This week's assignment

[Mitzi100]

Hi Everyone,
I made a mistake and sent the assignment in a mail message! In case you didn't get it, here it is again!

By now you should have finished 3 assignments for the story "The Ransom of Red Chief". These assignments should be done in order. If you have any questions, just send me a message and I'll explain.
Now it's time to know about the author of this story - O'Henry. You have an article in your booklet, but you may choose to find a different article on the web (just NOT Wikipedia!) . It doesn't have to be long - even a few paragraphs will do. Read the article and write a paragraph (about 100 words) about how the information in the article enhances your understanding and/or appreciation of the story. You can include a summary of the relevant parts of the article in your paragraph. Post your paragraph to the forum and then comment on one other post. If you choose to use an article from the web, copy and paste the url onto your post to the forum.
On Sunday we will write reflections about this unit. We will also put the logs together. In order to be able to do that, please bring all of the assignments you have done in this course. Please also print out the assignments you posted to the forum. It is very important that you bring everything to class on Sunday so we will be able to finish in time for the deadline.
Finally, it seems that we will have to do the writing task that I told you about. You must each choose ONE of the poems OR stories OR the play. You must find one (short) article (that we haven't read yet) about the author, or the culture or history reflected in the piece of literature that you chose. You must think of a topic ( basically, how the article enhances your understanding of the piece). Please decide on your choice and send me a message so I let you know if it's OK and help you find an article. Please send the message by Friday at the very latest! I think we need to find the time to do this writing task next week, so we will be ready on time.
Looking forward to hearing from each of you!
Mitzi

[JennyI]

I have read O. Henrys biography in the booklet. All thou it was short, the information given was very interesting. I could have never suspected that he was in jail and an alcoholic - ""...he began heavy drinking", "he entered in 1898 a penitentiary...". From what I read about his life , I can understand why he wrote short stories about criminals and with such sense of humor. For me, reading about O. Henry helped me understand his reasons for writing this kind of story. At first I thought that "The Ransom of Red Chief" was just a funny story that was written by an imaginative mind, but now I can see that O. Henry had a real life experience that helped him to produce such a story.

* I agree with ilan. The story had a personal connection to Henry, because he had an experience at been a criminal.

[ilan.p.]

O.Henry

I have read about O.Henry's biography in google. It didn't surprise me, that Henry was the master of surprise endings. He wrote about the life of ordinary people in New-York city. On the other hand,I was schoked when I read that he was convicted of embezzling money, and then was put to jail in 1898. As I expected before reading the rest of the article, he wrote many short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret. His last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health and other financial problems.
I really thought that the "Red-Chief" was just a simple story with a funny ending, but now I can see that everyting was ,actually,connected to his personal life. He had a real life experience.

[yula k]

"Read the article and write a paragraph (about 100 words) about how the information in the article enhances your understanding and/or appreciation of the story"

I have read the article at this site :http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/.
The information in the article enhances my understanding and/or appreciation of the story in that ,that now I know his backround and in there was writen he was in prison for embezzling money so he has the thoughts of a criminal ,and now I know how he got the idea of writing a story about this.Also has been written in the article that "American short-story writer, a master of surprise endings" and we can see it in our story that in the end instead the father would pay the kidnappers they paied him to bring the boy back.

I agree with Ilan about that everyting was ,actually,connected to his personal life .If he want experienced all the things that happened to him he want have the inspiration for writing the story.

[emanuel.Y]

I have read the article at this site :http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/.

The information in the article does not enhances very much my understanding and/or appreciation of the story.
It is maybe helped me to understand how he got the idea of writing a story about this.also I can understand the way that O'Henry chose to write the end of the story from the sentence "a master of surprise endings", and actually instead the father would pay the kidnappers they paied him to bring the boy back.
That's all how the information in the article enhances my understanding and/or appreciation of the story.

I agree with Ilan and Yula about that everyting was ,actually,connected to his personal life.

[Eran]

I read the article about O Henry in the booklet.
The article approved my thoughts about the time the story took place on. O Henry lived in the beginning of the 20th century and his stories took place in this time. After reading about his life I also understood better the characters of the good hearted kidnappers. They could just hit the boy and threaten him to shut up but they preferred to keep him amused instead (even through Bill hit him and the boy just hit him back harder). It is known that O Henry was troubled with the law so its easy to understand why he chose to write a story about criminals, And to add a comic view to the story he didn't make the criminals cruel or bad people.

I agree with Yula K about that he had a thoughts of a criminal so its no wonder he wrote a story about criminals. I think that background of a writer affects his writing.

