Introduction

Reading
(and Writing about)
Literature
The Introduction is an excellent vehicle for setting the direction and tone of your class. I
advise discussing it for at least parts of the first two classes. The Introduction is an
exploration into the nature of reading, and guides students in making serious, careful, and
hard-thought, but not exclusive conclusions and evaluations about several passages.
Perhaps a good way to begin the class is to ask students why we read. Although
worded variously, responses will most likely be split between duty and pleasure, which
are not mutually exclusive. Students should then define the pleasures and duties
comparing their answers to those in the text. (If this exercise is conducted on day one,
few students will have read the text; indeed, only a few may have purchased it. But the
instructor can, of course, refer to the text.)
Some suggested questions:
Is it a citizens duty to read? Can an informed citizen rely only on non-print media? Is
reading essential to an individuals development of self and self-knowledge? What is the
role of reading in self-examination? Can an individual in this culture be fully
introspective without reading? What about those individuals who lived in cultures that
had no written tradition?

The Pleasures of Fiction (p. 2)

Stories have been used by most cultures to reaffirm traditional values and ethics. The
Introduction includes a fable and parable that can be discussed in class even if students
do not have the text.
The Dog and The Shadow, one of Aesops fables, presents a clear moral that
students will easily grasp. But, if most students do not yet have the text, you might read
aloud the brief fable and leave off Aesops concluding Moral. Ask students to
articulate a moral or morals. Then ask them to articulate the moral in an illustrative
image. Compare student responses to Aesops concluding moral. Ask, What is the

advantage of using an image? This is an opportunity to emphasize the connections

between the abstract and concrete, and the general and specific. This exercise will help to
develop an atmosphere of participation as well as trust, as students will recognize they
will have to participate, but that they can be inventive as long as logical.
Learning to Be Silent is a parable from the Asian tradition. Unlike The Dog
and the Shadow, the moral is implied. Students will no doubt have several responses,
and all should be tested for textual evidence. Responses will most likely be readily
supported by the passage, but the exercise introduces the concept of close reading and
inferential thinking, while emphasizing the participatory nature of the class.

The Pleasures of Poetry (p. 4)

Reviewing these pages in class will help establish the tone and method for how poetry
will be presented during the semester. When I mention poetry in my classes, most
students do not respond enthusiastically. This section can help break some of their
preconceived notions, which tell many of them that poetry is cryptic, unpleasurable,
humorless, useless, and dull.
I like to isolate the reference to Emily Dickinson on the top of page 4, who once
suggested that she could tell she was reading poetry when she felt as if the top of her head
were coming off. I ask students to interpret the statement and the image. I ask them to
consider an experience, particularly one involving listening, imagination, and the
intellect, that has induced them to feel similarly, and thereby connect to Dickinsons
experience with poetry, which now might not seem so strange. I dont usually have them
respond aloud to this exercise unless someone seems anxious to speak. However, I have
asked them to write of their similar experience as an option for a fifteen minute in-class
writing assignment, which I use to evaluate writing skills, and I have offered it as an
optional topic for the first essay assignment.

Dust of Snow Robert Frost (p. 4)

Dust of Snow is an excellent opening day poem. The text provides a reading, but
perhaps the following approach would be helpful: I ask students to consider the poem as
a script for a music video. What kind of tempo would the song consist of? What in the
poem suggests tempo? Describe the setting and action. Is it more serious than
humorous? Describe the speakers changing facial expression. Does the poem/video
have anything to say about human emotion and its capricious quality?

The Pleasures of Drama (p. 5)

This section contrasts drama as seen in the theater and the somewhat artificial experience
of reading it. Drama is defined as mimetic, active, immediate, interactive, and composite.
After defining these terms, the text provides students with suggestions for reading drama.
No dramatic passage is provided in the text, but to illustrate the above definition of
drama, you can ask students to consider the action of the class so far as dramatic text with
students and instructor as performers. Have students consider plot, dialogue, pauses,
intonation, dress, body language, props, movement, subtext, and the instructors
objective. Instinctively, students will have already considered much of this. This same
analytical impulse, you can point out, should be applied to live drama and dramatic
readings, although when reading the challenge to the imagination is obviously greater.
This exercise is not only fun but provides students a reference point for viewing and
reading drama.
Possible Follow-up Writing Assignment:
Ask students to read, interpret, and evaluate a text readily available: i.e., a scene or
conversation from the cafeteria, their home, or a shopping center.
Understanding Literature: Experiences, Interpretation, Evaluation (p. 7)
This section challenges students to make judgments about literary works; however,
evaluations can only be formed once the text is carefully interpreted.
The brief Hemingway passage allows the instructor to guide students through a
close reading. DiYanni comments on the text immediately after. To engage students in
the process of close reading, and to give them a process, you might choose from the
following questions:
What actually happens during and after the bombardment?
Who is speaking?
Why does he not name the soldier? Why is he vague on detail identifying the
girl only as girl, for instance?
Is he objective?
Is there any particular reason why he might not be judgmental?
Are you as reader more judgmental of the soldier? What about the speaker?
Could the speaker more completely identify with the soldiers fear?
How religious is the soldier? Why does he not keep his bargain with God?

When read closely, what does this brief passage suggest about war, love, religion,
and human nature?

Writing about Literature (p. 10)

If your class emphasizes writing, particularly writing about literature, this section will be
quite valuable. Even though this section is clear and explicit, it is worth reviewing for at
least one class early in the semester, perhaps a week or so before the first essay is due. It
will provide a textual reference when grading papers.
I emphasize to my students that most people do their best thinking, both analytical
and creative, while writing, as the pen focuses their attention. This may seem obvious,
but will confirm what many students have only suspected. I also emphasize that by the
end of the course, if students are comfortable with writing about literature, they will have
learned a valuable skill, readily transferable to documents they may be called upon to
respond to in other classes or in the workplace.
The text discusses explication as well as comparison and contrast, and then
provides guidelines for drafting, outlining, revision, and presenting papers.

Part One

Fiction

Chapter One

Reading Stories
This chapter explores how we read. Careful readers will pass through three stages during
the reading process: Reading (taking in the surface features and forming impressions, see
page 22), interpretation (which involves observing, connecting, inferring, and
concluding, see page 23), and evaluation (measuring literary, moral, political, and
cultural values, see page 25).
Defining this process helps students understand the nature of reading, the
demands of reading closely, and the importance of their own experiences and values
when interpreting and evaluating texts. Students too often underestimate what they bring
to a text. Frequently students read trying to figure out if they can get it right, it being
the interpretation, and more specifically the instructors interpretation. These students
need to be made aware that interpretations and evaluations are largely subjective and
valid as long as they can be supported by textual evidence and a complete reading of the
text.
Other students will insist that all interpretations and evaluations are equally valid
since they reflect personal opinion. These students will cling to their readings whether
textual support exists or not, and often they will remain steadfast no matter what the
instructor or other students suggest and point out. They will respond with, Well, I have
my opinion and you have yours, and to damaging evidence, Ok, but I still think Im
right. As instructors, we must be patient, especially at the beginning of the semester.
We must nurture both the student who will accept our interpretations and evaluations
unchallenged, as well as the one who tenaciously stands firm despite an incomplete or
inaccurate collection of evidence. We need to encourage all students through continued
discussion and comparison of interpretations and evaluations, challenging questions, and
the creating and maintaining of a friendly, tolerant, safe, and stimulating classroom
atmosphere, even if it means not having the final word in a discussion. Dont worry.
Most students will give the instructors remarks a fair hearing regardless of when we
make our point.
In short, reviewing the reading process as outlined in this chapter will serve
several purposes:
1. Define the reading process, which is something most students have never considered.
2. Instill confidence in students as interpreters and evaluators.

3. Provide opportunity for students to comment on not only literary texts, but also on
DiYannis commentary and each others observations and interpretations.
4. Offer strategies for close readings through in-class discussion and DiYannis
commentary.
5. Inform students about how closely they are to read.

The Prodigal Son Luke (p. 21)

Most students have heard the story, but few know the details and even fewer have read it.
The parable always generates interesting class discussions. Some will articulate the
intended moral, but think the father unfair, citing the elder sons complaint, thou
never gavest me a kid. Usually those students reconsider when another student cites the
fathers response: all that I have is thine.
The parable provokes discussion on a broad range of considerations, including
fairness, loyalty, repentance, forgiveness, fatherly love, brotherly love, work, profligacy,
and more. I like to work through some of these to see what values the story seems to
promote. To illustrate the enduring significance and appeal of the parable, I conclude our
discussion with listening to Prodigal Son, a song written by the Rev. Robert Wilkins (a
blues singer turned preacher) and recorded by the Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet
(1968). Rev. Wilkins relates the conclusion of the parable this way:
Father said, See my son comin after me,
Comin home to me.
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Singin praises, Lord have mercy on me.
Poor boy, stood there, hung his head and cried,
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy, stood and hung his head and cried.
Said, Father, will look on me as a child?
Well, father said, Elder son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round,
Kill that calf and call the family round.
My son was lost, but now he is found.
And thats the way for us to get it on.
Along with the parable, you might also discuss Elizabeth Bishops poem The Prodigal,
Rembrandts The Return of the Prodigal Son (both in Chapter Ten), and Garrison
Keillors Prodigal Son (Chapter Twenty-two).

A & P John Updike (p. 27)

I think there are two important questions for students to consider during a discussion of
this story:
1. Is Sammys action heroic?
2. Whether heroic or not, is his action offensive or belittling to women?
To consider the first question, we must examine Sammys character and his motive.
From a most likely lower middle-class home, he is certainly witty and clever, and makes
humorous use of detail (specific reference to HiHo crackers, A, asparagus, etc.
such effective specifics are frequently lacking from student essays, I point out). But he is
also a smart aleck, disrespectful to and judgmental of customers he hardly knows, full of
teenage angst, or as students might put it, He has an attitude. He seems a rebel without
a cause. That is, I suggest, until he observes the girls and the reaction to them of
customers, employees, and especially Lengel.
Sammy quits in protest over their needless humiliation. He acts from mostly pure
motives, though certainly part of him wants to impress the girls. He feels sympathy for
them, as he says earlier, and it is this sincere sympathy, more than anything, that leads
him to quit in spontaneous protest. By supporting the mistreated, the rebel finds a cause
how loyal he will remain to so specific a cause is impossible to say. But the storys last
sentence reveals that Sammy does act from noble motives and that he does realize that
acting from such motives will make his future difficult, especially in a culture that
rewards people like Lengel, who, we must remember, reminded Sammy of authority
figures with his Sunday-school-superintendent stare.
The last sentence can be compared to the final sentence of Araby, as both
narrators articulate a lesson learned. How are their lessons similar to and different
from the morals of fables and parables? Some students might state that Sammy dislikes
his job. But there is no evidence to suggest this. In fact, he seems to enjoy his smug
ridicule of customers, and the resulting feeling of superiority it brings him.
To respond to question two above, we consider whether or not Sammy is sexist.
Certainly, he sees the girls as sex objects, and dehumanizes them, even after he says he
feels sorry for them; he refers to Queenies breasts, for instance, as the two smoothest
scoops of vanilla. The responses will vary on this issue. Some will argue that these
wealthy girls do not need his defense, that they should be able to take care of themselves,
and would if men would allow them. I question how much of a rebel Sammy really is.
Isnt he embracing the values of a male-dominated culture when he defends the girls? I
like to read the brief passage below spoken by a young woman in Royall Tylers 1787
play The Contrast:
Who is it that considers the helpless situation of our sex, that does not see
that we each moment stand in need of a protector, and that a brave one
too? Formed of the more delicate materials of nature, endowed only with
the softer passions, incapable, from our ignorance of the world, to guard

against the wiles of mankind, our security for happiness often depends
upon their generosity and courage.
Does Sammys gesture not reflect this obviously pass notion? Would Sammy have quit
if Lengel had reprimanded three males for shopping shirtless and shoeless?

The Story of an Hour Kate Chopin (p. 32)

It might be worth reading this story aloud in class and following along with DiYannis
commentary, answering his questions, speculating on what will follow, evaluating and reevaluating speculations and conclusions, and then experiencing the surprise ending with
them. This exercise will further reinforce the importance of careful and close reading and
suggest the kind of thinking in which students must engage themselves when reading
assignments. Of course, this exercise can be carried out with another story. Tillie Olsens
I Stand Here Ironing seems especially suitable.
I especially like to discuss this story as a feminist text. Taking into account that
the story was written in 1894, we focus on Louise Mallards marital experience. Most
students will see the story as representative of marriages at that time noting that women
were not allowed to vote until 1920. However, some students will point out the similarity
between the Mallard marriage and the typical marriage in their culture, and express
surprise that the story was written in 1894. Later in the course, I tend to connect this
story with Ibsens A Doll House and Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper.
I also use the story to discuss the importance of point of view, which is almost
everything in fiction. To demonstrate, I ask students to rewrite a part of this story or
another story from a different characters perspective, here the husbands.

10

Chapter Two

Types of Short Fiction

This chapter begins by clarifying the differences between three of short fictions most
enduring and often-used forms:
Parables, represented in the previous chapter by The Prodigal Son, are stories
that teach lessons through an implied moral, usually of a religious or spiritual nature.
Fables are brief stories that explicitly state their moral, and frequently feature
animals as characters to satirize failings of human nature or character.
Tales narrate strange or fabulous happenings in a direct and swift manner, without
detailed characterization and usually without intent to instruct.
After presenting a fable (The Wolf and the Mastiff) and a tale (The Widow of
Ephesus), the chapter concludes with an introduction to the characteristics of the
modern realistic short story, the nonrealistic short story (which in breaking from the
conventions of the realistic story returns, arguably, the short story to an interest in the
fabulous or fantastic that fables and tales demonstrate), and the short novel.

The Wolf and the Mastiff Aesop (p. 38)

The Wolf and the Mastiff illustrates the fable form and why it has endured. Students
will readily understand how the moral is derived from the story, and they will see the
humor in the wolfs quick exit. However, I like to explore the practicality of this moral.
Yes, all agree it is better to be free than a well-fed slave. But isnt this easier to agree to
in theory than in actuality? What if they had children to feed? What if their slave master,
for the most part, treated them kindly? I then ask them about the recent history of
Communism in Russia. Why do many Russians long for a return to the days of more
government control? Why do these Russians feel more oppressed now than in the days of
the Soviet Union? This leads to a consideration of the price of freedom: what is freedom
worth? What sacrifices would they make? Are any of their parents or anyone they know
enslaved by a job? Students could address such issues in a writing assignment. This
discussion demonstrates the wisdom of Aesop, whose fables are not so simplistic as some
students might have first thought, and the different readings each age can have of a fable.

11

The Widow of Ephesus Petronius (p. 38)

When this tale is read with the parable and fable in the text, students will see the
differences between these three short fiction forms. Unlike The Prodigal Son and The
Wolf and the Mastiff, The Widow of Ephesus will not bring about a consensus
interpretation. I focus on the title character and ask students to interpret and evaluate her.
Responses range as students discuss whether she is fickle, hypocritical, vain, practical, or
loyal to those she loves. Their responses tend to hinge on their answer to a crucial
question: is it possible for someone, after years in a successful marriage, to fall so
genuinely and completely in love within a week of a spouses death? And is that what
happens here?
I then use the story to illustrate the differences between the tale and the modern
short story, emphasizing especially the acute brevity of the narration of a tales action and
the limited depth of a tales characterization, although characters are expressively
delineated.

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Chapter Three

Elements of Fiction
This chapter defines and illustrates the most basic characteristics of fiction: plot,
structure, character, setting, point of view, language, style, theme, irony, and
symbol. After DiYannis discussion of a particular element, a story follows with
questions focusing on the element under consideration. Reviewing these traditional
elements helps students establish an approach for active reading and evaluation.

Plot and Structure (p. 43)

Plot is defined as the action element in fiction, and includes a series of events that, at
least in realistic fiction, have a causal relationship to each other. I find it worthwhile to
examine the diagram on page 44, which, as DiYanni says, is useful only as a point of
departure. In class, the students and I reconstruct the diagram based on one of our
readings. I then ask students to map a plot for their assignment. This mapping
encourages students into a close reading that usually engages them in a meaningful, if not
exciting, textual experience.
Structure, which should be examined in relation to the plot, is defined as the
design of the story or the organization of its materials. DiYanni demonstrates structure
clearly when he references The Prodigal Son with its various balances and parallels
(45). However, students will require further guidance for a thorough understanding of
structure. As instructors, we need to encourage students to be more sensitive to
repetitions, variations, changing scenes, shifts in point of view, tone, and pace; in short,
we need to alert students to the importance of structure. They need to be told that
structure not only provides a clue to the storys meaning, but insight perhaps to a writers
overall philosophy, as a fictional structure could be representative of how a particular
writers sees the world at large. You might consider this statement with reference to
Jamaica Kincaids Girl. What does that story, with its one-sentence structure, reveal
about Kincaids attitude toward Jamaican cultural indoctrination? Is the culture passed
on with an urgent single-mindedness that is confusing if not oppressive? You might also
consider Flannery OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The abrupt tonal shift
midway through that story suggests not so much an imbalanced work of fiction, but a
world off balance. (See the discussion in this manual under A Good Man Is Hard to
Find.)

Guests of the Nation Frank OConnor (p. 45)

13

This story, with its four-part structure, offers an excellent opportunity to construct a
diagram of the plot. Section 1 is devoted to exposition, introducing the situation and the
main characters (Donovan, Belcher, Hawkins, Noble, and Bonaparte) and the minor
character of the colorful old woman of the house. We see the primary personality traits
of each character and notice the developing friendship between the Irish guards (Noble
and Bonaparte) and the English prisoners (Belcher and Hawkins) with Donovan
remaining aloof.
Section 2 introduces complications. The friendship has obviously grown as
Bonaparte, the narrator, leaves Noble with the two prisoners, even though Noble is
engaged in a heated debate with Hawkins over capitalism and religion. Bonaparte trusts
that no violence will befall his fellow guard and the prisoners will not attempt a break.
This sets up the complication. Bonaparte hears that the prisoners are hostages and might
need to be executed. He relates the news to Hawkins later that night, and both are so
disturbed that they have difficulty falling asleep.
Section 3 begins with the suspenseful arrival of Donovan who deepens the
complications and, in fact, forces the crisis. He informs the guards that the prisoners
must be executed. Noble and Bonaparte are horrified at the orders asking them to kill
their two friends; the narrator hopes futilely that the prisoners will run for it or do
something so he will not have to kill them.
In Section 4 the complications develop further and become more painful for the
guards as the prisoners state that they would never kill their friends and that they do not
believe Noble and Bonaparte will kill them, since Theyre not the sort to make a pal kill
a pal. Theyre not the tools of any capitalist. The climax occurs when Donovan shoots
Hawkins. For it is only at this point that the dramatic question (will the prisoners really
be executed?) is definitively answered. The falling action begins immediately afterwards
as Belcher prepares for his death. The denouement or resolution begins when the old
woman confronts them. We see their guilt, sorrow, and loss of innocence: And anything
that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again. These two young
soldiers, who no doubt saw war as an opportunity for glory (remember, they wished they
were out with a fighting column, 48) have experienced the brutality, inequity, suffering,
and reality of war, and they are left forever changed.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Writing
1. In what country is the story set?
The story is set in Ireland, which students sometimes miss. You might want to point out
references which make clear the setting: to local place names like Claregalway, to Irish
dance songs (The Walls of Limerick and The Siege of Ennis), Irish names (Mary
Brigid OConnell), and the Irish brogue of Donovan: Ah, you divil, you, why didnt you
play the tray?

