Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Cause and Effect - when one person does X, that creates a response, which could be completely unintended

In the play, the situation is this:

Oberon is angry at his wife (Titania)

Somehow, that makes Hermia sad.

Cause and effect can create comedy and often does so in sitcoms, movies, books, etc

HOWEVER, cause and effect can also create terrible situations.

We want to be able to think about what Cause and Effect means and be able to consider how powerful it is. Wouldn’t it be a GREAT essay topic from which to build a thesis?

Cause - something to DONE or SAID or SET UP

Effect - that something results in an effect or consequence

OFTEN that effect is not planned OR it is completely surprising or TERRIBLE

In stories, we see COMPLICATIONS that arise from Cause and Effect.

In life we see the same things.

It is a common concept in literature and you could apply it as a way of thinking about anything.

Exercise in Cause and Effect

I will write down a scenario and you will jot down THREE possible unintended effects.

Example - Courtney gets a bloody nose in class. (cause)

What COULD happen because of that?

A clever way of coming up with an effect is trying to find something that could happen that is not obvious - the effect might be complex or tricky or take some real ASSOCIATING (you might have to really think about why that effect came from that cause)

Effect - Mr. Lobb was arrested.

Obvious? Lobb punched her.

More unusual? Lobb used Black Lobb Magic

More complex?

A chain reaction - a series of cause and effect relationships that take us into unexpected story areas.

In our lives we OFTEN forget about cause and effect and we behave in ways that indicate we are ONLY thinking about RIGHT NOW.

IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION (now pleasure)

Here is the difference between a former addict whose life fell apart and Mr. Lobb:

Former addict wanted things NOW. He wanted fun NOW. He wanted a good time NOW.

He didn’t really think about long term or later. He was immersed in the moment.

Mr. Lobb was more focused on “what will happen later?”

This Mr. Lobb approach has its own problems too. DELAYED GRATIFICATION

Looking at the idea of Cause and Effect can allow us to think about things in a really smart way. We can analyse ourselves.

Why do we analyse characters in stories in English in school?

Maybe the things are happening in the characters’ minds are realistic.

We want students to MAKE CONNECTIONS between the stories and the characters they read about and their own lives.