Algonkian Retreats and Workshops - Assignments 2024

[Sherman]

[Leslie H]

1) Story Statement:

Evelyn Baldwin (14) must save the school and find out what happened to her mother who died almost a decade before.

 

2)Antagonists

Main Antogonist

Professor Volpes, a charming and trusted history teacher at Aesop’s Academy, hides a deep-seated resentment toward the school that has festered since childhood, fueled by the mistreatment of his family in the institution's early years. Beneath his polished exterior, he is driven by a ruthless ambition to exact revenge by secretly building a uranium mine on the school’s remote grounds, indifferent to the lives he endangers. Volpes will eliminate anyone who threatens his path to power, no matter the cost because he believes it is his due and that nature “will always provide what we demand from it.” He knows how to manipulate an administration that is inattentive and would rather cover up the school’s problems than let the world know that something has gone wrong at their honorable institution. His smooth facade conceals a dangerous resolve—one that may have led to the murder of Evelyn’s mother, his former friend, when she uncovered plans connected to his investors.

 

False Protagonist(s)

Belinda, a snake-like mean girl who is focused on her own status at school because of pressure from her mother. She is cruel to anyone she perceives as weak in an effort to keep herself as the top predator among the students. She believes that Evelyn’s mom lied about her mom when they were students and that Evelyn, like her mom, is prone to making up stories. She gets in the way and makes life difficult, but she isn’t the real problem.

 

Minor Antagonists:

-       Dr. Lyons, Head of School, who seems to be hiding something. She is apathetic when alarms are sounded, and skeptical. She is hiding the fact that she is sick and unable to manage the school as she once did.

-       Toad, a boy who is easily bribed to do some of Volpes’ dirty work 

-       Mouse, a girl who has been manipulated to help Volpes. She is quiet and insecure, and Volpes took advantage of this to get her to act as his eyes and ears and to try and sabotage Evelyn.

 

3) Title Options

Aesop’s Academy

Aesop’s Secrets

The Girl & the Fable

 

4) Comparables

Truly Devious – a girl goes to a specialized boarding school to solve a mystery of a murder that happened years before

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane – a girl goes to a boarding school to discover what happened to her father and unearths a secret society

 

5) Logline

When a teenage girl is hidden away at a unique boarding school that worships Aesop’s Fables, she soon learns that someone at the school is operating with a different moral code, and she must unravel the truth and learn to trust her instincts in order to save the school, find her way back to her father, and discover what happened to her mother who died years before.

 

6) Inner Conflict Conditions & Hypothetical Scenario

The protagonist (Evelyn) experiences several inner conflicts. Specifically:

a)     MORAL CERTAINTY – thrust into an environment that emphasizes the clear moral lessons of Aesop’s Fables, and certain that her parents are “good”, Evelyn learns that the world is complex, often conflicting, and that “good people” may do “bad things” and vice versa.

b)    PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE -  The journey of uncovering the truth about her mother’s death and the mystery surrounding the school force Evelyn to confront her own independence. She wrestles with feelings of dependency on her father and authority figures at the school, and must learn to trust her own judgment and abilities.

c)     FAMILY SECRETS – the mystery of her mother’s death affects her sense of self. As she uncovers hidden truths about her mother, she wrestles with what that legacy means for her own life and choices. Is she destined to follow in her mother’s footsteps, or can she carve out her own path?  

Hypothetical Scenario

Evelyn and the lone wolf Ralfie, have discovered that something has contaminated the lake where the school gets its drinking water. Evelyn wants to tell Dr. Lyons (head of school), but Ralfie thinks she’ll just hide the problem and do nothing. He thinks they need more information before they can make the case – ideally to the media. Evelyn is conflicted and faces two bad options: 1) to tell Dr. Lyons and have the situation be ignored, or worse, get blamed, or 2) try to get more information knowing that people could potentially get sick.  Evelyn is unsure of what to do, realizing that there are no good choices, but decides to tell Dr. Lyons. Sure enough, her concerns are dismissed, and she must find a way to prove there is a problem.

 

6B)  A hypothetical scenario for the "secondary conflict" involving the social environment.

The secondary conflict involves the school’s resident mean-girl Belinda. Belinda knows about an argument between Evelyn’s mom and her own mother. She tells Evelyn that her mom wasn’t always truthful and often “made up stories” which leads Evelyn to doubt who her mother really was, and what that means for her own identity.

 

7) Setting

The novel begins in a small adobe home in Taos, New Mexico and follows the protagonist on a cross country drive with her father to the Adirondack Mountains. Along the car drive she sees multiple landscapes, each which have been affected by humans in different ways.

Most of the novel takes place at a boarding school that worships Aesop’s Academy. The school is located in the Adirondack Mountains where the students learn to live with nature and have found innovative ways to harness nature’s power. Different parts of the school grounds lend themselves to different aspects of the story:

-          Evelyn’s lonely, isolated room.

-          The Forage – the schools unique dining hall designed to look like a forest canopy

-          The Grand Hall – an old school Adirondack’s Grand Lodge

-          Outdoor classrooms – the place where the students take all their classes

-          The Old Growth Forest – past the meadow, an ancient forest that reveals secrets to Evelyn

-          The Meadow – the area that divides between the school grounds, and the wild

-          The Library – a sanctuary for Evelyn where she sees her mentor, the librarian Ms. Beetle

-          The Lake – a serene place on the surface, but is actually contaminated

[Jen T]