Week 3 Journal topics----

• p. 128, "A Gentleman's C" Questions for Reflection" # 1, 2, 3

   The narrator is the son of the "gentleman". His perspective is that of the involved observer, and he tells the tale in 1st person perspective.

A father enrolls in a class his son teaches. His son gives him a low C, as he thinks it is the grade his father deserves, although he concedes he is tougher on him than his other students. A family member dies, and the teacher and his mother travel to the funeral, leaving the father behind to finish his exams. The father fails to get passing grades, and has a heart attack and dies. The son is affected by this.
The author has left out any type of feelings, and most detail. I would say the setting is left out. He mentions a couch, and one can assume there is a classroom- but no details are given. 

• p. 135, "Snow" Questions . . . #1, 3, 4, 5

The important elements of description are made up in the setting. We know that we are in New York, at a Catholic School, in the late 50's early 60's, due to who is the president, and what the concerns of the time are. We also find out that it is winter, when it begins to snow.

The final paragraph lends to an air of understanding and calm, because Yolanda learns that it is not fallout, but snow.  The story also changes from its prior narration, because it is not just being narrated to you, the reader, but experienced by the subject. The entire story is told in 1st person perspective, but it almost seems as though style of the voice changes.

The figurative meaning that is developed through Yolanda's misunderstanding of the falling snow seems to be the idea that some things are lost in translation. To Yolanda, there was no difference between snow and fallout, as it was not explained to her that other "things" could fall from the sky, and she was not familiar with snow. The fear of the fallout was taken away, in a way, by the beauty and magical uniqueness of the snow.

The story Snow and the Peanuts comic strip seemed exactly the same in the way the two character's misunderstood the falling snow. The difference being, Linus is not a foreign born non English speaking character. However, he is young, and easily confuses the idea of fallout with the falling snow. These concepts of war, death, and terror are really not for children's minds to have to comprehend.