The Laramie Project Questions

What do you believe to be the true cause of the Matthew’s murder–was it a genuine hate crime or did drugs and alcohol have the biggest role? Why?

Why did Matt’s murder receive so much attention and cause so much controversy and emotion? I’m sure many other gay people are murdered, so why is this one blown out of proportion? Was it blown out of proportion?

Articles

http://www.cnn.com/US/9810/12/wyoming.attack.03/

This article gives more insight into the lives and characters of the two individuals who murdered Matthew and also into Matthew’s life and some of his concerns about being gay and living in Laramie. I would probably use the descriptions of the murderers given by individuals in the play to compare with the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/ads/marketing/laramie/19981011_laramie2.html

I like this article because it discusses the reactions of the residents in Laramie to Matthew’s death and how they want it to be known that the events were atypical of the small town. However, it also discusses a different side of Laramie and how homosexuals were commonly treated poorly. I think this article would be great to use as there are many parallels with the play, especially concerning the idea of acceptance vs. tolerance.

It seems that what people think depends on their relationship with Matt. People who knew him and who were close to him, such as Romaine and Mr. Peacock, spoke highly of Matt and made him seem like a great individual. However, other people who did not necessarily know Matt seemed to only be concerned with the image of the town and the fact that this whole tragedy is now what defines Laramie.

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Visual Argument Prospectus

For my visual argument, I want to focus on exercise and health in America. Recently I’ve become very passionate about creating a healthier lifestyle for myself and improving my fitness. Through my own research and through some of my exercise and health classes here at Miami, I have learned the many benefits that more fit people enjoy. My plan for this project is to emphasize the high percentage of Americans who are overweight and obese and also the unhealthy lifestyle choices that lead to a problematic and diseased future. I want to paint a picture of just how big this problem is. To do so I will use photos of larger people and some of the unhealthy things that they do, hoping that this will discourage my audience from ever becoming like that. I will argue that physical exercise is an important and necessary thing that should be a part of everyone’s life. I want to show the positive effects that exercise can have. I will depict various types of physical activities that can easily be done by most people, such as walking, riding a bike, running, etc. I also want to focus slightly on nutrition–mainly, I just want to send the message that eating healthier foods can have a tremendous positive impact on health, so unhealthy foods such as fast food should be avoided. In the end I think I will try to use images of well known fit people, which I hope will serve as a sort of inspiration for my audience. It is my goal to first make my audience aware of the obesity problems in America and then to encourage and motivate them to want to change their habits and lifestyle in order to promote better health and a better life. I am hoping to aid my visual argument with a song that brings about positive feelings and hope.

Hate and Hope

Hate

The World Trade Centers are a symbol for many Americans of tragedy, death, and more importantly hate. When people see this picture, the immediate thought is usually of terrorism and the middle east. It gives us feelings of hatred towards terrorists and people such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam. This symbol could be used as a motivational and persuasion tool for showing why America needs to fight terrorism.

  

 

Hope

The third picture (the one with the cross), as well as several of the other pictures, symbolizes a chance at a new beginning. The light shining through the clouds is a ray of hope that lets us know that the past is the past and the future looks bright. This picture, because of the cross and sky, is probably mostly viewed as a symbol for hope by religious people who believe in God. 

   

  

Prompts 6 & 7

My question was going to concern Nordan’s use of the parrot and its significance in the novel, but since multiple people have already posed similar questions, I have chosen to ask something else. Although the murder of Bobo is an important part of Wolf Whistle, Bobo’s point of view is not expressed throughout the book. He speaks briefly in the scene that sets the events in motion, and following his murder we see the world through Bobo’s magical demon eye. Why does Nordan choose not to use Bobo’s voice in the novel or allow us to see things from his perspective? I want to pose an additional question. Nordan incorporates magical realism throughout the book, such as when we experience certain events through the perspectives of pigeons and buzzards, and, as stated before, through Bobo’s magical eye. How do these magical views affect the overall vision of the book?

As for the narrative analysis, my current idea is to trace the magical that occurs so frequently throughout the book. I will focus on Nordan’s use of magical realism to present events in an unorthodox manner and I will also discuss the sort of carnival theme that many of the scenes seem to have. I plan to discuss how those elements and magical points of view affect the story and why Nordan used them. The list of magic that we generated as a class will be helpful. Some aspects that I will likely analyze include the “voices” of the pigeons and buzzards, Runt’s parrot and perhaps its significance throughout the novel (particularly in the end), Bobo’s magical eye following his death, and others.

Explication

Scene: Chapter 5, page 109, “He thought about New Orleans…” to page 110, “…he had done the right thing.” (or maybe longer if more content is needed)

• “He’d [Solon] taken his earnings from the robberies and bought hisself a bus ticket and slept so sound to the music of the wheels…he thought about himself asleep on that Greyhound, and the thought of it was so sweet it almost made him cry.”
  • Perhaps Solon finds comfort in having a place to go; the bus is taking him somewhere and so he is able to sleep soundly
  • Maybe he feels better when he has some amount of luxury or power. In this case he is able to ride on a bus, which gives him feelings of sweetness and love and almost makes him cry. Later in the book we see that when he has money, Dexter’s El Camino, and his Luger, Solon is in a better mood–he went from wanting to kill his entire family to thinking that nobody had to die after all.
  • Does “the music of the wheels” mean anything?
• “It was like he was outside of himself, watching Solon Gregg fall asleep in his seat…it didn’t seem possible that he was who he was, the robber and killer and wife beater.”
•  ”Confession makes the heart grow fonder, as his crazy wife used to say.”
  • Fond-feeling love, affection, or preference for somebody or something
  • What is the meaning of the sentence; why was it used?

