The+Portable+Phonograph

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Short Stories - Literary DevisesTitle: __The Portable Phonograph__

Point of View: Third Person

Protagonist: Dr. Jenkins

What type of character is the Protagonist? He is a dynamic, and round character.

Antagonist: The environent, and the musician

Describe the setting: The setting is in the bank above a frozen creek, in the bank there is a little cell-like room with a single opening in which four men sat around a smoking peat.

Type of Conflict: Man v/s man, Man v/s Environment

Describe the main conflict: The environmental conflict is that there has been a great world war and therefore the men do not have a lot of supplies. It is almost winter and the men are already becoming sick. The man v/s man conflict is that some of the people are jealous that Dr.Jenkins has so many precious things with him, and the musician is willing to go to any length to get what he loves the most, art.

Describe the Climax of the Story: I think the climax of the story is when the three men depart and Dr.Jenkins is alone and staring outside, when he sees a shadow and hears surpressed coughing in the trees.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? Well, the protagonist changes mentally over the story quite a bit. At first, he is generous and willing to use needles to play the records instead of thorns and stuff like that, but by the end of the story he becomes either paranoid or scraed that the musician is going to come back and steal his precious music and literature.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. I think that the theme is that music and art gives us hope and because all four men are living in such a desolate conditions, music and literature and other forms of art are basically what keep them going. To me, the portable phonograph basically means poratble hope. Phonograph to me means a symbol of hope and portable means able to move, so to me the title relates to the theme in the way that hope is everywhere and basically you just have to find your 'phonograph' and use it to it's full potential.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The environmental conflict helps to illustrate the theme because the conditions that you are in play a major part in how you feel about different things. For example, I'm listening to music and I'm taking it for granted that I can listen to this music, but if I was in the same situation as the four men, I would probably feel the same way about music and do anything to even listen to a verse. The man v/s man conflict basically illustrates the theme in the way that the musician was willing to steal the records from a man he so respected just because music gave him hope. And in such desolate conditions, he probably needed as much hope as he could get, even if it meant going to desperate measures.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? Much like the conflict, the climax shows that the musician was going to steal the music to get hope, because after listening to music, probably after a long time, he felt the true power of what music meant to him.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: " the red sunset, with narrow, black cloud strips like threats across it"

Metaphor: " Pits were such as might have been made by falling meteors"

Personification: "the mute darkness"

Symbol: The old man with long matted hair and hair so gray it was almost white is a symbol in a way because that imagery almost always represents a wise man, such as Dumbledore or someone that has a slightly greater potential than the other people.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): "The musician rose last, but then abruptly, and went quickly out at the door without saying anything." is foreshadowing because it ells you that there is something wrong with the musicain or that something bad is going to happen involving the musician. I can tell this because the author has chosen words with meaning such as abruptly, rose last, without saying anything.

Irony: It's ironic that Dr.Jenkins, was the most kind and generous to the musician, for example, using needles instead of the thorns just because the musician was there, is ironic because later it was the musician who might have stolen the music that Dr.Jenkins had preserved so carefully.

Imagery: " The old man rose again in his difficult way, and went to the back of the cell. He returned and placed tenderly upon the packed floor, where the firelight might fall upon it, an old portable phonograph in a black case. He smoothed the top with his hand, and then opened it. The lovely green felt disk became visible."

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. I think that the relationship between humanity and the story is expressed in the little introduction at the beginnig of the story. It says that the story shows the best and worst instincts of human nature. I think that's completely true because in the story you get to experience people who know their manners, are generous and want to share hope with others. Then you also see people who will go to any length to get what they want such as the musician who was ready to steal the records and phonograph for his own personal gain.

Responding 1) The story is set in the future after a devastating world war. It almost winter but the chill is already setting in. I found this out from some of the details the author told us when decribing the story. It also said that there had been a war in the introduction of the story. Some details, that revealed the setting to me were "the frozen mud still bore the toothed impress of great tanks" "the scars of gigantic bombs" and "the creek was already silent under ice". 2) I think that the purpose fo the men's meeting was to basically have a get-together and listen to music as a group. In the circumstances they were in I think that this is a remakable feat, to even be able to find each other is pretty hard let alone do something productive. I think the author compares the unwrapping of the books to a ceremonial rite because, again, in the circumstances that they were in I think it is basically sacred to even have a bit of art or music among them. 3) The books that were saved were all famous classics and the all had a lot of soul in them. In the story, the 'writer' speaks of soul quite a lot, which in the context of the books maks sense. I think that no recent works of fiction were chosen because first of all, not everyone knows of them. And my second reason would be that sometimes newer books have less soul and more commercialism. 4a) I think that the symbol of Dr. Jenkins holding a lead pipe at the end of the story is that he is ready for whatever happens. For instance, if the musician tries to come in he is ready to hit him if he has too. It also shows the traditional human feeling: revenge. Revenge is shown because Dr. Jenkins might be thinking that if the musician tries to steal from him, I don't even care whether I hit him or not. b) I think that the musician might come and try to steal the records because now that he realizes how much music means to him he is ready to do anything to get the records. The evidence that I concluded this from is the way Dr. Jenkins is scared, and also "The musician rose last, but then abruptly, and went quickly out at the door without saying anything." (see foreshadowing.)

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