Responses 4B
❧ How does Calvino structure his text? ❧ Do a rhetorical analysis of Calvino’s use of space (or setting) or time (or chronology). ❧ Rewrite part of Poe’s story from the point of view of the old man.
Calvino: 🛠 Structure / 🪐Space / ⏳Time —- Poe: 🌚 the Old Man
🛠 Calvino: Structure 🛠
Calvino uses strong imagery for multiple settings to demonstrate the narrator switching channels like a madman. Throughout the text, a sense of insanity is created, as he wanders through the imaginary city in search of something unknown. Even after finding perfection in Volumnia, his temptation of the unknown perfection causes him to lose her. This leads to him becoming “a homeless mental case” as he keeps searching for more. From a hospital bed to being a homeless man, various settings are explored, with the remote giving him constant power of changing it all like a gun from a science-fiction show. (100 words)
*** This response gives a good sense of the movement and edge of insanity in the story. Two things might be a bit more clear: Is the city necessarily imaginary? What type of sci-fi gun?
🛠
Calvino structures his text to sound like a mad man rambling on. The narrator is shown to be erratic and criminally insane. Believing he can change his reality at the push of a button like he can on the tv. He structures his text in such a way to emphasize the possibility of the television having a negative effect on society. If such a story was written about the way people are today, it would be on social media and the internet. He structures his text in a way to bring the reader to a panic. Creating a moral panic to get the readers to think about their decision to watch tv.
*** This response needs some work: the first several sentences are a bit too close to observation and the last ones perhaps overstate the effect on the reader. Do readers panic or just wonder?
🛠
In Calvino's "The Last Channel", the narrator's insanity is used as an analogy for the disinformation or saturation age that we live in today. Claiming his concentration is not lacking, but rather a search for "something unique". This can be interpolated as our search for the right information that more readily fits our personal narrative. "Cluttered with superficial and interchangeable images" is an apt description of modern day media; Just like the narrator's ramblings, we are bombarded by information everyday that may or may not be true, depending on who you ask.
*** This response makes good points, yet it tends toward content, interpretation, and application rather than analysis of structure (or rhetorical analysis). It would be better if the student showed how this analogy worked throughout the text.
🛠
In “The Last Channel” by Calvino, the remote control in the psychologically unstable narrator’s hand is written to resemble a gun or weapon as a metaphor to the destruction media does to our lives. One example of this is when the narrator states that his reasoning behind constantly switching channels is, he knows there is a channel on which he absolutely can’t miss with something completely unique on it. The irony in this may be all the equally unmissable unique things that the narrator is missing in reality while he focuses his attention on looking for it on the tv.
*** This response needs proofreading (in bold and the entire last sentence), yet it contains insightful points about metaphor and irony.
🛠
In Calvino’s “The Last Channel”, the use of character and style structures the text to carry out the unstable persona to convey his purport. The narrator switches between reason and instability creating an uncertainty in the credibility of his beliefs. As the addiction to the remote persists, his world slowly starts to crumble only creating a bigger barrier to the outside as it is his only consistency. His relationship is ruined yet still denies his obsession and continues to reference to his relationship with the remote. We might say this person is hysterical, yet our phones are always with us. (100 words)
*** This response has good points (especially the final point) yet it needs proofreading (in bold). Also, it needs more specific references to the text itself. Try to give an example or two, or provide several brief quotes.
🛠
Calvino structures his text from the point of view of the old man and throughout the piece, presents an intriguing dichotomy contrasting the narrator’s justification of his eccentric behaviour, with the many “professionals” who try to decipher his actions. The narrator is adamant his habits make perfect sense and repeatedly justifies them: “they’re mistaken if they believe that there was no design or clear intention in my actions”, whilst the many “professionals” associated with the case remain bewildered. This repeated use of dramatic irony allows the reader to access the unfiltered thoughts of the old man and grants a richer understanding of the piece.
*** This response is very good, since it makes an insightful point and backs it up with references to the text. The quotation needs to be integrated more grammatically, and I suggest using several short quotes that are integrated into your syntax (word order). In this way, you can cover more ground and the sentences run more smoothly.
