Montana 1948

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Montana 1948
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• Larry Watson was born and raised in North
  Dakota
• He has a PhD in creative writing from the
  University of Utah
• He is the author of a number of novels, short
  stories and poems in many different publications
• He has taught writing and literature at the
  University of Wisconsin and Marquette University

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His father and grandfather were sheriffs before
he was born, which is where the idea came for his
characters, however the novel is fiction.The
setting is not real, however it resembles towns
on the prairies that he has seen when visiting
family in Montana and lived in when he was a
child
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1948
Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is
assassinated Communist Party seizes
Czechoslovakia The Supreme Court rules that
religious instruction in public schools violates
the Constitution Hell Angels founded in
California President Truman signs the Marshall
Plan after WWII The Berlin Blockade begins
starting the Cold War President signs order
ending racial segregation in the Armed
Forces Harry S. Truman is elected
President George Gamow put forth the Big Bang
Theory to explain how the universe
began McDonalds In-N-Out Burgers are
introduced
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1948
Playwright Arthur Miller writes the play Death
of a Salesman The Cleveland Indians beat the
Boston Braves to win the World Series The Land
Rover is unveiled at Amsterdam Auto Show first
Hot Rod magazine First day of the New Jersey
State Constitution 1948 Winter Olympics opens in
St. Moritz, Switzerland George Orwell writes the
novel 1984 Israel becomes a nation Arab nations
attack The Hollywood Ten are brought before the
House Committees Investigation of Un- American
Activities Columbia Records introduces the 33
1/3 record The first tape recorder and Polaroid
camera are introduced
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Montana
Montana is called the Treasure State because of
its mineral wealth. The name Montana comes from
the Spanish word meaning mountainous and was
first used when the area was designated a
territory in 1864. Montana entered the Union on
November 8, 1889, as the 41st state. Helena is
the capital. Two-thirds of the state is part of
the Great Plains Its history has been part of
the fur trade mining frontier with the discovery
of gold open range cattle industry and
farming Montana was settled originally by French
Canadian fur traders. Later other Europeans
groups went there for mining 90 of the present
day population is white
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Montana
Before the arrival of European settlers the
present-day state of Montana was thinly populated
by numerous Native American tribes, including the
Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine,
and Cheyenne. With the gradual white settlement
of the area the Native Americans were eventually
forced onto reservations supervised by the
federal government. There were 56,100 Native
Americans in the state in 2000. The territory
was acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis
and Clark explored the territory in 1805. The
fur trade introduced alcohol and disease to the
Native Americans.
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Montana
The gold rush began in full force in 1862 The
boomtowns were characterized by makeshift
dwellings and transient, sometimes lawless
inhabitants Women in Montana had more rights
than in most of the country. The territorial
government had permitted women to vote in some
local and school elections, beginning in 1869. In
1914 women were granted full suffrage. In 1916
Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first
woman to be elected to the United States House of
Representatives and Maggie Hathaway became the
first woman appointed as the minority leader in
the state legislature.
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Montana
Tourism has played a role in Montanas economy
when Yellowstone National Park was created. It
received a further boost in 1910, when Glacier
National Park was established. In the early
days trains carried tourists to see Montanas
natural beauty and to experience life on dude
ranches. However, after World War II tourism
became an important part of the states economy.
By the 1960s out-of-state tourists spent about
72 million per year in Montana by 1990 tourism
was the second most important industry in the
state following agriculture.
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Coming of Age Novel(Bildungsroman)

• In a novel of formation or coming of age novel,
  the author presents the psychological, moral and
  social shaping of the personality of a young
  protagonist.
• Bildungsroman is a German word meaning novel of
  formation
• The character undergoes (experiences) adventures
  and/or inner turmoil (confusion) in his/her
  growth and development. Some experience it
  through the cruelty in the world, i.e. war,
  violence, prejudice, death or hatred, while
  others deal with issues through family, friends
  or the community.
• Some of the shifts that take place are
• ignorance to knowledge
• innocence to experience immature responses
  to mature ones
• false view of the world to correct view
• idealism to realism

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Coming of Age Novel

• The Bildungsroman/ Coming of Age novel generally
  takes the following course
• The protagonist grows from child to adult.
• The protagonist must have a reason to embark upon
  their journey. A loss or some destruction must,
  at an early stage, jerk them away from their
  home/ family setting or their sense of security.
• The process of maturation is long, arduous
  (difficult) and gradual. involving repeated
  clashes between the hero's needs and desires and
  the views and judgments enforced by an unbending
  social order. This bears some similarity to
  Sigmund Freud's concept of the pleasure principle
  versus the reality principle.
• Eventually, the spirit and values of the social
  order become obvious in the protagonist, who
  eventually adapts into the society. The novel
  ends with the protagonist's assessment of himself
  and their new place in that society.

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Freuds Pleasure Principle

• According to Freud, this is the way the id seeks
  immediate gratification of an instinct regardless
  of the consequences.
• The reality principle states that the ego seeks
  to satisfy instinctual demands safely and
  effectively in the real world.

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Stream of Consciousness

• A literary technique characterized by a flow of
  thoughts and images, which may not always appear
  to have a coherent structure or consistency.
• The plot line may weave in and out of time and
  place, carrying the reader through the life span
  of a character or further along a timeline to
  incorporate the lives and thoughts of characters
  from other time periods.
• Writers who create stream of consciousness
  works of literature focus on the emotional and
  psychological processes that are taking place in
  the minds of one or more characters. Important
  character traits are revealed through an
  exploration of what is going on in the mind.

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• Reading Strategies
• Reading is a process of making meaning from a
  text. This is a process we use whether we are
  reading a cartoon, an e-mail, a story, or even
  watching a movie or a play.
• This process (called synthesizing) is similar to
  viewing a picture (photo) or constructing a
  puzzle. We look at a picture and observe all the
  details of the photo (information processing).
  In this way, we can figure out the who, what,
  where, when and sometimes the why.
• With patience, the meanings in the story will
  gradually emerge.
• As we read our brains engage in a variety of
  mental processes that help us with meaning.
  These are
• Fitting what we read with what we already know
  or have experienced/making connections (called
  schema). How do you connect what you are
  reading to your life experiences, events in the
  world, other material you have read. Knowing
  about the author also helps us.

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Asking questions (before, during, and after
reading). What do you think will happen? I
wonder why this is happening? What would have
happened if? Sometimes, the most interesting
answers we have arent answered in the story!
Figuring out whats important What is the
critical information? What is just interesting
without being important?