2. Why does Donovan not get close to the prisoners? What does this tell you about him?

14

Donovan seems to like Hawkins, and could get close to him if he allowed himself,
indicated in the opening paragraph. Donovan, who is of higher rank than the guards, is
more experienced or at least knowledgeable about the ways of war. His first duty is to his
country, and he realizes that friendships with prisoners could compromise that duty. He
is fully aware too that he might be called upon to carry out the execution of the prisoners,
which friendship would make a difficult proposition. Since he did not allow a
relationship to develop, he was able to carry out their executions without hesitation or
remorse. He no doubt takes pride in his professional soldiership.
3. What are some examples of irony found in the story?
The irony adds a dark humor to the story. A few dark examples: the title; the nature of
duty in which the young Bonaparte makes a cynical observation (I never noticed that
people who talk a lot about duty find it much of a trouble to them), suggesting that duty
is a shield that blocks the force of conscience; Belchers laugh when the narrator fires a
shot to keep Hawkins from suffering and his comment that now Hawkins knows as
much about [the afterlife] as theyll ever let him know, and last night he was all in the
dark.
4. What is the strongest force at work in this story: religion, family, friendship, selfpreservation, or nation?
The question is open and responses will vary. It is a good way to reinforce the
importance of the evaluation stage of reading.
5. Compare OConnors presentation of the prisoners as enemies with the presentation of
enemies in one or two films, songs, poems, television shows, stories, etc.
Guests of the Nation was adapted for a feature film, The Crying Game (1992). See the
Appendix.
6. Consider OConnors Lyric Poetry and the Short Story in Chapter Twenty-five, in
which he discusses the similarities between lyric poetry and the short story as well as his
writing process.
7. Sometimes I conclude this discussion by playing The Green Fields of France,
written in 1976 by Eric Bogle and recorded by several artists, including Tommy Makem
& Liam Clancy (under the title Willie McBride) and The Furey Brothers and Davey
Arthur. The singer happens upon the grave of a young soldier and contemplates his
death. The sentiments in the song could be expressed over the graves of Belcher and
Hawkins. I focus on the following lines, which, if time allows, provoke further
discussion and usually further sympathy for all the characters:

I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean

15

Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene

. . .
Did they beat the drums slowly? Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March as they lowered you down?
. . .
Ah young Willie McBride I cant help wonder why
Did all those who died here know why did they die?
The recording by Makem & Clancy can be found on The Makem & Clancy Collection
(Shanachie Records) and The Furey Brothers and Davey Arthur on Festival of Irish Folk
Music (Chyme Music).

Character (p. 54)

I like to expand on DiYannis first point, which is extremely important: As readers, we
come to care about fictional characters. If we do not care about a works characters,
chances are very good we will not care about anything else the work offers, whether it be
plot, theme, or any technical virtuosity. This same principle operates in other genres,
including drama, film, poetry and the essay, which is something students need to be
reminded of when writing. This may seem obvious, but most students, while recognizing
its truth, have never considered it.
I then challenge them to approach fictional characters in much the same way they
approach people they meet. In life, we observe dress, physical detail, gesture, language,
actions, and other details dependent on circumstances and setting, and then draw
inferences, which are either confirmed or revised as we get to know the person. Of
course, in fiction we sometimes have an added advantage when we can see into a
characters consciousness.
DiYanni defines protagonist and antagonist, and contrasts dynamic with static
characters, noting that major characters are not necessarily dynamic. He discusses
method of characterization, referencing Joyces The Boarding House, and then lists the
common methods of revealing character (56).

Astronomers Wife Kay Boyle (p. 56)

Astronomers Wife presents two major characters, one dynamic (Mrs. Katherine Ames)
and one static (the plumber). The minor character, Professor Ames, is static and could be
considered the antagonist.
The contrasts between these characters are sharp. The astronomer is a dreamy,
intellectual, insensitive, and spoiled husband, consumed by his work, and Mrs. Ames, at
the beginning of the story, is a practical, unenthusiastic, servile, and neglected wife, who
is deeply pained. Old before her time, she has come to be more his servant than his wife,
whom he freely ridicules: Theres a problem worthy of your mettle! he shouts as she
discusses the plumbing problem. The line provides a good illustration of verbal irony, as
there is more accuracy in his words than Professor Ames realizes.

16

The astronomer and the plumber are also contrasted. The plumber is concerned
with pipes hidden behind walls or below ground, symbolic of his interest in what lies
behind the surface, like Mrs. Amess heart. He is a man of the earth, who is practical,
caring, and sensitive to others. He is engaged in life and is out working while the
astronomer lies in his bed. Ironically, the unintellectual plumber understands Mrs.
Amess problem more readily and clearly than her intellectual husband. The plumbers
treatment of her is tender, reassuring, and gentle. The symbolic associations of up and
down help illustrate the differences between the two men and, through the plumber,
Mrs. Ames sees her husbands detachment from things of the earth as a disability and
follows the plumber down to a greater understanding of her life, feelings, and sexuality.
I also like to read closely an excerpt from the storys final page beginning with the
plumbers line, Ah, come, now and extending to his eyes were fastened on her face in
insolence, or gentleness, or love. I focus especially on her reaction to his statement that
theres always a help for everything amiss. Words fail Mrs. Ames at this
point, and she can only think in terms of images, which reveal the depth of her
impression. The images all concern repair, or making that which is ill, well: herbs heal
the sick, rain quenches drought, and broken bones can be mended. These images are all
hopeful and suggest to her that her heart and her life is not beyond repair; all she needs is
sensitivity and love.

Setting (p. 60)

Students realize that setting is necessary after all, stories have to take place somewhere
but rarely do students attach more importance than that to setting. But for some writers,
like Joyce and Faulkner, setting is essential to meaning and is often as important as any of
a particular works characters. Arguably, Joyces concern with Ireland and Faulkners
concern with the American South are their main themes. Thus, the settings of their
stories not only provide insight into meaning, but, in fact, become the works essential
meaning.
The importance and use of setting will vary from author to author or work to
work. Writers will use setting to define and shape character, to reflect emotional states, to
build plot and atmosphere, or symbolize concepts. Eudora Weltys quotations (61) are
worth considering. I especially like to emphasize the following: every story would
be another story, and unrecognizable as art, if it took up its characters and plot and
happened somewhere else.
Writing Assignment
Ask students to accept Weltys above statement as a challenge. They should take a story,
or an incident from a story, and place it in another setting. They need to reconsider
characters dialogue, gestures, and actions. The results are often wonderful. I also do
this exercise with drama texts as well.

Shiloh Bobbie Ann Mason (p. 62)

17

As indicated in the first question following the story, a little background on the Battle of
Shiloh is helpful and motivating. In April 1862, Southern forces, stationed at Corinth,
Mississippi, mounted a surprise attack on the Union camp at Shiloh, Tennessee, where
General Ulysses S. Grant was in command. The two-day battle was fierce, and the
Northerners were victorious, maintaining a firm hold on already captured positions,
splitting the rebel forces along the Mississippi River, and causing an evacuation of many
of the Confederate troops from Tennessee. Losses were heavy for both sides: 13,047
dead for the North and 10,694 for the South.
The title immediately introduces the image of conflict. And there are multiple
conflicts in the story. All characters are struggling with internal conflicts. You might
begin the discussion by focusing on the husband, since the story is told from his point of
view. What does his immobility suggest? Is this immobility psychological as well?
What does his work with craft kits suggest? Does Leroy, the King, try to live up to his
name and be protector to his wife and build a log cabin empire? Interestingly, the log
cabin in Shiloh has bullet holes. Does his remark about the womens lib thing, suggest
that he is trying as a king to ward off rebellious ways of thinking, which he regards as
invading forces? What is significant about the narrators comment that in all the
years he was on the road he never took time to examine anything. He was always flying
past scenery (62)? What does it mean that the real inner workings of a marriage
have escaped him (71)? His sons death needs to be considered when answering. Has
he, like the Northern troops, been surprised at Shiloh? Certainly, Leroy has been
surprised by his wifes desire to leave him, but he has also been surprised by his own
epiphany. The battleground helps him to understand that external events shape our
internal beings, and that we must confront those events and their emotional and
psychological effects on us to be fully healthy. A simple recapitulation of facts and
figures, as he related to hitchhikers about the major events of his life, is not reflection. In
fact, he deflected such internal examination when upon finishing his story he would ask
the hitchhiker, Well, what do you think? (66, italics mine).
Leroys wife Norma Jean is also engaged in an internal conflict, indicated not
only by her actions to reconstruct her physical and intellectual being, but also by her
silent demeanor of discontent. She too it seems experiences an epiphany, but earlier than
the narrator. What did she realize during this epiphany (which I contend occurred when
her mother reprimanded her for smoking)? That set something off (70), as Norma says.
At Shiloh, she says, she feels eighteen again (70). At eighteen, did she just lose her
baby? Did she feel controlled by her husband and her mother as she certainly does now?
We are not sure of the details, and neither is she. However, we are certain that she does
not associate eighteen with positive memories. And what she is trying to do in the time
frame of this story is gain control, control of her body, her mind, even her emotions as
she too seems ready to confront her guilt over the death of her infant. She seems to draw
inspiration from her namesakes, turning aggressive and even confrontational. (See the
passage in which she explains the meaning of her name, 69)
There is little communication in Leroy and Normas marriage. I ask students to
note images of this lack of communication and then categorize them. There are images
of silence (Normas closing her eyes perhaps prematurely in bed [66], lack of
conversation during the drive to Shiloh [69], banal conversation about complexion care
[63], and noise-making to avoid discussion frequent organ playing, vacuuming as Leroy

18

considers plans for the log cabin [67]). Did their infants death destroy their marriage?
Leroy realizes their marriage is in trouble (senses her disappointment when she finds him
home [63], knowing he is losing her [68]), but he is willing to try to save the relationship.
Early in the story, he realizes that they must create a new marriage together, start
afresh, and he wonders if they should discuss Randy (63). Despite this, does the
marriage dissolve? The ending is ambiguous. Neither Leroy nor the reader can be sure.
What did Norma mean when, after she announced she wanted to leave Leroy, she says, I
dont know what Im saying. Forget it (70)? And in the storys final image is she
beckoning to her husband or exercising? The ambiguity seems hopeful here, especially
when considered with Leroys realization about insides of history and the real inner
workings of marriage.
Mabel, Normas mother, warrants discussion. Why is she so anxious to send the
couple to Shiloh? Why would she be hoping for a break-up? She is identified with the
Confederate troops, the invaders of Shiloh. She is a member of the United Daughters of
the Confederacy (65) and the couple buys her a Confederate flag at Shiloh (70). She does
seem to be trying to break-up their union, invading their marriage. Her defeat seems
imminent as her daughter seems ready to challenge her authority over her.
Additional Topics for Discussion or Writing
1. Mason said that contemporary fiction needs to focus on the lives of ordinary people.
Are the characters in Shiloh ordinary? Does their marriage remind you of any
marriages you have observed?
2. Can or should the Moffit marriage be saved? What would you recommend if you
were their marriage counselor? Be specific. Perhaps develop no more than three
ideas for them to work on.
3. Compare the ending of Shiloh with that of Ibsens A Doll House.
4. Relate Herman Melvilles poem Shiloh (not in the text) to Masons story. Is there
any way that the poem reflects the situation of Masons characters?

Point of View (p. 71)

Frequently, beginning students have never adequately considered point of view. I usually
begin the discussion with a sweeping and perhaps exaggerated statement: Point of view
is everything in fiction. This will usually get the students attention. Then I ask them to
consider an event or incident they witnessed. In discussions with other eyewitnesses, did
versions of the facts differ? Do they consider themselves objective? I ask if their
knowledge and/or previous experience shaped how they saw and interpreted the facts.
I then relate this to fiction, stressing that two different people or narrative voices can
relate the same incident in two entirely different ways, with different emphases and
details, and therefore different conclusions.

19

Referring to DiYannis text, we review the most common points of view (first
person, third-person omniscient, and third-person limited), and the three reminders on
page 73; I use #3, on unreliable narrators, to return our discussion to the students
examples.

A Rose for Emily (p. 73)

The narrator of A Rose for Emily speaks for the town; he uses the communal we
rather than the individualist I. I keep this point of view is the forefront of our
discussion.
The narrator and community are sympathetic towards Emily. How do they
demonstrate this sympathy? I ask students to find evidence in the story to illustrate their
sympathy (the non-collection of taxes, the sending of children for china-painting lessons).
What in her personal and familial history induces the towns emotional support?
(Consider her overbearing father and the insanity that ran in her family.) Evidence of her
insanity can be found in her inability to accept and even recognize change, which
includes death. In a sense Emily is the town eccentric. She has become a tradition, a
duty, and a care (74). The narrator sums up the communitys perception of Emily when
he writes that she is dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse (79).
The title emphasizes the towns sympathetic view of Emily. I interpret the title as
a tribute to Emily, likening the rose as a gift implying affection or as the rose tossed atop
a coffin at the final stage of burial. After all, the story is a kind of eulogy, meant to tell
the truth but in a very sympathetic way. Interpreting the story as eulogy provides an
explanation for the disordering of chronology, which obscures the murder and
manipulates the reader into feeling so sorry for Emily by the end of the story that we can
forgive her for the murder we just discovered she committed.
Other Topics for Discussion
1. Is Emily representative of a decaying Old South? How is she a fallen monument?
Does the narrator and town recognize the need for change even while nostalgically
clinging to the past with its good old days? What are the signs of transition in the
town?
2. I use the above answers to lead into a discussion of the description of Emilys funeral,
focusing on the old Confederate soldiers and their confusing time with its
mathematical progression. I like to examine the images of a huge meadow and
bottleneck to reveal their sense of nostalgia and distance from not just the past, but
also from the truth.
3. This leads us to consider the narrators credibility. Is his view of Emily accurate? Do
his racist and misogynist comments affect our evaluation of him and his credibility?
Writing Assignments

20

1. Rewrite a summary of this story as a reporter for a newspaper which specializes in

sensationalism.
2. Rewrite a scene from the story from another point of view (a gossipy citizen, the
druggist, Tobe, Homer, one of the next generation).

Language and Style (p. 80)

Students often have difficulty recognizing distinct authorial styles and uses of language.
They sense differences, but they cannot always articulate precisely what those differences
are. These introductory pages provide them with a process for investigating prose styles,
a process which will lead them to a fuller understanding and appreciation of a work.
In their own writing, students generally allow style to take care of itself. The
explanation on these pages can be used to alert students to authorial choices and to a
reevaluation of their own linguistic choices or non-choices.

Araby James Joyce (p. 81)

Before discussing either Araby, The Boarding House, or The Dead, I find some
background information on Joyce and Dubliners to be helpful. Students are curious when
they hear that all of Joyces fiction is set in Dublin, his hometown, although after the age
of twenty he lived and worked abroad until his death at age fifty-nine in 1941. I inform
them that Joyces intention with Dubliners was to write a chapter of the moral history of
my country under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public
life. He considered Dublin the centre of paralysis and hoped that when the Irish took
one good look at themselves in my nicely polished glass he would have introduced the
first step in the spiritual liberation of my country.
I like to identify Arabys point of view, which is that of an adult looking back
on a maturing experience in his youth, an experience that occurred when he was perhaps
twelve or thirteen. At the beginning of the story, the boy sees himself on a quest, a
religious or spiritual one. Mangans sister represents a kind of goddess or an angel to
him, and he believes himself her protector and servant. The religious imagery throughout
the story indicates his grandiose view of himself and the significance of his quest to buy
her a gift from a bazaar that she cannot attend. The imagery too suggests something
about the absence of a spiritual vitality from Irish life, where religion is reduced to habit
and empty ritual.
Similarly, the narrator, with Joyces help of course, suggests the lack of vitality in
Irish culture through all the images of decay, emptiness, and banal dialogue, whether it be
the street sounds made by the drunk men and bargaining women the curses of
labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys the nasal chantings of street-singers (82) or
the conversation the narrator overhears at the bazaar (84), which signifies the trivial, silly,
and specious quality of Araby and of the narrators quest, both of which seemed to
promise so much to the narrator.

21

The intensity of the final sentence in which the narrator realizes this perplexes
students. The narrator experiences an epiphany (a deep insight or a sudden realization),
the truth of which hurts. The blind or dead-end street on which he lived foreshadowed
his trip to Araby, i.e., both the street and the trip to Araby seemed to be leading
somewhere, but in effect lead him back where he began. When he realizes the absurdity
of both Araby and his quest, he must give both up and confront the truth of his existence.
His eyes burn because it hurts to acknowledge that a false vision and hope has dominated
his recent life. Now he must return home dreamless, but enlightened and more mature,
with perhaps a commitment to himself to be more perceptive about life and more truthful
with himself. Symbolically, the lights go out on the bazaar, on Mangans sister, and on
this romantic vision.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Focus on the minor characters (aunt, uncle, Mrs. Mercer) and discuss them as
looking-glass figures, i.e., what do they illustrate about the Irish that Joyce wanted
his countrymen to see?
2. Discuss Mangans sister and the narrators conversation with her on page 83. How do
we know that the adult narrator has a different view of her than the boy whose
feelings he is describing? [To the reader and the adult narrator the girl seems an
ordinary schoolgirl fidgeting with her bracelet, but to the boy she is exotic if not
divine.]
3. Ask students to retell and even fictionalize an experience from their lives that they
found to be enlightening.

Theme (p. 85)

Too often, when students think of theme, they substitute the word message. That is fine
when discussing parables and fables, but dangerous when discussing other fictional
forms. If students hunt for aphoristic meanings in short stories, they close off
possibilities and comfortably neglect other elements of the work. But a theme is much
more than a message a concept that can be difficult to communicate to students. In
short, the theme is the authors world-view, a perception of life or a perception of a facet
of life. The theme is usually implied in fiction. It informs us what the author sees and
thinks when looking at the world, and it can be complex and variable, depending on time,
topic, and setting. Rarely is the theme capable of being reduced to a broad sweeping
statement like Life is hard. The theme emanates from the various elements of a story
and requires close reading and careful consideration and interpretation of the whole text.

A Worn Path Eudora Welty (p. 86)

22

Like the narrator of Araby, Phoenix Jackson is on a quest. Her purpose is to procure
medicine for her sick grandson. In quest literature, heroes fight through monsters,
obstacles, and temptations, drawing inspiration from their sense of purpose. I think it is
important to review the obstacles that Phoenix encounters on her quest. How she
overcomes these various adversities reveals her character. She demonstrates courage,
pride, determination, perseverance, cunning, self-trust, and a sense of humor. As her
name suggests, she seems indomitable. I remind students that to ancient Egyptians,
Phoenix, the miraculous bird, embodied the sun god, who was fabled to live for five
hundred years and then, after consuming itself in fire, would rise newly reborn from its
own ashes. Are there images or scenes in the story which suggest that Phoenix Jackson
continually regenerates herself? How does her connection with the mythical bird
increase our admiration for her? We also need to consider the implications of her family
name. Jackson suggests ordinariness, and precludes people, especially whites, from
seeing her extraordinary qualities. In a sense, she is an ordinary person who has risen
above humankind, and her story is an inspirational one, suggesting the strength of the
human spirit and will.
I ask students to list the images used to describe Phoenix. They find several that
are seemingly contradictory. For instance, how, they wonder, can we reconcile Phoenixs
connection to a tree (87) and later to a baby (88)? Like a tree, Phoenix has endured all
external challenges, but like a baby she is fragile. It seems as though her demise is
imminent; she bends but never breaks.
What is the symbolic significance of her path? Students will respond variously,
but discussed in the context of a quest, they will understand that her journey represents
her lifelong struggle compressed into one day. They will see that despite daily hardship,
Phoenix has lived a successful life. She has managed not only to survive deplorable
conditions (including racism, poverty, and isolation), but also to survive with dignity.
One question that needs to be addressed: Is Phoenix Jacksons grandson alive or
dead? Students need to read the text closely before drawing conclusions. Students can
divide into groups to hunt for evidence. The author was not much help here. Asked this
very question, she said, It doesnt make any difference. I could also say that I did not
make him up in order to let him play a trick on Phoenix. But my best answer would be:
Phoenix is alive (Is Phoenix Jacksons Grandson Really Dead?).
You may also wish to consider Weltys The Origin of a Story in Chapter
Twenty-five. Welty discusses the inspiration for A Worn Path, a solitary old woman
she saw walking one day, and the storys subject: the deep-grained habit of love. This
could affect student responses to questions concerning Phoenix Jacksons grandson.

Irony and Symbol (p. 92)

23

Irony and symbol present difficulties to students. The text clearly defines different kinds
of ironies (verbal, of circumstance, dramatic). Students will understand the definitions,
and provide illustrations from popular films, television, or life experience. However,
they have real trouble detecting ironies within the context of a narrative. We need to be
patient and understand that being sensitive to irony takes time and reading experience.
Remember, at publication, many readers took literally Swifts Modest Proposal.
Students have had more experience with symbols. However, be prepared for two
extremes: there will be students who deny the existence of symbols (How do we know
for sure what the author meant?); and there will be symbol-hunters, who discover
symbols everywhere and in every object. Both students need to be gently brought to a
middle ground. The guideline questions in the text on page 95 will prove helpful.

