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?