Assignment 2
    I chose to do option 3. Just to make the map of the town took me 3 hours! I didn't realize how hard it would be to capture all the crucial details of a story. I decided to do my setting analyzes on "Eight Pieces of the Left Hand." After thinking of all the stories we read, I thought it would be interesting to try and map out the town, because all eight pieces of the story revolved around it. It took me a while to decide where to locate things. From the first section, I knew that Flats and Heights had to be the closest schools to each other, but they were also from "different worlds." Their lifestyles had to separate them. Then I knew that Valley High had to be closer to both the City Regional. Because Valley High was considered the buck toothed hick school, I located the farm from story 2 close to it. I assumed that the highway, airport, mental hospital and main university were all close to the city, so from there I sort of filled in the gaps. Each clip art has a description and tells which piece of the story it came from. Although it took me so long to arrange the map, it really helped me visualize what the town would look like as a whole, versus being in 8 different pieces.

    The setting in this particular story is very important. Even though Lennon chooses to write 8 segments, the setting made them a whole. The town is what ties all the pieces together. Each central conflict in the sections is based on setting. In One we see that even though two schools, Flats and Heights high, are probably only a few miles apart, they still hold hatred towards each other. When their setting changes, and they are forced to become one school this does not stop their rivalry. They simply, turn their animosity towards another school, like Valley High or City Regional. In Two the poet is battling his setting while trying to get his manuscript to the copy shop. He gets pulled over from running a red light, and ultimately, even after his death, he is fighting the police and the city to have his work publicized. In Three the teenagers try to smash a mailbox, and pay for trying to damage someone's property. The girl is killed by her surroundings, even though she did not participate in the vandalism. In Four the cat went through a change when he changed setting, but really it was not the same cat. The narrator of this piece felt as though the setting change truly make them the rightful owner of this cat. In Five the soon to be mother is fearful that her surroundings will determine the fate of her unborn child. The setting/death sign makes her go a little crazy and so they get rid of it. In Six the young students are so confused by their setting that is damages some of them for life. Because they cannot distinguish their real names from their stage names, their world is thrown off and they cannot even recite their lines. In Seven the professor mocks the left handed club, and cannot believe that they did not know that he was not left handed. In a strange twist of fate, when we returns home, he gets into an accident and loses his right arm. The fact that he makes fun of those who surround him, and then becomes one of them is quite ironic. In Eight the novelist keeps cutting apart her piece of work til she is left with the entirety of all 8 stories, setting. "Tiny upstate town undergoes many changes nonetheless endures."

    If all 8 pieces of this story were not set in the same town, I am not quite sure how the author would have tied all the fragments together. If not for setting in this case, I do not think this would be considered an entire story, only segments. In One the main characters are the students of the schools. Their settings (Flats high and Heights high) do not only define where they come from, but who they are. Working class versus upper class, inbreds versus trust-fund half-wits. In Two the setting of the car/manuscript defined both the poet and the police officer because it was perceived differently by each. In Three the mailbox stood at the end while all the characters where left to blame. In Four as the setting changed the cat owner changed as well. Even though it was not their cat, they decided that it was a part of the family now, so it didn't matter. In Five, the setting drove the main character. If not for the death sign out front the soon to be mother would not be paranoid, and there would be no story to tell. In Six the setting causes the problem which directly effected these children for life. If not for the impact of the play on the students, they would be normal as grown ups. In Seven the setting makes the story. If the character or setting was different (if it was a right handed club or if he was left handed) it wouldn't have mattered and the ironic twist wouldn't have helped the story. In Eight the setting was the basis of the novelist's wrote. The two work together to creating her ending haiku.

    I'm not sure if this town is a real place, but I didn't research it. However, I grew up in a small town, that is outside of the city and can relate to an extent. Looking at this town as a whole, there is a lot going on. Between the submerging of schools, the falsifying of documents by police, the outrageous mailbox incident, and the professor in a car accident, I think it is a bit overwhelming. Knowing it's fictitious, that this is a great story. I like that its broken apart, it makes the reader think more about how they all tie together.