The Rocking-Horse Winner (p. 96)

Paul, one of three children, was born to a mother obsessed with money. I interpret Paul
as a martyr to his familys greed, as Paul makes it his mission to rid the family,
particularly his mother, of materialistic obsession. Haunted by the whispering houses
demands for more money, Paul rides his rocking horse until the name of a winning
racehorse becomes clear. He hopes to earn enough from gambling to silence the whispers
and satisfy his mothers materialistic craving, so that she will be free emotionally and
psychologically to love her family.
After Paul wins several races, he offers anonymously a gift to his mother, a sum
of money payable over five years. But his mother requests that the complete payment be
made immediately, and a disappointed Paul acquiesces. The whispers, however, become
even more frenzied and frightened Paul terribly (103). To make matters worse, Paul
seems to be losing his powers. Major races have passed without his foreknowledge of the
winner. For the Derby, he rides exhaustedly until the name Malabar comes to him, at
which point he collapses never to recover. The bet, however, is placed and his mother is
left wealthy.
In his innocence, Paul failed to realize that greed can never be fully satiated. He
was surprised and saddened when the one thousand pounds per year gift did not satisfy
his mother or even enliven her spirit. Riding the rocking horse is a suitable symbol for
Pauls predicament. No matter how urgently and energetically he rides, no matter how
much he wins, he will never move forward or progress in alleviating his mothers intense
desire for money. He will always remain in the same place, never reaching his
destination, which is his rightful place in his mothers heart.
Consider the irony in the story beginning with the title is Paul really a winner?
Also, Pauls gift to his mother increases rather than decreases the whispers of the house.
But the most significant use of irony centers on the term luck. Luck is what causes
you to have money, Pauls mother tells him (97). She considers herself as having no
luck, but does she just not realize her advantage and good fortune? Ask students how she
can be considered lucky. You might then ask them to comment on the irony of Pauls last
words, I am lucky (106).
Additional Questions and Topics for Discussion

24

1. What is Pauls mission? Is it accomplished?

To say that Pauls mission is to make his mother wealthy is not completely accurate.
More importantly, he hopes to acquire his mothers love, which has been corrupted by her
materialistic hunger. Students might answer that perhaps his death has opened her heart.
Is there evidence to suggest this claim?
2. Pauls mother carries with her a horrible secret? Identify this secret. Is her concern
and motherly instinct indicative of love?
Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not
feel love, no, not for anybody (paragraph #1). But she appears to be a loving mother,
responsible, caring, and gently. When she is at a party she feels a rush of anxiety about
her boy and calls home. Her instincts are accurate: Paul is in danger, despite what her
governess says. But is this love? guilt? Responses will vary, but I submit that her intense
materialism has numbed, not destroyed, her impulse for love and compassion. She
cannot recognize, much less express, the love she feels for Paul and her family. Her love
needs to be awakened. The point is, of course, debatable. Frequently, students will note
that money and possessions are her highest priorities, not her children. True love, they
continue, could not allow for such displacement.
3. How do you interpret Oscar Cresswells closing lines?
Cresswell cares about his nephew, but he seems incapable of love. His last words lack
heartfelt grief or sympathy. Like an accountant, he adds assets and subtracts liabilities,
and suggests that his sister is not so bad off. He refers to Paul almost flippantly as poor
devil (106).
4. How is the story similar to a fairy tale or a parable?
Like a fairy tale, the story has easily identifiable characters (a loveless, materialistic, but
gentle mother; a son desperate for his mothers love); implausible, non-realistic details
(whispering house, the magic of the rocking horse); even the words once upon a time
seem implied in the storys first sentence. For a more detailed discussion, see W. D.
Snodgrasss A Rocking-Horse: Symbol, Pattern, Way to Live, in the Hudson Review,
Summer 1958.
As a parable, a moral is clear: the love money can annihilate other loves, even the
ones we might consider incorruptible, like a mother for her child. In this story, greed
destroys family life, parent-children relationships, and even life itself.
5. Consider Lawrences statement from The Bright Book of Life: To be alive, to be
man alive, to be whole man alive: that is the point So much of a man walks about
dead and a carcass in the street and house, today: so much of women is merely dead.
Like a pianoforte with half the notes mute. You might discuss this statement in
relation to one of the characters.

25

6. Lawrence, the first major English novelist to come from a working-class background,
had a wide range of friendships with men and women of all classes. What classes are
represented in The Rocking-Horse Winner? Does Lawrences sympathy for
characters seem affected by their class origins?

26

Chapter Four

Writing about Fiction

Instructors will probably not have much time to devote to this chapter. Students,
however, should be encouraged to review it on their own, as it offers them a process for
writing about fiction.
Too often, students are merely passive as readers; they might be simply anxious
to get it over with and move to the next assignment, or they might feel too intimidated
to engage in a dialogue with a printed text. Writing about Fiction directs students to be
not only active, but also aggressive readers, who by writing about a work can make it
more meaningful to them.
This chapter helps students develop the much-needed skill of annotation.
Students are reluctant to annotate or take notes while reading. But the process will prove
helpful, whether they annotate the text with asterisks or circles, or scribble notes in the
margins, in a notebook, on cards, or on loose-leaf. Reading with an idea to annotate
creates active, thoughtful readers in dialogue with the text.
Similarly, after reading, freewriting engages students further in exploring their
reading experience, their interpretations, and their evaluations. After considering their
freewriting, students should review the list of questions on pages 120-22. This review
could lead to further exploration of ideas and the text, and maybe additional freewriting.
Following this, students will be ready for a more formal draft.
I like to emphasize the following points to my students:
1. Do not be obsessed with the clock. Yes, when you annotate, you will spend
more time reading the text. And, to some, freewriting might seem an additional step in
the writing process. However, not only will the result be worth it, but you might not be
spending more time at all. Annotation makes locating textual evidence more efficient,
and freewriting helps with the discovery of ideas, allowing a more complete focus on the
topic, eliminating time some spend daydreaming.
2. Be sure the topic is sufficiently narrow. Not all thirty questions need to be
answered in a five-hundred-word essay. Focus on one element and explore it in detail.

3. Develop a thesis and support it with textual evidence, as the student essay
samples demonstrate. Carol Holt, for instance, argues that in War the railroad car
becomes a battlefield as the characters engage in war both within themselves and with

27

others. Joseph E. Smith focuses on the theme of the mental and physical destructiveness
of war in Guests of the Nation, and Kelly P. Howard demonstrates that How Far She
Went is primarily a story about two women coming to terms with their pasts and their
identities.
The chapter concludes with some excellent suggestions for student essays (122-24).

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Chapter Five

Three Fiction Writers

in Context
This chapter provides the opportunity to study multiple stories by Edgar Allan Poe,
Flannery OConnor, and Sandra Cisneros. In addition to the four stories by each author,
the chapter includes biographical information, passages of non-fiction by these writers,
and critical commentary by scholars. These primary and secondary materials give
beginning literature students a sense of what is out there, i.e., what they will be expected
to draw upon for a research project in literature. They get a taste of literary criticism and
revealing authorial commentary, both of which can enhance their reading experience and
illumine the primary work. Below, I focus on the fiction and refer to the other writings
when applicable.

Edgar Allan Poe

I begin my classes on Poe by asking students what they know of Poes life. They still
think of Poe in much the same way that Rufus Griswold, Poes first biographer, presented
him. They generally think of Poe as an insane paranoiac and alcoholic lecher who
married his prepubescent cousin and lived in some kind of self-created Gothic zone. I
inform them that this legendary portrait, which holds some truth but is greatly
exaggerated, was first advanced by Griswold, an influential, but vindictive critic and
contemporary of Poe who did not get along with the author. But students, at least in part,
derive their conception of Poe from his work, and confuse him with the speakers of his
poems and narrators of his stories. More than with just about any other author, I find it
necessary to remind them that the I of a poem and story should not be confused with
the author. As far we know, Poe did not sleep near anyones tomb nor did he brag about
chaining a rival wine connoisseur to a basement wall.
I then review Poes life, hoping to put to rest the stuff of legend, so we can focus
on the literature. I use the introduction in the text and maybe add a comment here or
there. For instance, I discuss the death of several young women close to him: his mother
Eliza, age twenty-four at death, when he was not quite three; Jane Stanard, age thirty-one,
a friends mother who was kind and motherly to a young Poe; his foster mother, Fanny
Allen, age forty-four, was always tender toward Poe and concerned for his welfare; and
the death of his wife Virginia Clemm from tuberculosis when she was twenty-five and he
29

thirty-seven. Poes father abandoned his wife and children before Poes second birthday,
and Poes relationship with his wealthy foster father was strained even in the best of
times. After his wifes death and his remarriage, John Allan disinherited Poe.
I also mention Poes marriage at age twenty-six to his thirteen-year-old cousin.
First-cousin marriages were not uncommon at the time, but Virginia was young by just
about anyones standards. The marriage has been at least partially interpreted as
stemming from Poes desire for a family and domestic stability see Kenneth
Silvermans biography of Poe, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful Never-ending Remembrance,
page 107. Virginias mother lived with them and Poe referred to his wife frequently as
Sis or Sissy. Maria Clemm, Virginias mother, always spoke highly of Poe as an
individual and as a husband. She was angry and distraught over Griswolds biography.
I discuss Poes drinking which could be excessive, but even small amounts of
alcohol proved difficult for him. In temperament Poe could be irascible and volatile,
often with little or no provocation. He could be a vitriolic critic. For instance, he called
Washington Irving much over-rated and, without justification, he accused Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism. But above all, I stress that Poe was an
extraordinary creative and critical voice. His work as an editor dramatically increased
circulation at several journals and magazines, yet he was unable to sustain his own
journal, a lifelong dream. His was a short, troubled life. His adult years were spent
mostly in poverty and sometimes on the brink of starvation. Overworked,
undernourished, and frequently fatigued, he was often in despair which led on occasion to
a mental breakdown. His life, however, was incredibly productive and influential. With
regard to fiction, for instance, he formalized the modern short story; he contributed to the
development of detective fiction and science fiction, and, perhaps above all, he developed
a new fiction of psychological depth and complexity.
In the pages that follow, rather than answer the questions in the text, I offer my
approaches and emphases to the Poe stories. I hope they prove helpful.

The Black Cat (p. 131)

The central irony of The Black Cat concerns the narrator and his relationships. The
black cat was the most beloved of his many pets, and yet he is the one the narrator abuses
and eventually kills. Similarly, the irony extends to his wife, whom he loved and praised
as uncomplaining and the most patient of sufferers (135), but whom he also murders.
The irony deepens when we see his apparent lack of remorse. After the death of his wife
and the disappearance of the second black cat, he felt a blissful sense of relief. Indeed,
he soundly and tranquilly slept (136).
The narrators boastfulness concerning his lack of guilt might also be said to be
ironic. He might be unaware of the guilt forces operating within him, but the careful
reader might note his guilt-ridden visions. Plutos imprint on the wall (133), the gallowsshaped splotch of white on the second cat (135), and the hellish shriek of the walled cat
(137). It is hard to imagine that another witness would have defined these sights and
sounds the same way.

30

The psychological depth of the story is largely achieved through symbolism. The
cat and the narrators wife become symbols, manifestations of the long-buried inner
conflict of the narrator that alcohol has brought to the surface. The cat and wife represent
inner forces, good and evil, tugging for control of the narrator. The cat, for the narrator,
represents evil (a witch is disguise, 132), and the wife represents good. What the narrator
attempts to do is silence or, once again, repress the conflicting forces; thus he turns to
murder and, significantly, walls up his victim. He then sleeps soundly for a few days
until guilt and his warring internal voices resurface.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Discuss Poes spirit of Perverseness (133). How plausible is this theory? Poe
elaborates on his theory in The Imp of the Perverse, a monologue spoken by a
condemned prisoner from his jail cell, an excerpt of which appears on page 170. The
prisoner believes people act in self-destructive ways for the reason that we should
not. Drawing from their own experiences or a news story they might have heard or
read, ask students to write a paper illustrating this concept.
2. Consider Christopher Benfeys On The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart (173)
and his comment that Poes murderers are not so much obsessive killers as obsessive
talkers. Consider too that the narrators claim to sanity is a response to the fear of
being cut off from people.
3. In Poe, eyes and teeth can be threatening and tormenting to the insecure, as they
suggest power to consume. Discuss this statement with regard to The Black Cat
and perhaps another story students might have read, like The Tell-Tale Heart or
The Pit and the Pendulum.
4. Consider the narrative voice in The Black Cat and Gilmans The Yellow
Wallpaper. How reliable are they?

The Cask of Amontillado (p. 138)

On one level, The Cask of Amontillado is a revenge tale although the reason for
Montresors vengeance is unclear. He simply states that he has borne a thousand
injuries of Fortunato and now those injuries must be redressed with impunity. I start
with a comparison of the two characters.
What becomes clear is that while the characters share certain qualities (wine
connnoisseurship, vanity, social class), they are directly opposite in other features. For
instance, Fortunato is drunk and fun-loving, dressed in motley, a mason in the fraternal
society, rich, respected, admired, beloved happy (140), while Montresor is sober and
serious, dressed in black, a bricklaying mason, and no longer respected and happy.
From this point, we explore the concept of the double or doppelgnger, which I define as
a characters duplication, generally self-duplication, into antithetical personalities. This
dividing of the self into two objectifies internal struggle. Probably the most familiar

31

double in literature is Dr. Jekyll (good) and Mr. Hyde (evil). We discuss whether or not
Fortunato is a self-duplication. We discuss the image of the descent into the wine vaults
and catacombs as emblematic of a descent into the deepest recesses of the psyche.
Consider too the image of walling up of Fortunato and those forces in Montresors heart
that he tries to repress. Is this a story in which the evil within a person triumphs over the
good within him? The action of constructing or reconstructing walls in Poe can be read
generally as a trope for characters trying to seal off or repress parts of themselves.
Consider too the bizarre passage concerning the scream. Montresor is at first confused
over the screams why? In a moment of lucidity does he realize that there is no chained
victim? But then he reassure[s] himself and responds with yells which surpass
Fortunatos in volume and in strength (142). Are these the actions of a sane man?
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Consider David S. Reynoldss On The Cask of Amontillado. Does Reynolds
provide information or insight that could also be used in support of the concept of the
double in the story?
2. Consider Reynolds statement that there is absolutely no excess in the story. Do
you agree? How is what Reynolds says apparently consistent with what Poe was
striving for? Read Poes The Short Story (169) before answering.

The Fall of the House of Usher (p. 143)

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poes greatest and most complex tales. Our
discussion breaks down as follows, but rarely if ever does it ever proceed so neatly. For
instance, sometimes I discuss the interpretation of the narrator as dreamer at the end of
the story. There is, in general, a lot of crisscrossing in the execution of this outline.

I.

Plot

Parts of this plot will need to be clarified especially that anomalous species of terror
to which Roderick says he feels a bounded slave (147). Soon into our discussion I
explain to many who have missed it that his terror is incest. I read the following passages
for clarification: last paragraph on page 144 which discusses the Usher line of descent;
the last paragraph on page 146 with its reference to a constitutional and a family evil;
paragraph #3, page 147 which references a force conveyed in terms too shadowy
here to be re-stated; paragraph #4, page 151 which mentions that sympathies of a
scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them; and, of course, the ending
of the story in which Roderick falls a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.

II.

The Narrator

There are several ways to interpret the narrator:

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A. As a sane individual and reliable narrator who comes to a friends aid in the time of
need. However, he finds himself in a very complex situation, and he is well in over
his head.
B. As a buffoon and an opium user who gets absorbed into the bizarre events of the
house. Usher is drawn in by Roderick and accepts all his friends explanations, which
along with opium (several references to opium use appear in the story) induces his
own hallucinations. The narrator in this view is, of course, unreliable.
C. A dreamer. The story is a retelling of a dream of the narrator. He fractures himself
into two parts, Roderick and Madeline, and is forced to confront his own repressed
incestuous desires. He awakes as his nightmare reaches its climax and his dream and
house collapse. Consider in this interpretation the following: references to dreams
( what must have been a dream 145, I listened as if in a dream 147) and the
narrators statement that he had been accustomed from my infancy to the armorial
trophies in the Usher mansion (145).

III.

Roderick and Madeline

A. Roderick as artist and intellectual who escapes his passions and incestuous impulses
through various activities. However, he cannot repress his urgings and so he attempts
to seal off the anxiety they cause him when he buries Madeline.
B. Madeline as the impulsive, sensual figure who Roderick tries to escape. She can be
seen as Louise Kaplan writes, as lewd of sexual desire and the wild intoxications
of the Heart (On The Fall of the House of Usher, 174).
C. The two as doubles (see above discussion of The Cask of Amontillado) with
Roderick attempting to destroy the part of himself that torments him.
D. During this part of your discussion, consider various aspects of Kaplans insightful
commentary beginning on page 174.

IV.

Miscellany

A. The symbolism of the Usher mansion. Its decay and collapse reflects that of the
Usher family.
B. The Haunted Palace can be interpreted as a chronicle of the familys fall from grace
and happiness into corruption and horror. (See Kaplans alternative reading of the
poem on page 174).

33

C. Consider Rodericks painting of the interior of a vault and tunnel (148). It can be
seen as emblematic of Rodericks descent into himself, while also reflective of a story
that illuminates the caverns within either Rodericks or the narrators.
D. Consider how Poe establishes the atmosphere of gloom in the opening lines.

The Purloined Letter (p. 156)

Poe originated detective fiction with his three tales of ratiocination: The Mystery of
Marie Roget, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Purloined Letter. Through
Auguste Dupin, who influenced Conan Doyles creation of Sherlock Holmes, Poe
demonstrates the too rarely combined but powerful fusion of the intellect and the
imagination.
I first focus on the plot, clarifying any confusion. I ask students if they found the
plot plausible. Is it conceivable that two detailed searches of Minister Ds residence
would not produce the letter, which was left out in the open? I ask students to speculate
on the contents of the letter. Most agree that it was some kind of note involving the royal
woman and a secret lover. As Dupin points out, Minister D has power over the woman as
long as he possesses the letter.
We then discuss the Prefect of Police. The Prefect is of ordinary intelligence and
a competent law officer at best. His intelligence pales next to Dupin. The Prefects vanity
does not allow him to acknowledge that he needs Dupins help. He likes to think of
himself as Dupins equal, and he is so embarrassed that Dupin solves the case that he will
not hear the explanation. The limited imagination of the Prefect, who mocks poetry,
keeps him from being a great investigator. Dupin enjoys ridiculing him and besting him
at his own profession.
We also consider Dupin as a character and his police methods. Dupin dwells in
Paris, the center of the Enlightenment, and solves mysteries with thought, logic, and
imagination, and only limited on-scene investigation. From a distinguished old family
now in decline, he is the detached genius who enjoys the mental exercises of crime
solving. He has several motives for taking on this case: pleasure, profit, revenge on
Minister D, politics, and the opportunity for showing up the Prefect.
We consider the relationship of the narrator with Dupin. Dupin is the genius in
the partnership and the narrator is more ordinary, modest, and admiring. Their
relationship resembles many previous literary pairs (Don Quixote/Sancho Panza, Dr.
Johnson/Boswell), and influences Doyles creation of Holmes/Watson.
We then consider the relationship between Dupin and Minister D, the most
interesting in the story. They are long-time rivals and competitors, fairly evenly matched.
Both are men of genius, who demonstrate great intellectual and imaginative powers.
They share many qualities: they are non-conformists; they like the dark; they often
appear inactive, even lazy, but are possessed with tremendous energy; they write poetry,
and more. As Dupins alternate ego, Minister D arouses and challenges Dupin so that the
detective becomes fully engaged in the case. Dupin no doubt recognizes proclivities in
himself, held in check, that he loathes in Minister D thus his strong reaction:
monstrum horrendum, an unprincipled man of genius (167).

34

Consider the structure of the tale and Poes comments on the single effect (169).
Do parts of this story seem digressive? Consider the passage concerning the schoolboy
and the marbles (162). Does it seem plausible that the boy won all the marbles? How
would Poe argue that this is an essential part of the tale? As part of this discussion, you
can also include the game of puzzles played on a map (165).
I pull the discussion together reminding students of the reason dtre of these
tales, namely, to demonstrate the powerful combination of the imagination and the
intellect. Too often, the tale implies, we neglect the development and use of the
imagination for that solely of the intellect.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Why does Daniel Hoffman in his On The Purloined Letter say that the story is a
boys tale par excellence? (172)
2. Dupin disagrees that mathematical reason is reason par excellence (164). Why?
According to Dupin, what is so potent about the combination of poetry and
mathematics?
Connecting the Stories Questions for Discussion or Assignment
1. Consider the image of burying people behind walls in The Black Cat, The Cask of
Amontillado, and The Fall of the House of Usher. How is the use of this action
and trope similar and different in those stories?
2. Consider the narrative voices in Poes stories. How reliable are they?
3. Compare the stories for how they illustrate Poes theory concerning the short story as
stated in the excerpt from his review of Hawthorne on page 169.
4. Compare for similarities and differences Auguste Dupin with Roderick Usher. Is
Dupin a more functional kind of Usher?
5. How can the description of Rodericks painting on page 148 serve as a trope for one
of Poes primary concerns throughout his fiction? (I would respond by saying that
Poe frequently concerns his stories with the illumination of the deep, dark recesses of
the psyche.)
6. Discuss the female characters in The Fall of the House of Usher and The Black
Cat. Are they more functional rather than multi-dimensional characters?

