Aha Moments

Definition Aha Moments are when a character’s sudden insight or understanding helps us understand the plot’s movement, the development of the character, or the internal conflict he faces. An Aha Moment is sometimes revealed by language: “realize,” “understand/understood,” “know/knew,” “notice”

Question to Ask How might this change things? An Aha Moment reveals change – by asking yourself this question, you dig into deeper analysis of why this change is important or how this moment might change the course of the text. More specific: How might this change the character’s actions? How might this change the character’s thinking? How might this change the direction of the plot? When a character realizes or finally understands something, you want to pause because you know this realization means something. It might be showing you something about character development or a new direction of the plot.

Biggest Aha Moment Known as the climax: when the Aha Moment becomes so large that it changes everything that the character has known/taken for granted. But there are lots of Aha Moments along the way: we have to catch them!

Example: A Separate Peace Finny’s eyes continued their roaming across my face. “I don’t know, I must have lost my balance. It must have been that. I did have this idea, this feeling that when you were standing there beside me, y—I don’t know, I had a kind of feeling….this feeling doesn’t make any sense. It was a crazy idea, I must have been delirious. So I just have to forget it. I just fell, that’s all…I’m sorry about the feeling I had.” I couldn’t say anything to this sincere, drugged apology for having suspected the truth. He was never going to accuse me. It was only a feeling he had, and at this moment he must have been formulating a new commandment: Never accuse a friend of a crime if you only have a feeling about it. And I thought we were competitors! It was so ludicrous I wanted to cry. If Phineas had been sitting here in this pool of guilt, how would he have felt, what would he have done? He would have told me the truth. How might this change this? What does it change for gene? He begins to want to make it up to finny: he takes on finny’s athletics, he tries to apologize, he wants to enlist, he becomes finny

Again and Again

Definition A pattern or repetition of images, words, events, ideas or concept = MOTIFS Makes you think about: the character’s development, the conflicts of the story, or the theme of the text

Question to Ask Why does the author bring this up again and again? What larger understanding or theme is the author trying to guide the reader to?

Motifs vs Symbols Motifs: repeating images, words, events, ideas or concepts Symbols: physical objects that stand for something greater than the object itself Example: scars of a soldier might represent his sacrifice/loyalty for his country Could be used just once, but might be repeated and thus create a motif about an idea

Day 2

Aha Moments What are some of the Aha Moments in “The Most Dangerous Game”? What is the biggest Aha Moment (climax) in “The Most Dangerous Game”? Aha moments: when rainsford realizes what type of game Zaroff plays, when Rainsford realizes he will have to play the game, when Rainsford realizes that Zaroff knew he was in the tree and yet walked away, when rainsford realizes he will have to take a huge risk to win, when rainsford comes back and realizes that he is still a beast at bay Climax: beast at bay?

Aha Moments What are some of the Aha Moments in “Hunters in the Snow”? What is the biggest Aha Moment (climax) in “Hunters in the Snow”? Aha moments: when tub realizes kenny is a jerk when shooting the dog, when tub realizes that frank doesn’t know anything about it (after shooting), when frank realizes he should be friends with tub and apologizes, when tub realizes he can share his secret with frank Climax: when tub and frank realize they can be friends with each other No real true aha moment: just realize that they are similar, not that their actions are wrong – that’s what makes this so unsettling. They don’t realize the depth of the wrongness of their actions.

Again and Again What images, words, events, ideas or concepts do you notice again and again in “The Most Dangerous Game”? What images, words, events, ideas or concepts do you notice again and again in “Hunters in the Snow”? What images, words, events, ideas or concepts do you notice again and again in “How I Met My Husband”? - Darkness (terror/evil); contrasted with beams of false hope (light in Zaroff’s house, the beacons that guide the ships to crash, Zaroff switching on the light in his bedroom at the end; false hope only makes the darkness scarier Color red: falls into blood-warm waters of the sea, wounded animal patch stained crimson, borscht, red sash of Ivan, Zaroff’s red-lipped smile Nature trying to consume man: sea trying to drown rainsford, sea trying consume castle, jungle trying to get rainsford, bog trying to suck him in: symbolic of the internal savagery trying to consume the civilized man Hunters snow/cold Food: tub’s food, “this really takes the cake” 92; dog couldn’t chew his food anymore; eating at the tavern HIMMH food (looking for something to sustain her), flying (looking for a way to be free)