High School Literary
Criticism Papers
Valdosta State University
instructors, VSU Archivist Deborah Davis, and Janice Daugharty
collaborated with high school English teachers at Valdosta High School, Lowndes
High School, Echols County High School, and Clinch County High School to
instruct high school students for three days about engaging in the writing
process, conducting literary and historical research on primary sources,
regional identity themes, Southern authors, the writer's role as an observer,
and writing literary criticism.
Students were prepared for
the project activities by reading a Janice Daugharty's
short story "Shorn Glory" and by reviewing a CD handout created by
the project developers containing primary and secondary sources and literary
criticism related to Daugharty's short story.
On day one of this project
activity, Deborah Davis presented a tabletop exhibit and a multi-media show on Daugharty, and discussed the VSU archive collection of
Janice Daugharty, and her writings including various
drafts of her works. She also demonstrated how the archive collection can be
used as a primary resource in studying a piece of literature.
On day two instructors, Daugharty, and students,
discussed Daugharty's short stories, the writing process,
and sense of place as it related the
stories.
On day three instructors taught students about how to use historical and
literary research; and instructed students about how to incorporate what they
learned about sense of place into their critical essays.
As part of this project activity, approximately 100 high school juniors and
seniors submitted literary criticism papers for evaluation and nine were chosen
for this journal. The nine students whose essays were chosen presented their
papers at the Janice Daugharty Festival, a regional
writing conference, held on
Discovering Self – ‘Shearing’ Mother’s Religion
by DeShaun Maria Harris
Shorn Glory acknowledges the truth that beliefs in life, specifically religious ideals, must be discovered individually. Janice Daugharty uses Clifford, a seemingly rootless drunk, to represent every person who must search for, or reconnect with, their spiritual selves at some point in their lives.
Clifford, hardly the model Christian male, is a drunk without meaning to his life. If he had meaning, he would not have simply “tooled west” toward an unspecific destination. Daugharty’s placement of a brick wall in Clifford’s path in the next line holds great significance; he hits the wall abruptly, signified by the five-word account of the incident, indicating a stop, or at least a stall of his direction. It is as if God (or fate) placed the wall there to purposely prevent Clifford from continuing his journey west.
After regaining
consciousness, Clifford converses with silver haired triplets, described as
angelic. Clifford cuts the triplets’ hair, despite knowing that the Bible says,
“But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her
for a covering” (I Corinthians 11:15 NIV Bible); in fact, the girls tell him
this before agreeing to the shearing of their “glory” because their mother’s
religion-Church of God-follows the scripture literally and does not believe in
cutting females’ hair. While cutting the hair, Clifford cries and speaks of his
mother. The reader can extend from the actions that Clifford was not always the
way he is, maybe a rift with his mother, the war he speaks of, or both
contributes to his drunken state. Whichever the case may be, it is clear that
Clifford has emotional ties to the church that have frayed over the years. One
of the beliefs the Church of God believes in is “total abstinence” from “all
liquor or strong drinks”. “The Bible expressly forbids the use of intoxicating
beverages. Even slight indulgence is not keeping with the Scriptural standard
of holiness” (Pruitt). Because Clifford is an alcoholic
(among other characteristics), he would be ostracized in the
By teaching such
conventions, the religion of Clifford’s mother has turned him off to God. By
cutting the hair of the children, Clifford realizes that the religion of his
mother does not have to be his religion, just as the religious practice of the
triplets’ mother does not have to be their religious practice. Daugharty seems
to say that the literal belief that pride and glory can be encased in dead
growth on the top of the skull is idiotic; the belief is antiquated, and should
be acknowledged as such, not taught to “vulnerable” minds as truth. This belief
is evident in “A faint odor of stale hair rose in the heat – not unpleasant,
but vulnerable as the child’s nape” (130). Clifford begins to realize that in
order to have a personal relationship with God, he must ‘shear’ the taboos the
Clifford’s encounter with the girls guides him to God. Indeed, Daugharty says, “People are moving, getting out or coming back…my characters and place are changing with every page I write.” (Daugharty). At the beginning, Clifford is a drunk going west, into the darkness; at the end, he is an enlightened man, traveling east towards the rising sun.
Work Cited
Daugharty,
Janice. “Shorn Glory” Going Through the Change.
Daugharty, Janice. “Write Where You Know.” Writer’s Digest, 77, 5, May 1997, p.32. Galileo.
The Bible: King James Version.
Pruitt,
Robert J. “Bible Beliefs.” 2002. The