Brush Salesman #4
"The time is winter and a group of students and myself are on a field trip.
The instructor is telling us about the formation of sand dunes and snow
drifts as we walk through the snow. We all have a drawing board and are
making a drawing of the areas he tells us about. The lecture then seems to
get more artistic than scientific as the beauty of the drifts, trees, and few
buildings is pointed out. I remember I was making my drawing with a Bic pen
just like the one I am using on this report. I tried to show the way the snow
looked as it formed little clouds at the lips of the snow banks as it blew.
The ones we were seeing were in beautiful pastels of red, green, and blue.
The instructor also pointed out the beauty of the noise of the wind. I made a
slight whistle which sounded much like it and someone else did the same. Just
before I awakened, the instructor told us about a canoe that was awarded to
the student at Yale who could make the best academic recovery and hold it for
a month."
[Go back to the dream report]
[Jump ahead to the coding card for this dream]
The first character is the group of students coded as J because there is no
reason to believe that the group would not be composed of both male and
female students. Being identified as students is sufficient to warrant a
coding of O, as pointed out in Dream 2. The instructor is coded as a male
because in the third sentence, the dreamer uses the masculine pronoun to
identify this instructor. Being an instructor clearly qualifies for an O
identification code. Had the dreamer indicated he knew the instructor, the
coding would have been K, since K takes precedence over O. The remaining
character is the someone who whistled after the dreamer whistled. Since no
indication of this person's sex was given, an I code is necessary. Although
no information is provided as to this character's identity, it seems
reasonable to assume that it must have been a student since they are the only
persons, except for the instructor, mentioned in the report. It also seems
unlikely that anyone else would have been close enough to hear the dreamer's
slight whistle unless this person were also a student. If this had been a
field trip to a city, it is much more probable that other people would have
been nearby, and in that situation, a U code would have been given. The
student at Yale was not coded as a character because this is an example of a
generic reference as no actual student was referred to.
A friendly interaction was coded for the instructor telling the students
about the formation of sand dunes. His explanation is considered as a helpful
act and therefore coded F4, even though the instructor is only carrying out
his teaching role. This point was explained in the discussion of Dream 1.
The first activity is a verbal one, when the instructor tells the dreamer and
the students about the sand dunes. An M code is given for the dreamer,
students, and instructor, who are all walking through the snow. The dreamer
and the students engage in a physical activity when they make drawings of the
areas that are pointed out. No code is given for pointing out because it is
not clear whether this is done through physical or verbal means. No
additional P code was used for the dreamer explaining in the report how he
proceeded to make his drawing, since this was the same drawing activity for
which the earlier P code was assigned. An S code was given to the dreamer and
the students for seeing the little clouds of snow. The whistling engaged in
first by the dreamer and later by someone else was coded as two separate
physical activities since it was not done jointly but separately by each
character. Another V code was given for the instructor telling the dreamer
and the students about the canoe. This was coded as a different verbal
activity even though it seems as if there were a continuing dialogue between
the instructor and the students, because in this instance it refers to an
entirely different topic unrelated to the preceding nature talk and because
there were some intervening activities.
Only a single setting is involved in this dream and this is clearly an
outdoor one. This setting was coded as being unfamiliar to the dreamer
because although he devoted a great deal of description to it, he never at
any point indicated that any part of it was familiar to him. The more lengthy
the description of a setting becomes without any indication of familiarity
being provided, the greater is the likelihood that a setting is unfamiliar to
the dreamer.
Objects will be taken up in the same order that they appeared in Dream 4. Two
NA codes were given for the sand dunes and snow drifts. The next reference to
snow was not coded separately as it was felt that snow and snow drifts were
not different objects, just as the water and pools of the previous dream did
not receive two separate NA codes. The two CM codes were given for the
drawing board and the drawing. An RG code was given for the areas the
instructor tells them about. This represents borderline acceptability as a
more specific designation of some region should generally be provided to
receive such a code. The next NA code was given for the trees, but the drifts
were not coded because they were coded earlier. The buildings are given an AM
code because no information is provided as to what types of buildings they
might be. The two CM codes are for the Bic pen and for the report. No code
was allowed for snow or snow banks since snowdrifts had previously been
coded. Clouds were not coded because they were clouds of snow, rather than
celestial clouds, which would have received an NA code. Similarly, lips were
not coded because they obviously do not refer to a body part. Neither noise
nor whistle are codeable items because it was pointed out in the chapter on
coding objects that sounds and things with temporal boundaries were not
included in the object class. The final item which was coded was the canoe as
a TR object. Yale is not scorable as an object because it does not have a
specific enough referent such as a campus or building.
Although a success theme was mentioned in the latter part of the dream, no SU
coding was introduced because no specific character experienced it. The Yale
student was treated as a generic nonscorable character and therefore cannot
be associated with any other elements in the dream. Success, in our
classification system, can only be dealt with when it is achieved by some
scorable character.
The first modifier is an E+ for the reference to the beauty of the
surroundings. S- was given for the little clouds and another E+ for the
mention of the beautiful pastels. Red, blue, and green are each given
separate C+ codes since they refer to different colors. Another E+ code was
entered for the reference to the beauty of the noise of the wind. I- was used
for the mention of the slight whistle that the dreamer made.
Two temporal codes were given: one for indicating the time is winter, and the
second for the mention of one month in the last sentence. No negative codes
were present, which is unusual in a dream report of this length.
[Go back to the dream report]
[Go back to the discussion of this dream's coding]
Char. |
Aggression |
Friendliness |
Sexuality |
Sett. |
Modif. |
2JOA 1MOA 1IOA |
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OU
|
E+ S- E+ C+ C+ C+ E+ I- |
Obj. |
NA NA CM CM RG NA AM CM CM TR |
Activities |
1MOA | V> | D + 2JOA |
D + 1IOA + 2JOA | M | |
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|
Temp. |
2 |
Neg. |
|
Success |
Failure |
Misfortune |
Good Fort. |
Emotions |
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The brush salesman:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10
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