Flannery OConnor
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The introduction to Flannery OConnor in the text provides an excellent starting point for
your discussion of OConnor. DiYanni emphasizes the most important dimensions of her
life and work: namely, her Southernness and her Catholicity. He also discusses other
very important aspects of her work, including the influence of the southern gothic
tradition, her frequently grotesque characterizations, and her sense of irony.
Whenever teaching OConnor, I begin by quoting Dorothy Walters from her book
Flannery OConnor: [For OConnors characters], the path to salvation is never easy;
the journey is marked by violence, suffering, often acute disaster. To arouse the
recipients of grace, divinity often resorts to drastic modes of awakening. A kind of
redemption through catastrophe. I write on the board those final words: redemption
through catastrophe. After a brief discussion of the quotation, we turn to our first story.
Rather than respond to the questions following the stories in the text, I present instead a
brief discussion of each of the OConnor stories and some of the topics and questions that
my students and I focus on.

Good Country People (p. 181)

Considering the concept of redemption through catastrophe, I ask students, Why is
Joy-Hulga in need of redemption? That is, What is she like before her encounter with
Manley Pointer? Students will recognize her arrogance and her spiteful actions directed
at her mother: her stomping of her wooden leg, her change of name, her unattractive
clothing, and more. She goes out of her way to appear ugly; her actions might be more
understandable if she were a teenager, but she is thirty-two with a Ph.D. in philosophy.
She is haughty, childish, ridiculous, and pathetic all at once. Her lack of introspection or
self-examination would make regeneration seemingly impossible. As OConnors said,
there is a wooden part of her soul that corresponds to her wooden leg (qtd. in text,
226).
But as Walters writes, divinity often resorts to drastic modes of awakening.
Enter the grotesque Manly Pointer, who thinks he proclaims falsely, I want to devote my
life to Chrustian service (186). Ironically, he is very much an agent of God, although an
unwitting one.
For most beginning literature students, the OConnor stories in this text will mark
their first experience with her work. They often miss the transformative action of the
stories and see stories like Good Country People as simply a low joke, to quote
OConnor (226). I think it is important to chart Joy-Hulgas movement toward her
redemption, which is not complete by storys end, but certainly begun. The following
passages are crucial for understanding her transformation:
She had never been kissed before and she was pleased to discover that it
was an unexceptional experience and all a matter of the minds control
(190). [Joy-Hulga is firmly in control, somewhat aloof, superior, and
prepared to enlighten Manly.]

36

In my economy, she said, Im saved and you are damned but I told you
I didnt believe in God (190). [Joy-Hulga is leading him, significantly,
to the barn when she says this. She is confident and arrogant. I ask
students to consider the word economy what does it suggest? Why does
she use it?]
I dont have illusions. Im one of those people who see through to
nothing You poor baby We are all damned but some of us have
taken off our blindfolds and see that theres nothing to see. Its a kind of
salvation (191). [Her most confident moment with Manly; she tries to
impress him with her verbal dexterity by repeating see.]
She was thinking that she would run away with him and that every night
he would take the leg off and every morning put it back on again (192).
[Joy-Hulgas loss of control begins when Manly coaxes her into removing
her artificial leg, which suggests his taking control of her soul remember
OConnors quotation cited above. Her reaction to seeing him with her leg
reveals a lonely, romantic heart, anxious for love.]
Wait, he said. He leaned the other way and pulled the valise toward him
and opened it (193). [Joy-Hulga is surprised and frightened by the
contents. She is unsure with whom she is dealing. She seeks comfort in
one of her mothers clichs.] Arent you arent you just good country
people?
She rallies herself to fight for her leg, but he push[es] her down easily
and taunts her with her own words: You just a while ago said you didnt
believe in nothing (193). [She has lost control and turns purple, a color
associated with Easter.]
When she thinks she mocks his Christianity, Manly responds in a lofty
indignant tone, which might remind her of herself: I hope you dont
think that I believe in that crap! You aint so smart. I been believing
in nothing ever since I was born (193). [Clearly stung, Joy-Hulga is
humiliated and silenced.]
Manly brings enlightenment to Joy-Hulga, who watches him walk away seemingly on
water, almost like Christ though he is hardly a Christ figure. Through Manly, JoyHulga has come to see herself; such self-recognition is the first step toward salvation.

Additional Topics for Discussion

37

1. What other characters in the story, besides Joy-Hulga, seem most in need of
enlightenment?
Responses will vary. But like her daughter, Mrs. Hopewell has a simplistic response
to life. Whereas Joy-Hulga relies on philosophical clichs, Mrs. Hopewell responds
to lifes complexities with the most simplistic aphorisms. She, like her daughter, does
not look deeply into troubles. For instance, she believes there is nothing wrong with
her daughters appearance that a pleasant expression wouldnt help. Ask students
to compile her clichs and tell why they are inadequate responses to the situation.
2. The story begins with a discussion of Mrs. Freemans eyes. Why? In what way does
Mrs. Freeman see more clearly than either Joy-Hulga or Mrs. Hopewell? Does Mrs.
Freeman misrepresent herself in any way? Why?
Mrs. Freeman is more perceptive than anyone else in the story. She fully understands
Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter see page 183, penultimate paragraph. She
manipulates Mrs. Hopewell by playing the role of good country people, i. e., she
appears innocent, kind, compassionate, honest, simple, and practical. She irritates
Joy-Hulga by subtly mocking Joy-Hulgas smugness, calling her Hulga and
employing a slight shift in her voice [to suggest] they had a secret together
(188). She manipulates Mrs. Hopewell to keep her husbands job she may have
been responsible for his losing his previous one (182), and harasses Joy-Hulga to give
herself a sense of dignity as well as to deflate Joy-Hulgas ego.
3. Discuss the significance of the characters names see question #3, page 194 in text.
Joy-Hulga reveals something about mother and daughter. Mrs. Hopewell chose Joy
perhaps believing this would help her daughter live a joyful life, a gesture consistent
with her reliance on clichs. Hulga, a near acrostic for ugly, reflects the daughters
superficial rebelliousness and spitefulness. She considers her change of name her
highest creative act (183). Mrs. Hopewell is fitting for one who finds explanation
and comfort in clichs, who believes that if people looked on the bright side of
things they would be beautiful. She seems to believe that if you hope for the best, it
will happen. Manly Pointer suggests a pointing out of the truth and sexuality, which
he uses to make Joy-Hulga vulnerable. Mrs. Freeman might be freer than the others
in that she is more in control of her life, better able to perceive lifes complexities and
more adaptable to them for survival.
4. Discuss the irony of the title and other ironies in the story.
a. When we consider the traits we generally associate with good country people
(see response to #2 above), we are surprised that no truly good country people
appear in this story.
b. Pointers statement: I want to devote my life to Chrustian service (186), which
he does here, although his service is unintended and he thinks he is lying.

38

c. Joy-Hulga, who believes she is a true genius (189), imagined how she would
reach to the depths of the Bible salesmans understanding to transform him. She,
of course, will be transformed.
d. Pointer on bringing his Bibles on their date: You can never tell when youll need
the word of God, Hulga (190).
e. Unaware of what is really happening to her, Hulga thinks of a long-term
relationship with Pointer: It was like losing her own life and finding it again,
miraculously, in his (192). You may need to focus on the importance of
miraculously; students could miss this one.
f. Mrs. Hopewell says of Pointer, He was so simple but I guess the world would
be better off if we were all that simple. Mrs. Freeman gives a revealing
response, the full importance of which Mrs. Hopewell no doubt misses: Some
cant be that simple I know I never could (194).
5. What is the significance of the evil-smelling onion that Mrs. Freeman lifts from the
ground at storys conclusion?
I take it as a symbol of the sinfulness lodged within all the characters that needs to be
rooted out. But why an onion and not a turnip or potato? Perhaps it is significant that
an onion has layers that need to be peeled in a process that produces tears and
discomfort.
6. Consider Kathleen Feeleys commentary on page 228 on Good Country People in
which she states that comic perversion is a key concept in the story.
7. Consider OConnors revealing commentary on page 226 in which she discusses the
writing and evolution of the plot of Good Country People.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find (p. 195)

As with Good Country People, A Good Man Is Hard to Find is about a characters
redemption through catastrophe. Here, the grandmother, a silly and annoying woman,
finds salvation in the moment just before death. Again, beginning literature students will
not likely grasp the action of grace operating on the grandmothers soul. I find it
important to read several passages beginning near the middle of page 201 when she tries
to flatter the Misfit into releasing the family. Soon the flattery turns sincere as she seems
to recognize some goodness in him. On page 202, she evokes the power of prayer and
genuinely seems to want to help him, although her son is already dead: If you would
pray Jesus would help you (203).
Flattery, selfishness, desperation, and sincerity all converge near the top of page
204 when she fights for her own life, the only family survivor at this point: Jesus

39

youve got good blood! I know you wouldnt shoot a lady! I know you come from nice
people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. Ill give you all the money Ive got!
Confusion and doubt follow for the grandmother before the power of grace takes full
effect: the grandmothers head cleared for an instant. She saw the mans face
twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, Why youre one
of my babies. Youre one of my children! She reached out and touched him on the
shoulder (204). She reaches out with compassion, sympathy, and unselfishness.
OConnor comments on this scene are illuminating: Its the moment of grace for
her anyway a silly old woman but it leads him to shoot her. The moment of grace
excites the devil to frenzy (qtd. in James Grimshaw, The Flannery OConnor
Companion, 40). The grandmother dies redeemed, a martyr, as emphasized by her
crossed legs and her smiling toward heaven (204).
The grandmothers efforts to save the Misfit do not seem to have been in vain.
OConnor said the grandmothers gesture, like the mustard seed, will grow to be a crowfilled tree in the Misfits heart and redeem him yet. The process seems to have begun.
On page 204, the Misfit declares, No pleasure but meanness, but after the murder, he
says, Its no real pleasure in life. A subtle but significant movement.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Discuss the storys structure. How does the tone change with the Misfits arrival?
Does the tonal shift make for an imbalanced, perhaps confused story?
Before the Misfits arrival, humor controls the tone. However, under the often
satirical humor, violent and sinister undertones foreshadow impending tragedy
undertones like the allusions to the Misfit, the grandmothers fantasy about death in a
car accident, the cats possibly asphyxiating himself, a roadside family burial ground
with five or six graves, the childrens violent play, passing the town of Toomsboro,
and the descending of the Misfits hearse-like automobile. There is humor in the
second part of the story (the Misfits excessive politeness, for instance), but it slides
under the violence, exchanging places in a sense. Of course, the humor makes the
tragedy all the more shocking, which is part of the storys effectiveness. If the story
is imbalanced or confused it is because that is how OConnor sees the world, a place
where the most violent tragedies can occur at any time, even on the least likeliest of
days.
In your discussion, refer to OConnors letter of March 28, 1961 on page 225 and
Frederick Asalss commentary on page 227.
2. Describe the family. Can they be considered representative of the American suburban
family?
Responses will vary, but the familys lack of spirituality should be discussed. You
can also use this as an opportunity to discuss the often bleak depiction of the family in
serious American literature which contrasts with the presentation of the family in
popular literature and media like television although the situation has changed
somewhat over the years.

40

3. Discuss the significance of the storys title.

The title is disarming. Based on the title, ask students what kind of a story they
expected. The title is somewhat elusive, but I think it needs to be discussed in
relation to Christ, as Christian cultures paradigm of a good man. There may be many
professed Christians, but few Christ-like individuals.
4. Compare Manly Pointer and the Misfit. Are they agents of God or the Devil? Is there
any indication of their redemption?
Responses will vary.
5. Consider OConnors humorous comment on the Misfits hat in a letter to Dr. T. R.
Spivey on page 225.

Everything That Rises Must Converge (p. 205)

Julian, the central consciousness in Everything That Rises Must Converge, is very
similar to Joy-Hulga in Good Country People. Like her, he has gone to college and
returns home believing himself intellectually and morally superior to his mother and
those in his community. Only in the mental bubble of his mind can he be free of the
general idiocy of his fellows (209).
Julian is anxious to teach his mother a lesson: the old world is gone. The old
manners are obsolete and your graciousness is not worth a damn You arent who you
think you are (214). Why such hostility towards his mother? Is he really so concerned
with racial equality and creating a new South? Not really. Julian is bitter that his
mothers grand heritage and estate have fallen and he has nothing on which to lay claim.
He feels cheated. He will never have an opportunity to occupy the family mansion,
which appeared in his dreams regularly he, not she could have appreciated it
(207). When he delivers the angry moralistic tirade quoted above, we read that he
thought bitterly of the house that had been lost for him. The house, for him, represents
the privileged antebellum way of life that he has been denied. He is therefore, spiteful
towards his mother for not managing her estate more efficiently; his revenge is to reject
all her values.
With typical OConnor irony, what Julian says his mother must learn, he himself
must learn. His treatment of African-Americans is as condescending as his mothers.
After the white woman changes her seat on the bus, he wishes to convey his sympathy
to the black man (210), who seemed oblivious to the action; Julian even disturbs him for
a match an action which, because Julian did not have a cigarette, seemed to bother the
man more than the womans changing seats. In addition, Julian wants to socialize with
African-Americans only to antagonize his mother. He even fantasizes about taking home
his black fiancee to meet his mother. But he is selective in choosing those with whom he
will converse: some distinguished Negro professor or lawyer (211). One day he was
disappointed to find himself talking to a distinguished-looking dark brown man who

41

turned out to be an undertaker (211). Julian, despite his apparent concern for AfricanAmericans, is an elitist, more of a Godhigh than he would admit.
The most telling and chilling passage about Julian comes at the end. His dying
mother looks up: The other [eye] remained fixed on him, raked his face again, found
nothing and closed (215). Julian, even to his mother, is superficial and morally empty.
Of course, his mothers death will be the catastrophe to shock him into recognition and
then renewal. He will enter the world of guilt and sorrow (215), from which he can
emerge cleansed, more genuinely compassionate, and, in short, a truly better person.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Julians mother is a racist and has difficulty accepting a changing South. But are we
sympathetic to her at all?
Responses will vary. While she is a racist and lives with imagined dignity, there is
something of the comical, the absurd about her. She possesses an innocence, a
childishness, that makes her not very threatening. Her eyes are said to be as
innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten
(206). She is also likened to a particularly obnoxious child (211) and when she sits
on the bus her feet dangled like a childs as they failed to reach the floor (211).
2. Julian believes that he will never be wealthy or conventionally successful. He
realized he was too intelligent to be a success (209). What does Julian mean?
Responses will vary. But he obviously believes himself superior to his fellow citizens
and perhaps provides himself with an excuse for failure.
3. Explain the significance of the title.
See Dorothy Tuck McFarlands comments in the text on page 229. Julians mother
makes a statement to which the title alludes: They should rise, yes, but on their side
of the fence (207). I discuss the title in the context of separate but equal. A lively
discussion could follow.
4. In light of the title, consider the African-American woman who boards the bus with
the same hat as Julians mother and the convergence as the woman strikes Julians
mother. Is the incident in some way symptomatic of a culture in transition?
It could be emblematic of the difficulties and stress imposed on people by a changing
society in which people are insensitive to or unfamiliar with shifting codes of
conduct. In the new South, blacks will no longer accept condescending attitudes and
will be aggressive in expressing their disapproval.
5. Show the class a reproduction of Andrea Mantegnas St. Sebastian (c. 1455-60).
Read OConnors description of Julian who stands pinned to the door frame, waiting
[for his mother] like Saint Sebastian for the arrows to begin piercing him (205).

42

The students will grasp Julians foolish self-pity, have a better understanding of
OConnors fictional debt to Catholicism, and her sense of humor, which is frequently
dark. I sometimes begin my discussion of this story by looking at the painting. It can
get a less verbal class off and running.

The Life You Save May Be Your Own (p. 216)

The Life You Save May Be Your Own is a story about two individuals who reject
salvation. I start my discussion with the image of the sun in the opening paragraph.
Throughout her fiction, OConnor offers very dramatic images of the sun. Often the sun
suggests Christ and the possibility of salvation, which can descend into a characters soul
like a silver bullet (see Mrs. May in Greenleaf). In The Life You Saved, however,
both Mrs. Lucynell Crater and Tom Shiftlet reject its redemptive powers in favor of
greed, convenience, and selfishness.
In the opening paragraph, Mrs. Crater, who will remain hollow inside, leans
forward shading her eyes from the piercing sunset. Tom, however, seems anxious for
salvation, whether or not he can understand or articulate the urge. He has, for instance,
turned toward the sun (216) and with raised arms forms a crooked cross against the
sky (217). Tom has reached a point where he is dissatisfied with himself and the world.
He had a look of composed dissatisfaction as if he understood life thoroughly (216),
and he concludes from his experiences and wanderings that the world is almost rotten
(217). But as much as Tom is drawn toward the sun he wishes he could see the sun go
down every evening (217, 218) he cannot absorb its healing and redemptive powers.
He may have an awakened moral intelligence (219) and he may be fascinated by the
mystery of flame and the human heart (217), but, as his dismemberment suggests, he is
crippled in his movement to redemption.
Mrs. Crater is oblivious to her own need of salvation. Not only does she shield
her eyes from the sun, but also, for her, the three mountains were black against the dark
sky (219), an image of Calvarys three crosses. She, like many OConnor figures, lives
an unexamined life and appears content with herself. She is self-righteous, duplicitous,
and greedy. Ravenous for a son-in-law (219), she wants a man around to take care of
the house. After Tom has been in residence for a week, the house shows noticeable
improvement, so Mrs. Crater manipulates, not so subtly, the marriage of her daughter and
Tom. Mrs. Crater tells the handyman/tramp that she has no money to pay him. But Tom
surmises, accurately no doubt, that she has some hidden money (221). Certainly, she
produces money quickly for a fan belt, a wedding, and what she thinks will be a
honeymoon.
While both Mrs. Crater and Tom reject the symbolic image of the sun, they also
discard a closer instrument of God in Mrs. Craters deaf and retarded daughter. Lucynell
the daughter may be oblivious to the sun, but only because she seems to have an inner
awareness the others dont recognize. She is described as an angel of Gawd (222) and
her eyes are as blue as a peacocks neck in OConnor peacocks, which the author
raised, are often images of hope and redemption. Both Mrs. Crater and Tom seem to
instinctively recognize that they have lost something good when they separate themselves

43

from her. Mrs. Crater cries at her departure (221) and Tom seems angry with himself and
recalls that other angel of God in his life, his mother (223). Just as the mother failed to
heed the sun and the mountains, both of which she felt ownership over (217, 219), she
also ignores the redemptive agency of her daughter, another kind of possession to her.
At the end, there may be some hope for Tom, however. While he has abandoned
the angel of Gawd (222) in a diner with a hellish name, The Hot Spot, and although
he recommences his run from salvation in a car (in Wise Blood a car is used as well to
escape inner commands for spiritual renewal), he perceives the wrath of God in the
thunder and rain. Consider the image of the cloud covering the sun and the boys
exclamation: You go to the devil (223). Then Tom prayed: Oh Lord! Break
forth and wash the slime from this earth! (223). As if in response, God sends the rain, an
image of cleansing which holds out the possibility of redemption, still, for Tom and the
others.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Compare Tom Shiftlet with Manley Pointer in Good Country People. Often in
OConnor, disruptive forces like Shiftlet and Pointer paradoxically jolt their victims
to spiritual renewal. Do both these characters serve this function?
2. Review Mrs. Craters strategy to marry her daughter to Tom. Where do you first
become aware of it? Does she ever seem to press Tom in desperation?
Connecting the Stories Questions for Discussion or Assignment
1. The South is the setting for all these stories. What portrait of the South emerges?
Direct students to consider the following: minor characters (Carramae and Gynese,
Red Sammy and his wife, the black woman on the bus, the boy in the diner); the
South in transition; the myth of the Southern genteel lady (Grandma Bailey, Mrs.
Hopewell, Julians mother) as contrasted with the suburban housewife (Mrs. Bailey)
or Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Crater.
2. In each story, a character laments the condition of the contemporary world:
Why, I think there arent enough good country people in the world! [Mrs.
Hopewell] said, stirred. I think thats whats wrong with it! (186)
Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave
your screen door unlatched. Not no more. (Red Sammy, 198)
With the world in the mess its in, [Julians mother] said, its a wonder we can
enjoy anything. I tell you, the bottom rail is on the top. (207)
Nothing is like is used to be, lady [Tom Shiftlet] said. The world is almost
rotten. (217)

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The latest of these stories was written in 1955. Do these quotations tell us more about the
historical era or the characters who make the statements? Why would they be so cynical?
3. OConnor once told a student to forget about the enlightenment in her stories and
just enjoy them (178). Enlightenment aside, what makes OConnors fiction such
an enjoyable reading experience?
Direct students to consider the element of surprise, an element in art we perhaps do
not consider sufficiently. They might also discuss the juxtaposition of the ordinary
with the extraordinary, or the mundane with the bizarre.
4. OConnor does not spend much time on exposition. We know very little about her
characters pasts. Ask students to choose a character and create a history that would
be consistent with the characterization in the story.
5. Many of OConnors characters seem skilled at deception, including self-deception.
Ask students to write an essay about an OConnor-like character they have
encountered.

