CROW

CROW

REPORT: 15% of final grade

DUE MARCH 12

 

Requirements:

Title page required (with your name, the course name and number, the book and it’s author, and an ORIGINAL title for your report, i.e., not “report on Crow”)

Format: 12 point times new roman font, double spaced .Your report does not require a thesis, as you will be answering these questions one at a time.

Length:  Your answers to questions 1-3 should be a MINIMUM of one page, double-spaced, excluding the question itself (should you choose to copy and paste this into your report. Your answers to questions 4 and 5 should be a MINIMUM of a half a page double spaced, excluding the question itself. Your answer to question 6 will simply be your two questions for Amy.

Citations: When you discuss particular scenes in the book, you should cite these by including the page numbers you are referencing in parentheses at the end of the sentences or the paragraph, i.e., In this scene……(p. 12-13).

 

• In our class, we have discussed the connection between life, motherhood, fertility, and death. In many ways, this goes against the understanding of death as “the end.” How would you say death is constructed in this story? Is it part of the cycle/ circle of life, or, is it a final end to life? Discuss at least one scene in the book to support your answer.

 

• What are some of the foods and drinks that are mentioned in the book? Pick two scenes in which food is central and reflect on the role it is playing in these scenes. (i.e., How is it central for the characters involved? How is it incorporated in ritual? Why is it important? Would a different food/ drink have a different effect? etc.)

 

• There are many deaths in this story (Allies’ mother, Effie, Crow), and also many rituals surrounding death that are described (either as they are happening, Allie’s mother, spreading Effie’s’s ashes), or as possibilities (Crow imagining her ideal funeral, and the Crann Na Beatha Burial Pod). Choose one of these rituals. Summarize the details of this ritual. How is it different from those you have experienced? How is it similar? What might explain these similarities and differences? Are there elements of this ritual you think are useful, meaningful, or that you may even consider incorporating into your own ideal funeral?

 

• In this class, we have discussed the concept of truth (capital T and small t). Crow is a novel, but also contains reflections and inspiration from Amy Spurway’s life and experience. What importance do you think this has for the story? In other words, if this were a (Capital T) true story, would you approach it any differently than you do knowing it is a novel? Would this change your experience of reading it, or your reflection on its meaning? Does the fact that it’s a novel does this make it any less (small t) true?

 

• If you could hear this story from any other character’s point of view, whose would it be, and why?

 

• Based on your reading of the book, please prepare two questions for Amy. These can be about her life and experience, her process of writing, inspiration, etc., or, they can be about any aspect of the story or characters.