🪐Calvino: Space 🪐
Calvino’s use of space within his text creates an initially puzzling picture for the reader. It challenges you to create the scene within your mind. Is he really in the city? Is he really flipping through channels at home? Or he is hospitalized because of his insanity? This portrayal has been left up to the reader to decided from within their own imagination and perception of the text. Calvino uses the idea of the remote metaphorically, relating to the scenes. It could truly be a remote keeping him glued to the television endlessly, or it could be something more powerful.
*** This is very good, although the metaphor could be more clearly spelled out, as could what type of powerful something the remote might be.
🪐
A “small hospital room” creates a setting that reflects the madness of a protagonist who reveals that in the intimacy of his home he frenetically changes channels as a denial of tv’s superficiality. As the narrator’s home becomes too small for his psychotic mind, he begins to walk the city and pointing the remote out at it in an effort to construct the city he claims to be the “happiest in the world”. Calvino uses the metaphor of the remote as a bridge capable to transport the protagonist to different spaces and realities in his lunatic search for the ultimate truth.
*** This is a good response, and it’s very well written. I would, however, avoid explaining a metaphor with another metaphor (seeing the remote as a bridge). Instead, the student might look into the way spatial extension works in terms of telecommunication, bridges into real vs. imaginary spaces, etc.
🪐
Calvino first sets the story in a hospital room, showing a contrast in the shift from a pressuring court scene to a small hospital room of calmness and quietness. The court and hospital setting create a perception of the narrator as a defendant of criminal insanity, seemingly establishing the irrationality in the narrator’s behaviours. However, Calvino integrated the contrast to ethos, establishing trustworthiness of the narrator through dramatic irony. Calvino refutes readers’ expectations through revealing the narrator’s actions are of design and intention, not out of insanity. The unexpected rationality adds persuasiveness to the Calvino’s arguments illustrated through the narrator.
*** This response starts off strong, yet it’s hard to see where the protagonist establishes ethos or reliability, given the extreme way he thinks and acts.
🪐
Calvino urges the reader to succumb to the deranged yet arguably enlightened ideology of the protagonist with his direct use of setting. Upon first impression, one would declare the man insane as he ponders in the “padded and varnished calm of [the] small hospital room.” However, his philosophy becomes increasingly more coherent as he gazes out the window at the “pinnacles of the roofs, the legs of the cranes with their long iron beaks, the clouds.” It becomes clear that he longs for freedom outside of this defined society, yet his pursuit drives his own independence further into peril.
*** This response argues that the narrator can be seen as enlightened or coherent, yet the proof of this needs to go deeper since there is a clear counter-argument: he points his remote at his bride and breaks through a security cordon to point it at politicians. The response needs to give specific reasons why the narrator is enlightened or coherent. How do the roofs and cranes demonstrate coherence? The student may be right here, yet we need good reasons why.
🪐
Calvino’s use of space in The Last Channel gives the reader an opportunity to observe the full extent of the protagonist's madness. The protagonist’s theory that society is controlled by a system, operating productively in his own city, is what eventually motivates him to take his manic channel surfing to the streets. Calvino’s depiction of this city, being so full of social construction and conformity, is what makes it the perfect setting to effectively nurture the protagonist's mental illness. The protagonist’s graduation from television to city streets defines a peak in his insanity, using his resulting arrest as evidence. (99 words)
*** This response is very articulate and insightful. It would be even better if the student explained why the city is full of conformity, and if the final sentence didn’t end with a misplaced modifier.
⏳Calvino: Time ⏳
Calvino uses time to convey the narrator’s descent into madness. Initially, the narrator describes in the present time occupying a padded hospital room, with a diagnosis of insanity. He reflects on his past, describing a time when he transitioned from pointing his remote from the TV to outside his window and out into the city, implying when he lost touch with reality. The narrator then describes a time where he temporarily gave up his remote for a relationship, hinting at a period of mental clarity, only to descend back into madness when he points the remote at his wedding.
*** This response is very clearly written, yet it edges into observation and summary. I suggest replacing the second and the final sentence with an illustration of how the descent works in the story, with specific references to the text. Once this is done, the topic sentence could be reworked to make it more specific.
