Thinking about motives

[Mitzi100]

Hi Everyone,
A number of times in this play, the word "motive" was mentioned. One of the thinking skills on our list is called "uncovering motives". This online task is aimed at getting you to think about uncovering motives , in general, and in literature, in particular.

First, when it is ever useful to think about someone's motives for doing something? Write two examples and tell why it is useful or helpful.

Second, how do you think discovering the motives of a character in a story helps you enjoy the story more or understand it better? Write at least 3 sentences to explain your point of view. Of course, if you think it is not helpful to understand these motives, you may say that.

This assignment is due by Saturday night at 22:00.
See you in class on Sunday!
Mitzi

[Eran]

I think that when you are suspecting somebody in something but you can't really prove your suspicions, thinking about his motive for doing what you suspect him is very helpful. For example if you hear rumors that a friend of yours is talking about you behind your back, you can think of his motive for doing so, then decide if the rumor is likely or unlikely, and then act as you think. Another example is that if somebody steals your cellphone from your bag at the recess you can think about who has the motive to search specifically your bag. (Even through its quite unlikely that it's somebody you know, but nevertheless.)

I think that understanding the motives of the characters in a story makes it much more realistic and enjoyable. For example if a villain in a story is a bad person just because he is bad it makes the story quite shallow and not interesting in my opinion. I enjoy the story much better if the villain is not a bad person but the circumstances and he's opinions make him to stand against the main hero.

[Anton ch]

In my view, when you are stressed by some unpleasant event which was conducted by your friends , it's the right time to ask yourself "what I did to my friends that they are ignoring me ”. To answer this question you might start to think about their motives for doing this to you. In this situation thinking about motives is helpful because it might lead to the proper solutions or at least to some useful clues to the answers.
Another good example when thinking about motives is helpful is chess. This game is based on the ability to think few steps foreword with the addition of the ability to guess why your partner moves the figures from one place to another.


In my opinion, when you know the motive of one of the characters you may understand the story better. You can predict end of the story, some of the events and behavior of this character during these events. You might also feel quite satisfied with the fact that you were clever enough to foresee the end of the story or the progress of the events.

[jenia buzilo]

I think when a person make a crime and we judge him, we try to understand his motive. We listen to each side and try to understand the motive of this person. As for our story the jury tried to come to unique agreement. The membrs of the jury told their opinions to understand the motive of the boy's behavoir.

I think discovering the motives of the character in a story helps me to understand better his behavior and the story.

[Anton I]

Hi Everyone,
A number of times in this play, the word "motive" was mentioned. One of the thinking skills on our list is called "uncovering motives". This online task is aimed at getting you to think about uncovering motives , in general, and in literature, in particular.

First, when it is ever useful to think about someone's motives for doing something? Write two examples and tell why it is useful or helpful.

Second, how do you think discovering the motives of a character in a story helps you enjoy the story more or understand it better? Write at least 3 sentences to explain your point of view. Of course, if you think it is not helpful to understand these motives, you may say that.

This assignment is due by Saturday night at 22:00.
See you in class on Sunday!
Mitzi

I think that it's useful in 2 situations : murder and theft. In the first situation a person murders another out of anger or any other emotional overflow caused by the victim. For example: "number 1" could not control himself because "number 2" teased him a lot, so the emotions overflow him and he kills "number 2" out of anger. In this kind of situation it's useful for the police to detect the culprit because he must have killed someone in his own "relationship circle", related somehow to him or lives near-by. In the second situation a person steals from another in an act of jealousy (or anything alike). For example: "number 1" has an item that makes "number 2" jealous (a cellphone or jewel), so "number 2" steals it. In this kind of situation it's easy and useful too because the motive is almost the same (anger versus jealousy = both emotional forms) and the person (like in murdering) is related, in a relationship with the victim, lives near-by or just looking all the time on the item.

In my opinion motives are very interesting and a nice way to understand the story. I think that guessing the motive of the killer is interesting because the reader will have to search for clues for the motive in the story and it eases to understand the point of view of the killer and how to find him in the end.

[Yana S]

I think that searching the motives of a person that commited a crime, or did something wrong not particular a big crime like murder or stabbing but stealing ,beating and cursing someone, for all this acts there are motives, that because of them a persom decide to act loke this. I think that in big cases like murder, finding the correct motives can lead to the person who did that . Or even if someone steals something from you, you are trying to realise who could do that and why. You won't think about your friends because they have no reason to do that, no motive, you will think about your enemy and that how you may find the guilty.

I think that a story/play which is about a murder or something like this ,that need to be solved,is a very interesting story, because you can't understand the whole picture, and as the story continues you find out different motives for making the crime, and you are very curious and want to keep reading to find out what heppens at end. So I think that searching the motives in a crime story is very helpfull for undersending the story, which usually is exposed only at the end, and this is what keeping people reading the story.

[JennyI]

It is very useful to think about a persons motives, especially when that person is doing or done something out of character. For example, if a person steals something, we need to know what the motives to this action, if he did it because he is a bad person or maybe circumstances made him do so. If lies or hides some information about something important, it is useful to think about that person motives so we could understand his actions.

I think that understanding the motives is very important to the play. In this particular play ,understanding the motives of the jurors is very important, because that way we can understand why they think the kid is guilty of murder or not. I think that thanks to motives the readers can understand the characters actions and feel for the good and the bad guys in the play.

