The Hunger Artist 207-214

1. In what way is this not a typical short story (assuming there is such a thing as a typical short story)?

2. Could the plot structure we have looked at --exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion--apply to this story? Try to apply it if you think it could.

3. Do you feel sympathy for the hunger artist? Is there anything in the story that makes you feel as if the reader is supposed to feel sympathy for the hunger artist?

4. Are the characters other than the hunger artist presented negatively? Explain.

5. What do you think of the hunger artist's idea that fasting really isn't difficult? (top of 209)

6. Find evidence that the hunger artist takes pride in his ability fast.

7. What do you make of the hunger artist's statement that his reason for fasting is that he has never found food to his liking? bottom of 213-214)?

8. Comment on a sentence or a phrase.

The Odour of Chrysanthemums, par. 168-end

1. Would it have been better to let her daughter know what was going on, instead of telling her that everything was all right, her father only sleeping? (par. 194). What do you think? Why does Elizabeth choose to do things this way?

2. Is there any evidence in this reading that Elizabeth really does/did love her husband?

3. Elizabeth thinks about how she never knew her husband, and that she and he were always separate, always apart, despite being married and having children together. Do you get the sense that the author is saying that this is how it is for human beings in general? Is he just implying that this is how it was for this particular couple? Or is he implying that this is just what Elizabeth happens to think and feel at this moment? Or can we not know? Even if there isn't evidence to tell us for sure, what is your opinion?

4. Explain as best you can the last sentence: "But from death, her ultimate master, she winced with fear and shame."

5. Comment on a sentence or phrase of the story.

The Odour of Chrysanthemums 337-342 par. 80-169

1. Mr. and Mrs. Rigley treat Elizabeth Bates (the main character) with respect (par. 95, 110, among other examples). Why do they, do you suppose?

2. Notice that Mrs. Rigley speaks differently from Elizabeth Bates; and Mr. Rigley speaks in yet another way. Can you describe these differences?

3. The mother of Walter, Elizabeth's husband, enters at par. 131. How would you describe Walter's mother? Can you explain how such a mother would have a son who causes trouble as Walter apparently has? What kind of trouble do you think Walter has caused?

4. Just so we're all clear on this--how does Walter die? Briefly explain the circumstances.

5. Elizabeth's preparations (166-167): what do they tell us about Elizabeth, or what qualities of hers do her actions reinforce in our minds?

6. Can you identify anything that is heart-breaking in this story, from its beginning to par. 167?

7. Choose a sentence or phrase and comment on it.

The Odour of Chrysanthemums 332-337 par. 1-79

1. "The trucks thumped heavily past, one by one, with slow inevitable movement, as she stood insignificantly trapped between the jolting black waggons and the hedge; then they curved away towards the coppice where the withered oak leaves dropped noiselessly, while the birds, pulling at the scarlet hips beside the track made off into the dusk that had already crept into the spinney." (par. 1)

Make an observation or two about this sentence (that no one else has yet made). Remember to make an observation about the sentence, not about yourself experiencing the sentence.

2. "The pit-bank loomed up beyond the pond, flames like red sores licking its ashy sides, in the afternoon's stagnant light." (par. 1) Comment on the diction or imagery (same thing really) of this sentence.

3. The woman introduced in par. 3 has hair "parted exactly" (par. 4). She also puts some flowers to her face and then tucks them into the waist of her apron (par. 15). After reading the entire assignment, say what you think these details indicate about her character.

4. The woman talks to her father (par. 17-34). In par. 17-26, he asks for a cup of tea and they discuss his taking up with a woman (evidently his wife has passed away recently). What does their conversation tell us about the woman?

5. Are the children presented sympathetically, or not? Explain.

6. Comment on a sentence or a phrase.

A Sovenir of Japan, 320 to the end (par. 15-23)

1. Is it possible to be addicted to boredom?

2. Now that you've read to the end: does this couple seem in love?

3. Assuming the couple is in love, do they seem to be in love in a good way? Generally, how do you feel about this relationship?

4. Does this story seem anti-Japanese? To put it another way, does the narrator seem resentful toward or angry toward the Japanese and Japanese culture?

5. In par. 22, the narrator says, "If he valued me as an object of passion, he had reduced the word to its root, which derives from the Latin, patior; I suffer. He valued me as an instrument which would cause him pain." Do you think the narrator values Taro, and the relationship in general, as an instrument that causes her pain?

