“But anyway thats sience and I got to try to be smart like other pepul. Then when I am smart they will talk to me and I can sit with them and listen like Joe Carp and Frank and Gimpy do when they talk and have a discushen about importent things. While their werking they start talking about things like about god or about the truble with all the mony the presedint is spending or about the ripublicans and demicrats. And they get all excited like their gonna have a fite so Mr Donner got to come in and tell them to get back to baking or theyll all get canned union or no union. I want to talk about things like that. If your smart you can have lots of frends to talk to and you never get lonley by yourself all the time.”
Contributed by: Kaitlyn O.
June 5, 2025
Flowers for Algernon
Narrative Technology: Hurt Delay
“Charlie is asleep in the other room, but he wakens to the sound of his mother shrieking. He has learned to sleep through quarrels—they are an everyday occurrence in his house. But tonight there is something terribly wrong in that hysteria. He shrinks back into the pillow and listens. “I can’t help it! He’s got to go! We’ve got her to think about. I won’t have her come home from school crying every day like this because the children tease her. We can’t destroy her chance for a normal life because of him.” “What do you want to do? Turn him out into the street?” “Put him away. Send him to the Warren State Home.” “Let’s talk it over in the morning.” “No. All you do is talk, talk, and you don’t do anything. I don’t want him here another day. Now—tonight.” “Don’t be foolish, Rose. It’s too late to do anything . . . tonight. You’re shouting so loud everyone will hear you.” “I don’t care. He goes out tonight. I can’t stand looking at him any more.” “You’re being impossible, Rose. What are you doing?” “I warn you. Get him out of here.” “Put that knife down.” “I’m not going to have her life destroyed.” “You’re crazy. Put that knife away.” “He’s better off dead. He’ll never be able to live a normal life. He’ll be better off—” “You’re out of your mind. For God’s sake, control yourself!” “Then take him away from here. Now—tonight.” “All right. I’ll take him over to Herman tonight and maybe tomorrow we’ll find out about getting him into the Warren State Home.” There is silence. From the darkness I feel the shudder pass over the house, and then Matt’s voice, less panicky than hers. “I know what you’ve gone through with him, and I can’t blame you for being afraid. But you’ve got to control yourself. I’ll take him over to Herman. Will that satisfy you?” “That’s all I ask. Your daughter is entitled to a life, too.” Matt comes into Charlie’s room and dresses his son, and though the boy doesn’t understand what is happening, he is afraid. As they go out the door, she looks away. Perhaps she is trying to convince herself that he has already gone out of her life—that he no longer exists. On the way out, Charlie sees on the kitchen table the long carving knife she cuts roasts with, and he senses vaguely that she wanted to hurt him. She wanted to take something away from him, and give it to Norma. When he looks back at her, she has picked up a rag to wash the kitchen sink. . . .”
Contributed by: Kaitlyn O.
June 5, 2025
Flowers for Algernon
Experience: Righteousness
Narrative Technology: I Voice
“'The problem, dear professor, is that you wanted someone who could be made intelligent but still be kept in a cage and displayed when necessary to reap the honors you seek. The hitch is that I’m a person.' He was angry, and I could see he was torn between ending the fight and trying once more to beat me down. 'You’re being unfair, as usual. You know we’ve always treated you well—done everything we could for you.' 'Everything but treat me as a human being. You’ve boasted time and again that I was nothing before the experiment, and I know why. Because if I was nothing, then you were responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master.”
Contributed by: Kaitlyn O.
June 5, 2025
The Lost Bookshop
Experience: Empathy
Hardships each character went through (Opaline - imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital, Martha - abusive husband, Henry - abusive father), the "bad guys" not winning or "getting what they deserved," and characters I liked getting their happy ending
Contributed by: Sophia Sullivan
June 5, 2025
The Lost Bookshop
Experience: Righteousness
Narrative Technology: Moral Suasion
The unjust treatment of Opaline: “It didn’t seem to matter how talented, intelligent or independent a woman was, she was still seen as the property of a man, to do with as he pleased.”
Contributed by: Sophia Sullivan
June 5, 2025
The Cheat Sheet
Experience: Love
Narrative Technology: Almighty Heart
How Nathan goes out of his way for Bree to remember the little things – having flowers sent to her house in her favorite colors, but also having his perspective of him being so worried to mess things up
Contributed by: Sophia Sullivan
June 5, 2025
The Cheat Sheet
Experience: Gratification
Narrative Technology: Wish Fulfillment
bree and nathan getting together in the end: "I gather all of my strength for my next words. 'Your ability to shoulder everything, to give 200 percent of yourself all the time, to be perfect at everything you attempt…these are not the attributes that make you a valuable human being.' I pause. 'And they are not why I fell in love with you.'" ... "'I love you too,' he whispers over and over again. 'I love you, Bree. I love you, I always have.'"
Contributed by: Sophia Sullivan
June 5, 2025