Lens Essay Outline ***** you can start by talking about the complexity of

narrative writing as Robillard talks about it, then talk about how this allows
Farmer to have a really good narrative and work really hard even if he
sometimes doesnt achieve his goals then end with the problems when a
whole nation has no narrative at all
1. BP2 TS: how much a person is paid
a. Robillard quotation: The change in status changed the way I
conceived my work. 85 basically she had no narrative, no
reason for doing this job and no goal farmer feels responsibility
toward work and result but she doesnt
i. For this? You want me to do x, y, and z, for this?
ii. I watched the clock like a hawk and never left one minute
past five oclock. I asked for raises more often than I had as
a salaried employee. I felt less valued, easily replaceable
iii. I remember, too, the feeling that, as an hourly employee, I
could find the ground slipping from under my feet at any
moment. I had no job security. I could be let go at any time.
I was not essential.
b. Kidder quotation: Farmer is extremely goal oriented (not as much
goal oriented as he is just focused and loves what he is doing
weather or not it works in the end or not) even though he isnt
even paid at all but because he is accomplishing a fucking goal: cant get any sleep because there are always people to be
treated need a quotation chapter 3
i. I feel ambivalent about selling my services in a world
where some cant buy them. You can feel ambivalent about
that, because you should feel ambivalent. Comma
1. farmer treats a guy with, Lazarus, who had AIDS and
TB from 90 pounds to 150 pounds
2. woman healthy and well after her father had been
saving up to buy her a coffin just a few months ago
3.
c. Extra quotation:
d. Connection:
2. BP3 TS: outcome oriented view its about the work not the result
must be noted because this transitions well from the previous
paragraph
a. Robillard quotation:
b. Kidder quotation: chapter 4 reply: F*** you his way of saying
that they are responsible for assuring an outcome-oriented view
of TB
c. Extra quotation:
d. Connection:
3. BP1 TS: 1st 2 paragraphs are related because they talk about
lack of narrative and the attempt to simplify the world this

actually applies to many other countries around the world

today
a. Robillard quotation: This desire for closure, I argue, is a
characteristic of a working-class filled with uncertainty and
instability (90).
b. Kidder quotation: That is, not every peasant practiced the
indigenous religion called Voodoo, but virtually everyone,
including Catholics and Protestants and Voodooists, believed in
the reality of maji, of sorcery. For many people around cange,
magic spells sent by enemies were the deep cause of many
illnesses. And many people around Cange believed that Farmer,
like all good Voodoo priests, knew how to contend with maji. (28)
i. Peasant tells farmer God gives everyone a gift and his gift
is healing
1. Farmer explains why else would someone fall into a
coma? - Haitian way of explaining suffering
c. Extra quotation: Pat Belanoff describes the effects of school
writing (life -> lang. via neat little packages) I learned to turn
away from complicating issuesparticularly issues which reared
their unwantedness, unbidden, when I had almost finished a
project. I didnt want my texts so messed up by things I couldnt
include seamlessly. I had to keep beating the dissonance down,
me, a working class woman close to a world which, materially
based, can never be so neat. (90).
i. Along with this need for closure is a preoccupation with
getting things right (90). deadline, spelling rules, etc.
d. Connection: basically, this closure involves making sure that
everything stays extremely simple, and when something cant be
understood, it is taken out of students writings it is given a
different, simple explanation Voodoo
i. You can also talk about the Muslim concept of Hasad and
how that is a simple way to get closure
ii. Greek circle thing
4. BP5 TS: something about socioeconomic status and view of time conception of time adds to this since they have a bad conception of
time with no narrative, they are forced to try to simplify things as much
as possible, leading to a lot of error in their world view and an often
dysfunctional society that hinders itself from making progress and
needs outside help.
a. Robillard quotation: In this essay, Im interested in time. I want to
establish that there are different ways of conceiving of time and
that these different ways of conceiving of time are class-based.
(75).
i. Richard Sennett, coauthor of the 1972 Hidden Injuries of
Class, observes in his more recent The Corrosion of
Character that its this feeling of aimlessness that leads to

a corrosion of character: The conditions of time in the new

capitalism have created a conflict between character and
experience, the experience of disjointed time threatening
the ability of people to form their characters in sustained
narratives (76).
ii. However, Robillard believes by consistently leaving narrative out of
academic writing, we will continue to marginalize the possibilities for
working-class students to develop an understanding of why things happen,
their consequences, their material results in the present (76).
1. So Robillards assessment of the view of time and how it is
hindered to by lack of narrative goes directly to Haitians who are
too busy even trying to survive to construct any narrative for
themselves.
b. Kidder quotation: 25% of people in Haiti die before they reach
the age 40
c. Extra quotation:
d. Connection: undoubtedly, this fragmentation is heavily magnified
for Haitians who have such a high mortality rate and keep
getting taken over by military dictatorships, misrule in the
country, rule by other countries such as the US occupying from
1915-1935 even though they were the first black nation.
5. BP4 TS: seeking approval is a large part of pedagogy and narratinve
ehh
a. Robillard quotation: not wanting to talk about their past
avoiding the past
b. Kidder quotation: Farmer wanting to get out from under his
fathers elbow while working really hard for his approval all the
time
c. Extra quotation:
d. Connection:
Possible quotations:
Core Values Quotations
Robillard explores personality in academic writing to establish that there are different ways of
conceiving of time and that these different ways of conceiving of time are class-based (75).
To exemplify, teachers believe that if our students have come this far, inching their way toward
the middle class of the University; why not use this opportunity to help them move a little bit
closer? Why not instill the values of middle class, values like delay gratification and punctuality
(88)?
However, Robillard believes by consistently leaving narrative out of academic writing, we will
continue to marginalize the possibilities for working-class students to develop an understanding
of why things happen, their consequences, their material results in the present (76).
Complexity Quotations

For example, Robillard proposes, as writing teachers, we make more explicit in our classrooms
the ways that narrative and the more privilege genres of analysis and arguments enter animate
one another (77).
Furthermore, Robillard believes telling stories of the past involves selection and interpretation.
The choice to tell a story of the past is a rhetorical one (79). Kidder talked about the parts that
relate to how Farmer became who he is today, there are probably many other events that he could
have talked about that would lead to a different ending.
person to pick and choose stories from their past. For instance, Robillard discusses how growing
up with her mother who is always on time led her to become the same way while leading her
sister to become late for her own funeral (75).
Robillard asks, without the stories, without the concrete, from what might one abstract? to
show that narratives are the bases of abstract thinking since all abstract thinking is based on some
concrete facts or details.
Other Authors support
This allows students to better understand their history, and have a more coherent personality that
is better able to deal with challenges that they face. First, Shirley Brice Heath has recently
established that, for what we might call nontraditional students, writing is not tied to
school in in the way the discipline of composition tends to imagine it is. Students from the
working class dip into and out of college, pulling from it what they [see] as current needs
(233). Clearly, the nontraditional students are not as well integrated into the school as regular
students, so they have a much harder time developing their character around education, as they
are simply going

In addition, Robillard cites Heath arguing Academic discourse may serve traditional students
well as they work their way through the academy, but in todays new capitalism, with everincreasing emphasis placed on flexibility, teamwork, and risk-taking, all of our students will
likely find themselves adrift (76).
from finding themselves adrift. Similarly, Thompson and Webb describe how narrative is also
an integral part of peoples history as they live through it and that there is no reason to not
include narrative in academic writing.
the unique opportunity to help students negotiate the borders between work and school, past and
present, self and other (8).

Robillard calls for reexamination of the significance of personal narratives to more privileged
genres like analysis and argument