"We trust our customers to make the choices that are best for them."
This tweet from McDonald's is short, yet its message sparks debate. How much trust should we place in people to make the right decisions? Does trust even factor into an issue of a consumer choosing to purchase a beverage? After all, it is their body and right to choose what they consume. Yet while this discussion in and of itself is interesting and controversial, I have wondered how I would include this topic in an English lesson. The article clearly sparks debate and it would be interesting to allow students to discuss the issue, engage with the text, piece it apart, and form what I'm sure would be strong opinions and lively debate.
But if I were to teach about the New York soda ban, I would want my students to dig deep--that is, to go beyond this issue of the banning of a beverage. Here is where my key word comes in: trust. As consumers of literature, we generally form strong opinions of a text--do we trust a narrator? Should we believe everything he or she tells us? It seems like a simple question yet perhaps this issue of trust becomes even more complex when we begin to form relationships with characters in novels. When we become immersed in their thoughts or actions, we inevitably trust them and consider them a reliable lens through which to see the story unfold or we become skeptical of their words and actions and thus question them as a story progresses. I think it is interesting to introduce this idea to students and make them aware that they have the choice as to whether they trust a character and also let them know that this perception can drastically change the ways in which they view the overarching themes of a story.
Let's think about contemporary fiction for a moment and consider a character with which many students will be familiar: Severus Snape from Harry Potter. No doubt readers think of Snape differently from Book 1 to Book 7, as his actions vary drastically throughout the series. By introducing students to a familiar character, I would hope to then dive into other texts with questionable yet dynamic characters: Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury...the list could go on. As students begin to question the extent to which they trust a character, I hope they see the importance of diving below the surface of a novel and grappling with characters in ways that help them to ask important questions about texts.
Thus, just as it is beneficial to look beyond the issue of the banning of soda and into the implications this creates for us as consumers, it is also beneficial to look beyond the surface of a novel and not only engage with the text, but engage with the characters in ways that challenge us to think of stories in different ways.
But if I were to teach about the New York soda ban, I would want my students to dig deep--that is, to go beyond this issue of the banning of a beverage. Here is where my key word comes in: trust. As consumers of literature, we generally form strong opinions of a text--do we trust a narrator? Should we believe everything he or she tells us? It seems like a simple question yet perhaps this issue of trust becomes even more complex when we begin to form relationships with characters in novels. When we become immersed in their thoughts or actions, we inevitably trust them and consider them a reliable lens through which to see the story unfold or we become skeptical of their words and actions and thus question them as a story progresses. I think it is interesting to introduce this idea to students and make them aware that they have the choice as to whether they trust a character and also let them know that this perception can drastically change the ways in which they view the overarching themes of a story.
Let's think about contemporary fiction for a moment and consider a character with which many students will be familiar: Severus Snape from Harry Potter. No doubt readers think of Snape differently from Book 1 to Book 7, as his actions vary drastically throughout the series. By introducing students to a familiar character, I would hope to then dive into other texts with questionable yet dynamic characters: Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury...the list could go on. As students begin to question the extent to which they trust a character, I hope they see the importance of diving below the surface of a novel and grappling with characters in ways that help them to ask important questions about texts.
Thus, just as it is beneficial to look beyond the issue of the banning of soda and into the implications this creates for us as consumers, it is also beneficial to look beyond the surface of a novel and not only engage with the text, but engage with the characters in ways that challenge us to think of stories in different ways.
I think that in your classroom a debate would be a great idea because it enables students to research their side and to decide on which they agree with and why. I believe that this would most certainly be a lively discussion. I has not thought about this issue from a trust perspective, this issue would provide for a good intro into other topics. I like the way you were thinking of having students to examine the characteristics of different characters and have them decide on if they trust them or not. Since most characters are dynamic, it would be interesting to hear what the students come up with. Great idea!
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