"A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease," 152
"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"
"A Good Man is Hard to Find," 353
"Happy Endings," 157
"Kansas," 199
"I Stand Here Ironing," 282
"The Things They Carried," 379
Directions: You are required to answer only one of the main questions, which will appear in red. This question is due no later than Thursday, March 5. Following the red questions will be other questions, in black, which you should read and think about--they may help you answer the main question. However, you are not required to answer these questions in writing.
Please answer the question as thoughtfully as possible, after reading the lecture. Then post your answer to the English 102 Message Board by the deadline.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Saturday, Mar. 7. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings.
If you are registered in Section 7622, you'll use Message Board 1. Click on the button below to visit your Message Board:
If you are registered in Section 7623, you'll use Message Board 2. Click on the button below to visit your Message Board:
Remember: This discussion question is worth a possible 20 points. Late answers will receive 0 points. Points will be assigned according to the thoughtfulness of your answer, not by whether it is "right" or not, since sometimes there is no "right" answer. Just be sure your ideas are supported by the material in the story (see Lecture 1).
How does reading the different version of the story make you more aware of your own feelings and attitudes toward fiction? Explain, using specific examples to illustrate your ideas.
- What point(s) is Atwood making in this story?
- Is ending A the most interesting? If not, which one is?
- How are John and Mary different in different versions of the story? Why change them from version to version? Why add in other characters?
- What is the narrator's tone?
- This is written as if it's a commentary on writing stories; is it?
As in "Happy Endings," different versions of the story are presented. Why?
- Does the author give you any clues as to which version of the story is "real"?
- There is very little plot or character development; why?
- Why keep mentioning the farmer's boil?
- In version 1, did the boy's encounter with the farmer affect the direction of his life? Explain.
- In paragraph 25, the man "was listening for something in the distance." What might he have been listening for?
- Why describe, in the last paragraph of the story, what happens after the man dies? Why emphasize the fact that the son keeps seeing the zipper?
- What point of view does the author use to tell the story? How does the point of view affect the reader's perception of the story?
How do ironing and the iron function as metaphors in the story?
- What regrets does the mother have? How does she feel now about the decisions she made in the past?
- How did the mother's life force her to make decisions she now regrets?
- What comments is Olsen making in this story about social class and economic issues?
- Where does Emily get her gift for comedy?
- In paragraph 17, the narrator says, "There were all the acts of love." What were her acts of love?
- To whom is this story addressed? Why did Tillie Olsen choose this point of view?
- What specific details does the narrator give to make us feel Emily's suffering?
- Why don't Emily and Susan get along?
- The narrator says of Emily, "Now suddenly she was Somebody, as imprisoned in her difference as she had been in her anonymity." (paragraph 47) What does she mean?
- Explain the point the narrator makes in the last paragraph of the story.
In this story, what point(s) is O'Brien making about the cost of war?
- What is the symbolic significance of Lt. Jimmy Cross's name?
- Why does O'Brien give so much detail about what the men carried?
- Why does he tell the reader at the beginning that Ted Lavender was shot? Doesn't this ruin the suspense?
- How was Lavender killed? Was this Cross's fault? Why does he take responsibility for it? That is, how does taking responsibility help him to cope with Lavender's death?
- Why does Cross burn Martha's letters?