1. Day 3: Our Characters, EPICAC, and a Riddle
Player Piano
Day 3: Our Characters, EPICAC, and a Riddle

2. Journal
“It’s much more convenient to think of the opposition as a nice homogeneous, dead-wrong mass” (89). You have 10 minutes – Create!
Learning Goal: I am able to kickstart my thinking through the use of a journal.

3. Partner “Gossip” Two rows, facing each other You get 30 seconds each
(There are 7 Characters)
For each slide, talk about that person, discuss the quote, what that person does, their role in the story, why you think Vonnegut chose to portray the character in this manner. (Gossip– Get it?)
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

4. Finnerty
“‘He’d pull me back into the center, and I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center’” (84).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

5. Reverend Lasher
“‘It isn’t knowledge that’s making trouble, but the uses it’s put to…[The answer] will be a promise of regaining the feeling of participation, the feeling of being needed on earth—hell, dignity’” (92).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

6. Paul
“This was real, this side of the river, and Paul loved these common people, and wanted to help, and let them know they were loved and understood, and he wanted them to love him too” (102).
“[T]he human situation was a frightful botch, but it was such a logical, intelligently arrived-at botch that he couldn’t see how history could possibly have led anywhere else” (115).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

7. Shepherd
“Shepherd pushed the phone across the desk and went back to signing: ‘Lawson Shepherd, in absence of P. Proteus’” (107).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

8. Anita
“IV., A., I....Soft-pedal bigger house and raise and prestige” (114).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

9. The Shah of Bratpuhr
“‘Our people believe…that a great, all-wise god will come among us one day, and we shall know him, for he shall be able to answer the riddle…When he comes…there will be no more suffering on earth’” (122).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

10. The Great EPICAC
“Lynn declared that EPICAC XIV was, in effect, the greatest individual in history, that the wisest man that had ever lived was to EPICAC XIV as a worm was to that wisest man” (120).
Learning Goal: I am able to discuss and understand the use of characterization in the novel Player Piano.

11. The Riddle: Are you the Messiah?
“Silver bells shall light my way,
And nine times nine maidens fill my day,
And mountain lakes will sink from sight,
And tigers’ teeth will fill the night” (122).
With your group, come up with the best answer you can for the Shah’s riddle. Be sure to come up with a persuasive argument backing your ideas.
We will argue out the answers before the end of class. One of you has to lead us to a positive future, right?
Learning Goal: I am able to think critically even when the answer seems out of reach.