Sandra Cisneros
The introduction in the text provides a useful starting point for your discussion of Sandra
Cisneros. After a brief biography, DiYanni discusses Cisneros and the question of culture
and identity, Cisneros as a southwestern American writer, and Cisneros as a feminist.
The four stories in the text are from Woman Hollering Creek, a collection that
focuses primarily on the roles of women in Mexican and Mexican-American cultures.
Cisneros tells her stories through a variety of voices, mostly women: young girls, an
abandoned and pregnant teen, an abused wife, a religious zealot, a passionate mistress, a
dreamer, and several betrayed and bitter women. Cisneross women are survivors who
have been strengthened by trying situations with individual men or by battling the
dictates of a patriarchal culture. Cisneross stories may be about suffering and anger, but
they are more importantly about dignity regained and triumph.

Eleven (p. 233)

Possible Responses to Questions page 235

45

1. Responses will vary.

2. Most students will sympathize with the narrator. They will understand her feelings of
humiliation, perhaps intensified because it is her eleventh birthday, a supposedly
festive day. They will most likely be able to identify with her fear, silence, and
embarrassment. They will understand her feelings of repulsion at having to wear the
sweater and her attempt to hold back the inevitable tears. Perhaps her efforts to
distance herself from the present will be familiar: the narrator tries to think of the
forthcoming birthday celebration in her home; she wishes that she were one hundred
and two years old, and she desires to be a runaway balloon.
3 & 4. The narrator is suggesting that we never really grow completely out of an age.
We take pieces of those ages with us, and at certain moments those ages rise to the
surface see paragraph #2. A birthday may be a milestone, but it does not signify the
abrupt change that we sometimes think it might or should.
The narrator dramatizes this point in the episode that she relates to us. Although
she has just turned eleven, she feels several younger ages in this story.
5. The narrator struggles to retain her dignity, but her struggle does not permit her to
undermine her respect for authority and her elders. Although the narrator knows the
sweater is not hers, she cannot contest the teacher: Because shes older and the
teacher, shes right and Im not (233). In the context of Woman Hollering Creek, the
story suggests that this kind of unquestioning respect, which is not mutual, has
resulted in lowering the self-esteem of Mexican-American women.
6. The child is timid, respectful, and innocent; she tries hard to please the adult and do
the right thing. The adult is brutally insensitive and too vain to apologize to the child.
7. The narrators of Eleven and A & P are struggling to define themselves. Both
clash with adult worlds in their stories. However, the narrator of A & P is older and
more self-assured; although he is lower-middle class, there are more opportunities
available to him because he is a white male. It is easier for him to be a rebel than it is
for the narrator of Eleven.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How important is it that the students all have Hispanic surnames while the teacher is
named Mrs. Price? What seems to be the implication?
2. Cisneros considered her own grammar school education to be rather shabby. She
continued, If I had lived up to my teachers expectations, Id still be working in a
factory, because my report card was pretty lousy. Thats because I wasnt very much
interested, or I was too terrified to venture or volunteer. How do you think her own
experience enters into the story? See also On Writing, especially paragraph #3,
page 248.

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Barbie-Q (p. 235)

Possible Responses to Questions page 236
1. Responses will vary, but most students will see two young girls, who live in poverty
and play with the limited toys available to them. The girls have learned to accept
their situation.
2. Responses will vary, but the contrast between the life the dolls represent and the lives
and probable future of the girls is striking. For these girls, Barbie dolls are fantasy,
not a possible future.
3. The contrast identified in response #2 is emphasized by the detailed description of the
dolls clothes and accessories. It is doubtful that these girls will ever have an
opportunity to appear in Red Flair and Solo in the Spotlight. It is doubtful, that
given the poverty of their parents, that they will have so many accessories available to
them.
4. The various repetitions in the story emphasize the youth of the girls. They are
children, certainly less than eleven, and easily excited and innocent enough to believe
in possibilities and perhaps a future like that represented by the dolls.
5. The story dramatizes the collision of two very different cultures. One represented by
the Barbie doll, which can be described as upper-middle class, mobile, white, and
empowered, and the other represented by the girls, who face poverty and
discrimination from the dominant American culture as well as from their patriarchal
Mexican-American culture. Throughout Woman Hollering Creek and other writings,
Cisneros attacks both these cultures. Writing about her own life, Cisneros once
stated, Being only a daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to
become someones wife. Thats what he believed. In Barbie-Q we see her
bitterness toward an American culture that produces toys such as Barbie dolls, which
represent a narrow image of successful womanhood and one that is so remote for
many that it lowers the self-esteem of many young ethnic girls. To dramatize the
point, Cisneros notes the names of several Barbie models at the end of the story; none
sound anything like the names of the characters in her collection.
Cisneross bitterness toward the Barbie doll is expressed in the title Barbie-Q
with its pun on barbecue. In Never Marry a Mexican from Woman Hollering
Creek, the scorned narrator attacks her former lovers wife: a redheaded Barbie
doll in a fur coat. One of those scary Dallas types, hair yanked into a ponytail, big
shiny face like the women behind the cosmetic counters at Neimans.
6. See response to #5 and Jeff Thompsons commentary, page 249. The Barbie doll
represents a kind of ideal American womanhood aggressive but feminine, stylish
and lean, white and upper-middle class, athletic and professional, and always selfassured.

47

7. Responses will vary. But students will be able to sympathize with both. Ask students
to consider the difference in ages before answering. Ask them to explain how they
derived the age of the narrator in Barbie-Q.

There Was a Man, There Was a Woman (p. 237)

Possible Responses to Questions page 237
1. There are several elements that remind the reader of a fairy tale: the simplicity and
directness in the storys telling and language; the nameless, undeveloped characters;
the image of the moon; the so-close-yet-so-far quality of the tale; and the use of
repetition and parallelism, which organizes the story neatly and perhaps suggests the
too orderly nature of the characters lives. See the following response as well.
2 & 3. The story is about loneliness and longing. The tragedy of the story is that two
people who frequent the same places and are well matched and in need never meet.
Both are doomed to looking at the moon and crying or holding back tears. That the
characters are unnamed suggests a kind of anonymity, a sense of their being
unknown, even to their friends. Also, like a fairy tale, their story is archetypal. They
might be said to represent many who suffer alone and in silence, remaining always
misunderstood, uncared for, and depressed.
4. At least two values might be interesting to consider: the silence of the suffering
(neither the man nor woman discusses their loneliness with friends) and the
acceptability of bar life. On payday, men and woman go to the bar, drink, and spend
money. There is loud talking and laughing, but little conversation. Do their actions
at the bar mask sorrow? Consider what is implied about the culture by these values.
5. In The Widow of Ephesus, the central character is more pretentious in first her
fidelity and then her grief, and later, more aggressive in her actions, particularly in
taking a new husband and saving his life. She is not as concealing or reserved as the
characters in There Was a Man. While she may project an image to her society, she
would never be content to suffer in silence.
Learning to Be Silent is as brief as There Was a Man, but it is more
humorous. Furthermore, although it is not immediately apparent, there is a moral to
Learning, whereas There Was a Man is more concerned with its characters than a
moral.

Woman Hollering Creek (p. 238)

Possible Responses to Questions page 245

48

1. Responses will vary.

2. Responses will vary. Most students will sympathize with Clefilas, realizing that she
had little opportunity and direction to develop an independent and empowered life
until the end of the story.
3. The episodic structure, which makes little use of exposition, brings force, clarity, and
urgency to the story. The sections are brief and the transitions abrupt. In the most
powerful passages, a moment is frequently depicted with the result that the reader is
often jolted. Consider the sharp contrast between the end of one section and the
beginning of another on page 240. Optimism ends one section, full of happily ever
after, and the next begins with her reaction to her first beating. Consider too the
nurses phone call to Felice on page 244.
4. It is important in any discussion of Clefilas to consider that she was raised without a
mother or a close mother-figure to guide her. As a result, she is nave and optimistic
about what marriage can be like in her culture. She turns to television for her image
of romance and develops a thirst for passion and for the life depicted in the
telenovelas. It is not until after her marriage that reality sets in and she realizes that
her husband does not look like the men on the show (241) and she does not respond
to abuse as the woman do (240).
Clefilas is a devoted mother and tries to be a good wife. She does what she
thinks a good wife should do, namely, take care of the house, her husband, and
children. She tolerates her husbands affairs as best she can and, for the most part,
accepts his abuse. She only seriously thinks about leaving when prodded by Graciela
and Felice, and perhaps when she realizes the baby in her womb is in danger. In fact,
except for Graciela and Felice, Clefilas has no options. She would be the subject of
ridicule if she returned home (242). There is also a possibility that she holds herself
in some way responsible. Although she worked hard caring for a father with a head
like a burro and six clumsy brothers (239), she was never beaten and therefore
believes that she was brought up a little leniently (240).
5. Before marriage, the two were no doubt like most couples. Clefilas was able to
project her romantic dreams on the relationship with seemingly no contradictions
from Juan Pedro. After marriage, however, Juan Pedro becomes abusive
psychologically, emotionally, and physically. He seems to strive to live up to the role
and expectation of what the men at the ice house believe to be a typical Mexican
husband. He is unfaithful, arrogant, vitriolic, explosive, cruel, and selfish. He stays
out nights, tries to deny his wife prenatal care, brings his mistress home while his
wife is in the hospital giving birth, and makes payments on a truck rather than
adequately provide for his family. He may be frustrated by his job and wages, and
can only feel power in his home over his defenseless wife and children. He is lord
master husband till kingdom come (241). (One of the stories in the collection
is called Never Marry a Mexican.)

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6. The men at the ice house seem to serve as cultural arbitrators. They shape Juan Pedro
and insist on a male-dominated culture. Only newly married wives come to their
gatherings, where they are not allowed to speak (241). The implication is that these
newlyweds may need to learn their place in the communitys culture. To frighten and
educate young wives, they let Maximiliano tell how he shot and killed his wife when
she threatened him with a mop (242). However, the men seem powerless to control
their own lives, to move their lives forward, so they insist on their dominance in the
community and in marriage. As a result, they are like dogs chasing their own tales
(241).
7. The title of the story and the collection is derived from the Mexican folk tale The
Llorona, Malinche, and Unfaithful Maria, a story that includes men who betray
women and a womans ghost that haunts the river in which she drowned her own
children (242). The reference suggests that the long repressed voices of Mexican and
Mexican-American women are sounded in the various stories, which are hollering
out an indictment against the patriarchal culture while simultaneously hollering
feelings of pride in the ability to survive. At the end of the story, the independent
Felice has just rescued Clefilas from a life of abuse. As they cross the river to
safety, Felice started yelling like crazy and Clefilas responded with a long ribbon
of laughter of freedom and triumph.
8. Even if the audience does not literally comprehend the untranslated words, their sense
and implication are always clear, especially since an English translation often follows.
By leaving the words untranslated, Cisneros further develops the setting and
atmosphere and reminds us that this story concerns the Mexican and MexicanAmerican experience. As these words suggest, these characters and narrators have a
dual perspective on the world.
9. See responses to #s 4, 5, and 6 above. As mentioned, Clefilas comes from a maledominated culture. Her father, however, is more sensitive than most men. He knew
that as difficult as life was for her in his home, it would be much harder for her with
Don Pedro in Texas. Although the culture may generally scorn women who return to
their parents home because of abuse, her father will accept her back, and, as his
words on her wedding day suggest, he expects her.
Her Texas community appears to be an extension of the male-dominated culture
of Mexico. The town, Clefilas is led to believe, is built so that you have to depend
on husbands. Nothing is in walking distance and nothing in town is named after a
woman (244). Some women have accepted the culture and, rather than rebel, have
found their own pocket of power. In the laundromat, for instance, Trini empowers
herself by criticizing and yelling at Clefilas (240).
10. See response to #5 above. In addition to housework, child rearing, and making their
husband content, the women are subject to the whim of their husbands. On page 241,
just below the middle section, we read what seems to be a typical day for Clefilas.

50

11. This could be an essay topic. Both women are entrenched in the lives and ways of
their cultures, but Yellow Woman is more independent and far less subjugated by
men.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Why is it significant that Graciela and Felice, two women, help Clefilas return to
Mexico?
2. What is significant about the description of Felice at the end of the story? Why is
Clefilas surprised by her? Can she serve Clefilas as a kind of role model?
3. Compare the father-daughter relationships in Woman Hollering Creek and Simply
Mara.
Connecting the Stories Questions for Discussion or Assignment
1. Illuminate the following statement of Cisneros by referring to the stories: Im trying
to write the stories that havent been written. I feel like a cartographer; Im
determined to fill a literary void (246).
2. How would you describe the cultural backdrop of these stories? Refer to the stories
to support your response.
3. Cisneros has identified her father as the public majority: A public who is
disinterested in reading, and yet one whom I am writing about and for, and privately
trying to woo. How does this statement describe and inform her fiction?

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52

Chapter Six

A Collection of
Short Fiction
In the pages that follow, I have provided sample responses to the questions in the text and
I have added, when appropriate, some additional questions as well as topics for
discussion and writing.

Classics
Marriage is a Private Affair Chinua Achebe (p. 253)
Possible Responses to Questions page 257
1. Responses will vary. Many students, particularly children of immigrants or foreignborn students, will no doubt have seen familial traditions and expectations influenced
by American culture.
2. Okeke follows some, but only some, tribal traditions closely. In his culture, sons
obey fathers, and fathers direct sons lives and arrange their marriages. The conflict
results when Nnaemeka tries to marry outside tribal tradition. In a sense, the story is
about a son who rejects an important cultural tradition when he is exposed to external
influences.
3. Okeke is obstinate, proud, deeply Christian, and independent. He refuses to consider
his sons marriage to Nene, and would rather suffer ill health and loneliness than
accept the marriage. In many ways, Okeke is contradictory. He demands, it seems,
that his son follow only those traditions he holds unbreakable which mostly seem to
concern a fathers control of his son. Yet Okeke does not believe in the
superstitious procedures of the native doctor and instead practices Christianity and
reads the Bible, which have been introduced relatively recently to the tribe. It seems
it is fine for him to break traditions but not his son. I think too Okeke is embarrassed
by his sons marriage; he may be fearful that if he accepts the marriage, his standing

53

in the village would be damaged. At least in some matters, he was considered

obstinately ahead of the others.
4. There are several cultural tensions and oppositions in the story: including community
vs. the individual, duty to family vs. duty to self, reason vs. emotion, youth vs. age,
men vs. women, tradition vs. change, city vs. village, Christianity vs. tribal beliefs.
All these dynamics operate to create a profound conflict between and within Okeke
and Nnaemeka, neither of whom can find peace within themselves until they
reconcile with each other.
5. There are several ironies in the story. However, the largest irony is that the father
and son might be more similar than the father recognizes. Okeke too has rejected
tribal tradition. When the men in the village discuss how to best handle Nnaemeka,
they suggest herbs and medicines from a native doctor. The father rejects their
suggestions, and we are told that he was known to be obstinately ahead of his more
superstitious neighbours in these matters (255). Does the son have similar feelings
about the tribal tradition of arranged marriages? Furthermore, Christianity itself is a
rather recent tribal tradition, and at the time of its introduction in the village, it
marked a break with traditional religion for the tribes first Christians.
The father has seemed to have forgotten that sometimes change can be healthful
and life sustaining for cultures. His own sickness, caused by the stress of his effort to
keep away from his son, suggests he may die early, even though, ironically, he
persevered and won, by not giving into his emotions. His sickness and perhaps
early death can be seen as emblematic of a culture that would rather die than change.
Ironically, also, Nene believes that in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Lagos it
would be a joke that a persons tribe could determine whom he married. Yet after
her marriage, she faced discrimination in the city from other women.
6. Certainly both father and son are family and community centered, religious, and
principled, but the story seems to favor the values of individuality. The story seems
to suggest that individuals, as long as their course of action affirms life, should be
allowed to determine their own direction. The imperative title, the fathers remorse at
the end of the story, and his yielding, finally, to love further implies this.
7. Responses will vary. This topic could be developed into a research project.

Sonnys Blues James Baldwin (p. 258)

Possible Responses to Questions page 279
1. Responses will vary. However, I like to first discuss the relationship of the brothers.
The narrator feels guilty when he hears of Sonnys arrest, believing perhaps that he
should have done more for him. The narrator transforms his guilt into sympathy for
Sonnys friend and the waitress as he leaves school the day of Sonnys arrest. The
narrator never understood his brother and never really tried to know him, although he

54

did try to raise him after his mothers death. As an older brother with both parents
dead, newly married, and still in the army, he had to fulfill the promise he made to his
mother to take care of Sonny. However, having had no older brother himself and
perhaps overburdened by his new responsibility, he acted out the older
brother/surrogate father role as conventionally defined in the culture and offers Sonny
conventional guidance. Consider the tenor of the narrators words to Sonny on page
268: you know people cant always do exactly what they want to do. You
getting to be a big boy. its time you started thinking about your future. you got
to finish school. Sonny, however, was unconventional and more aware of his
brothers role-playing than this brother, whose advice perhaps spoke to most
teenagers but not to Sonny. The narrator is forced to admit, I didnt know
[Sonny] at all. Sonny realized this as soon as his brother stated an unfamiliarity with
jazz, for you could not know Sonny without knowing his music.
2. Responses will vary. Music is Sonnys means of communication and expression.
Through music Sonny translates and transcends his pain.
3. In this story, Baldwin records the pain and rage of black urban America. Consider the
cumulative effect of the following illustrations: students are filled with rage (259);
rage informs their laughter (259); everything is filled with menace (260);
belligerent, battered faces sing on corners (272); individuals feel amputated, not
completely whole when they escape the trap (263); Sonny feels trapped and in
anguish (269); the mother says anyone can get sucked under (265); theres no
way not to suffer (274); among more such examples. To escape the suffering,
individuals turn to drugs and movies (isolated activities which make no attempt to
illuminate the darkness, 259 top), while others turn to more constructive escapes like
music and religion. In Sonnys Blues, the suffering is made more bearable and
lives enriched through sharing and compassion. Consider, for instance, the
description of Sundays in the narrators childhood home (264-65), the corner singers,
church service, and, of course, music as the narrator experiences at the end of the
story.
4. The women in the story, particularly the narrators mother and Isabel are positive
figures, demonstrating strength, compassion, generosity in spirit and knowledge.
Consider his mothers words to the narrator (265-67). What do you think her smile
suggests at the end of the conversation? I think as the closing words reveal, she knew
her sons and the world more thoroughly than the narrator did at this point in his life.
5. The turning point in the narrators life occurs when his daughter Grace dies her
name, of course, is symbolic of the Christian notion of grace. He decides to initiate
contact with Sonny in an effort to get to know him. He invites Sonny to live with him
and his wife, and plays no clich role of older brother/surrogate father. He wants
instead to get to know and appreciate his brother a sign of his sincerity occurs when
he notices his brothers unusual gait (273 top).

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6. In the second conversation, the narrator listens to Sonny for the first time in his life.
It requires a conscious effort: something told me I should curb my tongue (274).
The narrator refuses to speak to Sonny as he did earlier, and resists what he calls
empty words and lies a harsh and perhaps overly simplistic evaluation of his
earlier conversation, but not wholly inaccurate. Most noticeable is Sonnys lengthy
monologue about his addiction, a monologue that the narrator would not have
tolerated in the earlier dialogue.
7. Responses will vary. This question can be used to demonstrate cultural similarities
and differences.
8. This question can be used to open a discussion concerning the nature of art and the
very human need for self-expression.

