Assignment 4

The Watsons go to Birmingham

 

 

Curtis, C. P. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham, 1963.

NY: Delacorte.

 

Textbook Assignment 4

This novel is definitely a classic written in first person narration that allows readers to connect with the Watson’s family characters detailed experiences and growth.  This novel becomes historical fiction with the passage of time during the Civil Rights Movement. The Watson’s family setting in this novel is an integral explanation that describes the vividly influences of the historical recreation of time during Civil Rights Movement Era.  The style that the author embodied in this novel reflects the author’s own voice and manner while still depicting the characters dialect and language patterns that the characters conveyed to the reader.  The “south” dialogue was a constant reminder of the peculiar style that the characters (Mom and Grandma) were transmitting during the Civil Rights Movement Era.   The characters overall changes and growth will allow the readers to connect and feel the detailed close to death experience that the main character goes through.  The characters dialect is another example of how the readers can connect with the protagonists and other major characters throughout the novel.  The boy’s (Kenny and Byron) near death experience changed the whole stories plot and family’s dynamic.  This novel has humor in conjunction with other elements that will allow readers to connect and understand the author’s message.

 

Good masters, sweet ladies! 

 

Schlitz, L. A. (2007). Good masters, sweet ladies!  

Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

Textbook Assignment 4

 

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village are several historical fictional stories where the characters, are based on actual roles of people during the middle ages with real historical elements. The story is told by 23 characters in 19 monologues and 2 dialogues. The book incorporates the medieval life based on Europe history.  It describes all of the glorious details of filth, disease, maggots, superiority, poverty, and more. The setting and theme of injustice among the characters seem to correlate and provide insight for the reader of the cruel conditions of the middle ages. The 23 different points of view in the book include almost every role needed for a Medieval Village.  The stories are focused around the Middle Ages, Good Masters; Sweet Ladies that give you a vision of what life was like for both the wealthy and the peasants during that time of age. The stories are told through a collection of small plays that if they are individually different still have a connection amongst them.  Each play describes the hardships young characters encounter during the medieval times. They are all told in the first person narration giving the readers lively details about their lives. From the story of the lord’s nephew, Hugo, to the beggar named Giles, the reader gets a preview of what might be medieval life. The story also gives various different perspectives of medieval children as they lived their lives according to their social status. The stories are full of traditions, and ways of life as wells as details of religion during the middle ages.