6. How are mirrors, and the idea of mirrors, important to this story?

7. Choose a sentence from the reading to comment on, and comment on it.

A Souvenir of Japan 217-220 par. 1-14

1. "Above our heads, the fireworks hung dissolving earrings on the night." (par. 4) Can you find other instances of precise or surprising language, or of adventurous imagery?
2. Par. 5 is a description of the complex emotional dynamics of romantic relationship. How would you describe the dynamics in your words?

3. Can you cite evidence that the two lovers--the narrator and Taro--are fairly deeply in love? Cite it, and discuss if necessary.

4. Can anyone explain the comparison the narrator makes between Taro and Momotaro, the boy in the folktale who is born from a peach?

5. Is this story about boredom? See especially paragraphs 5 and 6. Explain your answer.

The Yellow Wallpaper 321-to the end

1. Can you see in "The Yellow Wallpaper" any similarities or parallels to the part of A Doll House that we've read?

2. It becomes more and more clear to the narrator that there is a person behind the "bars" of the wall paper. Comment.

3. Could this story be (among other things) about boredom?

4. The woman behind the wallpaper creeps, bother behind the wallpaper and outside the house (par. 198-199). Can you make anything of the fact that she "creeps"?

5. The narrator starts to remove the wallpaper (par. 210). She also reported, near the beginning of the story, that some of the wallpaper had been removed (par. 33). Comment.

6. Any theories as to what's going on with the rope (par. 239, 248)?

7. Any theories as to what happens at the end? (par. 264-267)?

8. Find a sentence you want to comment on and comment on it.

The Yellow Wallpaper pp. 316-321, par. 1-104

1. To what extent is the narrator psychologically unwell? Or can we not tell? What evidence can you cite?

2. Does the narrator's husband, John, seem like a good man or not? Or can we not tell? Wave evidence can you cite?

3. How is this story (so far) different from the other stories we've read so far? What evidence can you cite?

4. What, if anything, is wrong with the narrator's treatment from your own point of view? Explain.

5. Is there anything the narrator should be doing, realistically speaking, that she is not doing now? Why?

6. What do you notice about the room in which the narrator stays and writes? What do you think about whatever it is you notice?

7. Find a sentence worthy of comment, and comment on it.

7.

The Lady with the Dog pp. 185 to the end

1. In paragraph 47, starting "At Orenada they sat on a seat not far from the church," assume it is Dmitri Dmitritch (Gurov) who is thinking thoughts about the sea's sound and eternal salvation and progress. How does this paragraph contribute to how our sense of who he is?

2. How do paragraphs 59-61 ("The train moved off rapidly. . . . 'High time!'") contribute to our sense of who he is, or reinforce our sense of who he is?

3. Why do you suppose that to his own surprise Dmitri continues to remember his time with Anna Sergeyevna vividly (par. 64)?

4. In paragraphs 66-71, Dmitri has a conversation with a companion, involving sturgeon (a kind of fish, evidently what they had for dinner that night). Comment.

5. Dmitri learns that Anna Sergeyevna's husband is rich (par. 75). How does this news contribute to our sense of who Anna is?

6. Anna continues to think passionately of Dmitri, as she says in par. 97 ("I am so unhappy . . . .have you come?") Why do you suppose she cares for him as much as she does?

7. "Why did she love him so much? He always seemed to women different from what he was, and they loved in him not himself, but the man created by their imagination, whom they had always been eagerly seeking all their lives. . ." (par. 117). Do you think this is true of the way most of us see others--not as they are but as they seem to be to our imaginations? Assuming yes--how does that make you fell about human beings? Assuming no--how does it make you feel about Dmitri that he has this thought?

8. Note the ending of the story. It would be easy to say that it is unsatisfying, because of the way it fails to resolve things. Can you see a way that the ending is nevertheless effective and artistically appropriate? If so, explain.

The Lady with the Dog 181-185 par 1-40

Yalta


1. Is the story told in the third person point of view, period, or is it told from Dmitri Dmitritch's point of view while at the same time in the third person? What makes you say so?

2. See number (1) above: what difference to the meaning of the story might it make what point of view the story is told from?

3. In the story so far, does one character seem more moral or more sympathetic or more positive than the other (referring to Dmitri and Anna Sergeyevna)? Explain.

4. Why might this story be called "The Lady with the Dog"? How does the dog effect the meaning? Note: we don't hear anything more about the dog than we've already heard.

5. Find a sentence you find important or interesting and say why.

Why I Live at the P.O. par. 90 to the end

1. “Not one bad one in the string.” (95) How is this remark typical of the narrator or her way of expressing herself?

2. How does Uncle Rondo’s throwing firecrackers into the narrator’s room (95) advance our understanding of his character? How does it square with his throwing a nickel to the girl who helps cart the narrator’s belongings to the post office (139)?

