having a conversation and Pete says “Hully gee! Dey make me tired,” he said. “Mos’ e’ry day some farmer comes in an’ tries t’ run d’ shop. See? But dey gits t’rowed right out! I jolt dem right out in d’ street before dey knows wheer dey is! See?” (236). Through out the story the author Stephen Crane gives us an indication of the character’s accent in the dialog. By reading the above quotation gives the reader an idea of some kind of an accent and this is a difference between my language and Pete’s language, the accent in which we speak. Another difference in my language and Pete’s language is shown in the quote above when Pete says “See?” the use of words to make sure the listener understands is a difference in our language. I don’t usually use those kind of words in my language but Pete does, and he does frequently there are other instances in the conversation were he uses “See?” to make sure Jimmie is understanding.
Example Three
When you read the dialogue of Jimmie you see that he shortens a lot of his words when he talks and he pronounces and says some words differently. Instead of using full words he changes a lot of them to letters and just shortened versions, and some of the words he uses are spelled like he would say them. When I talk I use “slang” words sometimes and I may take the “g” off of a word, like the word thinking, but with Jimmie he does it with most of his words. Like he was mad at his father for taking the pail of the old woman’s, “look at d’ dirt what yeh done me, d’ ol’ woman ‘ill be raisin’ hell” (228). You can see that some of the words are just letters, and words like “yeh” are used instead of “you”. When I talk I like to make sure that I pronounce my words, and try to make sure I don’t use slang.
Take away: Warrants are important!
Now that we’ve read the first 20 pages and annotated for some difference concepts, we are ready to begin to make some observations about the story.
Journal Work: (Suggested: 10 Minutes)
What were the significant details you found that related to work and professionalism?
How do they help us understand the lives of the characters as they can be expressed in terms of income, class, play, and setting?
Cite specific examples, with page numbers!
Group Work: (Suggested: 5-10 Minutes)
Group Presentations: (Suggested: 5-10 Minutes)
Class Discussion:
Homework:
Read and annotate the next twenty pages for work and professionalism.
