Mango Street Discussion Post

Mango Street

For your discussion post this week, consider character, setting and theme.

Character–the main character (protagonist) should show some kind of growth, development, or change. Often in literature, we see a negative to positive, or neutral to positive character arc, though there are plenty of examples where we witness a character’s de-evolution (as in Othello, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Breaking Bad).

Setting— Setting is not simply the surroundings; setting encompasses place, time, culture, political climate, geography, available technology, etc. In some stories, the setting is a character itself. In all stories, the setting influences character development and relates to theme. The setting is the story’s foundation–it could not occur in any other place or time.

Theme–This answers the question “What is the story about?” not in terms of plot, but in terms of what it is about in a larger sense. For example, Romeo and Juliet is about (star-crossed) love, Harry Potter is about good versus evil, and “Little Red Riding Hood” is about danger. Of course these are not the only themes, just the more obvious ones.

For your discussion post this week, please connect at least two of the three elements above in a meaningful way. Please avoid summary and provide specific examples from the text whenever possible. This exercise will help you as we move forward toward your critical analysis paper due in a few weeks.

Secondly, discuss what you think happens to the main character(s) after the book ends. What is the most likely outcome? Why?

Please respond to TWO of your peers. I will leave it your responses to your discretion this week. You may choose to comment on additional literary elements or connect the elements the original poster chose in a a new or different way, but please avoid summary and surface comparisons in favor of deeper discussion.

Your initial post should be about 100 words; response posts should be about 75 words.

Please submit your initial post by Friday at 11:59 PM and your response posts by Monday at 11:59 PM.

I realize this is a lot of reading; you do not need to finish the book by Thursday; you can respond to the second prompt based on where you left off in the reading; as long as you finish the book by Sunday night, you’re fine.

You are welcome to listen to this book in an audio format if you prefer; please just make sure to cite it correctly on your works cited page.