***I agree with Eran. I too think that understanding the motives of the charectars in a story makes it much more realistic and enjoyable. When I read a book or watch a movie, understanding the motives of the bad guy in the story helps me understand the charectars and ther actions.

[Adi]

1.
Example 1: It is useful to think about the motive when somebody is blamed for doing something wrong to somebody if he has no motive to do it so maybe he is innocent.
Example 2: Sometimes when parent’s yell or punish their kids it is good to know that their motive for that. And mostly they do it for good and because they care.

2. Knowing the motive of the character make his crime more reasonable and one hand he's guilty and his action has no excuse, but other hand if we will try to understand that this kid's life will be able to see that he grew up into a very cruel surrounding and maybe he didn't have a possibility to a better life and maybe he doesn't even know people can live otherwise.

[emanuel.Y]

It'w always useful to think about someone's motives for doing something for example:
*When the teacher tells to the student do some task and the student doesn't do that the teacher has to ask him why did he does it and think about his motives and not immediately punish him.
*When somebody hit someone and then the police take him they need to think about his motives and after that to deside if to take him to the prison or just to warning him.

I think discovering the motives of a character in a story helps me to understand the character and the story better and if I put myselg instead the character I can to predict the end of the story.I can image things that I would do if I were instead the character.

[Slava]

Knowing the motives is really useful in fighting crime.
When a crime occures and the criminal is unknown, finding the motives helps you to narrow down the suspect list. Without knowing the motive, you can suspect almost anyone and then it is almost impossible to find the true criminal.
It is also useful in the trial itself. The lawers always try to base their case on the motive, wether its defending the accuesed ("He had no motive doing so!") or making the point stronger ("And that is why he did that!"). The lack of motive always helps the accused, because it is one more hole the accuser can't fill. There is always a reason for something to happen, and without knowing the reason, you can't prove it happened the way you claim it did.

Trying to understand the motive is part of the fun in reading. You try to find the clues the writer has hidden through the story, trying to solve the puzzle. It gets you frustrated when you don't get it, making you more anxious to read on. Also it is gives a great feeling to read on and then find out, in one twist of events, that everything you figured out was false, because then it makes you think even harder, work the details again yourself, seeing everything in a whole new way.

[Julia Klepfish]

If you know someone's motive you can understand his actions.
*When someone does something wrong it is important to understand his motive.
For example, if your friend lies to you, you want to know whether he does it to protect you from something (white lie) or he wants to deceive you.
*When a teacher gives an assignment you want to know the motive behind it and how it can help you to learn.

If the writer wants his readers to sympathize the characters he should explain to us their motives. For example, in the play "Twelve Angry Men" the background of the boy is given to us during the play. We don't know whether the boy is guilty or not but we understand his motives. Although committing a murder is a crime I feel compassion toward the boy.

[liorap]

In my opinion when you know someone's motives for doing something It helps me to understand his acts.
We can see that in the movies. Sometimes an actor is doing somethings very terrible to his "friend" and we can't understand why he is doing this but when we discover some details that happened in the fast, we will understand better the motives of his bad behavior.
Of course if I know that two persons are hating each other I will understand them why they can't even have a conversaion.

In my point of view when I know the motives of a characer I can understand beter the main idea of the story and because of this I can enjoy he story more.In the other hand when I doesn't know this motives it will give me more reasons to continue read the book.

[Dima]

I think motives are very important and useful thing in fighting crime.
*A good example when motives are helpful is when someone still something from you can think who had the motive to do it.
*Another example someone do something bad ore wrong the motives can help to understand why that was done and how to help and teach the person not to do it again.

In my opinion the motives helps to understand the character and more interesting way to enjoy the story. The motives give to the story another space for example in the play “Twelve Angry Men” look like the boy had a motive to kill his father but then some of the jurors says that boy isn’t guilty. Because of the motives we think that may be the boy is guilty unlike the jurors says.

[Michael]

1) It’s helpful to think about someone’s motive for doing something in a trial, because if the accused has a motive to do the crime, which is the trial about, then it will be possible to prove that the accused is indeed guilty.
Other situation in which it’s helpful to think about someone’s motive for doing something, is when you want to understand someone’s feeling or thought, because when someone knows about the motive for doing something he can deduce the person’s feeling which have driven him to do something.

2) I think that discovering the character’s motives doesn’t always helps me to enjoy the story more, because it could make me hate the character, which will reduce my pleasure from the story. I think that discovering the character’s motives will certainly help me to understand the story better, because by knowing the character’s motives I can analyze the character’s emotions. The emotions of the character are essential for me to understand the story, because if I don’t know the character’s emotions I won’t understand the main point of the story, and I will think the story is very dull.

[yula k]

First, when it is ever useful to think about someone's motives for doing something? Write two examples and tell why it is useful or helpful.

Second, how do you think discovering the motives of a character in a story helps you enjoy the story more or understand it better? Write at least 3 sentences to explain your point of view. Of course, if you think it is not helpful to understand these motives, you may say that.


I think it is usefull because :
1.when someone doing some thing good or bad we cant relate to it because we need to know the reson why he is doing that for.
2.When we know someone's motives we can understand the story better and know what he is thinking.

I think that discovering the motives of a character in a story helps me to enjoy the story more because I can understand by that the idea of the story and if I know the character motives I would know what he is thinking about and why he is doing the things that he did.

I agree with Emanuel about that if I understand the motives of a character I can put my self in hes place.

[Sponsored content]