In essence, a cliché idea is one that is repeated so often that it lacks original insight or thought. In terms of a larger meaning of the work as a whole (the MOWAW), a cliché theme is one which is so overused that it has no actual insight. To paraphrase a famous wit, the first writer to compare a person to a rose was a genius; the second was a hack.
That said, there is a place in the world for clichés. Every sentimental Mother's Day or Father's Day card needs them. Every sympathy card, holiday card, or thank-you card needs them. Holiday movies need them. Clichés are comforting as green bean casserole--and about that original and innovative. The Problem
For students and teachers of AP, the problem with clichés--both practical and philosophical--is that the texts on the AP will never have a cliché as the MOWAW. You know why? It's because cliché ideas aren't really insights. They're not really challenging you or disturbing you. They're just reaffirming the same old beliefs and truths that you already believed, and that's not the job of literature. It's the job of the Hallmark card. No. The job of literature is to get you to question, to reassess, to reconsider, to reevaluate, to broaden your world. That means disturbing you. If you're comfortable, it really means unsettling the ideas you walked into this poem or this text thinking were universal truths. This is especially problematic for AP students when they're confronted with a text whose topic or tone or subject SEEMS to be leading you right down that comfortable path of Things We Know. The problem is, the authors of good literature are almost always pulling a bait-and-switch. Consider the opening sentence of this story: "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." From there, the author proceeds to depict the folksy rituals of a charming American small town. Problem is, this is Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and things...do not end well. If you think the MOWAW of "The Lottery" is something about how idyllic family and small-town life is, or if you think the MOWAWs of Pink Floyd's "Mother" or Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" are full of idyllic love for one's parents, you will seriously miss the point. |
Step One: Think of the Cliché Bait. Then Cross It Out.
If you have students who struggle to think of a MOWAW beyond cliché, it sometimes helps if they can identify or define the possible "cliché bait" first BEFORE ACTUALLY READING the poem or text. (If you do this activity after students read the text, confirmation bias will kick in and make it harder for them to get rid of this idea later.) Groupwork: Make Fun of Clichés Here's how it works. Explain, "We're going to be reading a poem about a teacher who teaches history to little kids and wants to protect their innocence in doing so. What are some ABSOLUTELY SCHMALTZY, cliché, Hallmark card-type MOWAWs that we could come up with for this poem? What are some feelgood, sweet, sentimental ideas that this poem could be about?" Have students brainstorm in groups. Specify that whatever they come up with, it has to be something comfortable, sweet, and undisturbing in any way. Now say, "Okay. Cross it out." Emphasize that this is a process they should go through with OTHER texts as well, not just Collins'. Step Two: Embrace the Weird Remember that idea about "disturb the comfortable"? Authors will often include moments or interchanges or images or comparisons or tones or scenes that are uncomfortable in some way OR which "rattle your cage" a bit. In a story, those weird elements might happen early on as foreshadowing. For example, consider the fifth sentence of "The Lottery":
On an initial read, this might not attract our attention...too much. After all, we're talking about young, boisterous boys...but there's something odd in the fact that they're stuffing their pockets full of smooth, round stones, isn't there? Maybe they're planning on rock-skipping by a creek or pond later? But then why have a big pile in the corner of the village square?
It's only until later that we really understand. It's even later when the full import of the paragraph's first sentence, "The children assembled first, of course" really hits you. Only later do we understand what a bone-chilling idea that is, that "of course" the children assembled first. Of course they did. But it really begins with those stones and how odd that detail is. Step Three: Be Aware of Confirmation Bias
One of the most difficult obstacles when you're learning to embrace the weird is confirmation bias. We like to have our existing biases, ideas, and individual takes on the world confirmed rather than rattled. (If you want them confirmed, go to the card store; literature is not here to make you comfortable.) The problem with confirmation bias is that it causes us to disregard information that doesn't fit the box. Those stones in Jackson's story? Most of us (me included) probably thought they were just for games. Then we know--and it's only on a reread (and sometimes a re-re-read) that we realize just exactly how much we were disregarding, misinterpreting, or straight-up ignoring information so that our biases could be confirmed. Don't believe me? Go back to "The Lottery" again and read the sentence "...someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles" and let me know what you think this time about the implications of giving him those pebbles. It's one of the most horrifying sentences in the story. |
Read the Text
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The History Teacher
Trying to protect his students' innocence he told them the Ice Age was really just the Chilly Age, a period of a million years when everyone had to wear sweaters. And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age, named after the long driveways of the time. The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions such as "How far is it from here to Madrid?" "What do you call the matador's hat?" The War of the Roses took place in a garden, and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan. The children would leave his classroom for the playground to torment the weak and the smart, mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses, while he gathered up his notes and walked home past flower beds and white picket fences, wondering if they would believe that soldiers in the Boer War told long, rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off. |
Text Questions
Larger and More Difficult Questions
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