The Enchanted
AGENDA:
Read Ch. 1 and post a response to Q. 1
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-enchanted/excerpt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090147-the-enchanted
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9694-enchanted-denfeld
1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
5. What draws the lady and the priest to one another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they do—even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?
6. What has being locked inside done to the narrator—and for him? What about some of the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?
7. One of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not kill." Isn't executing someone—even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking another's life—going against morality? Why is the death penalty still used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?
8. Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person's youth, when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? "There is too much pain in the world, that's the problem," the lady tells the priest. What causes so much of the world's pain and can we, both individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?
9. What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face being locked away? "It is meaning that drives most people forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me? For us time doesn't exist." Think about time in your life and in the narrator's. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky. How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?
10. What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts, regardless of the level of their crimes, "deserve what they get"? As a society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?
11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?
12. Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading The Enchanted alter your view of prison?
13. Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness, justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your analysis.
14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take away from reading The Enchanted?
(Questions published by the publisher.)
Writers and Books Discussion Points
http://wab.org/rr-2017-the-enchanted-discussion-points/
Read Ch. 1 and post a response to Q. 1
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-enchanted/excerpt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090147-the-enchanted
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9694-enchanted-denfeld
1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
5. What draws the lady and the priest to one another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they do—even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?
6. What has being locked inside done to the narrator—and for him? What about some of the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?
7. One of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not kill." Isn't executing someone—even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking another's life—going against morality? Why is the death penalty still used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?
8. Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person's youth, when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? "There is too much pain in the world, that's the problem," the lady tells the priest. What causes so much of the world's pain and can we, both individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?
9. What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face being locked away? "It is meaning that drives most people forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me? For us time doesn't exist." Think about time in your life and in the narrator's. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky. How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?
10. What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts, regardless of the level of their crimes, "deserve what they get"? As a society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?
11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?
12. Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading The Enchanted alter your view of prison?
13. Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness, justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your analysis.
14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take away from reading The Enchanted?
(Questions published by the publisher.)
Writers and Books Discussion Points
http://wab.org/rr-2017-the-enchanted-discussion-points/
The narrator calls the place enchanted because of the things he sees and imagines. The beauty he finds are in the people's voices and the hallways and stairs. This tells us that the narrator has a very vivid imagination.
ReplyDelete1. The narrator calls this place enchanted because via his imagination he see's things others don't. He doesn't just see a stairway he finds the beauty in it, he see's doorways leading to a secret staircase which take you to the stone towers which have the windows that have the clear, fresh air. He imagines the birds dropping from heaven and the golden horses running beneath the earth. This tells us that the narrator is very imaginative, and tries to make the best out of the situation he is in.
ReplyDeleteIt seams that the narrator is using all the stories and magical
ReplyDeletecreatures to cope with or see a light in all the darkness around him. It's like he turned it into a game and began to prefer it more then the real world. It's showing he not only has an imagination but he's also playing a survival game.
The narrator refers to the place as enchanted because of all the things that he imagines that would never cross the minds of others. He finds beauty in all of the little things that, for the most part, would be considered "normal." This tells us that the narrator is imaginative, but is not afraid of death and similar things like the other inmates, since he seems to have accepted his fate.
ReplyDelete1) The narrator calls this place enchanted as a source of irony. It is an ugly, gray, worn down place for people to rot to their death but he sees his surroundings differently. His imagination from reading books as well as the constant quietness that he finds himself in allows his mind to soar and think about life in a different way than those around him. The narrator doesn’t hate the place, rather he kind of appreciates it. The story makes it seem like the narrator would prefer being down underground than walking in society. He sees the beauty in the ugly stairs, walls, and atmosphere. This says a lot about the narrator in terms of how isolated he is from the normal mind of everyone else. His mind is parallel to those that just see the ugliness in most things. The narrator is strangely optimistic for being on death row.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator calls the place enchanted maybe because he's seen things in there that he has never seen before. He appreciates the beauty in things even though they don't seem beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator uses the adjective of enchanted to describe the prison as a sort of defense mechanism against the prison, to cope with the new setting.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
Answer: The narrator calls this place enchanted because of his imagination. He sees things that others don't see. He finds beauty in secret stairs that lead to the tower that takes you to the windows. The narrator has a big imagination.