3. The narrator takes with here to the post office an extensive number of objects that don’t pertain to her particularly, the way her clothes, for example, might pertain just to her. What do you make of the list of things she takes?

4. The narrator knows about radio offers of free seeds to those who send in a box top; the mother hasn’t heard about such an offer, and is curious. What does this exchange say about the economic or social class of the family? How does your answer square with the fact that her family “are naturally the main people in China Grove” (142)?

5. When all is said and done who do you think is the most mature, psychologically whole person in the family? Why?

6. When all is said and done who do you think is the least mature, least psychologically whole person in the family? Why?

Why I Live at the P.O. 125-129 (par. 30-90)

A small-town post office in Kansas. This story is set in Mississippi, however.


1. Sometimes the narrator says apparently random things, things that don’t directly connect with what she was just saying. For example:

“He’s Mama’s only brother and is a good case of a one-track mind. Ask anybody. A certified pharmacist.” (33)

“You ought to see Mama, she weighs two hundred pounds and has real tiny feet.” (63)

Comment.

2. The narrator seems to feel the need to point out what she sees as the truth—about Stella-Rondo’s child not being really adopted, about the same child not being able to talk (65)(it turns out she can--at least she can sing the words to "Popeye the Salilor Man"). Is this a good quality? If it gets the narrator in trouble, what makes her keep trying to point to reality (as she sees it)?

3. Consider the dialogue at 68-77. Comment.

4. “So that made Mama, Papa-Daddy, and the baby all on Stella-Rondo’s side.” (80) Can you relate this sentence to the title of the story?

5. Why would Uncle Rondo put on Stella-Rondo’s “flesh-colored kimono”?

6. Same question as I’ve been asking about the poems we’ve been looking at: what does this story sound like? That is, what does the sound of this story sound like?

7. Find a sentence you like or find interesting and comment.

Why I Live at the P.O. paragraphs 1-32, pp. 123-125

1. Find something humorous about paragraph 1.

2. Stella-Rondo's child, Shirley-T., is adopted, according to Stella-Rondo, not adopted and biological, according to the narrator. Comment.

3. "Papa-Daddy's Mama's papa and sulks." Comment on this sentence, found in paragraph 8.

4. What do we learn about the post office in this reading?

5. What adjectives might you apply to Papa-Daddy?

6. What adjectives might you apply to Stella-Rondo?

7. Find a sentence that you like or find interesting or find important and explain why.

Sonny's Blues claim

In one or two sentences, make an interpretive claim about "Sonny's Blues." (If you'd like to look over the previous blog comments first, go ahead.) Then list three pieces of evidence for your claim. These pieces of evidence could be quotations, or they could by phrases of your own about the text. The pieces of evidence don't have to be complete sentences. If you quote, write the quotation out in full. If the quotation seems too long, it probably is; just use part of it.

If someone else has taken your claim, you must come up with your own new examples.

Sonny's Blues to the end of the story

1. The narrator comes up with a number of metaphors for the process of making music the way Sonny does (a kind involving improvisation) on pages 103-104. What metaphors can you spot?

2. In general, how would you describe the way this last part of the story is narrated compared to the earlier parts? Or does the last part seem like the earlier parts?

3. How would you interpret the narrator's buying Sonny a drink, and Sonny's response, at the end of the story? You don't need to pay too much attention to the footnote cited at the end, unless you want to.

4. Does the story end happily or unhappily or other? Explain.

5. Having gotten to the end of the story, what you now say that the author is suggesting about the relationship between being addicted to heroin and playing music?

6. Find a sentence you like, quote it, and explain why.

"Sonny's Blues," paragraphs 46-226

To recap: The narrator returns on leave from the Navy to attend his mother's funeral. While there, he talks his brother Sonny into staying in high school, reminding him that there is a piano in the apartment he will be living in, that of the narrator's fiancee's family. Sonny leaves that apartment when the mother complains about the sacrifices the family is making for him. When the narrator returns from the military, he and Sonny fight, and stop seeing each other. Then Sonny gets busted for using heroin (this is at the beginning of the story; there's been a long flashback in between). The narrator writes to him in prison on the day his daughter Grace dies. The narrator and sonny start to correspond, and when Sonny gets out of prison he comes to stay with the narrator and his family. That's where we are now.

1. We learn about Grace's illness and death at paragraphs 177-178; Sonny wrote about it in his letter to the narrator back at paragraphs 50-52. How does Grace's death matter in the story so far?

