Discussion Question 7
Atwood, Alias Grace
Directions: You are required to answer only one of the following questions. Your answer is due no later than Thursday, May 3.
Please answer the question as thoughtfully as possible, after reading the lecture. Then post your answer to the English 239 Message Board by the deadline.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Saturday, May 5. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings.
Click on the link below to visit the English 239 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 reading.
1. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood is addressing many contemporary literary themes: the relationship between memory and reality; the blurring of the line between fact and fiction; and the relationship between perspective and reality, among others. Why, then, does she choose to set the story in the past?
2. In the New York Times Book Review, reviewer Francine Prose says, of Alias Grace, "There's nothing like the spectacle of female villainy brought to justice to revive the ancient, tired, apparently endless debate over whether women are by nature saintly or demonic." How do you see Grace? Was she "the loathsome perpetrator or another innocent victim"?