Material for Week 5

For Monday

Read Part 1 of The Mars Room

For Wednesday

The Mars Room, through Chapter 13

For Friday

First Draft of Essay Due 1 DUE (~1000 words)

For this week's MARS ROOM reading, please address these questions:

Our working assumption about any structure that is (classically) well built, including a story, is that it should include no detail that is not necessary for the composition. So how do these hundreds of memories, details, and storylines fit into this story? How do they make it coherent as a story - as opposed to a random offering of facts about a character?

As you read, take notes on the following four (4) elements, and be prepared to report your findings:

1. What is the arc of Part 1? Where do we begin and where do we end? What has changed in between, not just in the situation, but in the drama?

2. Identify the storylines that start to emerge (Plot A/Plot B/Plot C, etc). What characters will we be interested in going forward and why?

3. Identify all the flashbacks you can, and tell us why they exist in this story? A flashback in an interruption of the present narrative to show us a piece of the past. It could be a one-time thing, or part of an ongoing sequence of interconnected memories that breaks into certain places in the narrative. What purpose do they serve in advancing the plot? How do they serve to advance the story Kushner wants to tell?

4. Make a list of all the characters you can think of in the book. Beside their names, chart their role in the story to this point. Pick two of them and go into more detail about their function so far in the story.

**

Source Material:

Rachel Kushner - The Mars Room-Scribner (2018).pdf