“When the Tide of Misfortune Hits…” Student Presentations

Student presentations on “When the Tide of Misfortune Hits, Even Jelly Will Break Your Teeth” by Porochista Khakpour

Presentation 1: Leaf Henry

When the tide of misfortune hits, you might go a little crazier than you think.

When the tide of misfortune hits, even jelly will break your teeth tells the story of our seemingly unlucky protagonist. Time after time, he’s met with some unlucky fate, and hasn’t had anything good to look forward to in years. He seems under the weather, done with pretty much everything until he meets with “The Spiritualist”, a mysterious psychic woman. She starts off with giving him the winning lottery numbers after realizing that he doesn’t have much money. At first, he’s a bit skeptical, but after the numbers actually end up winning, he gives her his full trust. She gives him oddly specific instructions (from marrying a woman who works at the diner, to not taking his medication when he grows old and sick) that ultimately make him happier until the very end. When he grows old and sick, she tells him not to take his medicine and provides him a life-shattering bit of information: he’s going to die. Content with the way things are now, he scrambles to find out when, but she isn’t able to give him an answer. This eventually pushes him to the point of insanity, and our story comes to a close with him rushing back to her temporary office. When she isn’t there, he tries going into the room where they used to chat despite her telling him to never return. He dies as soon as he opens the door.

The narrative technique that I ended up choosing was imagery. Throughout the story, the reader is provided with vibrant descriptions of the rooms and how the characters feel. This also brings in the protagonists attention to detail, he seems to notice everything around him. With descriptions like “…the room was similarly unadorned and musty. There was a single desk–like the cheap wood kind you’d find in an office–and a generic black office desk chair…”, you’re never really left hanging when it comes to detail. You can vividly picture all of the different spaces that he finds himself in, from The Spiritualist’s office, to the country-style restaurant that he met his wife.

I find that all of this works into his character, that sort of meticulous, serious type. After all, he seemed to be at his breaking point before speaking with her. This was especially nice, because in a story like this, you’d think there’d be more focus on the character himself, not everything around him. From the get go, we’re told that he doesn’t really believe in the stars and planets (horoscopes, I guess), he’s just an overall dreary person, and that doesn’t change even at the very end.

When it comes to descriptions of characters to describing what they ate for lunch, imagery might as well be our best friend. Just by sprinkling in that little bit of information, we can go from “the potato had butter on it” to “with butter slathered over the steaming, warm potato” and make our work just a bit more appealing to the senses. Sometimes, it’ll make your reader feel more comfortable, or it can scare the mess out of them. With imagery, that’s the kind of power you can have if you use it right. When the tide of misfortune hits, even jelly will break your teeth harnessed that power to put together a strong work that enlightens the senses.

Imagery is actually one of my favorite techniques, so this was particularly enjoyable for me! The colors of the chair, the smells in the rooms… all of it is there and works wonderfully. Even down to the simplest descriptions–for example “She gestured her hand in a few odd flourishes…”–, when the tide of misfortune hits, even jelly can break your teeth shows that imagery is your best friend. You can really never have too much of it, yet somehow we’re given the perfect amount. Something that I definitely took away from this piece was different ways to use imagery (describe colors, make comparisons, etc) and how to use that imagery to relate to a character.

