The process of firing pottery is an appropriate metaphor for the significant life transitions adolescents experience during and after high school. If they pass the fiery test, they emerge as mature young adults ready for their next challenge. If they cannot survive the fire, they end up broken - and either have to begin again creating the desired change, or end in despair. Students have read two coming-of-age novels, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, whose protagonists struggle to survive a fiery crucible. In Jane Eyre, the protagonist faces growing up as an orphan with a family who dislikes her, a school who mistreats her, and a lover who lies to her to become a strong, independent woman. In Wide Sargasso Sea, author Jean Rhys explains the history of Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic" of Jane Eyre. This protagonist faces ostracism from her community, a legacy of "madness" in her family, and marriage for money to a man who brutally mistreats her to become a broken, suicidal arsonist. Students read the novels through the lens of feminism, post-colonialism, and modernism.
In this module "Surviving the Fire: Characters Coping with Life's Changes", which begins after the reading of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, students will investigate how people react to a rapidly changing world and utilize coping strategies. They will read various informational texts including articles from periodicals and newspapers, a chapter from a college textbook, and a work of literacy criticism, and they will interpret real world statistics about change. The module will serve as the culminating writing for the entire unit; although, it is not inclusive of the actual reading of Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea. At the end of the module,
Students will write an essay comparing and contrasting how the protagonists of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea react to a rapidly changing world by explaining the nature of the conflict, its effects on the characters, and how the characters employ coping strategies to deal with the conflict.