The Garden of Forking Paths Jorges Luis Borges (p. 279)

I find it necessary to summarize the plot of this story, which tends to confuse most
students. Sometimes I distribute the following questions to students before they read the
story to serve as a guide and reference point: What urgent message must Yu Tsun
communicate to the Germans? What has recently occurred to make the message
especially urgent? Why does Yu Tsun seek out Albert, someone he knows nothing about?
Why does Yu Tsuns Chief endlessly examin[e] newspapers (280)? How did the boys
on the train platform know that Yu Tsun would be looking for Alberts house? What was
remarkably coincidental about Yu Tsun meeting Albert? Why doesnt Yu Tsun murder
Albert and flee immediately, before Maddens arrival? How does Madden know where to
find Yu Tsun?
Responses to Questions page 286
1. Responses will vary.
2. Yu Tsun, a Chinese professor of English, left his homeland despite a somewhat
privileged position. He becomes a spy from a perverse sense of ethnic pride. He
exposes secrets to Germany not for political or financial reasons but to prove to his
superior that a yellow man could demonstrate bravery and save his armies (281).
His reasoning is labyrinthine: he tries to disprove German prejudicial and racist
stereotypes as he advances their cause, their politics, and philosophies.
3. There are several labyrinths open to many interpretations. Consider the following:
the title, Yu Tsuns journey to Alberts house, the literary labyrinth of Tsui Pns
novel, and the formal one constructed in the story by Borges. Consider too if the
denseness of Borgess prose is labyrinthine.
In Borgess fiction, labyrinths are usually dangerous predicaments. But here,
Alberts Chinese landscape and Tsui Pns novel are intricate and beautiful creations
that Albert enables Yu Tsun to appreciate. Also, Yu Tsun finds Albert when he

56

reaches the center of the labyrinth by always turning left. Albert is Yu Tsuns double.
Yu Tsun is a Chinese in England, very familiar with English literature, and a violent
spy. Albert, on the other hand, is an Englishman whose home replicates a Chinese
landscape. He is a peaceful man and former missionary who studies Chinese
literature.
4. Through his blurring of fact and fiction as well as time and space, Borges suggests
that the world is untrustworthy, as it is organized around arbitrary orderings of time
and space, which try to make the world a more familiar and predictable place.
5. In the statement, Yu Tsun eliminates time, just the way his ancestors novel does and
just the way he does when he communicates the location. It suggests a way to
commit oneself to a hazardous mission and serves to manage potential guilt. Yet, at
the end of the story, Yu Tsun feels guilty as he kills a peaceful, sophisticated
individual to advance the cause of the barbarous Germans.
6. Responses will vary. This is an opportunity, however, to discuss the nature and
importance of fiction.
7. Responses will vary.
8. This question could lead to a research topic with students studying the elements of
detective fiction or spy fiction. For another direction, ask selected students to
consider The Garden of Forking Paths as a spoof of a spy story. Direct them to
consider the absurdities and coincidences. The stranger Albert, for instance, has the
same name as the city about to be bombed and is an expert on the work of Yu Tsuns
ancestor. Consider too that Yu Tsun decides to help the Germans though he hates
them.
9. Both writers tend to obscure distinctions between past and present.

The Kiss Anton Chekhov (p. 287)

Possible Responses to Questions page 299
1. Responses will vary. However, you might want to lead your class in a close reading
of select passages. Among others, consider the description of the kiss and
Ryabovitchs immediate reaction (291, paragraphs #2 and #3), his reliving the kiss
(293 bottom), and his return to Myestetchki (297).
2. Ryabovitch describes himself as the shyest, most modest, and most undistinguished
officer in the whole brigade (289). He certainly lacks the swagger and bluster of the
other officers. However, although he may seem out of place and uncomfortable with
his fellow officers, he is sincere, sensitive, good-natured, and honest.

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Although the kiss may seem trivial to the other officers and to some readers, it is
of monumental importance to Ryabovitch. The kiss has enhanced his self-esteem.
He is exhilarated by the incident (291), which gave him new agreeable thoughts
(295) and made him feel courageous and ordinary, by which he means it made him
feel like one of the others, as if he belonged. As time goes on, he romanticizes the
kiss more and more, so that after Don Juan excursions with the others, he inwardly
begged her forgiveness (297). Similarly, he longs to return to the Von Rabbek estate
to recall the past (297).
What he forgets when he relates the episode to the others is that the time he has
spent in recreating and analyzing the kiss far exceeds the actual time that it took the
scene to transpire. The episode lasted only seconds and therefore, for one not given
to public embellishment, takes only seconds for him to retell.
3. There are many humorous descriptions and passages in the story, but Chekhov never
laughs at Ryabovitch or his contemplation of the kiss. Contrast, for instance, the
description of Ryabovitch (289) and passages in which he contemplates the kiss with
descriptions of the other officers and the Von Rabbek family. In many ways,
Ryabovitch comes off as the superior individual.
4. Responses will vary. Students, however, need to consider Ryabovitchs character.
See #2 above.
5. Consider the ironic end to The Kiss. Despite Ryabovitchs wrath with his fate,
you might ask students if fate was actually kind to keep him away from the Von
Rabbeks. Could his second visit have supported his romanticizing of the first visit?
Can many places and events live up to their recreations in our imagination? Would he
have been doomed to disappointment if he had gone?

Battle Royal Ralph Ellison (p. 299)

Possible Responses to Questions pages 309
1. The narrator feels invisible because he is not looked upon as an individual. He is
considered only as a type (a black boy) whose talents, desires, and goals are only
relevant to the town leaders if they can be exploited.
2. At the smoker, the town leaders drop the mask of dignity and decorum that they wear
during the day. Consider the narrators surprise when he enters the room and notices
that many are drunk, and then hears the superintendent yell, Bring up the shines,
gentlemen! Bring up the little shines!
3. To answer this question, students need to consider the motivation behind the
scholarship. Consider the response to #6 below.

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4. The Battle Royal is symbolic of the leaders communal strategy to keep the African
Americans divided and subjugated. At the smoker and in the community, the leaders
confuse, humiliate and exploit the boys, and then pay them a small fee, which makes
the boys and, symbolically, the larger black community dependent upon the leaders
who control all opportunities.
5. In one way, the dancer with the tattooed American flag on her belly represents the
American dream. The boys can get close enough to see it, but they cannot touch it,
or, implicitly, participate fully in what America offers. However, as a woman, the
dancer serves to point out that the culture of this small town is not only racist, but also
sexist. Like the boys, the dancer is similarly abused, degraded, and exploited, and
therefore a symbol of the way the community treats women.
6. The superintendents remark makes clear the reason behind the scholarship award.
The town leaders are not being generous or altruistic in any way. Instead, they are
investing in their communitys future, a future that they hope will be no different
from the present of the story. As the narrators slip of social equality suggests, the
civil rights movement seems to be gaining some momentum in the present of the
story. In order to safeguard themselves from any protest, the leaders award a
scholarship. Additionally, they believe they are investing in a future leader of the
black community who they expect will be grateful and obligated to them, and
therefore follow their direction and lead his people in what they consider the
proper paths. See also #2 above.
7. The dream suggests that the neighbors (i.e., the black community) who congratulate
the narrator on his scholarship are the clowns and that the town leaders laugh at them
for their foolish acceptance of the situation. The message in the brief case suggests
that one way to control the black community and particularly, its very intelligent and
therefore potentially dangerous members, is to keep them busy. If they are kept
moving, they may not have the time to think and they will buy into an illusion of
advancement.
8. The empowered town leaders determine the values of the white male-dominated
community. They are selfish, racist, sexist, and arrogant, and more interested in selfpreservation and power than fairness or developing a community that serves the needs
of its citizens. From what we see, these community leaders have no redeeming
qualities. Events like the smoker serve to reward the empowered and remind the
others of their place in the community.
9. Responses will vary. But first be sure students understand the grandfathers advice.
He has found a way to live within a racist culture that gives him some integrity and
dignity. His yeses were a subversive action. Before he is criticized for being too
passive, the context of his times and situation needs to be considered.
10. It might be helpful to focus on one scene from each story in which the minority
protagonist interacts with an individual of the dominant culture.

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Babylon Revisited F. Scott Fitzgerald (p. 310)

Possible Responses to Questions page 324
1. Responses will vary. You might ask students to compare Charlies method to that of
Alcoholics Anonymous.
2. I approach Marion as the antagonist of the story. Understandably, she needs to be
assured of Charlies reform, but is she more concerned with Honoria (who, in what I
consider a revealing detail, prefers her uncle to Marion) or some kind of revenge on
Charlie? Clearly, she resents his wealth, past and present (312, 318), and his and her
sisters lavish lifestyle, which contrasted with the financial struggle of her and her
husband. Consider Charlies thoughts, which are verified by her actions and
conversation: when convenient, she takes ill and cannot be disturbed; to help her
argument, she calls up her sisters memory even though they were never close; she
ignores the facts of her sisters death, and she overreacts to Duncan and Lorraine so
as to carry out her further revenge on Charlie. Her triumph at the end of the story is
only temporary.
3. Charlies visit to Montmartre, like his earlier stop at the bar, is a way for Charlie to
test himself, to see if he has reformed to the point that he can resist temptation. In
Montmartre, Charlie suddenly realized the meaning of the word dissipate (313).
The implication is that he has now recognized the profound wastefulness of his
decadent years in Paris. In the title, Babylon is used to designate the Paris before
the crash, i.e., a city of excessive luxury, wastefulness, and immorality.
4. Before the crash, Paris, for wealthy ex-patriots like Charlie and Helen was a kind of
decadent playground, in which the privileged felt free to steal and ride tricycles and
rich enough to believe they could pay to stop snowfall. After the crash, in the present
of the story, we see Depression Paris with its decadently muted nightlife and
prevailing sense of melancholy.
5. The daughters name is symbolic. Charlie returns to Paris for not just his daughter,
but more importantly for his honor, which he does regain. An interesting contrast can
be made between the values of Charlie and Marion.
6. I would focus the response to this question on the epiphanies of the two characters.

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A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(p. 325)
Possible Responses to Questions page 329
1. The old man is ostracized from the society in which he has landed, and therefore he
can be considered as a symbol of modern alienation or the feared but unempowered
other. Does the villagers treatment of him suggest anything about human
callousness and cruelty? As part of your discussion, you might ask students to list
what the villagers know for certain about the old man. Despite several years with
Pelayo and his family, the list is short and superficial even tragically so. I discuss
the old mans presence and departure as a lost opportunity for the village, for not
simply knowledge but cultural and spiritual development and enrichment.
I think it is important to discuss the old man and his relationship with the child.
Despite Marquezs criticism of humanity, how might we find some hope in the child
and his reaction to the old man?
2. On the one hand, the spider-woman can be said to represent a new entertainment
trend, one that displaces another (the old man) that has been exhausted. However,
given the exploitation of both the old man and the woman, I would argue that they
represent the least protected workers in the labor force (migrant workers, for
instance). After they are used up, they are discarded with little to show for their years
of toil. Surely, the spider-woman awaits the same fate as the old man.
3. Marquez is satirizing the Church. The old man confuses the Church as he does not
conform to any of its codes or precedents. Therefore, rather than help the people in
its spiritual quandary or lead the way in a search for truth, the Church procrastinates
and, rather than risks its reputation, plays it safe. Confident that the old man and all
the questions surrounding him will go away on their own, the Church would rather
say nothing than something that may trouble it later. Therefore, Father Gonzaga
held back the crowds frivolity with formulas of maidservant inspiration (327).
Marquez depicts a Church that is not responsive to its followers. They demonstrate
no sense of urgency (327) and actually look absurd and obsolete. Father Gonzaga,
for instance, was suspicious of the old man because he did not understand Latin, the
language of God (326). Similarly, the Churchs official inquiry focuses on the
trivial: did the old man have a navel? (327).
4. The fairy-tale elements in this story disarm readers and make the satire more potent as
it implies that the villagers behavior is acceptable, typical of people, and suitable for
children to read.
5. I sometimes pair A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings with The Rocking-Horse
Winner to discuss the appropriation of fairy-tale elements in satire.

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The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman (p. 329)

Possible Responses to Questions page 340
1. Responses will vary. As part of the discussion, ask students to refer to any pivotal
scenes or passages that might have severely shifted their reaction to the narrator.
2. Responses will vary. But not all the narrators conclusions seem accurate. For
instance, she says that the home used to be a colonial mansion and her room a
nursery (330, 331). Yet there are walls and gates that lock and separate little
houses, and her room has iron window bars, wall rings, a bed permanently attached
to the floor, and gnawed bedposts (330, 331, 334). It sounds more like a former
institution for the psychologically ill. Of course, too, we can question the narrators
certainty about the woman behind the yellow wallpaper and the group of women
creeping around the garden.
3. Yes, the narrator is emotionally unbalanced, but why? That is, what has driven her
into a state of neurosis or even psychosis? This question is crucial to understanding
the story. When we consider her life, we realize that she has never been permitted to
explore her identity and be herself. As a wife in the late nineteenth century,
particularly a wife of a physician, she was expected to fulfill certain obligations,
which are derived from her husband and his profession. However, these obligations
have left her unfulfilled and empty.
The narrators life is very much like the yellow wallpaper in her room. The
wallpaper, like her life, is deteriorating from a lack of attention. Furthermore, the
pattern of her life has been as vague and disconnected as the pattern in the design of
the wallpaper. She promises to follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a
conclusion (334). The woman she sees behind the wallpaper represents an image of
herself. Like the woman, the narrator is trapped behind a pattern or way of life that
someone else (a husband, a culture) has designed for her. Her deepest self and
individuality yearn for expression and freedom.
As part of your discussion here, you may wish to discuss Simon Weir Mitchell, a
famous neurologist, mentioned in the story. He prescribed rest to women he found
excessively nervous, a condition often brought on, he wrote, when a woman realizes
she is not up to what nature asks from her as wife and mother (Doctor and
Patient). Gilman found his prescription totally ineffective. In some ways, The
Yellow Wallpaper is her response to rest therapy. The problem with the narrator is
not that she needs rest, but that she needs to express and release herself. Her
contentment is dependent on her being able to write. Yet her husband forbids it. Her
frustration grows and her condition worsens because she is kept from doing that
which brings her self-worth. For the narrator, writing is a great relief to my mind
(330). Unfortunately, she has to hide her writing and, she says, although I must say
what I feel and think in some way the effort is getting to be greater than the relief
(334, italics Gilmans). The treatment, therefore, of rest under constant surveillance
has worsened her condition because what she needs is work (i.e., writing) and
freedom.

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Gilman said that The Yellow Wallpaper was not intended to drive people crazy,
but to save people from being driven crazy. What does she mean by this statement?
4. The marriage is not emotionally fulfilling for her. Her husband is more concerned, it
seems, with being a conventionally good husband and a respectable physician
rather than a sensitive husband who tries to meet his wifes unique needs. His desires
and profession dominate the marriage to the point that we may question whether his
concern for his wife is influenced by love or professional embarrassment. The
implication is that wives of the era were supposed to have no ambitions besides being
supportive wives, or to be a real rest and comfort [to husbands] and not a
comparative burden (332). Her husband no doubt hoped that the narrator would be
more like his sister: a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no
better profession (333). As his common name seems to suggest, John articulates
commonly held late nineteenth-century ideas about marriage.
The narrators marriage is hardly a partnership of equals. The husband is
shortsighted and oppressive, giving her no say in her treatment or in her visitors. He
refuses, it seems, to attempt to understand her or the significance of writing to her, as
she is expected to conform to his expectations of a wife. Her cousins visit, for
instance, is very important to her, and she pleads and breakdowns as she asks her
husband to invite them. He refuses, however, as they would provide her advice and
companionship about [her] work, and that, he rationalizes, would be the equivalent
of putting fireworks in [her] pillow-case (332).
5. Writing for the narrator and music for Sonny are their chief means of expression. For
them, not to write and play is spiritual death. Not to understand their need for artistic
expression is not to understand them.
6. Responses will vary. But perhaps other works can be included here, like Shiloh,
Woman Hollering Creek, and Yellow Woman. Through these works, students
can be asked to explore the development and changing role of women and wives.
They could also consider poems like Bolands Anorexia and Piercys A Work of
Artifice.
For further exploration, you could ask students to read an essay in The Captive
Imagination: A Casebook on The Yellow Wallpaper, a collection of essays on the
story spanning over one-hundred years, edited by Catherine Golden (The Feminist
Press at CUNY, 1992). Students could write a summary with commentary on the
essay they select, and share their papers during an in-class presentation.

Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne (p. 341)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 350

1. Responses will vary. However, students need to consider the question that the
narrator poses near the end of the story: Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the
forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting? Yes, I think, but it is a
bit more complicated than that. First, we must remember that Brown was
predisposed to dwell on dark thoughts as he goes into the woods on his present evil
purpose (342). Most likely, he is looking for what he and the Puritans would
consider immoral activity. However, I do not think he finds anything. Instead, he
fights to stay awake, passing the night sometimes asleep and sometimes awake.
When he sleeps he dreams and when he awakes, he never regains full consciousness,
but slips into a hypnagogic state, which induces visions and hallucinations, assisted
by the uncertain light (342). You might ask students to consider the contrasting light
and dark imagery throughout the story.
2. In a way, this question is a follow-up to #1. By reading select passages, I demonstrate
that Goodman Browns journey into the forest is actually a journey into his own heart.
I ask students to be alert to Hawthornes verbal clues, particularly his repetitive use of
the word heart. The following passages are especially helpful, but additional ones
will be needed to fill in gaps:
page 342, middle, beginning With his excellent resolve I focus on the
woods being as lonely as could be and the peculiarity in such a solitude. This
establishes the setting and tone for a dark meditation.
page 342, near bottom: Browns initial meeting with his fellow-traveller,
who, of course, bears a considerable resemblance to [Brown]. The fellowtraveller, who walks with a staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake,
represents Browns alter ego, his dark side which will guide him on his inner
journey and interpret what Brown sees in an negative way.
page 343, top: Brown tries to stop his journey, but his alter ego convinces him
to move forward. Browns self-investigation frightens him, as he does not like
what he finds.
page 345, bottom: Brown in a hypnagogic state almost falls, faint and overburthened with the heavy sickness of his heart.
page 346 bottom-347: Brown enters the deep recesses of his spirit, and he sees
his and humankinds innate corruption. The road grew wilder and drearier
leaving him in the heart of the dark wilderness The whole forest was peopled
with frightful sounds. But he was himself the chief horror of the scene The
fiend in his own shape is less hideous, than when he rages in the breast of man.

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 page 347: Brown sees the villagers and the influences on his life and realizes
that they, like him, are fundamentally corrupt. Therefore their piety and good
deeds are hypocritical.
page 348, paragraph 3: Brown approaches the villagers with whom he felt a
loathful brotherhood.
page 348 bottom, provides a direct statement of what Brown learns from his
self-investigation: Evil is the nature of mankind, and virtue is a dream, an
illusion.
page 349, paragraph three: As Browns nightmare climaxes, he awakes. He
finds himself amid calm night and solitude staggered against the rock
while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the
coldest dew. The reference to the twig supports the notion that Brown was
dreaming or hallucinating.
As a result of his vision, Brown loses his faith in humankind and the human spirit,
and he loses his wife Faith, with whom he will never again be close. Contrast the
opening of the story with the final paragraph to emphasize Browns change.
Depending upon time and class organization, you might discuss Young Goodman
Brown as a critique of Puritanism, specifically the Puritan insistence on self-analysis
and introspection, which if excessive can be repressive and morbid. Hawthornes best
work is inspired by Puritan culture. The Puritans gave Hawthorne artistic material
from which he could speculate about the psyche and the effects of the past on the
present, for instance. Hawthorne, however, is hardly fond of the Puritans. He
presents them as dour, gloomy, narrow-minded cranks, and dismal wretches
(Maypole of Merry Mount). In his introduction to The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
humorously imagines a conversation with his Puritan ancestors who regard his work
with disdain: A writer of story-books! Why, the degenerate fellow might as well
have been a fiddler! For Hawthorne, the Puritan ethos represents a censorship of the
imagination. His portrait of the Puritans is harsh and not completely accurate. The
Puritans did try to enjoy life; they liked colorful clothes (when they could get them);
they took pride in well-kept homes; and they liked to take a drink, although they
despised the drunkard.
3. The point of view is third person limited. We do not have an objective narrator.
Instead, the narrator reports to us descriptions and details filtered through the
consciousness of Brown. Therefore, as the responses above indicate, we are not
presented with a narrative of what actually happens in the forest, but rather a narrative
of what happens in Browns mind.
4. As a result of his experience in the forest, a deep inward journey, Brown withdraws
from the human community. He becomes morally unyielding, intolerant, and
unforgiving. He sees only the innate imperfection of human beings and therefore

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rejects everyone, including himself, as he denies himself any happiness or peace.

