Dr.+Heidegger's+Experiment

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment

Cecilia and Erin

Point of View: Third person- limited omniscient

The author knows Dr. Heidegger’s thoughts but not the thoughts of others.

Protagonist: Dr. Heidegger.

What type of character is the Protagonist? Round and Flat.

Antagonist: The fountain of youth is the antagonist.

Describe the setting This story takes place on a dark night in Dr. Heidegger’s study. The English used in the story is older and from the descriptions of the study the furniture is older too so we’re thinking the story took place in the early 1900’s. The atmosphere is grim, and reminds us of a dark fantasy world.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Substance

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is when Dr. Heidegger’s four venerable friends become addicted to the effects of the water from the Fountain of Youth :O

Describe the Climax of the Story: The Climax of the story is when Dr. Heidegger realizes that when given a second chance at youth, his friends will not change and become better people. He also comes to the realization that the effects of the liquor from the Fountain of Youth are only temporary. After this point, no new information is given to the reader, and Dr. Heidegger comes to the conclusion that he will never drink from the Fountain of Youth.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story?

The protagonist does not change much, but becomes more aware of the effects water from the Fountain of Youth.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. What is the theme? In our opinion, the theme of this story is second chances. Dr. Heidegger’s initial idea was that when his friends received a second chance at youth, that they would be more cautious and share their life experiences with other youth. As the title suggests, the story is about Dr. Heidegger’s experiment with the Fountain of Youth and through this experiment he is giving his four friends a second chance at youth.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict of this story is when Dr. Heidegger realizes that his friends haven’t learnt any lessons from the mistakes they made as youth. His friends continue to fight over the things they fought about during their first youthful experience. They chose to use their second chance to make the same mistakes as before instead of making better choices.:D

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? During the climax, Dr. Heidegger comes to the realization that his friends have not learned from their mistakes and do not intend to pass on their knowledge from their life experiences.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: Page 162, last paragraph: “They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was, but had been the offspring of Nature’s dotage, and always the gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures...”

Page 165, paragraph 1: “They felt like new-created beings, in a new-created universe”

Metaphor: In many sentences on page 159, the author refers to Dr. Heidegger having skeletons in his closet. This metaphor suggests to the reader that Dr. Heidegger has many secrets to hide.

Page 157, paragraph 1: “They were all melancholy old creatures” This metaphor suggests that they were all melancholy old creatures.

"While he spoke, the butterfly fluttered down from the doctor's snowy head..."

Personification: Page 161, paragraph 3: “The crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge...” This is an example of personification because crushed petals do not posses the human ability to stir themselves.

"...the skeleton had rattled in it's closet..." skeletons do not rattle, therefore this is a personification.

Symbol: The withered rose that Dr. Heidegger kept in his black “book of magic” is a symbol for his undying love to his deceased wife.

The skeleton in Dr. Heidegger’s closet symbolizes that he has something to hide.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): In the beginning of the story, the narrator talks about what each of the friends were like during their youth, and how they were so much happier and had a much more positive outlook on life. In our opinion, the narrator is hinting at the desire to get that time of their lives back and in combination with the Fountain of Youth mentioned you can kind of piece together an idea of where the story is going.

Irony: After becoming temporarily youthful the four friends start making fun of old people, when in fact, they are still old on the inside. This is an example of verbal irony, because in reality, they are making fun of themselves.

Imagery: page 161, paragraph 3: “the crushed and dried petals stirred, and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower were reviving from a deathlike slumber; the slender stalk and twigs of foliage became green; and where was the rose of half a century looking as fresh...” This is an example of Imagery because the author uses many adverbs and adjectives to make the language more colorful.

"It was a dim, old-fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and be sprinkled with antique dust. Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves of which were filled with twos of gigantic folios and black-letter quartos, and the upper with little parchment-covered duodecimal. Over the central bookcase was a bronze bust of Hippocrates..."

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. This story and the class theme are very relateable! This whole story revolves around the choices that are made by Dr. Heidegger and his friends. If his friends had not chosen to make the decisions to use their second chance at youth to make the same mistakes they had made when they were young. They would also of not made the clumsy mistake that resulted in all of them losing the small amount of water from the Fountain of Youth that they had left.

Questions 1,2,3,4,5, and 7

1) According to Dr. Heidegger, what is the purpose of his experiment? According to Dr. Heidegger, the purpose of his experiment is to see what effects the Fountain of Youth has on humans.

2) What do Dr. Heidegger’s friends have in common. How does each of them behave during the experiment? Well they all, at some point, were lovers with Widow Wycherly. Each of them chooses to act as if this were their first encounter with youthfulness. They do not use their already-accumulated intelligence for good, but return to being greedy and selfish.

3) Why would Dr. Heidegger not stoop to bathe his lips in the Fountain of Youth? do his friends feel the same way?

Dr. Heidegger decides not to drink from the Fountain of Youth because he has seen that his subjects had become to obsessed with the fact that they could be young again, wanting to drink from the fountain “...morning, noon, and night...” just to keep their youth. He did not want to risk becoming addicted to the effects of the water from the Fountain of Youth.

4) Who is the narrator of the story? Though he is not a participant in the experiment, the narrator relates all the details. How does he know what happened to the doctor and his friends? How certain of his facts is the narrator?

There are many options of who the narrator could be. The narrator could be someone retelling the story of Dr. Heidegger, after being told this story by Dr. Heidegger. The narrator could also be Dr. Heidegger talking about himself in third person because the viewpoint is limited omniscient. If the narrator was Dr. Heidegger talking about himself in third person, that would explain how the narrator knows what Dr. Heidegger was thinking, how sure the narrator is about his facts, and how the narrator knows Dr. Heidegger’s friends very closely.

5) What points are made about youth and aging in the story? Do you agree with the views in the story?

In this story, we feel that the author is making the assumption that all old people are more knowledgeable than youth. The author contrasts Dr. Heidegger’s friends as being relatively intelligent while being old, but selfish and greedy while young. In our opinion, this is inaccurate, because there are many youth who are more involved, cautious, intelligent and sexy than elderly people! We feel that although there are many careless youth, there are also many careless adults, who could learn a lot from youth.

7) Some scientists hope to develop a vaccine against aging. They speculate that human beings could then live approximately 800 year. Do you feel this is desirable?

We don’t feel this a desirable concept, because even at 90 years, most human bodies begin to lose control over their senses. For example, many humans go deaf or blind because of old age, and many humans lose their memory or ability to communicate because of old age. In addition, we speculate that we would become bored with an agonizing, painful life after living for 800 years.

Completion 5/5 Effort 4.5/5 Content 5/5

Total 15/15

Questions Completion Mark 5/5

Total 19.5/20