2. The narrator writes that Sonny's piano-playing in the narrator's fiancee's house (the narrator was away in the navy) must have been like "torture" to the fiancee's family. Please note that it's not that Sonny's playing is bad--on the contrary--but as the devoted follower of Charlie Parker, aka "Bird," Sonny is learning how to play a form of jazz known as "Be-Bop," and it's challenging to listen to, even today, for most people. At the time it was even more challenging because it was brand new.

Read over paragraph 170 as a description of a young artist in training, devoted to his art. Comment.

3. The narrator's mother tells him about the death of his father's brother (paragraphs 91-105). What makes the story particularly poignant or painful?

4. The narrator remembers Sunday afternoons and evening when he was a child in paragraph 82 (starting with "This was the last time I ever saw my mother alive." How does this memory connect to the narrator's feelings and thoughts about what is going on now with Sonny living with him, either taking heroin or not?

5. Try to put into your own words a succinct summary of the conversation between the narrator and Sonny at paragraphs 183-226.

6. In the conversation mentioned above, music and the effect of heroin are both discussed. Can you describe their relationship, according to Sonny, even though it's not easy for Sonny himself to express it?

"Sonny's Blues" paragraphs 1-47

1. Can you cite any passages that support the idea that the narrator loved his brother Sonny? Can you find passages that support the idea that he didn't? Cite passage, and explain.

2. In paragraph 18, the narrator asks, "Anyway, what the hell can I do?" What would your answer to this question be?

3. In paragraphs 5, 6, and 7, the narrator talks about the darkness of the lives of his teen-aged students; his students' after-school conversation, including shouting, cursing, and laughing; and a boy whistling a tune. Comment. (Yes, this is a very open-ended question.)

4. Sonny's friend says that he feels as if he is somehow responsible for Sonny's drug addiction, even though all he did was tell Sonny that it felt great to be high. Is there anything in the reading that points tot he idea that the narrator also feels somehow responsible? (paragraphs 26-28)

5. How would you explain Sonny's friend's reaction to being given a five dollar bill by the narrator (paragraphs 43-35)?

"Dream Song 14" by John Berryman

John Berryman

Dream Song 14

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) "Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner Resources." I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as Achilles,

who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.



Note: When the speaker says "Henry bores me," he is referring to himself. In the longer set of poems known as The Dream Songs, the main character is named Henry and often refers to himself as Henry. In fact, he switches from first to second to third person in a non-conventional way. Also note: Achilles, the main character in Homer's Iliad, complained because his commander, Agamemnon, had treated him unjustly concerning the spoils of battle. Achilles refuses to fight on the Greek side and the Trojans start to get the upper hand as a result.

1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish. NOTE the rhyme patterns in the three stanzas above.

2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.

the poem "Introduction to Poetry"

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Everyone answer both prompts. Don't look at anyone else's answer before writing your answer to the first prompt.

1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish.

2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.

the poem "Kubla Khan"

Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream.

A Fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Everyone answer both prompts. Don't look at anyone else's answer before writing your answer to the first prompt.

1. What does this poem sound like? Supply a simile (for example, "It sounds like a nursery rhyme" or "it sounds like someone walking on crutches" or "it sounds like a parrot squawking." Try to be accurate to you own experience. Don't worry about being thought outlandish.

2. What are the five single most important words in this poem, in your opinion? After listing them, explain why in the case of ONE of the words.

Sula 151-174

a culvert


1. T or F: The paragraph on pp. 154-155 starting with "Christmas came one morning and haggled everybody's nerves" could be interpreted as an attempt to explain how difficult it is to be poor." and how attempts at

2. T or F: The sentence "The white people who came" at the bottom of p. 154 could be interpreted as an attempt to explain how charity can lead to resentment, not gratitude.

3. In the previous reading, Sula wondered if maybe in some way she had been "good." Are there any parts of the current reading that support that idea? Consider the ways things get worse after she dies; consider her role in Shadrack's inner life.

4. At the top of p. 157, an explanation is given for Shadrack's having said to Sula, after the drowning of Chicken, "always." Try to put the explanation in your own words.

5. The people in the spontaneous parade begin to smash up the tunnel that has started being built (162-163): in your own words--why do they smash it up or try to?

6. Discuss the connection between what happens at the tunnel and the fact that it is National Suicide Day.

Sula 138-149

1. Nel asks Sula, "I was good to you, Sula, why don't that matter?" (144-145)Put into your own words Sula's answer and comment.