The narrator calls the place enchanted because he is intrigued by this place that no one else seems to show interest for. He finds beauty in the smallest details and seemingly insignificant objects. This shows how creative and imaginative he is.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator uses the word enchanted because the place is enchanted to him. He uses his imagination to search for and find beauty in unfortunate situation. He's using his imagination to escape the situation he is in.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2 Response:
ReplyDeleteThese characters and their fates are all connected due to their "places" and "roles" in life. From the narrator, we learn that both the lady and the priest had difficult pasts, which is not really something that one might think at first.
2) They’re all connected because the essence of death is involved with all of them. They face death and some try fighting against it while others embrace it. With this, their lives are connected especially with how they want to help each other with their situation. We learn that the lady and the priest have a sentimental relationship, as they can speak to each other without saying full sentences and can seem to understand what the other says without much effort.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete2) The characters are all connected due to their pretty common association with Death Row.
ReplyDelete1) The character finds beauty in the little things around the prison; such as, the window in the visiting room. Since the character doesn't see much of the sky, clouds, and sun, or outside for that matter, the sky is a treat to look at. Also, the character finds beauty in the library, or books themselves. They're his escape, using his imagination, and the books; the character escapes and goes on all types of journeys. You can infer that the character is an optimist, and an observer.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe priest was there to introduce the lady to the prison. He was nervous and scared of the inmates and he was unsure of her calm appearance. The lady was there to attend to York. She is a nice lady who cares for others and is very empathetic. York is fond of her because he enjoys how nice she is to the prisoners.
York wants to die because he does not see a happy future ahead and he is too upset with what he did. He is not worth saving. The lady goes into York's past, she finds his aunt, dad, and dead mom, in order to find evidence about York's condition. She chooses not to save York at the end because after understanding what he did and what his upbringing was like and how badly he wants to die, she finally understood why he couldn't live anymore and she knew that she could not turn in the information she'd gathered.
ReplyDelete4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
ReplyDeleteMy first impression of York was that he was a sly criminal who figured the best chance he had of escaping the death penalty was to say he wanted to die in order to gain attention. When I discovered more about him I realized that he truly wanted to die, especially when evidence was provided towards him that he could be able to leave and he still said he wanted to die. After the lady looks into York's past she is able to empathize for him and can truly understand why someone would feel the way he did. York's death allows the lady to realize that she needs to give up her job and she should instead follow her own dream of living out in the countryside.
ReplyDelete2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
Answer~ Their lives are connected because their all on death row. They all committed horrible crimes.
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?
Answer~ The lady chooses not to save York at the end because after understanding what he did and how he was raised and how badly he wants to die. eventually she understood why he couldn't live anymore and she knew that she could not turn in the information she'd gathered.
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
Answer~ In the beginning of the book I didn't know what crime he did so I didn't really have in words but I knew he had to do something pretty bad to get put on death row.
ReplyDelete1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
answer: The narrator calls this place enchanted because of his imagination. He sees things that others cant see. He finds beauty in secret stairs that lead to the tower that takes you to the windows.
2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
answer: they are all connected due to there common relationship with death row.
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?
answer:York wants to die because he not happy and he is too upset with what he did. She chooses not to save York at the end because after understanding what he did.
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
answer:My first impression of York was that i didn't know the crime he had committed but he wanted to die because he wasn't happy with himself. he thought that if he said he wanted to die with would benefit him. when the lady looked into York past she understood why he felt that way.
2) The characters seem to relate in the way that the narrator binds them in. He observes all of the characters and pulls they're stories together. Like the way the lady feels about York. She feels sympathy for him because he can't cope with what he did and feels so guilty that he wants to die, but the lady never told us that. The narrator observes everything they do and says and fills in the blanks for us.