Presentation 2: Maddie Harper

Summary

We are introduced to a man who has had many misfortunes in his life. He lists them in full twice throughout the story, as if to drive the point home. He hears of a Spiritualist that is coming to his town and decides to give her a call. This is their first conversation, and it’s a little awkward. Nonetheless, she gives him details on when and where to meet her, and their first appointment is set. He was expecting something grand, but when he arrives for their session, he is met with an ugly dim apartment on the bad side of town. He overlooks it and makes his way inside, finding her in a back room that has a feather taped to the door. At this first meeting, she tells him nothing but a set of lottery numbers. He begins to feel a bit ripped off or cheated, but his views on her do a full 180 when he buys a ticket and turns out to be the winner. After this, he returns to her with great thanks, but she doesn’t react at all and takes the money she requested from him. She briefly explains that all lotter winners are her clients, but declines to answer when asked why she doesn’t play herself. Instead, she goes on to tell him of a woman who works at a nearby restaurant, and tells him that he will marry her within a month, and that after they are married he must come see the Spiritualist again. He goes to the restaurant and gets a meal that he normally would not have cared about, but all is well when she accepts his offer to go on a date sometime. They end up getting married within the month, and he goes back to see the Spiritualist. At the next meeting, she tells him that he needs a job. He is happy, because this is what he had wished she would give him next. She tells him that he will write a book which will be published around the same time as the birth of his baby, and that he must come see her after his book tour. This, of course, comes true. He writes a book about a man who wins the lottery. He goes back to see her in high spirits, not sure what else he could possibly want after all this. He had all he wanted for an ideal life: money, a family, an occupation. What else could she give him? Then, it is revealed what comes next: Illness and death. The man grows anxious and asks if his time is soon. All she says is that it depends on what he views as “soon,” and then tells him to leave and that he will become ill in ten years. She is sure to include that he must not take his medicine. Sure enough, he grows ill in ten years, and has a short conversation with his doctor about the Spiritualist. The doctor simply says to do everything she says. With that, the man goes home and does not take his medicine. At their next meeting, he tells her he has not taken any medicine and asks what happens next. She tells him he will die. This is the answer he is afraid of. He asks how soon, but she does not answer, and he leaves upon instruction to never return to her again. He begins to grow angry as time goes on. He is left with so many questions, and it is said that his illness has gotten to his mind. He feels he cannot bear the pain of the ailment anymore. He was worrying his family and his editor. One day, he finds himself furiously making his way towards the place he used to meet the Spiritualist at, despite her previously telling him that the last meeting they had would be their final time seeing each other. Nonetheless, he chooses to disobey her, and arrives at the apartment. He finds that small pieces of her are there, but it is all gone for the most part. He breaks into the back room, desperate to speak with her, and finds that she is not there anymore. The story closes with all the light in the world going out.

Presentation/Analysis

I loved everything about this story. In a weird way, it almost felt like a secret. As an, I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be reading it, or that reading it was breaking some sort of rule. I’m not sure what made me feel that way, but I think it’s officially one of my favorite ways to feel towards a story. It made reading this so fun, because it felt so mysterious and forbidden, in a way. The story was disturbing, but it was written so casually. I’ll have some examples of that highlighted. I really liked that, because it made me feel like there was something deeper, something underneath, that I just wasn’t catching. It kept my guard up throughout my time reading this. I loved the storyline, as well. The way that the beginning is so depressing, describing his mother’s mental illness and eventual suicide, the collapse of the government, his father’s infidelity and death, the girl he loved being struck by a car, being sexually assaulted by his neighbor, the passing of his grandparents, his own struggles such as insomnia and being sent to rehab, suicide ideation, etc. and it just makes him seem like a lost cause. However, he finally gets a shot at happiness, and is granted a family and money. Everything seems so perfect yet seems to last so briefly. After the reader gets their hopes up for him, he simply becomes ill at 47 and dies. Nothing else to it. I think it tells us a lot about the flimsiness of a “perfect” life, and how nothing good can really last. Even greater than my admiration of the storyline, is my curiosity about the Spiritualist. Why does she appear so young all those years? Does everyone truly see her for their needs, and how? There are so many questions that I can’t even think of. I think I might still be processing the story. I don’t quite know what it was, but it was just the perfect amount of everything and I loved it so much.

I think something I learned from this is to tone down the drama to make horrifying things seem almost dry and throw off the reader completely to make for a super interesting read. I normally make stories like this a bit dramatic when I write them because I think it will capture the reader’s attention and all the excitement will really throw them for a loop, but now I see what really gets into your head.

Presentation 3: Isabel Issakhan

Following Ground Rules

The technique that is being focused upon is setting.

In Red – Background of Main Character for Plot

In Yellow – Setting of Scene/Event

When the tide of misfortune hits, even jelly will break your teeth by Porochista Khakpour is about a man that has bad luck. When a spiritualist comes into town, he makes an appointment to end his misery. The man is given tasks to complete so his life becomes successful. On the last session, The Spiritualist tells the man to not return. He disobeys her orders and dies.