2. Sula makes a strange speech: "Oh, they'll love me all right . . . . " (145-146) Try to interpret this speech.

3. Sula says, "About who is good. How youknow it was you?. . . I mean maybe it wasn't you. Maybe it was me." Try to interpret this speech. (146)

4. Just before dying, Sula remembers the word "always" and interprets it. Try to explain her interpretation of "always" and comment.

5. Sula says to herself just before dying, "Wait'll I tell Nel." Comment.

Merchant of Venice 2.1

1. What three adjectives would you use to describe Portia's behavior and words in this scene? Give a brief explanation for each.

2. What three adjectives would you use to describe Morocco's (the Prince of Morroco that is) behavior and words in this scene? Give a brief explanation for each.

3. Notice the condition of the casket game that Portia explains in lines 38-42. What is the condition, and what are some implications of that condition?

4. Find an example of imagery and discuss the meanings or connotations it might contribute to what is going on.

Sula 112-125

1. Sula becomes a scapegoat (originally, an animal that magically took on the sins of the whole tribe and was pushed off a cliff so that the tribe could begin a new year free from guilt) for the people of the Bottom (112-117), and her being a scapegoar ends up making people's lives better (bottom of 117). Why psychologically speaking do people start to behave better when they have her as a scapegoat?

2. "He was not the God of three faces they sang about. They knew quite well that he had four, and that fourth explained Sula." Try to explain this mysterious passage.

3. The extended metaphor of spider, spider-web, and snake on p. 120: try to explain it in your own words.

4. Sula "went to bed with men as frequently as she could to find "misery and the ability to feel deep sorrow" (122) This is an unexpected reason to go to bed with someone. While I don't expect you to be experienced in such matters, speculate how this could be Sula's psychological motivation for going to bed with men, and whether it works for her, or could work.

5. Find a sentence or phrase you find effective and explain why.

Merchant of Venice 1.2

Some representations of Portia

Note: Nerissa makes reference to her father's command that Portia choose the man to marry her based on a "lottery" (game of chance) that employs a "casket," three caskets in fact. Each suitor has to guess the right casket, and whoever guesses the right one, wins. We'll learn more later.

1. Portia is a typical Shakespearean comedy heroine, because she is witty: quote an example and explain.

2. Portia is a typical Shakespearean comedy heroine, because she good-humored, i.e., is habitually in a good mood toward everything, even the things she makes fun: quote an example and explain.

3. Portia is a typical Shakespearean comedy heroine, because she is energetic: an examplgive an example (doesn't have to be a quotation) and explain.

4. At line 95, Portia may give away for a moment the fact that she has seen or encountered Bassanio before and is interested: explain how so. You're allowed to consult the note. As you interpret the line, what is the importance of the dash in the middle of the line?

5. Why do you suppose Nerissa brings up Bassanio at line 92?

Sula 79-94

1. Put into your own words why Jude wants so much to get a job working on the proposed new road. Try to get below the surface.

2. Notice Jude's motivation for asking Nel to marry him, and hers to marry him (82-3). Do you think it's common for people to ask others to marry them for such a non-Romantic reason, or unusual?

3. Ajax says about women, "All they want, man, is they own misery. Ax em to die for you and they yours for life" (83). What do you think of Ajax's theory? Note: Ajax is the same character who applied the expression "pig meat" to Sula and Nel when they were younger.

4. On p. 90, Morrison describes the world-view of the people of the Bottom ("What was taken by outsiders . . . .it was beneath them.") How, in your own words, does their world view differ from that of the people you know?

5. In the same paragraph on p. 90, the author says "they determined . . . to survive floods, white people, tuberculosis, famine and ignorance." Comment on the order of the things on this list.

6. Sula, on her return, gets into an argument with her grandmother, Eva. What does this argument say about the character of each?

7. What possible explanation is there for Sula's committing her grandmother to an old age home? How evil is Sula acting?

Sula 67-78

Kentucky Wonders, the kind of beans Hannah sorts through as she talks to Eva.


1. Why might Hannah be asking her mother Eva if she ever loved her?

2. Might there be a connection between Hannah saying that she doesn't like Sula (57), even though she loves her, and what happens at the river (the drowning of Chicken)? Explain.

3. Why do you suppose Eva has such a strong reaction to Hannah's question?

4. Compare Eva's harsh reaction to Hannah's question about her loving her children to her throwing herself out the window when she sees Hannah burning.

5. This reading assignment contained shocking horror and violence (if it was hard on you, sorry!) Is there a way to explain how such horror and violence fit in with the rest of the story?

6. Was there a particular sentence that you feel deserves comment? Comment on it.

Sula 56-66

1. Note that Nel is teasing toward Chicken, while Sula is kind. Can you make a guess as to what motivates each to behave the way she does?

