New Haven seventh graders have been reading the text, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story of Brain Science by John Fleischman as part of a non-fiction unit for many years. As earlier mentioned, I chose this text because I have found different types of mapping to be very helpful in the teaching of literature and this book covers a lot of material that will be more readily digested through the use of maps. This relatively brief, but complex book on a historical figure who played a major role in the development of nineteenth-century brain science is the perfect candidate for this unit.
The tragic accident that forever bound Phineas Gage’s life to the history of brain science also sent a three foot tamping iron projecting up through Phineas’ cheek, behind his eye and out the top of his skull. Amazingly, Gage was not immediately killed in the accident and on the contrary, was able to sit up and communicate with others even though the three foot projectile had left him bloodied and disoriented with a hole in the top of his head. Needless to say, this book either immediately hooks seventh graders or grosses them out, or in most cases a little of both.
The book works well for my mapping unit because it lends itself to many kinds of maps and is also a story of a journey which will become more important later in the unit when we discuss travel writing. Students get their bearings as we discover and discuss the importance of railroads in the 1840s with maps of railroads in New England as well as the Transcontinental Railroad. As mentioned above, I will continue to utilize maps with a map of New England as a starter with my unit and then begin to follow Gage as we travel to New York, Boston, eventually around the horn of South America and to Chile for some time before proceeding up the South American coast and to San Francisco, California. Without incorporating multiple maps on Phinehas’s actual physical journey, students will not truly understand and appreciate the amount of time and space that our hero covers during his brief notoriety.
Like any great character of literature or real life, Phineas also undergoes a deeper, complicated internal, mental journey. The explosion not only changes Phineas life, but also changes Phineas’ personality. He is a different person after the accident and this fact lends itself to the mapping of personality. In a discussion of nineteenth-century phrenology that is introduced in the book, students are able to make personal connections with the text as they map the personality traits Phineas displayed before and after his accident as well as the traits that make them who they are.
Another important way that this story can be mapped is the use of a timeline. The timeline that I use with this book has always become a really useful work of art, as students illustrate and decorate the timelines either online or with construction paper that follows the life and times of Phineas Gage.
Finally, much of this book is about brain science and a large portion of the book focuses on how the brain works. This section of the book cries out for a mapping of the body’s nervous system, and the complex connection of webs of nerves and synapses can be explored though this text.
