ELA-Author-Motif-LNF

Author's Craft - Motif - Print - Literary Nonfiction Resources

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//My Family and Other Animals//** by Gerald Durrell. Memoir. The author, who grows up to become a naturalist and who is the brother to the famous novelist Lawrence Durrell (here referred to as "Larry"), enounters hilarious familial failings and jokes creating a humorous motif throughout the work. Gerald's continual fascination with nature and his sometimes non-scientific methods of collecting and learning about animals and plants creates the author's life motif of permanent student. The The BBC film adaptation of //[|My Family and Other Animals]// is likely to create student interest.


 * //The Orchid Thief: The True//** by Susan Orlean. Scientific and humorous account of a trip to the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park in Florida. The up-to-date language of this work and it's motif of passion for plants, especialy orchids, will bring out the naturalist in most readers. The adaptability of orchids and the evolution of plant life, other motifs, are exemplified in two video extracts: [|Adaptation] a film based on the book and [|ETVStreamlineSC]'s documentary, based in part on the author's work, both complement the story beautifully.

//**The Woman Warrior**// by Maxine Hong Kingston. Memoir. ISBN: 679721886. The now famous author recounts her early life in which there are motifs of ghosts (good, bad, not seen, effective and not efffective) along with a motif of of the woman warrior. Ultimately the woman warrior's best weapon is the written word. Complementary resources include a [|video of an interview with the author by Bill Moyers].


 * "Flannery O'Conner and Old Thinking (Still Valid) About Story Work"** by Jo Carson. A short piece that appears in her collection //Spider Speculations: A Physics and Biophysics of Storytelling//. ISBN: 9781559362832. A straightforward inspiration about good writing from Flannery O'Connor. "Passing the dragon" has a spiritual side on the road to salvation and a necessary passage toward writing a good story, play, or other artistic achievement. The motif " passing the dragon" runs throughout a series of successes and failures for the author. Associated with this motif is [|"If Flannery O'Connor Had a Blog."]