2. Chicken goes under water and is gone--suddenly drowned. Can you connect this incident with any other part of the book?

3. Can anyone make sense of the meeting between Sula and Shadrack?

4. Can you explain what is racist about the bargeman's reaction to finding Chicken's body? "Ham's sons" refers to dark-skinned people with African ancestry, named after one of Noah's sons (from the Bible).

Sula 41-56

Heroin being cooked in a spoon


1. Find an example of irony. of whatever kind, and explain.

OR

2, Find an example of a smile or matephor, and say what is being compared to what, and try to say what the metaphor or simile suggests about the author's way of seeing the world.

OR

3. Compare Hannah Peace with Helene, Nel's mother (who is featured in pages 17-29).

Sule 29-41

The kind of shoe Eva might have worn, but only one.

Continuing to keep our focus on language, can you find an example of diction (word choice) that seems to stand out or matter? What makes it stand out or matter? OR find an image that seems to matter, and explain why. As usual, if yours has been taken already, try to take another, unless you have something new or substantive to say.

You've been doing a good job.

One more thing: I said in class that Sula would come into the next section. I misremembered. Sula the character enters the story on page 49.

Sula 17-29

Find what for you is the most interesting piece of imagery and say what the imagery might say about setting, character, or theme. If someone takes your image, use another image, unless you have something substantively new to say. Iamgery: a p lace where the author makes the reader use his powers of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

Sula 7-16

Find an image and say what it says about either the setting, the character the image is connected to, or about Morrison's style. Try to be specific. If someone else has taken your image, write about a different image unless you have something substatively new about the image. Remember that an image is a word or phrase that evokes the reader's sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch.

Sula 3-6

Find your favorite phrase from the reading (one sentence maximum) and say why. If someone else has taken your phrase, find a different phrase that you like, unless you have something substantively new to say about the first phrase. Good luck!

"A Rose for Emily," revisited

Emily's father and his horsewhip supposedly kept "not good enough" men away from the door of his house and away from his daughter Emily.

1. Can you see how the above might be connected to Emily's odd, probably insane, behaviors--not wanting to admit her father was dead, and keeping the dead body of her lover Homer in a bed and sleeping with it? Can you explain the connection?

2. If you can see a connection regarding (a) above, what might Faulkner be suggesting about the role of social class and people's sense of social status in a southern town like the one Emily lives in?

"A Rose for Emily"

Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi


Please note that this blog prompt assumes you've finished reading the story. It contains spoilers.

1. Find a sentence that draws your attention and quote it, and try to put into words what drew your attention.

2. Try to locate an instance of foreshadowing.

3. True or false: Emily's life included its grotesque elements. Not her appearance; her life.

4. In addition to being creepy and a tour de force of story-telling, this story might be satirizing (making fun of) or at offering a critique of (criticizing) something--what, for example?

5. Try to explain, in your own words, what happens in section V. Once someone has done so, feel free to offer emendations or add details, but don't just repeat someone else's explanation.

6. Notice something about the story that no one else has noticed yet.

guiding questions

Write down a guiding question for one of the short stories we've read. Or say why you think someone else's guiding question would work well as a guiding question. Then you'll choose a guiding question--it can be one that doesn't appear on this blog, or it can be one of these--and start an analytical chart. Complete at least one row (piece of evidence--handle and grapple--implications or questions raised). Do more if you can. Bring your row (or more) to class tomorrow.

But first, your guiding question or comment about someone else's:

Cathedral 27-32 (to the end)

1. Find a place where the author's particular use of language matters and explain.

2. How would you describe the diction (word choice) and/or syntax (order of words) in this story?

3. Look at the very end of the story paragraphs 125-136): comment.

4. Is it possible to say that one development in the story is that the narrator grows as a human being by the end of the story? If so, what has enabled him to grow?

5. If you would agree that the narrator grows as a human being, juxtapose in your mind that idea and the fact that the characters eat and drink heavily and smoke pot. Comment.

6. Notice something no one else has noticed about the reading, and comment.

Cathedral 23-27 through paragraph 55

1. Find a place where language is used in an interesting way, and explain.

OR

2. Is there evidence in this reading assignment that the marriage between the narrator and his wife is not all that it should be?

OR

3. In paragraphs 45 and 46, the narrator says that they did some "serious eating," and they do some serious drinking of alcohol, too. Note also the detail that they leave their dirty plates on the table and "[don't] look back." Comment.

