In Our Time 10 - "Out of Season" - A Class Discussion
“It was good marsala. His eyes glistened. Days like this stretched out ahead.”
A Wonderful Day for Trout Fishing - A Vertext Discussion of "Out of Season" : Now that students have done the ground work with Hemingway's "Iceberg Theory" with their last lesson on "Hills Like White Elephants" - AND they were told to watch for a similar omission in the story, "Out of Season" that they read for homework - it is time to see what they came up with - and how well the "Iceberg Theory" works. For many years, I did this lesson as a teacher-led (ringmaster) discussion with questions and answers - however, given the explosive part of the plot that Hemingway kept hidden from the text - I thought it made sense (and for other reasons) to do this as a Vertext instead. My teacher-led notes are also included below. WARNING: Though not stated explicitly in the story - this lesson mentions suicide.
Lesson Overview
The Vertext
After the quiz - we begin by going through the Vertext that I prepared. See my page on class discussions for more on Vertexts. I probably also ask the students before we begin, "What is out of season, exactly?" That's a great question to get things going - because there are at least 4 answers (fishing, buying alcohol, Peduzzi's life, the couple's relationship)
As with all Vertexts - I begin on one end of the room (I try to alternate) and a student reads the quote aloud. The page number is given so that the students can find where we are. I also expect them to - and remind them to take notes. The student reads the quote aloud and a discussion ensues from that quote. The quotes are are chosen carefully to evoke emotions and help a discussion along.
The Discussion (after reading the story aloud)
If there are separate Lesson Notes for this story - I have not yet located them. I believe in recent years that I relied on my very heavily noted text to conduct the story. That notated text can be found below. This kind of a discussion is especially doable when you have read the story aloud in class. I will leave it up to you to see how these quotes fit in - anything is good, as long as it's based on the text - but if you really want to see why I chose them - look at my lesson notes (found below). But I will give a few highlights of the quotes that I chose.
Vertext Highlights
Slide 3 - There is a lot of imagery regarding "mystery" or things hidden (including people in their doorways). This echoes Hemingway's choice to hide the biggest plot point of the story.
Slide 4 - "A wonderful day for trout fishing". I do not doubt that J.D. Salinger is paying homage to Hemingway (whom he knew) with the title to his incredible short story: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" - especially given the ending of that story and the untold ending of this one)
Slide 13 - "I'm sorry you feel so rotten..." Once students are given the biographical material that goes with this story - and they see the underlying plot points ("Tiny" or Hadley is pregnant) these lines make incredible sense - and the students always felt that yes - Hemingway was right - by not telling us it added to the story.
Slide 19 - "They turned sharp down the bank and..." They find the fishing spot and of course it is terrible. Like so much in this story it had been built up and turns out to be "empty". I then - in the slide - compare this to a line from All Quiet - "A man dreams of a miracle and wakes up to a loaf of bread".
Slide 24 - Such beautiful prose. "After another short drink the young gentleman handed the bottle over." Really the climax. Peduzzi drinks the bottles and it holds the promise of new worlds - a better life for him. Like so much in this story, it points to him expecting a big change coming out of today - a big change from a very glum life. And it is not to be.
The Big Reveal(s)
As either the Vertext (Slide 27 and the handout) or a teacher-led discussion - the students are given a handout that shows what Hemingway left out of this story. I usually ask a student to read it aloud as the class follows along. It turns out that this story is based on a trip that Hemingway and his first wife Hadley took together - and she was pregnant at the time. This is pretty cool because it allows the class and you to speculate that perhaps "Cat in the Rain" and "Hills Like White Elephants" are part of this story that came before.
A Group Work
I really believe that the best way to do this lesson is as a discussion - specifically as a Vertext. However, it is also kind of cool to see students putting the pieces together even more so by themselves. There is a group work that gives them all of the evidence found in the story about Tiny's pregnancy and Peduzzi's suicide. Again - use caution given the content of the Group Work.
As I said above - this is not only an incredible Illuminated Text that does a great job in explicating the story. It was done by a student - Jenny Lee - completely on our her own. She read and loved the story and she was an artist and wanted to create something out of it - so she gave me this. In turn, I then made this into a project for all of my students and shared it at NCTE and other venues - and now Illuminated Texts are done all over - Thank you Jenny!
"Out of Season" Biographical "Reveal"
Most Recent Handout
This sheet contains (in a very cleverly [I must say] put together shape of an iceberg) the "thing" that Hemingway does not reveal in the story. Really - two things: 1) The character of the American wife (Tiny) is pregnant 2) The gardner who is taking the couple to all things out of season - in fact, after being fired from his job, after he is reported, kills himself.
"Out of Season" Text with my Notes
The reading contains my lesson notes for my Ringer Master Teacher directed Class Discussion as well as the notes that I took on the text. You will also see the roots of the Group Work as well as the candidates for the Vertext.
Group Work (an alternative to discussion)
Most Recent Handout
I really believe this lesson works best as a discussion (especially given the big "punchline" of what Hemingway leaves out - but this is an alternative. One or more years, I couldn't be in class that day so I created a Group Work for the students to work on so we wouldn't fall behind. It covers much of what we do in the discussion.
OutofSeason_20170221.mp3Class Recording
We follow a Vertext - make sure you follow download and follow along (take notes on a 6 slides per page printout). We begin by talking about what is out of season and then go through quotes that bring us deeper and deeper into the mystery of what is under the "surface" of this story from In Our Time.
Quiz
Most Recent Quiz
Here is another great example of why students need to read at home. After completing the "Hills Like White Elephant" lesson - the students were asked to look for something "under the water" / not told in "Out of Season". They need to do that at their own pace - with their own books - on their own time.
"Out of Season" - text
This is a copy of the text for students. It is formatted with plenty of room in the margins to take notes on (remember the students should have their bookmarks and poems before, handy). The novel, published before 1930, is in the Public Domain.
In Our Time - online copy
This is a complete copy of the book - found at the Internet Archive , complete with the Interchapters. The book was originally posted by the Harold B. Lee Library. The work, published before 1930, is in the Public Domain.
Remote Enhancements
I did do this as a discussion remotely and it worked wonderfully. Having a Vertext makes it especially appropriate for online.
Thoughts on the Lesson
Hemingway's entire "Iceberg Theory" is so relevant to what is happening with our world, right now. We have - to a large part, become obsessed with instant knowledge (kind of) and instant gratification. Hemingway believe that by leaving something out - you actually give more meaning and depth to your text. We don't leave much out these days - and I think that's a shame.