What makes this story interesting to read is the amount of background Khakpour includes about the narrator. From [a] Papercut that turned into an infection [to] Catatonia, the man continues to suffer. There is no end to all the bad in his life. He is even desperate to the point he would sell a motorcycle he loved to have enough cash for The Spiritualist. The narrator is skeptical at first as he tended not to believe in such things [but gave in since he] could not recommend his own ways any longer. He then feels that The Spiritualist does understand his dilemmas by her willingness to listen to him as he had lived in much worse with the narrator feeling good to go through that list, to unload it all.

Later, the narrator’s life becomes fortunate. This is after the completion of rules he must follow. From winning the lottery, to marriage, a writing career, and not taking his medicine, the man lives in luxury. He continues to live happily until his final meet with The Spiritualist. She tells him that he is to die. All his life with all his bad luck, he had hoped for an early death, but now with all his good fortune he wished for more. The narrator was used to receiving answers, but in the last session, The Spiritualist says nothing. He goes against his morals by break[ing] into [her] space and faces his untimely death.

Throughout the entire piece, I am taught how to better use backgrounds to tie in with the plot of all my works. Usually, I describe unnecessary parts and miss the main idea. While looking through at the technique portrayed here, I now understand that the audience cares more about what is going on rather than the small details.

Lastly, some questions I have open to discussion are:

1. What is the reason to why the main character is skeptical to the orders from The Spiritualist even though he
2. Why does the main character want to know how he dies after saying, “I feel like I don’t want anything more”?
3. Could the narrator’s death been more peaceful if he did obey The Spiritual’s request?

“Control Negro” Student Presentations

Student presentations on “Control Negro” by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Presentation 1: Kate-Yeonjae Jeong

Upon careful reading of the fiction piece “Control Negro”, I was able to delve further into the story of a black father watching afar the trials and tribulations of his son’s young life while sharing his perspectives of overcoming and fighting such obstacles as well. The main character, the father, struggles to maintain his figure in his workplace, a university, while being a black man in the midst of Caucasian colleagues. In the process of his young adulthood, he gets involved with a woman who is already married; to protect and promise a homeplace for the child, the newborn son is agreed to be raised apart from the man, although he is permitted to watch from afar. The prevalence of racism is constant throughout this story, later intertwining with the man’s son as well when grown at the age of twenty-one.  The son later is severely injured; as the man writes the open story directed for his son to later read, he expresses his pride as the son recovers.

Mainly centered around the struggles as people of color and the barriers of race, “Control Negro” is written in a heart-tugging, sentimental lines of a story so realistic and open it seems like one that must have occurred. What most made this heartfelt to read was how the character wished and stayed with his son from afar, watching him grow as the world changed with time, fearing for him more than himself. I felt it was so poignant and emotionally tugging to see such racially-spawned happenstances occuring to the two characters.

As I read the beautifully worded lines of “As far as what happened to you: I saw the pictures like everyone else, I read every account. I studied the cellphone video, frame by bloody frame. Here is your face, in which I have always recognized fragments of my own,” I read the fear of how they had to face the same vast obstacles in life presented to them, which made me feel compassionate towards the characters especially regarding how real-life the situations were.

The specific technique of detailed description brought me closer to this piece as a reader. I was most able to discern the setting this story was built upon; with this being set in the timeframe when racial tensions were high, the setting is able to set the tone and main points of the plot. We are able to view this in the words of the character, which proclaim:

What I needed, it occurred to me then, was to watch another man’s life unfold: a black boy not unlike me, but better than me—an African American who was otherwise equivalent to those broods of average American Caucasian Males who scudded through my classrooms.

The setting mentioned in the line highlights the idea of a black boy’s life in the world of Casucasians. This builds up on the narrative of the story, while adding layers to the character; without the foundation of the setting set by the author, the characters would lose a significant part of themselves.

One thing I found that I could draw inspiration from was how historical context can play a huge role in my writing and establishing a familiar tone for the audience to resonate with. The main ideas I find to be most inspiring was how the historical context played into the determination of the character to watch over his son and care for him despite the circumstances; I truly enjoyed how the negative aspects were not overplayed, allowing the reader to genuinely take in and process themself. Additionally, the theme of surging on forward while accepting and understanding the different lifestyles of the world while keeping one’s own life afloat was a very fascinating topic for the writer to tackle; I would find this theme and technique to be one very intriguing to incorporate into my own work.

Discussion Questions:

1. The man mentions several small moments of watching his son from afar, such as playing baseball or attending school. What does this signify?
2. Regarding the man’s own father leaving him and his craving for a father figure, what exactly motivated the man to agree to contribute financially for the child while staying away?

Presentation 2: Chase Johnson

Summary: Professor Cornelius Adams, the narrator, has devised an experiment to test his country’s ability to live up to its own ideals. But this experiment requires a live, black baby he can mold for twenty-one years to fit the parameters of the experiment. Miraculously, he finds a black woman who is happily married, but whose husband is infertile without actually knowing it. She is somehow willing to have an affair with Cornelius and bear his child, while also being willing to listen to his input on how the boy should be raised. Neither the child nor the woman’s husband ever know who the real father is. Cornelius, exerting influence behind the scenes, is able to make the child into his needed “control negro.”

What is compelling; What initially caught my attention was the 2^nd person point of view. Cornelius is talking at us in a letter, but the story suggest that we are not his child but we are reading as his child. This device makes what Cornelius is saying feel that much more personal. As a result, I felt a very negative feeling and reaction toward Cornelius. He isn’t a mass murderer or infamous drug lord, in fact he doesn’t do anything illegal. But he is a bad person. He obviously is dangerously narcissistic, “playing God” and not recognizing the value of a human life. He views his child as an instrument and society as his plaything. He a twisted since of conviction and a vendetta against the system and people who aren’t black.  He conceived a child without any real for love for them and no intention of raising them. The fact that indirectly created a child’s experience and pulled the strings in someone else’s marriage, that’s why he’s a villain. Someone doesn’t have to commit a crime to be a bad person. There are regular human monsters prevalent in society. And for Cornelius to be a normal person works for the story and makes it feel real.

What can I take away from this; I learned the point of view will determine the impact on the story’s plot.

Presentation 3: Lucy Johnson

For the sake of this presentation,  I read a story called “Control Negro”. This story was about a father, who happened to be a professor at a university, who used his son whom he rarely ever saw as an experiment on race. The father regulated each portion of the kid’s life, and everything was predetermined, including the poor kid’s friends. The father would compare his child (who, out of context, was black) to ACMs, or American Caucasion Males, to see how well his son would turn out compared to them given the same access and opportunities. This story was set between 1985 and about 2005. In the end of the story, the son goes to a party, and as part of the experiment, the father, lurking, calls in to the police that there was a suspicious man at the party, not clarifying the race of the person. It ended up that his son was shot, for no reason, which really hits hard nowadays especially. The son recovered, and became somewhat of an activist, making the father realize that his son had made it as far as the ACMs had, if not farther.

The story is very compelling and interesting to read. One possible reason I can offer is because I’ve never read anything the like of it before. The plot seemed almost ridiculous, but at the same time, believable. The story itself is still relevant and prominent compared to today’s culture, especially with all of the events that occurred earlier this year involving Mr. Floyd. As a result, I felt a connection to the story because I could relate the major portions of it to what is actually happening nowadays, disgusting as it is. The story made me feel, for lack of a better word..aroused. It was somewhat startling. I didn’t know what I expected from the story but it certainly wasn’t that. It‘s honestly a welcome surprise, however, as the compelling and confounding nature of the story is a major part of what makes it such an interesting read. I highlighted, in the story, the elements that I thought related to the theme, because the story seemed to tie back to the theme so often and it was such a prominent element in the plot and lines of the story.

There is so much beauty and inspiration to take from this work. For one, it really, to me, points towards finding your own voice as this writer most certainly has a unique voice. This story, while fiction, takes heavy inspiration from the world and likely the author’s own experiences, which is useful advice for anyone looking to set a fictional story in the real world. The story used an absolute ton of details and descriptions, particularly sensory details, which heightened the experience of the story tenfold. The plot is one that is not only creative but clever, and it seems the author may tell us to try to write something that has never been done before. Be a pioneer of a certain topic or base plotline. Each and every one of these things is sound advice, and each and every one of these things is something that this story could teach you.

