Mentor Text - Prose: Ray Bradbury’s The Golden Apples of the Sun

In their chapter “From Tourist to Storyteller: Reading and Writing Science,” D. Abt-Perkins and G. Pagnucci expand on the unconventional use of narrative storytelling to make the learning process more personal for learners.  Speaking to the advantages of using the narrative form they say, “we acquire and grow in our ability to communicate and understand our experience in language through applying narrative structures.”  This idea struck me as one that is not limited to specific subject matters (such as science) but rather that is universal. 

            Consider the narratives we learn in our childhood.  Often, these are fairy tales (or for the children of the past century, Disney movies) that are full of morality and tropes.  The one example that kept coming to mind was the idea of the “bad guy.”  We learn that almost every story has a “bad guy” (whether this bad guy is actually male or female is unimportant) and that he (or she) is almost unquestionably bad.  What is interesting is, years later, hearing adults use the same language and refer to someone as a “bad guy.”  Most of these adults know that the concept itself is somewhat problematic; very rarely is there a true villain in real life.  Yet our understanding of this trope in fictional narratives helps us to understand our real life experience better by being able to categorize our experiences according to what we know and learned from those fictional narratives. 

            With English as my content area, I have a large amount of freedom in terms of what I chose as narrative mentor texts.  Although it is important that students learn the content of the narrative, it is just as important that they become literate in the devices of the narrative itself and how they help deliver and form our understanding of that content.

            This week, I have chosen Ray Bradbury’s 1957 collection of short stories called The Golden Apples of the Sun.  I have chosen this specific collection because of how it made me feel the first time that I read it.  Specifically, Bradbury’s writing allowed me to both think of things in new ways (i.e. highlighting the power of literature to form and change our understanding) and believe that I could share my ideas in a similar manner (i.e. through short narratives).  Although typically considered to fall into the science fiction genre, Bradbury’s writing covers a broad spectrum of topics and styles.  A five page story of a garbage man quitting his job because he is now tasked with collecting corpses after the explosion of an atom bombs leads readers to want to know more about the science (and possibility) behind the destructive technology, as well as international politics that could lead to its use.  Nonetheless, more than simply highlight these issues, narrative writing allows us to analyze the way these issues are presented as well.