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Comparative Essay
Please fill in sheet in files COMPARATIVE ESSAY MAP. Attached Essay needed 6 paragraphs as outlined.
Formalist Lens- Light and Dark Symbolism
In Richard Wagamese’s A Quality of light, Johnny is presented as a character with both a lightness and darkness to him. Compare the lightness and darkness that he brings into Joshua’s world and the influence this has on Joshua’s character in the text.
These are some of my Notes novel attached as well.
A Quality of Light Comparative Essay
*draw format on board
BLOCK FORMAT: introduction, body (series of) paragraph(s) 1: 3 PPAs on first element of topic, body (series of) paragraph(s) 2: 3 PPAs on second element of topic, conclusion
NB: PPA = Point, Proof, Analyze
Understanding Contemporary First Nations
Notes
Light :
Part 1: Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
At the beginning of page 24, Joshua mentions that his friendship “Adrift forever in eddies of light.” He claims that light particles move easily in circular movements which are eddies, comparing it to water and air. “Light” moved in their friendship, explaining why it is good since it came with the light. This continues elaborating the theme that light is good.
Joshua Kane
Part 1 : Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
At the beginning of A Quality of Light, Joshua is portrayed as an upright,
conventional man but lacks a vibrant personality. He is very loyal, dependable, and brave as he decides to help out his friend, Johnny, who is in a serious and sticky situation. Pages 38-60 ( Read on Tuesday, March 2nd )
As the story progresses we are introduced to Joshua’s younger self. We can see that he was always the odd one out at school due to his unathletic and good boy personality. These are shown through him being made fun of during baseball and him never keeping secrets from his parents. We also know that he is a vibrant and curious little boy, which he does not shy away from, as he is always trying to learn and do new things, like the “blood brother” ceremony.
Part 2 : The Maze
Pages 81-107 (Read on Sunday, March 7th)
At the beginning of the second part, Joshua has faced the harsh reality of the real world due to Joshua having been raised in a Christian household, leading him to have a basis of faith and the belief of goodness in everyone around him. This plays a role in Joshua being pushed around with nothing to defend himself with as he was being shielded by his parent’s security. All in all, we learn he is a very smart individual but is innocent of the harsh reality of the things around him.
Johnny Gebhardt
Part 1 : Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
Johnny is depicted as a very unusual character, both in his qualities and social position. He is unusually intelligent, confident, and thoughtful as he tries and battles the injustices put forward against the Aboriginal people. In terms of his social identity and looks, he is unusual for a Whiteman as he puts out a more “Indian” look to himself. Pages 38-60 ( Read on Tuesday, March 2nd )
As we dive deeper into the childhood of Johnny and Joshua, Johnny is not depicted as the bold person, as he seemed to be at the beginning of the novel, he is shy when meeting new people, very guarded about his personal life at home as if he was putting on a cover and he was a volcano on the rim of exploding.
Part 2 : The Maze
Pages 81-107 (Read on Sunday, March 7th)
Setting:
Plot:
Johnny plays a big brother role to Joshua at the beginning of this section, as he defends and guides him. Johnny is mature and becomes bolder compared to his childhood years.
Light : Themes
Part 1: Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
At the beginning of page 24, Joshua mentions that his friendship “Adrift forever in eddies of light.” He claims that light particles move easily in circular movements which are eddies, comparing it to water and air. “Light” moved in their friendship, explaining why it is good since it came with the light. This continues elaborating the theme that light is good.
Light
Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
? Generally speaking, light serves as a symbol for life, happiness, prosperity, and a perfect being. In the novel, it is something good. For example, this extract from the text is talked, by Johnny, then Joshua adds on, “Like the trees around us are growin’ because of the light, but we can’t see it happening. It’s just there. Sometimes I just need to remember….But something in us understood the need, the hunger, to believe that there’s magic riding in on every particle of light. So we made those clouds disappear anyway and we surrender ourselves to our friendship as easily as we surrendered to the current, drifting and bobbing, willing to travel wherever it would take us. ” (page 23-24) This shows that not only light is good but outlines that due to Johnny’s troubled history, everything good (Light) is like magic.
? At the beginning of page 24, Joshua mentions that his friendship “Adrift forever in eddies of light.” He claims that light particles move easily in circular movements which are eddies, comparing it to water and air. “Light” moved in their friendship, explaining why it is good since it came with the light. This continues elaborating the theme that light is good.
Pages 38-60 ( Read on Tuesday, March 2nd )
? The novel has now put us in Johnny’s perspective and explored his thoughts. Johnny goes on and explains, “But that night man, I was filled with light for the first time. Light, Josh. Your parents, that day, the way I felt around you, and the way we both latched onto the idea of the game. And secrets. When you live the way my mom and I had to live, you get used to having secrets. You just can’t share them with anybody. Not even each other, even though it’s the same life. They become evil somehow. Like you’re trapped by them but at the same time, you know that letting them out will trap you even more.” (page 55) The author keeps bringing forth the idea of why light is good and trying to make the reader differentiate the good from the bad, saying that Joshua’s environment is full of happiness and Johnny is stuck in this realm of evil and darkness at home.
Par

t 2 : The Maze
Pages 81-107 (Read on Sunday, March 7th)
? “It was life in the absence of light — spooky, eerie, and infinitely exhilarating. The reward of pushing against that loose bale at the end of it all and seeing the architect’s beaming face framed against a world of light, color, and sound was magical.” (page 87) The author depicts light as comfort, something that calmed Joshua down from the darkness of the maze.
? “Darkness is alive. The pitch blackness becomes your enemy, fear and alienation gnaw at your spirit, and your heart, a driven thing, pounds madly against your ribs. The farther I crawled, the more the fear mounted. I wanted out. I wanted to be anywhere except in that tunnel. I wanted light, air, and color and I wanted coolness on my brow.”(page 87) The book shows the importance of light and, without it, we are lost trying to find the exit through the complete unsecured darkness. The security that light brings is undebatable and, we should also be more grateful to it regarding what it gives us.
Part 3 : Bury my Heart
Page 156-176 (Read on Monday, March 15th)
Understanding Contemporary First Nations
? I’ve tried on more people than your average hooker, hoping against hope that something will adhere to me, that I can get past the explosion of light that happens when lives and bodies collide and live in the glow of home and history. But I never pressed the shutter. I always believed that the self I was searching for was just beyond that near horizon, in the next situation, the next opportunity, the next person. After a while, you start to realize that for people like me, going back and moving on is the same thing. Zorro, in his mask, has dreams of permanence. (page 171) The author uses the “explosion of light/light” to be something Johnny would die for, his wants.
Pages 177-202 ( Read on Tuesday, March 16th)
? “We sit in darkness symbolizing ignorance. The light we emerge into when we crawl out of the lodge at the end of the ceremony represents the gift of awareness, faith, and enlightenment.” (page 183) The author is trying to signal to the reader that light brings knowledge, awareness, and faith.
Part 4 : Like Arrows
Pages 246-266 ( Read on Tuesday, March 22nd)
? “The mole journey we all must make to find our own salvation, to find the quality of light we reside in.” (page 255)
? “And as the moment stretched to its unspoken breadth he was as he had always been, a quality of light in which I stood.” (page 259)
? “In their eyes, I saw that hope has a light of its own.” (page 259) The light used by Joshua in this sentence is to explain the hope he saw in the people that were kept as hostages. They finally had hope of going back to their normal lives and not getting killed.
Pages 266-275 ( Read on Wednesday, March 23rd)
? “The light of personal truth, the light of self-knowledge, and the light that allows us to follow the strands of our histories to a place called home. It’s all about light. It’s all about light. And when I stand in the hushed light of evening, watching the waters of Georgian Bay unfold against the lap of the land and then wash back into themselves, I think of him and realize another truth. That the quality of light we search for, the one we hope defines and sustains us forever, is revealed only when the story ends. The light of our example. We leave it behind like a beacon for those who come behind us to light their way over footfalls and caverns. Eternal light. Eternal life.” (page 272) The author utilizes light as everything good in this world as it is like a spiritual guide that guides us through events, truth, and knowledge. -mixed, it also expresses their loyalty for each other.
Significant Quotes
Part 1: Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
“The night passed in the flurry of childhood with nothing extraordinary to remember, no alteration to the rhythm of things. I guess the significant moments in life are like that. They come and they go in such random anonymity that their gravity and consequence are lost upon us. They’re masked in simplicity, in the slouching, casual day-in, day-out redness of our lives, so that you greet them in an unfeigned openness. Because they’re simply moments. Yet they lay on the highways and byways of our lives like stones, singing their histories, clamoring for the comfort of our attentions, the nurturing of our remembrances. And when we return to them, well-traveled and wiser with years, cradle them patiently in our hearts and minds, feel the lives within them, then, we realize how very much of the people we have become, live within the stones we ignore.” (page 30) In this passage, Joshua suggested that memories are a sort of wisdom, symbols of hope. We learn from mistakes, and without the memory of those mistakes, we cannot actively make decisions about the future. On the other hand, the author also wants to make us see that recalling a memory makes us feel nostalgic, happier, increases our self-confidence, and makes us more mindful of the present. Which is why it is significant.
Metaphors, imagery, symbols… –
Part 1: Inventing Baseball
Pages 17-36 (Read on Monday, March 1st)
? Imagery – One of the first pieces of imagery used is to describe the scenery of Johnny Gebhardt’s hostage situation. Investigator David Nettles explains vividly; “Gebhardt’s got the doors and elevators wired with explosives, and he’s huddled in an office on the fourth floor with a couple of automatic rifles, grenades, and enough dynamite to take out half a city block. ” (page 18) By this imagery, you can picture what the surroundings in the Indian Affair Office have become, with Johnny’s additions to it.
Pages 38-60 ( Read on Tuesday, March 2nd )
? Metaphor – “One of these days you’re gonna run out of cheeks!” (page
38) This touches on a bible verse, which explains to turn the other cheek when someone slaps your one cheek. Johnny uses the metaphor to say that Joshua will run out of forgiveness to give to people.
? Symbol – “Blood brothers” is an important symbol in the novel. The “blood brother” ritual symbolizes their closeness, which they would never be able to replicate with anyone else, as their “blood” has mixed, it also expresses their loyalty for each other.