🌚Poe: the Old Man🌚
Night at last and I go to my bedroom with the help of the young man, as usual. This blindness is a curse of old age. I always feel guilty for being a burden, but the young man has been kinder to me nowadays. He must be in a good mood. I lay in my bed and ask God quietly, “when?” before I close my eyes. After a couple hours, I hear something familiar. “Who’s there?!” I ask loudly to hide my fear. For a while, all I hear is silence. Suddenly, a rush of heavy footsteps echo towards me.
*** This is well-written and changes our perspective completely. I like the way the student makes the old man endearing, calm, and kind – a good contrast to the protagonist in the story. It might be interesting to end this response in the following way: the old man doesn’t see the murderer but thinks instead that a blessed angel pierces his heart with love. He then ascends into a warm pink cloud, with harp music playing in the background…
🌚
The following creative responses all take the story in an interesting or meaningful direction:
I sat bolt upright in bed. The night hid the door and I called out “who’s there?”. My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest as panic and fear invaded my body. No one moved, no one spoke and the only sound filling my ears was the beat of my own clock. I checked the windows: they were still drawn up like a sac. “It’s only my imagination, it’s just the house mouse...” I repeated in a low whisper like a mantra. An hour came and went and overcome by sleep, I lay my head to rest. (103)
🌚
The frail old man’s desire to die grew stronger as his body got weaker. Losing his eyesight was difficult, but having to rely on this devious caretaker with his daily needs seemed more than he could handle. “I will use his fear of my empty eyes; staring at him constantly will drive him mad” plotted the old man months ago. Now he was sitting in the dark, waiting patiently for his caretaker to come into his room. “The end is near” he sighed with relief, and started his muted chant following the rhythm of his own heartbeat: attack...tonight...confess ...your crime... (100 words)
🌚
I awoke in terror to the sound of a man chuckling under his breath. I hastily turned my attention to the door. Someone was watching me; I could feel it in my bones. The room was pitch black, and I could see nothing. Just two nights ago I thought I saw a man watching me sleep. A clinking sound at the door confirmed my fears. “Who’s there?” I bellowed, nobody answered. I sat up with my back against the headboard. I kept quite still and listened. I wondered if I was going mad. Perhaps, I had been plagued by paranoia, but the tingling feeling of being watched made it impossible to ease my worst fears.
🌚
The eyes twitching are getting worse each night. By the eighth night, I was ready to grab a pill, fall asleep and let death take me away. I am his theatre. He comes every night, opening the door cautiously, thinking he is stealthy. Only this time, he wasn’t just here to watch me. Trying to ignore the terrifying sound of his feet slowly dragging across the floor, I listened as my heart pounded like a horse’s hooves. My servant is looking after me, I told myself as I panicked. Suddenly, a shadow leaped on to me and I shrieked… (99 words)
🌚
I awoke to a sound, I screamed, “who's there?”. Now I toss and I turn, am I crazy or is this just my age? The sound I heard, no, “it is nothing but the wind in the chimney”, or perhaps “it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp”. Still, I just can’t shake this feeling, I sit up and listen night after night. I am not alone. My fear is growing ever so, as I feel a dark presence surround me. Am I tumbling into madness or does death have his eye on me? (97 words)
🌚
Never has he been so considerate of me. Never has he been so kind. He used to look at me like I was the scum of the earth, staring into my dark eyes for prolonged periods of time. And now suddenly, I see a change of heart as if something inside of him clicked. Not something I’ve seen often in my days. Several nights have past now and I don’t feel the same sleeping at night. 7 nights to be exact. Maybe it could be the emptiness of the room. Or the frigidness of the air. Perhaps it could be those 8-legged insects crawling across the rough wooden planks. Something, just something doesn’t feel as it should. My heart pounds as I try and fall asleep, listening to the wind howling against the bare trees and bushes. Tonight, is no different. It’s currently the eighth night and I haven’t gotten good sleep in seven days. I want to figure out what the problem is before I drift off… “What’s that sound? Who’s there?” – I will wait patiently until I know where that sound came from. As long as it takes. [Note that this response is too long. Keep to 100 words.]