[Anton ch]

I have read O. Henry’s biography from the booklet. Frankly speaking, I didn't think that the writer of such a wonderful story had such a hard life with so many hard periods. "Porter entered in 1898 a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio” without a proof of his actual guilt for stealing cash from the First National Bank. Four years before “he began heavy drinking”. I think that now my understanding of the story is better than before reading the biography. In addition, I think he wrote about himself in the story I mean, according to the biography, he performed a lot of different jobs and but all his life he had problems with money and I can guess that he always dreamed to find an easy way to solve his financial problems . The story “The Ransom of Red chief” shows it somehow. Sam and Bill thought that the easiest way to get money is kidnapping but they didn't get money they just lost it, maybe O. Henry also lost money by trying unsure ways to become rich.

To Eran:
Dear friend I agree you but, why do you think that the stories took place in the beginning of the 20th century and not in the end of the 19th century?

[Anton I]

After reading the life story of O. Henry in the book, it kind of made me realize how that he wrote a story about the need of money and a better life. It seems that O. Henry's life was so hard because he tried to get more and more money (until reaching a point of committing crime) to support his family (and to buy more drinks for himself) and because of that he ended in a prison. Why did it made me understand the story better? Maybe because the ruffians in the story "The Ransom of Red Chief" were actually an imagery of O. Henry while he was traveling across South America, searching for money and escape from prison.

Dear Anton:
I agree with you, my dear friend, but why do you think that it didn't happen in the 20th century, but in the 19th century?

[Dima]

"Read the article and write a paragraph (about 100 words) about how the information in the article enhances your understanding and/or appreciation of the story."


I read the article about O. Henry in the booklet.
The information in the article doesn’t help me to understand the story better. The article gave me some ideas how to answer my question “does the story has a connection to O. Henry’s life?” . When I read the article I saw that O. Henry commits a crime because he needs money exactly like the main character and Bill in the story. In the article I found out very interesting things about O. Henry like how and when he chooses his pseudonym.

I agree with Yulia about the connection between O. Henry’s life and the story.

[liorap]

I don't think that the article from the book help me understand better the story.First I need to say that in my opinion all the writers are persons that have special inspiration.Not everyone can write.This is something that writer have from his birth.The fact that the writer of the story was criminal doesn"t mean that this is the reason why he write this type of storys.Matbe the long time in the preson was the reason to start writing.Maybe his personal life has a connection but not direct reason.

*I don't agree with elan because my point of view is different.

[Julia Klepfish]

After I read the article about O. Henry's biography in the booklet I understood the idea behind the story "The Ransom of Red Chief" better. I think that in this story O. Henry scorns to the "unprofessional" criminals. In the story the main characters Sam and Bill needed money so they decided to kidnap a kid. Although they gave thought about who to kidnap (the only son of a rich man) they didn't bother to make a little research about the kid's nature. The kid was later discovered as a little monster who got on their nerves.
The article says that O. Henry spent few years in prison where he started to write short stories to earn some money. I think that "The Ransom of Red Chief" affected by the stories that he heard from other prisoners, who wanted to get rich fast without making many effort and eventually were caught.

* I agree with Jenny, it was hard for me to believe that O. Henry spent time in prison and were an alcoholic. Like Jenny I thought that "The Ransom of Red Chief" was a product of an imaginative mind.

[Yana S]

Now it's time to know about the author of this story - O'Henry. You have an article in your booklet, but you may choose to find a different article on the web (just NOT Wikipedia!) . It doesn't have to be long - even a few paragraphs will do. Read the article and write a paragraph (about 100 words) about how the information in the article enhances your understanding and/or appreciation of the story. You can include a summary of the relevant parts of the article in your paragraph

I chose the article from the booklet. And by mistake I wrote it on the paper and not at the forum.

[Adi]

I read the article about O.Henrys life in the internet and realized that the story "The Ransom of Red Chief" written in a very realistic way about every detail in the story. While reading the article I notesed he changed a lot of different professions. He was a pharmacist, a teller, wrote a column and even worked in a ranch. His wife died and he was found guilty for stealing money from the Bank and he got into prison for 5 years where he started his writing. He had a piece of a really hard life and that explains why his story so realistic, because he had reach life experience and he knew life well.
Maybe he even heard the story from one of the prisoners in jail.
The article helped me to see this story through the writer’s eyes.


www.online-literature.com/o_henry

[jenia buzilo]

I have read the article at this site :http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/.
The information in the article does not enhances very much my understanding and/or appreciation of the story but After reading about his life I also understood better the characters. Sam and Bill thought that the easiest way to get money is kidnapping but they didn't get money they just lost it, maybe O. Henry also lost money by trying unsure ways to become rich.
That's all how the information in the article enhances my understanding and/or appreciation of the story.

[Sponsored content]