The+Portable+Phonograph

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: The Portable Phonograph

Point of View: Third person

Protagonist: Dr. Jenkins What type of character is the Protagonist? Round, static

Antagonist: Environment, The musician

Describe the setting: It is a deserted wasteland, a land destroyed by a great war (in this case, world war 2). The mood is dreary, sad, and as if someone could die at any minute. The mood doesn’t really change considering the utter seriousness of the story.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Himself, Society, Man

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is a group of veterans in a deserted land, losing their grasp on humanity. The music is their only connection to humanity. They are all fighting inside themselves in this manner.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax is at the end when it talks about Dr. Jenkins holding a lead pipe. It is the last new thing that happens in this story since the whole story keeps revealing things.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? He doesn’t, he puts on a fake show of trust until they leave. Some may say he changed, but his attitude doesn't actually change throughout the story.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The title ‘The portable phonograph’ is pointing towards the significance of the phonograph to each person’s lives. It is the reason they go there. It shows the theme of mistrust at the end when Jenkins hides the phonograph.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict is the humanity lost in each of them, letting them give in to the mistrustful trap.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax shows that we all mistrust someone we know for something, because we are human. You look at someone and say to yourself; I wouldn't talk to that person, just because of the way they look, without even meeting them. In this case, Jenkins //does// know the musician. But there is a lot of mystery surrounding all of the men, which may be the cause of the doctor's trust problems. This becomes obvious when it illustrates Jenkins holding the pipe.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: ‘...little islands of an old oiled pavement...', ' ...the wet, blue-green notes...’ '...a V of wild geese fled south. The rush of their pinions sounded briefly, and the faint plaintive notes of their expeditionary talk.' '...the creek was already silent...'

Metaphor: ‘...was like a prehistoric priest…’ ,"My brain becomes thick, like my hands.",

Personification: ‘...young trees trying again...’

Symbol: ‘saw four stars flying’, ‘I have become accustomed to the thorns, but they are not very good…’

Foreshadowing (give both elements): Subtle: ’The musician rose last, but then abruptly, and quickly out the door without saying anything.’ It foretells that something it bothering he musician, so he might just do something about it, say, steal the phonograph? Direct: ‘He believed that down by the pale alders he could see the moving shadow.’ This the more obvious foreshadowing of the fact that the musician might come back.

Irony: At first the musician doesn’t want to wear out the needles, but then he want to do more than one record.

Imagery: 'The red sunset, with narrow, black cloud strips like threats across it, lay on the curved horizon of the prairie. The air was still and cold, and in it settled the mute darkness and greater cold of night. High in the air there was wind, for through the veil of the dusk the clouds could be seen gliding rapidly south and changing shapes. A sensation of torment, of two-sided, unpredictable nature, arose from the stillness of the earth air beneath the violence of the upper air. Out of the sunset, through the dead, matted grass and isolated weed stalks of the prairie, crept the narrow and deeply rutted remains of a road. In the road, in places, there were crusts of shallow, brittle ice. There were little islands of an old oiled pavement in the road too, but most of it was mud, now frozen rigid. The frozen mud still bore the toothed impress of great tanks, and a wanderer on the neighboring undulations might have stumbled, in this light, into large, partially filled-in and weed-grown cavities, their banks channeled and beginning to spread into badlands. These pits were such as might have been made by falling meteors, but they were not. They were the scars of gigantic bombs, their rawness already made a little natural by rain, seed and time. Along the road there were rakish remnants of fence. There was also, just visible, one portion of tangled and multiple barbed wire still erect, behind which was a shelving ditch with small caves, now very quiet and empty, at intervals in its back wall. Otherwise there was no structure or remnant of a structure visible over the dome of the darkling earth, but only, in sheltered hollows, the darker shadows of young trees trying again.'

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The similarity between the class theme, humanity, and the story is in the fact, since the four, were battle scared, and abandoned, they were losing humanity.The music was the only remnant.

Responding:
 * 1)** This story is set sometime after a great war. I would guess that it was most likely after the second world war, because of the technology used, but the time is rather unclear.


 * 2)** The purpose of the four men meeting is to listen to excerpts of books and to listen to music, the only link they have to humanity. The author compares the meeting to that of a rite, considering the books are so used, they could fall apart at any time, so in response, the doctor was extremely careful, as if it were something holy.


 * 3)** The books Jenkins chose will always relate to the present time. That is why they are given the term 'classic', other books may not have such a flexible relation with future generations.


 * 4a)** It shows the common feeling of mistrust among the men.
 * b)** From the evidence, I think that the musician will come in to try and steal the phonograph and, (enter R-rated content), will end up in a not so good position for the musician.


 * 5)** The common views are represented in this story: Mistrust, envy, anger, loss of humanity (humanity overall)

The second item I would bring would be a video game, namely a DSi with one game. That way I could play that game, I would chose one with great sound/music and great graphics, plus if I could get Wi-fi, it would be a bonus and act as my emailing device. The third and final thing I would bring would be the movie: Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It is my favourite movie and it is all around hilarious. I could watch it so often and never get tired of it. It is cleverly written, and I believe there is a hidden point in it, well in it, that I don't know about. That is enough motivation.
 * 6)** The first I would bring would be a blank pad of paper (and a pencil). It isn't exactly art, but it could as easily become one, I just enjoy writing my own things so I could look back on what I'd done. And when I get bored of writing, I would doodle, there would most likely be space for small little pictures.

12:00-1:00 Daily Workout and Freshening 1:00-2:00 Email and Facebook everyone I know to tell them I am going to die 2:00-3:00 Do something illegal just for the fun of it 3:00-4:00 Spend an hour explaining to the police why I was streaking in the park at 2 in the morning 4:00-5:00 Do something I wish I could do right now, that I really can't tell you. 5:00-6:00 Write 6:00-7:00 Buy something, Marvel at it. 7:00-8:00 Sell Belongings to Pawn Shop 8:00-9:00 Write 9:00-10:00 Buy amazing software and learn how to use it 10:00-12:00 Use it 12:00-1:00 Send my amazing ideas to producers and add a footnote. 1:00-2:00 Write 2:00-3:00 Visit friend 3:00-4:00 Send heated emails to that site I loved that closed down a year ago. 4:00-7:00 Make my mark; make an ultra-cool website and post everything I know on it; publish. 7:00-9:00 Write 9:00-10:00 Send story to publishers 10:00-11:00 Freshen and Workout quickly and say goodbyes 11:00-12:00 After writing down funeral arrangements, go to bed and die.
 * 7)** If I only had a day to live, first off, I wouldn't sleep for the whole day, I would have a time table to follow, dividing activities as follows:

Completion 5/5 Effort 4/5 Content 4/5 Questions 6/8

total 19/23