Consider if Browns deepened moral awareness and introspection have driven him
insane.
5. Ask students to consider the defining experiences of Brown and Krebs and the
difficulty these characters have in talking about their experiences.
6. Students may focus on how the authors shape their allegories and convey
implications.

Soldiers Home Ernest Hemingway (p. 350)

Possible Responses to Questions page 355
1. Responses will vary. Among other passages, you might focus student attention on
Krebss conversations with his sister and his mother.
2. Consider the opening paragraph that describes a fraternity photograph in which Krebs
appears. Krebs blends in comfortably with the others, a signal that he is content to
conform to the values of middle America. However, his experience in the war and his
post-war years in Europe have given him a new perspective on life, and he now
questions the values and lifestyle he has been taught. The photograph in paragraph 2
contrasts with the well-staged and artificial fraternity photograph. The second
photograph reflects truthfulness, depicting Krebs as he was at that particular moment.
It does not try to romanticize him or his situation.
War has committed Krebs to the truth. He does not return immediately from the
war because he is not ready to face or participate in the dishonesty of war
commemorations and conversations. Although after he returns, he cannot resist the
pressure to lie and tell war stories. However, they were not sensational enough for his
audience at the pool room. Only when talking to an old soldier could he admit that
he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time (351). Implicit in Soldiers
Home is a critique of a culture that perpetuates war through its lies and glorification.
All his actions and inactions (not looking for a job, not dating, not talking) result
because he tries to remain committed to the truth: He did not want to tell any more
lies (352). He freely converses with his sister because there is truthfulness in his
sisters innocence, while he avoids his mother because evasion and duplicity follow
she had made him lie (355). When he tries to tell his mother about the war, her
attention always wander[s] (351) because she doesnt want to hear the truth. She
wants her son to resume his pre-war values and conform to familial and communal
expectations.
Krebss father believes his son has no ambition and no definite aim in life
(354). Neither father nor mother attempts to understand Krebs. Actually, he is very
ambitious. He will attempt to live a truthful life, as free as possible from the duplicity
that surrounds him. He decides to move to Kansas City, it seems, to escape the
pressures of his family to conform, which for him is a lie. He wanted his life to go

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smoothly (355), but, he might now add, truthfully.

The ironic title of Soldiers Home may be considered here. Krebs is perhaps
less at home in his childhood home than anywhere else on earth.
3. From what we see of the community, it supports and encourages conformity, and
resists any notions that challenge its version of the truth. Charley Simmons is the
model of behavior for Krebs: he is the same age, has a good job and engaged to be
married. He and the other boys are on their way to being really a credit to the
community (354), which is to say they are conforming and not challenging the
prescribed culture. His community does not want the truth about war. They want
sensational war stories ending with a heroic American saving the day. As Krebs looks
at the young girls, he notices that they conform to a nice pattern, wearing the same
sweaters, same hairstyles, shoes, etc. (352). His community and the life it and his
family envisions for him can be summarized by nice pattern, a pleasant, sterile, and
unstimulating life of sameness, conformity, and comforting lies.
4. The father seems confused and threatened by his son. He seems to avoid him and
sends his wife to talk to him. When he does speak to his son he is non-committal
(351). Is he non-committal because he does not have a formulaic response to his
sons unique probings or is it because he recognizes the truth in his son? We cannot
say with certainty, but we can infer that Krebs makes his father uncomfortable. His
fathers life seems uneventful, marked by sameness and pattern. He has driven the
same car for years, has parked in the same spot, and finds his newspaper unreadable
if its been mussed (353). These are not the signs of a flexible, open-minded
individual.
5. The mothers religious values support and sustain her conformity. For her, prayer and
religion are a way to keep her and her familys life from being complicated (355).
Religion will make choices and direct her life, as well as provide a strategy of evasion
that will keep her from confronting the truth. As a result, she sends Krebs to a
Methodist college, presumably so that religious principles would restrict any
individualistic impulses.
6. Both Krebs and Brown have had experiences that fundamentally change them.
Hawthorne relates Browns narrative to his death, so we can have more hope for
Krebs, who will leave his parents home to start a new life in Kansas City.

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Spunk Zora Neale Hurston (p. 356)

Possible Responses to Questions page 360
1. Responses will vary. But students will have strong reactions and little respect and
sympathy for Spunk and Elijah, and much sympathy for Joe. Their responses to Lena
and Walter are less extreme, more ambiguous.
2. The community, particularly the men who lounge in the store, provoke the tragedy for
seemingly their own amusement. They enjoy observing, discussing, and speculating
on the situation of Spunk, Joe, and Lena. Like a Greek chorus, they participate and
comment on the actions of the leading figures in the drama, and serve a function by
relating exposition to the reader. Unlike a Greek chorus, however, they are not
presented objectively by Hurston. Hurston refers to them as loungers in the store
(356) who find enjoyment in another mans suffering, are too cowardly to challenge
Spunks version of Joes death, and take guzzles of whiskey at Spunks funeral
reception (360). Interestingly, as in a Greek tragedy, the audience does not witness
the violence but hears a secondhand account.
3. The story is divided into four scenes:
Part I In the pivotal scene, the men in the store ridicule Joe for tolerating his wifes
affair with Spunk. Joe is embarrassed into taking action to save his pride and his
standing in the community. Additionally, through the loungers, the scene provides
exposition concerning Spunks and Joes character and Spunks very open affair with
Joes wife.
Part II In the pivotal scene, Spunk relates his suspicious version of Joes death,
which goes unchallenged by the men in the store. We also hear that in a short trial
Spunk is acquitted of murder.
Part III While we hear that Spunk has bought a new home with Lena, whom he
plans to marry, the pivot event is the appearance of the bob-cat. Spunk believes the
cat to be a reincarnation of his victim. Apparently Spunks guilt has led to his
conviction that Joes spirit is haunting him.
Part IV The pivotal scene is the report of Spunks death, which Spunk blames on
Joes ghost. The story concludes with Joes funeral.
4. Responses will vary, but readers will be suspicious of Spunks story, just as the
loungers are. Students should consider not only if Spunk told the truth about the
events surrounding Joes death, but also if he intimidated the judge and jury.
5. See #2 above and the discussion of the chorus under Oedipus and Antigon in this
manual.

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The Boarding House James Joyce (p. 361)

Possible Responses to Questions page 365
See comments to Araby and The Dead in this manual.
1. Responses will vary, but students should consider the cultural pressures on both Polly
and Doran to marry.
2. Although mother and daughter never verbally conspire to trap Doran, Mrs. Mooney
and Polly tacitly work together to manipulate him into marriage. Polly actively
pursues Doran while Mrs. Mooney decides to be passive, content that Polly is
proceeding wisely. Polly knew she was acting with her mothers approval: her
mothers persistent silence could not be misunderstood (362).
Consider Pollys actions: she warms his dinner on nights Doran arrives home late;
they exchange kisses and reluctantly go off to their rooms; on the night of conception,
she tapped on his door after bathing and only scantily dressed, to ask him to relight
her candle, which she claims had gone out from a gust of air (364). Consider too
her actions in Dorans room just prior to his meeting with her mother to discuss
reparation. Pollys behavior at that point lacks sincerity and seems imitative of a
heroine from a stage melodrama, which she would have certainly had an opportunity
to see in Dublin in the early twentieth century. In a sense, she prepares Doran for her
mother, rattling him further before his meeting. She threatens suicide (364 middle),
and as he leaves to go downstairs, he feels he has to comfort her, although she plays
at being inconsolable: He left her crying on the bed and moaning softly: O my
God! (365). However, after he leaves the room, she refreshes her appearance and
waits patiently, almost cheerfully, without alarm, contemplating hopes and visions
of the future (365). She hardly seems a woman in distress.
Before she sees the potential marriage, Mrs. Mooney was about to give up hope
that her daughter would find a husband among her boarders. She thought of sending
Polly back to work as a clerk. Then she watched as the relationship progressed.
Satisfied, she kept her own counsel (362). There can be no question that she knew
what was happening between the two: all the lodgers knew something of the affair
(363) and she seemed to know everything that passed in her house. She does not
interfere until Polly is pregnant. Then her toughness, cunning, and determination put
Doran at her mercy. She plots out their meeting very carefully. She schedules it for
Sunday morning an appropriate time for reflection and considerations of atonement
just after the Church bells ring and worshippers can be seen walking to church. Her
plotting and lack of genuine emotion suggest she is preparing for a competition: she
counted all her cards again she felt sure she would win (363). And win so
decisively and quickly that she could still be on time for noon Mass! As she reviews
her words, she looks in the mirror, and satisfied with the decisive expression of her
great florid face, she calls him. Her silence, however, was as much a part of Dorans
entrapment as her carefully orchestration of this meeting. She saw Doran as her
opportunity to escape being one of those mothers who could not get their daughters
off their hands (363).

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One point needs to be mentioned. From their narrow perspectives, Polly and her
mother believed that Doran would make a good husband. After all, he had a steady
job, he probably saved some money, and he was older and more settled than the
others.
3. The images reveal character: Mrs. Mooney is firm, decisive, and not troubled with
moral complexities and ambiguities, confident in her sense of right and wrong. Polly
is flirtatious, using her appearance of innocence and purity ultimately to entrap
Doran. Dorans fogged glasses suggest nervousness, a lack of confidence and
determination, and the feeling that he is going helplessly to his doom.
4. Throughout Dubliners, Joyce satirizes the Ireland of the early twentieth century. He
believed his country had to be spiritually liberated from the Catholic Church. In The
Boarding House, there are several images of the Churchs repressive influence on
Irish culture and the individual. With divorce illegal, the Church and the country will
only grant Mrs. Mooney a separation from her husband despite his abuse; the priest
perversely craves all the ridiculous details[s] of the affair and pressures Doran into
marriage; and Doran could lose his job if he does not marry Polly. In short, Joyce
suggests that the Church and its constrictive code of morality direct the lives of the
Irish to a debilitating degree.
5. With no mention or indication of love in the story, The Boarding House is very sad.
It seems Polly marries Doran because she and her culture believe she is of the age to
marry. The mother too seems anxious to get Polly off [her] hands, so she will not
be embarrassed and a source of gossip for the neighbors. Doran does not love Polly.
Consider his thoughts on page 364, paragraph 2. He sees her as vulgar and is
embarrassed by her grammar. He has the notion that he was had, or trapped. He
does not sound like a man in love. He is pressured into marriage by Polly, Mrs.
Mooney, her son, his employer, the Church, and the social code. He must reject his
instinct, which urged him to remain free, and yield to the culture, even with the
realization that once you are married you are done for.
In Ulysses we learn that Doran is henpecked, surly, and alcoholic; he cheats on
Polly and drinks to escape his bleak marriage. Ask students if this knowledge affects
their reading of the story. Do we feel more or less sympathy for the characters? Has
Polly and her mother achieved their goal only to trap Polly in a dreadful misalliance?
Do you think that mother and daughter would prefer this marriage to Polly living a
single life?
6. Both stories satirize the Church and question its integrity and ability to guide its
members. You might ask students to compare the priests in each story.

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The Dead James Joyce (p. 366)

Like Araby and The Boarding House, The Dead is from Dubliners. In fact, The
Dead is the closing story in the collection, which could be relevant to your discussion if
you choose to assign all three stories. Because of its subtlety, The Dead is an
especially challenging work for students. Before they read it, I think it helps to direct
attention to a specific element of the story. Depending on your students and the material
covered to date, you might ask them to focus on the imagery, particularly the snow and
fire imagery, or the nationalistic theme. Usually, I ask my class to concentrate on
Gabriel, watching especially for his epiphany. What does he learn about himself?
Possible Responses to Questions page 392
1. Responses will vary. As a follow-up, I ask students where they think the Three
Graces stand on the issue of Irish nationalism. Then, what in Gabriel do they like
and admire so much? (In Greek mythology, the Three Graces [Agalaia, Euphrosyne,
Thalia] are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. They are said to personify grace,
beauty, and enjoyment of life, and are responsible for what is best in art.)
2. In an effort to separate himself from his fellow countrymen and women, he aligns
himself culturally with the continent, which he believes makes him more
sophisticated. He is upset by his conversation with Molly Ivors, a staunch Irish
nationalist. She confronts him with the fact that he writes reviews for The Daily
Express, which he tries to obscure by using only his initials; she calls him a West
Briton (373-74), i.e., someone who has contempt for all things Irish and has
allegiance to England Ireland is, of course, west of England. He denies the charge,
but he proves her assertion accurate as he refuses to vacation in Ireland, professes no
interest in Gaelic, and finally explodes, Im sick of my own country, sick of it (374
top).
Consider too his speech (380-81). At best, he pays only a backhanded
compliment to his country. He praises Irish hospitality, which some consider a failing
and which he himself considers a princely failing. He then talks of a new
generation with new ideas and new principles, and again he offers only a
backhanded compliment: these ideas and principles may be sincere, but
misdirected. Are these the only compliments he can muster on behalf of his nation?
Despite Joyces residence on the continent, he never renounced his Irish
nationalism to become a West Briton; in fact, he requested that friends forward him
all kinds of materials to keep him informed about life in his native land.
3. Responses will vary, but Gabriel is insensitive to his wife. At the end, however, he
gains a new appreciation for her and seems to recognize her moral superiority.
4. Both Molly and Bartell are Irish nationalists. No reason is specified for Mollys early
departure, but she might have felt out of place in a gathering where the prevailing
attitude was West Briton, or she might have been lodging a protest against the guest
speaker and his West Briton sympathies, which she no doubt found offensive and

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humiliating. She intends to sting Gabriel as she departs with a Gaelic expression,
Beannacht lihh literally, a blessing with ye, used when saying goodbye.
Clearly, Bartell does not want to sing before the whole group. During dinner, he
hears criticism of contemporary Irish singers and opera companies, who fail to
compare to the old Italian companies that used to come to Dublin. Those were the
days, [Browne] said, when there was something like singing to be heard in Dublin
(379), an idea that Gabriel supports in this speech.
Bartells choice of song suggests his nationalism, which, again, contrasts with the
general tone of the evening. He sings The Lass of Aughrim, an Irish folk song and
a dialogue between a wronged lover, who holding her baby, confronts the childs
father, who refuses to accept responsibility for the child although the mother reminds
him that he forced himself on her. The song moves Gretta, as the aloof and obdurate
attitude of the father who refuses the mother and child admittance to his home, recalls
her own attitude toward her young lover, who shivered in the rain as she sent him
away.
5. The snow imagery is somewhat elusive. At the end, the snow covers Ireland with a
deathlike frost. The image is of lifelessness, a sterile and oppressive whiteness,
which is not unlike the inauthentic identity with which Gabriel covers himself. I
think the implication is that both Ireland and Gabriel have to dig themselves out from
their frosts and their sterility. Perhaps through passion, represented by fire, and
through inspiration from the past, Ireland and Gabriel can resurrect themselves.
Joyce had hoped that Dubliners would introduce the first step in the spiritual
liberation of my country.
6. Most agree that Joyce takes the title from an early nineteenth-century poem by
Thomas Moore in Irish Melodies, which begins as follows:
Oh, ye Dead! oh, ye Dead! Whom we know by the light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live.
Why leave you thus your graves?
The title holds several implications. Before discussing this question, I like to read
aloud the last two paragraphs. In the penultimate paragraph, Gabriel begins to
recognize his undeniable connection with his Irish ancestors and heritage. Joyce uses
the image of his soul gravitating to the dead. As his own identity was fading out,
i.e., his manufactured West Briton identity, Gabriel begins the process of rebirth from
which a more authentic self will emerge with an awareness and pride in his Irishness
and Irish culture.
7. As the above responses reflect, Joyce endorses the values of Molly and Bartell (Irish
nationalism and pride) over those of Gabriel and other West Britons.
8. This question could be developed in a research paper for students.

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9. In addition to comparing the epiphanies of Gabriel and Charlie Wales (Babylon

Revisited), I compare Gabriel with the narrator of Araby. Gabriels moment of
recognition comes when he questions Gretta about her teenage love, specifically near
the bottom of page 389. Like the narrator of Araby, Gabriel is suddenly made
aware of his own vanity, selfishness, and absurdity, and, like the young boy in
Araby, he too experiences a physical sensation of burning, indicative of the
intensity and piercing sting of the revelation: [Gabriels] shame burned upon his
forehead. In Araby, the narrators eyes burned with anguish and anger. Gabriel,
proud and haughty just seconds before, is humbled when hearing of his wifes
experience with Michael, whose deep love for Gretta made his love appear shallow:
[Gabriel] had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that such
a feeling must be love (392). Gabriel is transformed immediately. He drops his
sarcasm (What was he?) and his tone of cold interrogation (390), and becomes
more sympathetic and unselfish. He puts aside thoughts of sex, which had dominated
his consciousness since having left the party, as a strange friendly pity for her
entered his soul and generous tears filled Gabriels eyes (391, 392). He has
learned humility, true love, and selflessness, and he will no doubt develop into a more
deeply sensitive husband (his solicitude toward his wife [369] was superficial) and
a more understanding, less arrogant Irishman.
10. Whenever I teach The Dead, I show at least a couple of scenes from the John
Huston film. I generally select a couple of scenes from the party and the very
effective ending, which helps emphasize the snow imagery with a beautiful sequence
of snow falling over the Irish countryside.

The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka (p. 393)

Usually near the beginning of our discussion of The Metamorphosis, I find it necessary
for the class to summarize the story by section:
Section I: The matter-of-fact tone of the story is established immediately as we hear that
the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, has been metamorphosed into a gigantic insect. How or
why, we never hear. (Occasionally, I have students who like to speculate. I try not to let
this go too far.) Gregor, a successful traveling salesman, is the main provider of his
family, who lives comfortably. Gregor struggles with his physical condition, and worries
about catching the train for work. When family members realize he missed his early
morning train, they show concern, but not so much about him and possible illness, as
about his ability to retain his position and keep them in the middle-class lifestyle to which
they have become accustomed. Gregor too is more concerned about his familys comfort
than his condition. When the chief clerk from his office arrives, all hear that his job is in
jeopardy. To plea for mercy, Gregor shows himself, but the clerk is horrified and exits
abruptly. His family drives him back into his room like a household pest, and his life of
loneliness and isolation begins.