OR

4. At this point in the reading, what adjectives might you use to describe the narrator? The blind man? Why?

OR

5. Notice something no one else has so far about this reading assignment.

CAthedral pp. 21-23, par. 1-16

1. Can you find a place where the author uses language in a notable way? Explain.

OR

2. The story begins, "This blind man, an old friend of my wife's, he was on the way . . ." Comment on the word "this" and/or the grammatically-not-necessary use of the word "he."

OR

3. Comment on the character of the narrator.

OR

4. Given the information we have at this point, how would you describe the relationship between the narrator's wife (before she married the narrator) and the blind man?

OR

5. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about the reading.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Flannery O'Connor and one of her peacocks.

Please address the possibility that O'Connor's religious beliefs are helpful in understanding "A Good Man is Hard to Find." We all have varying levels of knowledge about Roman Catholicism (a kind of Christianity), and different Catholics have different ideas, but we must do our best. Please be respectful of others ideas about religion. thank you!

1. From what you know about Jesus, what might be his opinion of, or attitude toward, the grandmother? Would it be the same as his attitude toward, say Bailey and "the children's mother," or different?

OR

2. Consider the possibility that the Misfit is the Devil, i.e., Satan, the chief devil. (One way of thinking about devils is that they were angels who rebelled against God and who, after a civil war in heaven, were banished to hell. They decided, however, to invade earth in order to corrupt human beings and bring them down to hell with them.) Would thinking of the Misfit as the Devil make sense of the Misfit's actions? Would it make sense of the Misfit's statements about Jesus? Would it make sense of the Misfit's name? Is there a different way of making sense of the Misfit?

OR

3. Given what you know about Christianity or Roman Catholicism, why might the story be called "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?

OR

4. Assuming that O'Connor's religion does matter in this story, how does the humor and the element of the grotesque fit in with the religious issues?

A Good Man is Hard to Find 374 to the end

The author, Flannery O'Connor, kept peacocks at farmhouse home in Georgia.


1. Find an instance of an effective use of language and explain.

OR

2. Are their elements of the grotesque in this story? Like what? What's grotesque about your example?

OR

3. Who ends up seeming the most foolish in this story? Why?

OR

4. Assume for a moment that the author is interested in satirizing (criticizing in an indirect, but judgmental, usually funny way) the grandmother. What is there to criticize?

OR

5. Can you make sense of the character known as "the Misfit"?

OR

6. Notice something no one else has noticed yet.

A Good Man is Hard to Find, 371-374

1. Notice a place where language is used effectively, and try to say why.

OR

2. Red Sammy says "a good man is hard to find." According to the story so far, would this generalization hold true?

OR

3. Is there more evidence in this part of the reading that the grandmother in the story is a somewhat diferent kind of person than the other characters? What might the difference be? What evidence is there?

OR

4. The monkey (paragraphs 28 and 45): comment.

OR

5. Notice something no one else has noticed so far about this reading.

A Good Man is Hard to Find 369-370

Please note: don't just say something that someone else has said. If someone else has already made the point you wanted to make, find a phrase or sentence from the story that no one has quoted yet and explain how that phrase bears on the point you're trying to make. Briefly quoting the text in connection with or support of what you're saying = good.

1. Name one or more of the characters and come up with an adjective to desribe him or her.

OR

2. Notice the imagery to describe the mother in paragraph two: " . . . whose face . . . rabbit ears." Comment.

OR

3. Is there anything about the sotry that seems comic so far?

OR

4. Is there a use of language (diction, syntax, other) that you find notable?

one more "Country Husband" entry

Turner, Hannibal Crossing the Alps

1. How much compassion does the story or the author have for Francis and his plight, and how would we know?

OR

2. Consider the sentence in par. 135: "He had been lost once in his life . . . the path that he'd lost." Consider also the last sentence in the story: "Then it is dark . . . over the mountains." Consider also the sentence, in par. 36, "The sky shone like enamel." Comment.

OR

3. Can you find comic elements in this story? Like what?

OR

4. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about the story.

The Country Husband 73-81

1. Find a moment in the story at which you think language is being used effectively, quote it, and briefly say why. Diction (word choice)? Syntax (word order)? Sound? Irony? Something else?

OR

2. Why do you suppose Francis treats Clayton Thomas so badly, and of what does his bad treatment consist?

OR

3. In paragraph 121, Francis imagines what it will be like for his wife Julia if he and she split up. Comment.

OR

4. The whole part in which Julia decides to leave but is persuaded to stay by Francis: comment.

OR

5. The cat dressed in doll clothes at the end of the story: comment.

OR

6. The last sentence of the story: comment.

OR:

7. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about this reading.

