Interior Monologue Assignment

Interior Monologue:

Open Up That Brain and Let Us See Inside

Why do people do what they do and why do they think what they think?

Pick one of the characters we’ve discussed (Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Roger, Simon, Samneric, Littluns) or suggest another you’d like to use.  Write down at least 200 words of interior monologue in first person (I feel such-and-such and I think blahdeeblah).  “Interior Monologue” is just a formal way of saying that you write out what you imagine are the thoughts of a character in history, literature, or life at a specific point in time.  So basically - take what you know about the story and expand on it.

Please put at least one thing in this that will surprise me and at least two details that are not included explicitly in the reading.  I’ll be super excited if you decide to think “outside the box” and come up with another idea altogether.  You may use the "open mind" image to brainstorm ideas about your characters (pictures, ideas, concerns, worries for the future) and then write it out on another sheet, or you can fill up your "open mind" with your monologue - just make sure you're not limiting yourself with the space if you feel like going over!

But Miss Adsit why are we doing this?

    Writing interior monologues is a brain workout that takes your thinking about the book to a higher level.  By empathizing with people, no matter how different from you or despicable they seem, you are exploring the causes of human behavior.  If you can imagine why people do what they do, you can understand the world - not just this book- at a deeper level. The very act of considering, "How might this person experience this situation?" develops an important "habit of the mind” that gives you power and draws us closer together.

Stuck?

Knowing what you do about your character, you may want to imagine what your character would say to the following questions.  You don’t need to include these specific answers in the monologue, but these questions are there to help you think about what your character is concerned with - you can choose one that sparks an idea and run with it:

• How does he feel about being on the island?  Is he excited?  Scared? A little bit of both?  Other feelings entirely?  Why?
• How does he feel about the vote for chief? The three boys exploring the mountain without the rest?  The use of the conch?  The fire?  The boy with the birthmark on his face? We’ll brainstorm some more in class.
• What plans does he have for the future (other than getting off the island/rescued and staying alive)?  Does he just want to have fun?  Explore?  Focus all his efforts on finding a way to get rescued?  Why?  Does he have a plan?  Or just hope someone else does it?

Need Examples to Get You Started?

Miss Adsit's example:

Interior Monologue on the Mountain

Character: "Beastie Boy"- the boy with the mulberry birthmark on his face

I’m so scared - I know we’re supposed to go get wood for the signal fire, but I hate being in here with the creepers...and maybe the beastie...Why didn’t the big boys believe me?  I told them about what I saw, but they didn’t believe me!  It’s not fair!  I didn’t even wanna tell them... I hate trying to talk in front of everyone, feeling them staring at the mark on face...OW!  Stupid creepers...keep tripping...  How can they hear what I say if they can’t look past my mark? I’m just a little kid with a big, ugly stain on my face... a freaky looking fraidy cat...Wait...What’s that smell?  Is that smoke?  Was...was that the beastie? Run! Run! Run! I can’t breathe...run...run... My legs are on fire... I mustn’t cry... Ow!  The branches keep scraping me... but don’t stop running!  I must be brave like the big boys!  Where did everyone go? Oh, oh, oh!  What’s that noise?  It’s so dark under here with all the big trees and all this smoke!  Why is there smoke?  It keeps getting thicker...What if the beastie finds me?  What’s that roaring sound?  It’s getting louder... I can’t breathe!  I want my mommy!  I want my daddy! I wanna go hoooome!
(216 words)


“Serious” Example taken from Linda Christensen's Teaching for Joy and Justice:

Interior monologues tap other people's pain, but they also tap people's hope. After watching The Killing Floor, about the World War I black migration to Chicago and union organizing in the stockyards, Debbie wrote an interior monologue from the point of view of Frank, a black worker recently arrived from the South.
I sit and listen to the unfamiliar air of music drifting in through my window. Crickets had made music in the South, but never in a tune like this one. I want Mattie to hear this new music. The sound of white men's feet on the dirt avoiding our Black bodies on the sidewalk. Oh, to share the sounds of coins clinking together as I walk.

“Kind-of-funny/sad/messed-up” example:


Consider an excerpt from Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The situation is as follows: The spaceship is being attacked by two missiles. Only at the last moment does Arthur turn on the Improbability Drive and the two missiles are turned into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias. The passage describes the thoughts of the sperm whale who has suddenly come into existence in free space and is trying to come to terms with his identity:

“Er, excuse me, who am I?
Hello?
Why am I here? What's my purpose in life?
What do I mean by who am I?
Calm down, get a grip now ... oh! this is an interesting sensation, what is it? It's a sort of ... yawning, tingling sensation in my ... my ... well I suppose I'd better start finding names for things if I want to make any headway [...] so let's call it my stomach.
And hey, what about this whistling roaring sound going past what I'm suddenly going to call my head? Perhaps I can call that ... wind! Is that a good name? It'll do [...] Now - have I built up any coherent picture of things yet?
No.
Never mind, hey, this is really exciting, so much to find out about, so much to look forward to, [...] Hey! What's this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like ... ow ... ound ... round ... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground!
I wonder if it will be friends with me?
And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.” (ch. 18)

Open Mind: