Creative Response Q & A

1. I responded to the short story, How Far She Went by Mary Hood and the story I'm Your Horse in the Night by Luisa Valenzuela. I incorporated the theme of I'm Your Horse in the Night into the storyline of How Far She Went.

2. I incorporated the theme my group came up with for I'm Your Horse in the Night (you will go to great lengths to save those you hold dear) with the plot from How Far She Went  by telling the story from the point of view of the dog. I tried to follow the storyline of How Far She Went very closely, so I could accurately represent the theme of I'm Your Horse in the Night.

3. I wrote my story this way because I wanted to include both stories in my response, and it seemed like  a logical way to put them together-- to have the dog fiercely protecting the grandmother and the girl from the bikers.

4. I used 1st person POV throughout the whole story. In the beginning, I used 3rd person, omniscient.

5. I was going for several different tones. I was trying to convey a tone of happiness and joy, along with tones of sadness and fear.

6. The theme of my piece is people/animals will go to great lengths to protect those things/people they hold closest to them. There is also another theme in my story about how you do not know what you have until it is gone. This is expressed when the girl is saved by the grandmother, even though the girl has hated her throughout the entirety of the story. The girl comes to realize how much the grandmother cares for her. It is a secondary theme, and not that important.

7. When I was writing my story, my response was driven by the drowning of the dog by the grandmother at the end of the story so the grandmother and the girl are saved from the bikers attempting to kill them. I wanted to write from the view of the dog, and get across he was only there to help and protect them instead of putting them in danger by barking, as portrayed in How Far She Went.

8. I responded directly to the treatment of the dog in How Far She Went. I had to keep in mind the plot, because the plot of the story directly relates to how the dog was treated by the grandmother and the girl. I had to duplicate the specific sequence of events right to show the dog's side of the story. I did make a few changes, however.

9. I think my response "works". I believe I made the theme clear to the reader through the repetition of the line "I had a duty." However, there might be some details and dialogue that can be strengthened to better portray the characterization and plot sequence.