ReplyDelete1.The jail is enchanted to the narrator, from the golden horses in the basement he creates a magical world in the prison to cope with his surroundings. We can agree that the narrator finds beauty and light even in bad situations.
ReplyDelete2.All of the characters are somehow connected to each other through death row, the lady investigates the inmates for evidence in their pasts while the priest oversees the lady. York appreciates the lady because of the way she treats the inmates with respect. They are connected through the prison.
3.York wants to die because he sees no future destination in his life, being on death row might do that to a person. The lady sees the things in his past that have haunted him and has empathy for him. The lady understands that he is struggling and can’t blame him for feeling the way he does.
4.I feel like York does what he needs to succeed in life, his cry for help in wanting to die was(as I thought of it) was to get into the spotlight. I sort of also had the feeling that he did it because he didn’t want to die at one point. As a said, it was a cry for help. As the lady investigates York’s past, she learns how much he has struggled and sees him as more than just a dirty inmate in the jail.
5. Both the lady and priest are trying to help the prisoners, and that could be something that draws them together, they have similar goals. They both try to help the prisoners with their problems, such as comforting them or talking to them. York is an example for he wants to die and both the lady and the priest are trying to help him change his mind about things.
ReplyDelete6. The narrator has become more aware of things during his time in the prison. He talks about many things that happen in the cell, such as tiny men or golden horses. I believe in rehabilitation because many people in prison have mental problems, and they cannot control their ways. I think our prisons today encourage it because prisons give prisoners a good life, with good food, and good beds, even though some (all) do not deserve it. But prisons also do still use the death penalty, even in unnecessary crimes.
7. The death penalty is still used because many people don’t think about how a criminal (who sometimes didn’t commit a crime worthy of the death penalty) might feel, or how their family might feel. Many people think our prison workers know what they are doing when they give a death penalty, but in reality they don’t.
8. People do terrible things to people and children because they have not learned to control themselves. Many people turn out this way because of the environment they grew up in, or the way they were raised. So much of the world’s pain is caused by selfishness and greed. People can stop this by being thankful for the things they have, and not wishing they had more. We carry much responsibility for each other, say, if you see someone in trouble, help them. Many people will think not to involve themselves, but that is something that causes pain, not for you, but for the other person.
5: The lady and the priest are drawn to each other due to their choice of helping others, especially criminals. They each chose their carrier because they saw it as a way to help those in need. They are each good at what they do because they try to their best of their ability to comfort those who they are helping.
ReplyDelete6: Being locked in prison caused the narrator to appreciate nature and things he didn’t appreciate before. Being locked in prison caused other prisoners to become even more violent and anxious to be in touch with the outside. I believe in rehabilitation. Our current prison system does not encourage rehabilitation. Besides imprisoning people who commit crimes, we could do what they do in Norway where prisoners are sent to places that seems a lot like a community college where prisoners and guards get along and prisoners are given a quality education and living conditions with the goal that they will get back into the world and make a positive impact.
7.Executing someone who has been 100% confirmed to have committed a very heinous crime is not against morality. The death penalty is still used in the United States because many people don’t know about or concern themselves with the life of criminals and therefore don’t care about controversial topics such as the death penalty enough to cause a change.
8. I think that we are more a product of our circumstances than anything else. I think free will has little effect on the damage inflicted in a person’s youth. People do horrible things to one another due to their own hate and things done to them to cause them to believe that harming one another is fine. Much of the world’s pain is caused by terrible acts committed against people which only causes more terrible acts to be committed and in turn a domino effect is seen where the levels of hatred and pain in the world just keep rising and more and more people are infected by the disease of hostility in which the only cure is to counteract the spreading of hate with the spreading of love.
3) York wants to die because he cant' imagine having to live with the guilt of what he did. He wants to escape having to think about it constantly. York isn't what most people would expect of a death row prisoner. Most assumptions of them is that they're cold, manipulative, evil, and sick; but York's not like that. He shows remorse for what he did. That's why the lady wants to save him not because he's innocent but because he doesn't deserve to die. So the lady searches through his past and his personality to prove he's not the kind of person who deserves to die.
