Back in the World Lesson #1: “The Missing Person” with Essay Assignment Options

Part One.

Essay 4:

 When Our World Turns Upside Down: The Terrifying Character Awakenings in Back in the World

 

In your first two pages, profile someone (your or anyone else) who had lived too long “removed from the world” and narrate the incident that re-connected this person to reality.

 

Then using an appropriate paragraph transition such as "Similarly" or "Likewise," you might start your thesis paragraph this way:

Similarly, the characters (drawn from no fewer than 3 stories) in Tobias Wolff’s masterful stories go on their own “Back in the World” journey, an arduous, excruciating passage that is characterized by ____________________________, _______________________, _____________________________, and _____________________________.

 

Your body paragraphs will correspond to the components you use to fill in the above blanks. Your conclusion will be one sentence, a brief, dramatic restatement of your thesis. Your final page, your Works Cited page, will show the sources you used from Where I’m Calling From, from my blog, from interviews, or from other helpful sources you find. Your Works Cited page and manuscript must conform to MLA format. Be sure to make your own catchy, creative title.

 

 

 “The Missing Person” by Tobias Wolff

 

 

Part Two: Lexicon

 

1.  Sloth posing as a Christian 19

2.  Jerry the mountebank

3.  Mendacity, the art of lying

4.  Duplicity, the art of being two-faced

5.  Obsequiousness, the art of butt-kissing

6.  Sobriquet, nickname, “Slim” 31

7.  Jerry’s B.S. is intoxicating and contagious 32, 33

8.  Certain lies are indomitable juggernauts 35 and 49 (can’t put the genie back in the bottle)

9.  Sagacity; Leo’s thoughts show wisdom on page 43.

10.               Serendipitous

 

Part Three: Types of Irony

 

1.  Plot Irony: A reversal that results in the opposite of our expectations like a car death after wearing seatbelt. This is one of the most common forms of irony.

2.  Serendipitous Irony: The more we deviate from our original plan, the better the outcome.

3.  Faustian Irony: The more we think we’re rising and succeeding in life, the more we are actually falling as we become crushed under the weight of our own vanity, which blinds us and leaves us vulnerable to failure.

4.  Idle Irony: The better our life becomes the more we are compelled by boredom to sabotage our happiness. In other words people often cause problems that don’t really exist. And soon they create very real problems out of nothing.  

5.  Pathological Irony: Man shoots foot off to get rid of a wart.

6.  Sarcastic Irony: Saying one thing and meaning an other.

7.  Satanic Irony: A greedy man enjoys a long, healthy life while his innocent victims die cruel deaths and their lives are short. This type of irony refutes notions of justice.

8.  Narcissistic Irony: searchers for the self lose their selves while people who don’t think about their selves find their selves. Someone goes into therapy and becomes even crazier. Or the example of Stalingrad in which the selfish die and the helpful live.

9.  Jungian Irony: The more extreme we develop a facet of our personality the more extreme we develop its opposite. The macho man is also becoming more and more of a baby.

10.               Materialistic Irony: You buy an expensive fur coat but the weather is forever hot so you can’t wear it like the old lady in Buenos Aires.

11.               Short-sighted irony: You workout to impress a girl but she’s turned off by big muscles. You were looking at what you want, not at what she wants. A woman overdressed and wears too much make-up and men are terrified of her.

12.               Ironic Irony: You try to be ironic because you think it’s cool but you come across as a fake and as a poser.

13.               Corruptive Irony: The more we get our hands dirty in the mess of life, the more pure we become; the more we stay away from the filth, the more contaminated we become by our lack of involvement, which is a form of narcissism. This is the major theme of the story “The Missing Person.” Leo finds love and redemption while working as a hustler in Las Vegas. “It’s all right. I’m here.” These are the final words and show that he’s not the missing person anymore.

 

 

 

Part Four. Journal Entry

Write about an ironic reversal in your personal experience or in someone you know. 

Essay Options:

One. When Our World Turns Upside Down: The Terrifying Character Awakenings in Back in the World

 

In your first two pages, profile someone (your or anyone else) who had lived too long “removed from the world” and narrate the incident that re-connected this person to reality.

 

Then using an appropriate paragraph transition such as "Similarly" or "Likewise," you might start your thesis paragraph this way:

Similarly, the characters (drawn from no fewer than 3 stories) in Tobias Wolff’s masterful stories go on their own “Back in the World” journey, an arduous, excruciating passage that is characterized by ____________________________, _______________________, _____________________________, and _____________________________.

 

Your body paragraphs will correspond to the components you use to fill in the above blanks. Your conclusion will be one sentence, a brief, dramatic restatement of your thesis. Your final page, your Works Cited page, will show the sources you used from Where I’m Calling From, from my blog, from interviews, or from other helpful sources you find. Your Works Cited page and manuscript must conform to MLA format. Be sure to make your own catchy, creative title.

Two. Open-Ended Essay Option for Back in the World

Using no fewer than 2 stories, analyze the meaning of the book's title Back in the World. Same research requirements as above.