 Obviously my analysis is weak and lacking details. I have hardly covered any of the passage but I do not have any more time right now. I’ll have to finish later today.

Chapter 6 of Nordan’s Wolf Whistle

Several things throughout chapter 6 caught my attention during my intital reading. First of all, I noticed that as Solon and Dexter were driving in the El Camino, they were listening to WOKJ, which was the colored station in Jackson. I found this to be a bit ironic, considering the two were on their way to get Bobo and kill him. I also noticed that Solon was suddenly in happy spirits–he was “looking good” and “feeling fine.” He even thought that there was no need to kill anybody after all, which is the extreme opposite of how he felt in the previous chapter. In chapter 5 he was at the Arrow Hotel contemplating suicide and wishing he could kill his entire family. He even dreamed about it and believed he would be doing them all a favor. However, as he was driving in the El Camino, dressed in Dexter’s nice clothing and carrying Dexter’s gun, he suddenly felt that nobody needed to die. Having some money and possessions (such as new clothes and the car) completely changed Solon’s attitude. He believed he was God; in fact, he was better than God. All of this demonstrated that if you give Solon a little bit of power, he will blow it all out of proportion. A third thing that caught my attention came when Solon arrived at Bobo’s house and took him. It seemed odd to me that Bobo’s aunt and uncle did not put up any fight to prevent Solon from leaving with Bobo. It seemed to me that the aunt and uncle had accepted the fact that there was nothing they could do about the situation. It was almost as if this was expected to happen. When I think about it though, I realize that there really wasn’t anything that could be done because they were black.

Several scenes in the chapter were rather innocent and loving, making them seem out of place compared to the violence that was occuring. These scenes include the conversation between Solon and Hydro about Hydro and his father (his father said, “I love you, my darling son, don’t ever leave me, without you my life has no meaning.”) and the love making between Auntee and Uncle.

Prompt Three – Alice’s Vision in Nordan’s Wolf Whistle, Chapter 4

“Alice didn’t see much of anything today, until she passed by the house of Lord and Lady Montberclair. And even then it was not the stucco house she saw, or the trees or the fountain. In one of the little crystal balls of rainwater on her sleeve, just as she passed this fine house, she did see something, though. Alice hadn’t even meant to be looking at the drop of rain, let alone looking into it. It only lay there before her, on her sleeve, perched like a million other drops of rain. In it, Alice saw the image of a child in the river, some river, running water, anyway. She thought the child must have drowned.” (80)

Chapter 4 of Nordan’s Wolf Whistlecontains several seemingly random and puzzling scenes that, when analyzed, provide more insight about the characters and their relationships as well as potential foreshadowing. In particular, the scene depicting Alice’s vision, which is quoted above, suggests a foreshadowing of certain events to come. When Alice saw the image of a drowned child within the raindrop, she was passing the Montberclair’s house. Based on the fact that the vision came when walking by the Montberclair’s and Lady Montberclair had given Bobo a ride home, and also Runt saying that the Delta rivers are full of colored people, a reasonable assumption would be that the boy was none other than Bobo. And if the vision is in fact a reality and Bobo is actually found dead, it would not be hard to believe that he was murdered for whistling at Sally Anne. Because the vision occurred where it did, perhaps Lord Montberclair will have some sort of involvement if Bobo is murdered. I think Alice’s vision implies that she will have some sort of a connection with Bobo in the future, but I’m not sure how that will come  to form.

Prompt Two – Economic Divide in Nordan’s Wolf Whistle, Chapter 2

In the second chapter of Nordan’s Wolf Whistle, we see that in addition to racial separation/segregation, economic status also creates a divide among the people. Lady Sally Anne Montberclair, with her bare legs, raccoon eyes, and good looks, is “rumored to be modern.” Her big  white Cadillac, well-groomed nature, and insistence to pay for the tampons provides evidence that she is of higher economic standing than the others gathered around Red’s Goodlooking Bar and Gro. Those others are the locals–Solon Gregg, Runt Conroy, Gilbert Mecklin, Red, Blue John Jackson, The Rider, Rufus McKay, Bobo, as well as a few others.

To gain an understanding of the economic status of those others, we only have to look at a few of them. Solon Gregg, in his old clothes, had just returned to Arrow Catcher after being gone for six months. “Armed robbery was Solon’s trade, though he was not adverse to other honest work either…extortion, for example.” Solon lives in a clapboard shack in Balance Due, the “white-trash ghetto of Arrow Catcher.” Runt wears dirty clothes and smells constantly of birdshit. He dug his own mother’s grave with a backhoe and his wife recently left him. Runt is the “town drunk in the sorriest little podunk excuse for a town in the sorriest state in the nation.” Blue John Jackson, The Rider, and Rufus McKay seem to sit outside of Red’s daily, with nothing to do but drink and sing the blues.

The economic standing of those individuals is low, as is evidenced by the fact that instead of working, they merely hang outside of the store and do nothing. When Lady Montberclair arrives, the economic divide becomes very apparent and results in an awkward relationship between her and the locals. Although it is partly because she is a woman, the locals do not know exactly how to act towards Lady Montberclair because she is wealthy and “modern.” This divide, however, does not seem to matter to Lady Montberclair. She is willing to go to Red’s store to purchase tampons and she willingly protects Bobo after Solon’s confrontation.