ReplyDeleteMy outlook on York was confirmed as I read on. When he was first introduced I could sense from the narrators view that there was something wrong with York. I could tell something was eating away at him and that he was holding on to something. Guilt? A bad memory? Possibly both. When the lady looked into his past she started to learn who he was as a person and understand how he feels and why. As she does that she starts to evaluate her own life and the things she does and realizes that she's focusing on the wrong parts of life.
ReplyDelete5.The lady and the priest both want to help the inmates in the prison, I couldn’t really tell that there was a force that drew them together. I think they chose their careers because either they want to help others, or they want to feel like they’re doing something good. The priest feels that if he helps the inmates, he’ll be paying for his own sins. The lady makes the prisoners feel like she is close to them and cares about them, without getting too close to them. This is evident in when she walks down the cells with no disrespect.
ReplyDelete6.Locking up the narrator has made him appreciate books and reading. The prison has also made people grow wicked because of their surroundings and confinement. I believe that rehabilitation is possible if the prisoner wants to help his or herself. If you’re just trying to drag someone along, resurrect their will and passion for life and they give nothing back, then it’s pretty pointless, it might be rude to say. The prison system doesn’t really support rehabilitation, although there are some programs to do that, they were brought up by activists and third-party groups to somehow help inmates. Prisons are really just there to keep people there, not have them think about making their life better. There really isn’t another option for criminals, the death penalty is there but there are states who want to remove it. Manual labor used to be a thing, until human rights activists got on that. There are always going to be bigger and better ideas about what we want to do with people who do commit crimes.
7.I have no solid opinion on the death penalty, I believe that killing people for killing people is a backwards way of thinking, but I also think that there are just some crimes that are unforgivable. The death penalty is still supported in the united states because of non liberal groups.
8.Nature vs. Nurture. You are influenced by your environment. There are thousands, maybe millions of variables that make the human existence so priceless and irreplaceable. Every person or event that you have ever experienced has changed you, especially in someone’s youth. Kid’s mimic what they see, in television shows, media, even things around them.
9. I think that the solitary confinement of the prisoners is the worst. Take a look at York, he’s like an animal in a cage and can’t even shake the hand of the lady during their conference. Solitary confinement separates the inmates from the world, it leaves them alone with their thoughts and only that. This sort of punishment is used to sort of mentally affect the prisoners, humans need interaction with other humans to have a healthy mind, maybe even stay sane. During the narrator’s quote, he is talking about how the concept of time and expiration drives humans. Without a deadline, we wouldn’t get anything done. Time is what drives people, we need to do this and that before it’s too late, It keeps us going. But for secluded inmates, some of them have months, even decades on their sentence. They’ve got all the time in the world, the drive that they have isn’t present in their activities.
ReplyDelete10. Incarceration is the act of confining or imprisoning. When people are incarcerated, they are locked away. Humanity wasn’t the first thing that entered our minds when we started thinking about retribution. Punishment should be given to all who have committed crimes, but there are certain levels to each kind of punishment. Like, tax frauds shouldn’t be given the death penalty, rapists and murderers deserve more than a time sentence. As I said earlier in my responses, we can only help those who want help.
11. Death is either the scariest thing that people encounter or a reminder to live free. Motivation wouldn’t be with us if we lived forever, we’d have all the time in the world. Death offers release, some would call it beautiful. For those with nothing going for them, for example, a death row inmate, they’re on the line of that lethal injection, that electric chair. If I had to do life in prison, I’d just choose death. There’s a difference in being alive and truly living.
12. Rene’s background in criminal lives helps support a view in a novel about them. She’s seen first hand the stories of people on death row. Experiencing gives life to a perspective. I feel that I have the same type of perspective about prison that I had had before reading the novel. I mean, I already knew that the people in prison were people.
13. Time, the concept of the limit of our existence. During the novel, we learn that the narrator fell in love with books because of the limitless time that he had in solitary confinement. At one point, he said that he forgot that time even existed, got lost in between the pages.
