"Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it." Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe
A Journal of the Plague Year - A Remote Pandemic Class: When we were forced to learn and teach remotely - due the Pandemic, it took me a long time to consider whether or not I should teach Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year". I had only taught it a few times in my 30 years of teaching - so there was no compulsion based on it being an invaluable part of the curriculum. However, this was different. We were in the middle of a deadly and life-changing Pandemic (much like Defoe's Plaugue - if perhaps not on the same scale) and it seemed that his words - had at this time - a lot to do with what we all were going through. On the other hand, it very well might have far too close - too triggering for those students (and myself) who had so recently lost family members to Covid-19. In the end - I knew that it was such a worthwhile endeavor. My first class of the year states that we read literature to "know that we're not alone". No words written would bring that home - and give possible comfort than these that Defoe had written 300 years earlier. At the same time - I did contact all of my students beforehand - letting them know they could opt out of the class (I had an alternative assignment) if they felt it would be hurtful. I also skipped one part of Defoe's fictional narrative (he wrote it decades after the actual plague) due to that section being a little too close to home.
When I taught this lesson, we were operating remotely - the students did NOT read the text beforehand - I wanted to be there with them during this very sensitive (but cathartic) topic.
Here is the text from the first slide on the presentation - those students who wished to be excused could read silently (The Diary of Samuel Pepys) while the rest of the class read aloud and discussed "The Journal of the Plague Year":
Because we are going to be reading Issues that include sickness, and death – this may be too sensitive for some of you – I totally understand. Instead of today’s lesson you may read about something I hope is more distant – the great fire of London in The Diary of Samuel Pepys – 544-554. Come to my division to take a short oral quiz, after you read – do the same question on Google Classroom (10 minutes)
No quiz as we were reading this text (and background) aloud in class
We read aloud (with students taking turns - see my page on Reading Aloud in class) the biographical information about Daniel Defoe and the literary and historical context of his text, "A Journal of the Plague Year". Because it is our only exposure to Defoe (and a quick one at that - I want the students to know more about him, what he wrote and his importance). As for the historical background - the students (along with the rest of the world) were living through the worst Pandemic in a hundred years. By seeing the context of what Defoe writes about it - it allows the students to make connections to (and hopefully be helped by) the horrible Plague that he writes about.
The first thing we do is is to read aloud about Daniel Defoe's bigraphical information (this is all included below in the Power Point and PDF). Next we read about the Plague that Defoe references in his text - an event that occured nearly 60 years before he composed "The Journal of the Plague Year." Finally, we read background on his publication of that work.
We then read aloud seven of the eight excerpts from Defoe's text - stopping for discussion whenever necessary - taking inquiries and concerns whenever needed. We skip Excerpt #4 - as the content of that part of the text is simply to graphic and potentially upsetting for what we were all going through at that point in time. Here are the Excerpt Sections as we read them: 1. The Infection Spreads, 2. Dismal Scenes, 3. Escape from Quarantine, 4 - OMITTED, 5. A Poor Piper (a sad story of a particular victim of the plague), 6. A Violent Cure, 7. I'm Alive (a hopeful ending to a very sad tale).
The students will have a handout (found below) with these quotes & also the poems that follow
This excerpt is all that we will get a chance to study by Daniel Defoe - However, there were two quotes, that when I was planning this lesson stood out so very strongly for their application to what we all were going through during the Pandemic - that I put them in the presentation so we could read them and talk about them as we did. Here they are:
1) “Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
2) “Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.”― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
It was then - and is now - my firm belief that perhaps out of this horrible tragedy of the Pandemic - something good could come - we could learn something about ourselves, we could grow closer, more empathetic - and emerge - like we read so long ago in that poem about the tree that bent over many times from the forces of the wind - stronger.
This poem, "Everything is Going to be All Right" by Derek Mahon, emerged from the Pandemic as a voice of hope, and empathy. In today's class - students take turns reading the stanzas - after each stanza we talkl about what it means - and more importantly, what it means to us.
Everything is Going to be All Right by Derek Mahone
How should I not be glad to contemplate
the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?
There will be dying, there will be dying,
but there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
and the hidden source is the watchful heart;
the sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.
Then - a line from "Ode to the West Wind": "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind" by Shelley - and to the beginning of the school year and the poem, "Deor": "That passed away...so can this".
This handout goes along with the Power Point above. While the students will have their text books and will be able to follow along with the background and "A Journal of the Plague Year" reading - this handout has the material that is not found in their text books. The two other hopeful quotes by Defoe (from Robinson Crusoe), the "Everything is Going to be All Right" by Derek Mahone, and two quotes from poems we (1 will soon encounter in the Romantics 2) encountered on our first day of class.
My reading was from the Holt Rinehart Winston textbook - Elements of Literature (course 6). Any textbook (or other sourced) introduction to the Defoe and a copy of "A Journal of the Plague Year" will work - though they have to have the excerpt in the first place and it should contain the same material in the second case.
There is a recording of this lesson - the one time we did it - it is a video. I will endeavor to find it and to post the audio section.
This can all be done remotely of course - In fact, I did do this remotely. I used a chart I had made of the class with their pictures to divide them into the groups for finding satire in the text.
Johnson & Boswell - Two Partner Works
Though I thought long and hard about EVEN doing this lesson - when it was over, it was clear that it was one of the most powerful teaching experiences in my entire carreer. More than one student sent me an email thanking me for what we did - and reminded me that yes "to know we're not alone" is more than just an empty phrase.