The Country Husband 69-73

1. Find a moment in the story at which you think language is being used effectively, quote it, and briefly say why. Diction (word choice)? Syntax (word order)? Sound? Irony? Something else?

OR

2. Is there anything so far about the story that makes it seem a little different from other stories you have read? Briefly explain.

OR

3. Francis is rude to Mrs. Wrightson on p. 70 (paragraphs 33-35). Comment.

OR

4. Can you find a connection between Gertrude (p. 72) and anything else in the story so far? What?

OR

5. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about this reading.

The Country Husband 65-69 (up to para. 30)

What Jupiter in the story might look like.

A couple of notes about last night's comments:

Remember you need only answer one prompt (Eric--though I appreciate the effort!)

Sarah D--try the first question, the one about effective use of language--that won't give anything away. I appreciate your consideration.)

Some of the same questions as last night,question as last night. Don't forget to check in a half hour after your original comment.

Thank you!

1. Find a moment in the story at which you think language is being used effectively, quote it, and briefly say why. Diction (word choice)? Syntax (word order)? Sound? Irony? Something else?

OR

2. Is there anything so far about the story that makes it seem a little different from other stories you have read? Briefly explain.

OR

3. Notice the references to memory or the absence of memory: his memory of the "public chastisement" of the woman who had slept with a German soldier; "some submerged memory" (para. 28);"he had not developed his memory as a sentimental faculty (para. 12); "the people in the Farquarsons' living room seemed united in their tacit claim that there had been no past, no war . . . ." (para. 14). Comment.

OR

4. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about this reading.

Country Husband 62-65

1. Find a moment in the story at which you think language is being used effectively, quote it, and briefly say why. Diction (word choice)? Syntax (word order)? Sound? Irony? Something else?

OR

2. Is there a moment in the story that seems particularly realistic to you? Briefly explain.

OR

3. Is there anything so far about the story that makes it seem a little different from other stories you have read? Briefly explain.

OR

4. Name an adjective that could be used to describe the main character, Francis
Weed.

OR

5. Notice something that no one else has noticed yet about this reading.

A Doll's House (to the end)

Jane Fonda as Nora and David Warner as Helmer in a made for TV production of A Doll's House.

1. To what extent does Nora gain our admiration by the end of the play?

OR

2. The slam of the door at the end of the play is famous. Speculate as to why it might be.

OR

3. Krogstad: do we know enough about him for his restoration to the ranks of virtuous characters to make sense? Is it the actor's job to make the transformation credible?

OR

4. Assume for a moment that the play is a critique of urban Norwegian society of Ibsen's time. What does Ibsen disapprove of in his society, based on this play?

A Doll's House to the top of 1018

The tarentella, as depicted in a ballet called Napoli, choreographed by Bournonville, performed by the New York City Ballet.


Please respond to one of the following:

1. How do you feel about Krogstad at this point in the play?

2. Helmer's theory is that "almost everyone who goes bad early in life has a mother who's a chronic liar" (1014). what do you think of this theory? What does Nora think of it, and how can we tell?

3. Torvald's idea for a costume/act for Nora for the party is for her to go as a "Neapolitan peasant girl and dance the tarentella." Comment.

4. Mrs. Linde and Nora discuss Dr. Rank (1016-1017). What do we learn from this discussion?

A Doll's House to bottom of 1011

1. Comment on Nora's relationship with her children.

OR

2. How does Nora's relationship with her children fit in with other things we know or think about Nora?

OR

3. Krogstad tells Nora that she has committed the crime of forgery. Explain.

OR

4. Nora explains why she thinks a court of law would forgive her for her forgery because her motive was good. Does her explanation reinforce anything we've discovered about her so far, or does it tell us something new about her?

A Doll's House 1000-bottom of 1006

This is where the play gets potentially confusing.

1. Why is it necessary for Torvald and Nora to travel south?

2. How do they acquire the money to travel south? Or since this cannot be answered conclusively, what are the possibilities at this point?

3. What does Nora want Torvald not to know, and why does she want him not to know it?

4. Back on p. 997, we hear of how Nora locked everyone out for three weeks while she worked on Christmas decorations. What might she really have been doing?

Try to answer any of these questions, citing a quotation in support of your answer.

OR (once the answers to the above questions are established)

1. How has our sense of Nora changed since the beginning of the play?

2. What is Nora's relationship with Dr. Rank like, and how do you know?

A Doll's House bottom of 996-bottom of 1000

Having read this section, what question do you have at this point? You MUST come up with a question. If you have the same question as someone else, try to refine or develop the question a bit. If in addition to asking a question, you would like to try to respond to someone's question, great!