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.