Two Kinds of September
Using Jeff Newberry and Gordon Grice's numbered vignettes to try juxtaposition
Pretty early in the year, I start introducing examples of literary devices to my creative writing class as a way to build the language they use around their own writing. They are aware of these devices in the same way they are aware of the wildflowers they see every day in the field behind the school. They’ve seen them, but may not have a language to name and categorize them.
Freshman can usually pluck juxtaposition out of a reading sample and maybe even identify them on a standardized reading test, but it’s a different skill to use them as a writer. While antithesis always sets up contrast, juxtaposition can also serve to illuminate logical connections or illogical connections like oxymorons.
Published in Brevity, Gordon Grice’s “Two Septembers” and Jeff Newberry’s “Butchering” are delightful examples to teach the utility of juxtaposition as a literary device. I ask: How does the writer use juxtaposition here? How does juxtaposition serve the whole work?
INSTRUCTIONS
Pass out both of the vignettes (Here’s a Google document for easy printing) and discuss how each author uses arrangement and competing descriptions and definitions to illuminate meaning.
Ask: What are some terms a writer could explore through juxtaposing vignettes?
Brainstorm list.
Here’s what they came up with:
Two kinds of sugar
Two kinds of wicked
Two kinds of sick
Two kinds of mothers
Two kinds of brothers
Two kinds of babies
Two kinds of family
Two kinds of friends
Two kinds of fish
Two kinds of threads
Two kinds of fruit
Two kinds of life
Two kinds of school
Two kinds of days
Two kinds of meat
If you use this exercise, please let me know how it goes!
This exercise is similar to my One Word, Two Meanings poetry activity that you could use also as an extension.
FINALLY, just a quick shout out to editor Dinty Moore and Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction. They publish beautifully-rendered vignettes, craft essays, book reviews, and lyrically-impressionistic short-form works that are accessible to my students and perfect for a craft lesson on craft. When devoting an entire class period to an 8000-word short story isn’t feasible, these tiny treasures fit the bill for mentor texts.