So now, to begin the real fun of the presentation and dig into the technique I decided to search for in the story, which, again, was the theme. The theme is made very important and prominent in this story. To make the theme so prominent in the story, the author turns their focus to it time and time again. The theme is restated in many ways and many times throughout the story because the plot is dependent on the theme even more so than that of a regular story. To make the theme so necessary to the story, the author really incorporates it into the story and ingrained it deeply into the plot. For one example, the following quote-

I wrote about the burden of Race⎯how it warps the lives of black and white people.

Nearly every word of the plot can be tied back in some way to the theme, as the plot is less of scenes and more of the narrator’s general thoughts and feelings, particularly their thoughts and feelings about their actions regarding their son. The author seemed to state the theme on multiple occasions without directly stating it, more of an implication, but it was far easier to find the theme of this story than that of a regular story because it just seemed like not only a crucial story element but just a part of the overall plot. For instance, the following statement is just a quote of the narrator’s thoughts in the story, but heavily implies the theme-

I wanted to test my own beloved country: given the right conditions, could America extend her promise of Life and Liberty to me too, to someone like me?

So what “moves” did the author of this story, “Control Negro”, make that I could make in a story that I myself had written? First, I think the major incorporation of theme into each integral piece of the plot is something that could be done, albeit just in specific circumstances. Another thing I’d like to say is that this story opened my mind to the idea of writing a story nearly entirely from the thoughts of the main character- the narrator themself had done very few things to really move forward the plot besides the few actions that set the story in to motion and the call at the end that created a suitable end for not only the plot but the experiment. I had never entirely considered the idea, despite the fact that I’ve written in somewhat similar styles before. That is another potential technique that could be utilized in my own works.

Discussion questions:

1. How is the theme important to the plot and development of the story?
2. How does the writer involve the reader in the story (ie how does the writer make this story relevant to the lives of the readers)?

Presentation 4: Brandon Leong

Summary:

A black teacher decides to write a note to his son, who he describes as his ACM, or Control Negro. The teacher decided to make the ACM program after a racist note was left in his classroom saying, “Darwin Taught to Men by an Ape.” Saddened by the treatment he was getting by the students; he decides to make a program that would raise a young black man to be more educated and superior to the white kids he was teaching. His letter accounts his life, how he took care of his son discreetly, and how his research became widespread, and how he used his son’s accident as an example. The letter is shown to be addressed to his son, asking if he could use him in later research, and saying how proud he was of his son.

Analysis:

This story doesn’t have a linear progression, but it is easily captivating, to the point that the basic ideas and principles are explainable and comprehendible. The story has an overall bittersweet feeling, because of the horrible things being described, the horrible actions preceded, but the hopefulness and loving feeling from the father overall cuts that bitter taste out. While there is a lot of jumping back into the story, the ideas and themes are carried regardless of timeline, and this consistency is what makes the story what it is, and a technique useful in my own writing.

     All highlights in yellow proves of this dynamic of hopelessness to hopefulness, as it bounces back and forth until finally landing on hope. There are points where the line is blurrier than others, and there is a lot of times where the two points are shown far apart. Regardless, there is a prominent theme of the battle between hope and despair.

     Furthermore, there are obvious points where the story backtracks, so I underlined the places where they transitioned. When these backtracks occur, they are very much marked and easy to understand as a transition, but the story in question has so many transitions from past, further past, present, and details of the character’s research. This would normally confuse readers, but with good transitions, they don’t.

     And the character, the father writing this letter, is also very detailed and distinct, very complex. They have an erudite mannerism of speaking, clearly conveying his educated self and mind. Vocabulary such as “adjunct,” “staccato,” and “manifest.” Another detail is how he takes in the world, almost methodically, and explain the world he sees fit. He also, overall, is shown to be an activist, a professor, and, to an extent, a social scientist of such due to how he made research through his ACM’s. He also seems to be an inhumane sort of social scientist as he subjects his son to one of his own social experiments, which results in his son ultimately getting injured.

Discussion questions

–                 What happened at the party? There wasn’t exact details, only the idea of the police abusing the son.

–                 What happened to the mother of the son?