14. I didn’t really choose to read the novel, it was assigned. I don’t think that I would’ve read it if I saw it in Barnes and Nobles. But, I did read the book. Some books just don’t relate to you at all, the topics don’t interest you. What surprised me was that the novel was less magical and involved a more serious, sinister topic. The back of the book caught my eye, winding medical vines tracing the floor, wide windows in a castle, hearing horses stampeding. I thought that the book would be more supernatural in nature, the novel is more of the coping of a death row inmate.
Jesziah Vazquez and Akhiyar Abdi disscussion
ReplyDelete9) The worst punishment is the inability to see the changes in the day. we know that time passes because new things are always happening. Our brain works faster than we do, it can't handle not know the next step. Sometimes when I don't know when I'm leaving my cousins house and me and my cousins don't know what we're going to do next I start to feel anxious. Neither of us could handle being in solitary confinement because the world would feel surreal. If we ever got out we don't know what we could trust, what's real, or if we would ever talk again. Thinking about this situation I realize for the first time why the narrator decides to be self mute.
Jesziah and Akhiyar Disscusion
ReplyDelete10) When you lock people up they become less human to us. There really isn't a way to make the prison system more humane other than giving prisoners human rights. Yes and no, you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. People can go to jail and break habits that got them there in the first place, like drug abuse for example. It really depends on the person. York, for example, he didn't want be saved at first so the lady couldn't help him she had to look to other people to save him.
9. What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face being locked away? "It is meaning that drives most people forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me? For us, time doesn't exist." Think about a time in your life and in the narrators. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky. How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?
ReplyDeleteWhat I think the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face are the isolation and the redundant nature of the prison itself. Sure, they did some crazy things to get there, but it’s the fact that they’re isolated that make it all more of a punishment. What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning is the people you attend those events with. Life is measured by the things by the person’s imagination and ability to create. If I were not able to touch or see the sky, for a day, week, year of my lifetime, I would create my own sky.
10. What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts, regardless of the level of their crimes, "deserve what they get"? As a society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?
What happens to people when they are incarcerated is that they are sent straight to jail to wait for their day in court. We can make the prison system more humane by giving the prisoners more visiting hours. No, it shouldn’t be humane because at the end of the day, those people in prison, were people who were a part of society and were trying to support their families.
11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?
I think death does offer release for men like York and the narrator because they feel that they are in so much pain and have so much regret, they feel like being alive is a hell they want to escape. They did find peace because now they have left their burdens behind.
12. Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading The Enchanted alter your view of prison? I think her work shaped the story because it shows the readers what someone with her profession has to go through and the types of clients she had or is currently dealing with. Reading Enchanted did alter my view, it showing that prison is a cold, hard place where the most violent and unexpected things happen.
13. Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness, justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your analysis.
The theme of death is very apparent in this novel, giving the death the illusion of heavenly release to the prisoners on death row. One example in the text is, “Late at night we hear the metal cracking of the wheels-creakety-clack, creakety-clack!----and every man in here know what it means: The corpse valets are coming.” (Enchanted, pg. 38) This shows how the bodies of executed death row inmates are taken away. Another example is, “I still want to die.” (Enchanted, pg. 57).
14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take away from reading The Enchanted?
(Questions published by the publisher.)
I chose to read this novel because my teacher suggested it and said it was a good book. The novel did surprise me in many ways. The descriptive imagery was beyond what I expected and the relationship scheme was very detailed. What I took away from the reading is that imagination is the best tool of all in any place.
Jesziah and Akhiyar Disscusion
ReplyDelete11) I think that death provides an escape for men like York and the narrator because they want to die. they were both at peace with the thought of dying. not only that but our lives are like a story York and the narrator don't know whats happening in the real world so knowing that they're going to die is like their story ending. When the story ends there's a sense of completeness and satisfaction.
Jesziah and Akhiyar Disscusion
ReplyDelete14) It definetly opened my eyes to things i never gave thought to and the book suprprised me with my own opinions on things I never new I had