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Section II: This section focuses on the family life at the Samsa apartment following the
metamorphosis. Gregors sister Grete is his prime caregiver; she feeds him and proposes
moving furniture to give him more space. Clearly, Gregor is regarded as a burden, who
has outlived his usefulness. Gregors first concern is still for his family and he is only
somewhat relieved when he hears that his father has exaggerated the state of family
finances after his business failure. Yes, there is money in the bank account, more than
Gregor realized, but only enough to sustain the family for perhaps two years. The section
closes with Gregor protesting the emptying of his room. Although he will be more
comfortable, he feels the last vestiges of his old self being wrenched from him. He feels
completely dehumanized and tries to convey this to his family. But his father, who is
angry at having had his comfortable existence destroyed by his sons transformation and
who has even returned to work, vents his fury and bombards Gregor with apples, one
which becomes lodged painfully in his back.
Section III: The Samsas seem resigned to Gregors transformation and their loss of
income. They take in borders, and mother, father, and daughter all get jobs. When
Gregor frightens the boarders, the family decides that Gregor must be disposed. Seeing
the grief he is causing his family, Gregor wills himself to die. The servant finds the
emaciated corpse, and the family members barely utter a prayer, cross themselves, and
decide to take the day off from work to recuperate from the ordeal of the past months.
They take a trip to the country, where father and mother talk happily about their
daughters prospects for marriage.
Possible Responses to Questions page 423
1. Responses will vary. The Metamorphosis arouses various reactions from students.
After the initial pages most expect either a comedy or a completely unrealistic
story. I have found that when students say unrealistic, they tend to mean the work
has no relevance to the real world, i.e., their lives and times. Yet when they give
the story a chance to unfold, which they usually do, they find a very realistic
statement has been made about life and they are surprised at how much sympathy
they can have for Gregor, or the worlds biggest cockroach, as one student defined
him.
2. Details in the story lead us to believe that Gregor was never anything but a provider, a
source of income. After his metamorphosis, his sister shows some compassion, but,
in time, that dissipates. His father, never sympathetic to his son, grows more violent
and brutal, culminating with the attack at the end of Section II. His mother
demonstrates some sympathy from time to time, but hardly the unconditional love we
might expect from a mother.
Contrast especially the lifestyles of father and son and some details unknown to
Gregor. Gregor, for instance, was surprised at the sum of money in the fathers bank
account (406), and he was led to believe none of the family members would be able
to take a job, but they all hold jobs in Section III, much to his surprise. After his
business failed, his father established a very comfortable lifestyle for himself: he
would bury himself deep in his bed as Gregor left for work (412); he would take

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leisurely breakfasts that lasted for hours (400), followed by afternoon naps (405), and
then evenings lounging in his easy chair dressed in an nightshirt unable to stand
up to greet his son upon his return home (412). The father rarely found a reason to
comb his disheveled white hair (412). What is so unfair is that Gregor is working
extra hard for a boss he detests, all to pay off his fathers apparent debt to his
employer, a debt that will require another five or six years labor. His father makes no
effort to help the son or show any appreciation of his efforts.
3. There are several symbols and details in The Metamorphosis, but I like to discuss at
least the following:
a. Breakfast: Reveals just how hard Gregor works. Not only does his father enjoy a
breakfast that lasts for hours (400), but other traveling salesmen also are just
sitting down for breakfast when Gregor enters the hotel to write up his early
morning sales (394). Gregor takes pride in his success and his ability to provide
his family with a life of leisure in fine apartment (403).
b. Hospital: From his window, Gregor sees a hospital. This emphasizes and helps
establish the motif of illness, healing, and death that runs throughout the story.
This gray-black hospital is hardly attractive or comforting with its severe,
uniform windows breaking up its faade (400). The hospital contributes in
revealing the indifference of the family who never cross the street to consult a
physician for Gregor.
c. Apple: The apple lodged in Gregors back becomes a visible memento (413) of
his abuse. A fruit that can should be nourishing and life giving becomes a deadly
missile tossed by someone who should be healing and compassionate.
4. This statement tells much about the lack of love, warmth, and appreciation that
Gregor felt from his family, and not just after the transformation. Unknowingly
desired suggests that he is unaware of just how desperately he needs their affection.
5. The ending suggests that the daughter and her future husband (to be determined) are
also in danger of being exploited by her parents. At the conclusion of the story, her
parents begin to contemplate a scheme to marry her off, most likely to a husband who
would ensure not the daughters happiness, but the parents resumption of leisurely
living.
I like to begin our consideration of the ending by looking carefully at the familys
discussion of Gregor after the borders are appalled at this appearance (419 on). Does
the family honestly try to do decide what is best for them and Gregor? The family
seems only concerned with its own convenience and seems anxious to find
justification for the disposal of Gregor. They conclude that it has to go (419),
significantly depersonalizing Gregor with it. They cite the following problematic
reasons for their decision: they deny that the beast is Gregor; the sister, once
sympathetic, says that its going to kill you both; with no evidence, they conclude
that he cannot communicate with them; such an animal cannot live with people;

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and obviously [he] wants to take over the apartment and force us to sleep out in the
alley. There is no truth in these statements, but they are content to lie if it brings
about a more comfortable life for them, one that Gregor is no longer able to provide
for them.
6. This question allows for a discussion of literary categories. However, this is also a
good question to use to discuss the implications of Gregors metamorphosis.
Gregors metamorphosis and isolation have been interpreted as a trope for peoples
excluded from full participation in a societys privileges. Kafka (1883-1924) himself
was Jewish, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, which no doubt influenced this theme.
What groups earlier in the twentieth century and in our community today seem to be
excluded in much the same way as Gregor? Might this use of Gregor as symbol have
something to do with Kafkas insisting that Gregor not be illustrated on the book
cover? He said, The insect itself cannot be depicted. It cannot even be shown from
a distance. Also, can the father be said to be an authority figure, representative of a
societys means of control?
In his Classics in Modern Fiction, Irving Howe discusses Gregors inability to
communicate, his sense of alienation and insecurity, and his sense of insignificance
and inferiority. Students can consider whether these are features of marginalized
peoples.
7. Responses will vary. Both Kafka and Marquez use fantastic elements in their stories
to dramatize what they consider some of the ills of twentieth-century life, specifically
the exploitation and marginalization of the other, and, in general, humankinds
capacity for inhumanity.
8. Responses will vary, but students can focus on issues of tolerance, forgiveness, and
appreciation.
Writing Assignment
Several times The Metamorphosis has been adapted for the stage. Working within
groups, students could write a scene for a dramatic version of the story. In their stage
directions they should consider how Gregor is to be represented. They need to consider
whether or not he speaks, and perhaps an actor suitable to portray him. You might
mention that in a 1989 Broadway production (adapted and directed by Steven Berkoff)
ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov played Gregor with no insect costuming. He relied
convincingly on movement and gesture to represent Gregor as insect. A non-circulating
tape of this performance can be viewed at the New York City Public Library Lincoln
Center.

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Bliss Katherine Mansfield (p. 424)

Possible Responses to Questions page 433
1. Responses will vary. Most students will express sympathy for Bertha, who despite an
upper-middle-class lifestyle is not completely fulfilled. However, for most of the
story, the reader, like Bertha, believes that she has a very happy marriage. However,
at the end of the story we realize that her husband is having an affair with her friend
Pearl. Now we understand why Pearl was wonderfully frank with Bertha, but only
to a certain point and beyond that she would not go (426). We also realize that
her husband only pretended to dislike Pearl, so as not to arouse his wifes suspicion.
2. On the day on which the story takes place, Bertha feels not just contented, but joyful
and blissful. Her state of blissfulness is difficult for her to describe, so she turns to
metaphors: you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss as though youd
suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your
bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and
toe (424). Later she says her bliss made her feel quite dizzy, quite drunk (427).
This blissful state is not easily maintained, Bertha says, because of the
encroachment of idiotic civilization (424, 426), through which she implies that her
culture prefers a more stolid existence and appearance to a more emotional one and
therefore discourages and represses outward displays of emotion. And Bertha does
feel repressed. Consider the image of tossing off her coat: she could not bear the
tight clasp of it another moment (424). Even the nanny warns her not to get her
baby too excited (425). Feelings of blissfulness are unusual, but rather than
encourage them, civilization would rather treat them like a rare violin to be kept shut
up in a case (424, 425).
Bertha identifies with the wide open blossoms of the lovely pear tree in her
garden (427). The tree seems fully alive, like the flame of a candle, to stretch up, to
point, to quiver in the bright air (430). Bertha thinks that Pearl and she share a
mystical experience together. They both, Bertha believes, identify with the tree,
caught in that circle of unearthly light, understanding each other perfectly, creatures
of another world, and wondering what they were to do in this one with all this blissful
treasure that burned in their bosoms (430). Bertha believes that Pearl and she are
kindred spirits. Ask students to consider Pearls words as they looked at the tree.
Pearl is interrupted after Yes. Just that. Is she, as Bertha thinks at least at the time,
revealing contentment and mutual understanding? Or are the words less final? Was
Pearl about to continue and maybe reveal her affair with Harry?
Like the tree, Bertha is separated from those who cannot understand and
experience bliss except, she thinks, Pearl. However, when we learn that Pearl is
having an affair with Berthas husband we might question Berthas interpretation of
her private moment with Pearl. (Students may need to be reminded that the story uses
a third person limited point of view.) Significantly, also, at the end of the story,
Bertha still identifies with the pear tree. Although her marriage will undergo a crisis
with an uncertain outcome, she feels as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as
still (432). These closing lines indicate that from her bliss, an inward strength has

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developed that will see her through her rough period. Bertha will no doubt find
further inspiration from the tree, and she will survive and even prosper.
3. The Youngs guests seem unconventional. They are involved in the arts and seem
witty, but we can wonder if their unconventionality is sincere or merely trendy and
pretentious. That is, do they try too hard to be unconventional? Consider how the
Knights describe the train ride to the dinner party and Eddie Warrens usual state of
acute distress (427-28). Consider the pretentiousness of Mr. Knights monocle, his
sobriquet of N.K., and the reference to the middle class as stodgy so utterly
without a sense of humour (427). Consider the conversation at dinner about the play
about suicide or the use of the French word for intimate: Isnt she very lie with
Michael Oat? (429). Or Warrens comment that Tomato soup is so dreadfully
eternal (432, authors italics). The guests seem pretentious, insincere, superficial,
and arrogant. When we consider the affair of Pearl and Harry, we can also add
hypocritical.
4. Bertha lives the life of an English upper middle class woman. Yet she feels confined
by the idiotic civilization of it all. She cannot freely express emotion, and she
seems to have to ask permission of the nanny to see her own child. The bliss she feels
every so often has no creative outlet except for the arrangement of fruit (424-25) and
couch cushions (426-27). At one point, Bertha says that she has everything.
However the words do not seem convincing, neither for the reader or herself: Really
Really she had everything (427). Her list that follows is hardly convincing. In
fact, it seems superficial and monotonous, composed of indistinguishable elements, a
point emphasized by the repetitious use of and, which blurs one item into the other.
5. Responses will vary, but none of the women find their marriages completely
satisfying.

I Stand Here Ironing Tillie Olsen (p. 433)

Possible Responses to Questions page 438
1. Responses will vary, but students need to consider the mothers age and
circumstances at the time of Emilys birth and during her early years.
2. The mother has had a very difficult life. After Emilys birth, she tried very hard to be
an excellent mother, but because of poverty and the departure of Emilys father she
could not maintain the high level of care and attentiveness to which she aspired.
Although she loved her daughter, she was unable to find suitable care. With no
government subsidy, the mother had to give Emily to her fathers family for a couple
of years, which as her pockmarks suggest, her care was not always a priority. After
the mother-daughter reunion, it seems as if the mothers best intentions in those early
years were thwarted whether at nursery school or later at the convalescent home.
My portrait of the mother tends to be sympathetic, but I think all her actions on behalf

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of Emily were motivated by love and concern for her daughters well being. The
mother, however, was impoverished, overworked, and not well educated, and there
were far fewer options for a single parent in the 1930s than there are available today.
This monologue represents the mothers coming to terms with her parenting of
Emily. She acknowledges that she made mistakes, but seems to have resigned herself
to her past with regard to the Emilys rearing. Consider the storys final two
paragraphs. In the final paragraph, she might be talking about herself when she
wonders how many bloom, i.e. reach their potential. While numerous
disappointments have made her skeptical if not pessimistic, she hopes Emily achieves
more than her mother, who is, as she puts it, helpless before the iron, bound to a life
of drudgery.
3. There are several tonal shifts in the story as memories trigger different emotional
responses. There are times when the mother is resistant (at the beginning talking to
the teacher or school representative); frustrated (leaving her at nursery school
[434]); sad (considering Emilys schoolgirl crush [436]); regretful (discussing
smiling at Emily [435]); guilty (discussing leaving Emily alone at night [435]);
hopeful (She is so lovely She will find her way [438], and there is some hope in
the last sentence); joyful (remembering Emily as infant [434] and later on stage [43738]); exhausted and resigned (summing up Emilys life [438]); and angry (at
nursery school teacher [434] and convalescent home [435-36]).
Ask students to consider other passages for tone. As much as her words, the mothers
tone will reveal her deepest feelings about her daughter and their relationship.
4. Ironing is associated with the mother. Since Emilys birth, she has had to iron out a
relentless barrage of difficulties just to survive. Ironing, an image of drudgery and
toil, suggests the mothers life.
5. Yes, in many ways I Stand Here Ironing is a bleak story. However, the story is
about survival. The mother and her children survive difficult circumstances with no
relief from government or family and despite some questionable decisions of the
mother, including, perhaps, the number of children she had. And still there is hope.
Emily has stage potential, which hopefully will be developed despite her less than
enthusiastic feelings for school. Also, although we only see a brief interaction
between mother and daughter, their relationship seems surprisingly healthy. At times,
Emily is communicative with her mother and tells her everything (438). Emily
seems to be both witty and sympathetic in her comment about her mothers ironing.
Perhaps too, as the mother moves out of the very attentive child rearing years, she
will spend more time with Emily and develop a still closer relationship with her and
the other children. The story can therefore be read as a story of survival.
6. You might direct student attention to the states of mind of the mothers.

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War Luigi Pirandello (p. 439)

Possible Responses to Questions page 442
1. Responses will vary, but most students will have expected a war story, set on a
battlefield or on a military compound of some sort, with soldiers as characters. The
story, of course, is concerned with how parents of soldiers respond to war and how
these parents confront the emotional stress.
2. The second-class compartment, the ordinary dress, and a face with missing teeth
indicate characters from the lower or working classes. The train too suggests that the
characters are in physical and emotional transit and that they cannot fully determine
their destinations. They are driven onward by an unseen locomotive and engineer,
suggesting their powerlessness. The train could represent their emotions, which can
control them in such stressful times, and for some prove overwhelming, but the train
might represent the State, which dictates parts of their lives and orders their children
to war. Students might find political implications here. Refer them to Marxist
Critical Perspectives in Chapter Twenty-four.
In addition, the setting influences the storys action, which occurs on a train in a
stuffy and smoky second-class carriage in which five people had already spent the
night. The characters are exhausted, extremely uncomfortable, cramped, irritable,
tense, in short, primed for an argument. This explains the lack of sympathy for the
bulky woman hoisted in, the conflicts in their discussion, and perhaps the absurdity
in their attempting to quantify love or grief. Their discussion might have been
conducted in a different tone had they spent a restful night, showered, and ate
breakfast.
3. War is told by a third person who does not participate in the action. Pirandello
limits the omniscience of the narrator to the feelings of the grief-stricken woman. We
enter her consciousness to see what she thinks and feels. Focusing on her, the story
follows her perception of what is said and done. But when she says, Then is your
son really dead? the narrative focus shifts (442). We are not told the effect of the
mans sobs on the woman as we had previously been shown how his earlier speech
had affected her. Instead, we are given a more objective, detached, and dramatic
view. The shift in point of view at a climactic moment reinforces the idea that the
story is more about the man than the woman and that only in confronting his grief
does he realize the extent of his loss. This seems to be the storys central concern.
It is interesting to trace with students Pirandellos shifts from dialogue to
description, from one character to another, and from external action to internal
feeling. These shifts slow the story down and invite us to pause and reflect, as they
highlight places where something important is being said.
4. The characters are not highly individualized, though they are described with brief
particularity. They exist as types rather than as fully developed characters. They
seem to represent alternative ways of responding to grief, and also to typify opposing

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views of parents relationships to their children. As we observe their dialogue and

behavior we come to understand them.
As a result of the conversation aboard the train, at least two of the characters
change. The woman who poses the question to the man boards the train distraught
and self-pitying. For three months, words could not console her, but the travelers
words stuck home. She moves out of herself and realizes that she is not alone in her
suffering. She is beginning to enter a new stage in the grieving process and thus she
begins to come to terms with her loss.
Only at the moment of the womans question does the man fully realize his
tragedy. He has been camouflaging his grief with elaborate rationalizations and
perhaps drinking (bloodshot eyes). As the story ends, he breaks down and, finally,
confronts his loss and enters the grieving process.
War seems to suggest that camouflaging or repressing grief is unnatural, and
that confronting ones tragedy is necessary before healing can take place.
5. The story is less about the action or experience of war than about its consequences. It
is indeed about war, but from the perspective of the soldiers parents, whose
involvement is no less intense for not being directly participatory. Or we can see the
story as not one about war at all, but rather about parents love for their children. Or,
to shift our attention a bit, we might think of War as a story about grief and the
ways people come to terms with it.
6. The stories all take a different perspective: that of parents in War, soldiers in the
combat zone in The Things They Carried, captive soldiers in Guests of a Nation,
and a returning soldier in Soldiers Home.

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall Katherine Anne Porter (p. 443)

Possible Responses to Questions page 449
1. Responses will vary, but Granny does not fully appreciate Cornelias efforts. She
may resent her dependence on Cornelia: She was always being tactful and kind
good and dutiful Id like to spank her (444). Through her attentiveness,
Cornelia reminds Granny that she is old, whereas Lydia and Jimmy, says Granny,
still seek her advice (445).
2. Grannys name is fitting. She has had to endure or weather a great deal: the birth of
five children, early widowhood, strenuous physical labor, milk-leg and double
pneumonia (443), the death of a child, an earlier close call with death, and, of
course, unrequited love and a being jilted.
3. Granny is still bitter about her jilting. Although she had a good marriage with John
and she grew to love him, she felt as if something were missing from her relationship,
something George took from her (447). She is unable to identify what she lost, but
perhaps it is passion or the ability to trust another man so deeply as to form an intense

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bond with him. As part of their response, students should review passages concerning
the jilting (446, 447, 448) as well as the storys final paragraph.
4. It is unlikely if Granny ever forgot George. If she had forgotten him, she would not
be so anxious to see him now. In fact, Georges jilting of Granny is a shaping
moment in her life. Her life and character, as the response to question #3 suggests,
were forever changed because of the jilting. More likely, Granny wants to see George
so that he will be aware of what he missed out on. She wants George to see how she
has survived and prospered, and realize that the loss was really his. Its a form of
revenge.
5. In death, Granny is jilted a second time, but now by Christ in the image of a
bridegroom. The likely reason is that Granny has not forgiven George, and thus is not
spiritually prepared for the kingdom of heaven. In the story, Granny considers how
she had once prepared for death only to survive. She then determined never to
prepare again. As death approaches, Granny says, Im taken by surprise (448), and
blows out the candle, representing life, and descends into the darkness of death. The
ending is grim, but perhaps since Granny was a Roman Catholic, we can infer that
she will earn salvation after a period in purgatory. (Porter converted to Catholicism
before her first marriage.) When discussing the ending, I find it illuminating and
provoking to reference Matthew 25: 1-13, the parable about the ten bridesmaids who
went out to meet the bridegroom.
6. Grannys illness and medication induce altered states of consciousness, including
hallucinations and distortions. As a result she blurs the distinction between past and
present and confuses her location. Porter uses a stream-of-consciousness technique to
record the thoughts, memories, emotions, and judgments as they enter Grannys
consciousness. By entering her mind so thoroughly and seemingly without edit,
Porter creates a powerful portrait of a dying woman. To illustrate Porters use of
stream of consciousness, we read closely either one or two passages. While several
passages work well, I would suggest either the middle paragraphs on page 444,
almost any passage on pages 445-46, or the middle paragraphs on page 448.
7. Responses will vary. Has being jilted made the characters stronger, more self-reliant?
8. Responses will vary. This question will afford students the opportunity to look at
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall from the caregivers perspective.

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Gimpel the Fool Isaac Bashevis Singer (p. 450)

Possible Responses to Questions page 459
1. Responses will vary.
2. Passive by nature, Gimpel finds it easier to accept the continual abuse than to fight
against it. Consider his responses to the ridicule and jokes: I think to myself: Let it
pass (450); everything is possible (450-51); Besides, you cant pass through
life unscathed (451).
3. The rabbi is the only person in the story who does not take advantage of Gimpel.
While he communicates honestly with Gimpel and tries to provide him with direction,
his advice and guidance are rather stiff and bookish. Given Gimpels situation, the
rabbi may have needed to do more. For instance, when Gimpel seeks advice on how
to handle the incessant abuse, the rabbi tells him: It is written, better to be a fool all
your days than for one hour to be evil. You are not a fool. They are the fools. For he
who causes his neighbor to feel shame loses Paradise (451). This advice becomes
Gimpels credo. He will continue to tolerate the abuse and wait for the afterlife.
At one point, following Elkas death, Gimpel almost yields to the temptation of
revenge. However, his conscience and a vision of a dead and suffering Elka warns
him that if he serves the bread with the urine he will jeopardize his chances for
Paradise. He decides to bury the bread, divide his savings among Elkas children, and
live a nomadic life telling stories and philosophizing. Despite his departure and
traveling, his passivity increases. His interactions are brief and eventually he settles
at the entrance to the cemetery waiting for death and his opportunity to enter
Paradise.
4. Gimpel narrates his story in a tone of acceptance. He is matter-of-fact and nondramatic about the extreme set of circumstances and events that shape his life. His
use of understatement is fitting for his relaxed temperament and adds humor to the
story. He calls his rather vulgar wife plainspoken (452), and when he finds her in
bed with another man for a second time and then is struck by her son, he says, I felt
that something about me was deadly wrong (456-57). And in a statement that seems
to summarize his life: Shoulders are from God, and burdens too (454).
He asks rhetorical questions that he thinks will support his position that he is
basically helpless and defenseless. But readers may not respond so agreeably.
Consider the following: after he agrees to see his parents who supposedly had arisen
from their graves, he asks What did I stand to lose by looking? (451). When he
hears his bride-to-be has been widowed and divorced, he asks, But what was I to do,
run away from under the marriage canopy? (452). These and other similar questions
might make many readers question whether Gimpel was a bit too tolerant. Students
might consider Gimpels options. He is both intelligent and strong. He becomes
something of a rich man in Frampol through his bakery (457), and he tells us he is
no weakling if he wanted he could slap someone all the way to Cracow (450).

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5. As stated in #3, Gimpel bases his philosophy on the rabbis advice to him. Rather
than take action against his antagonists, Gimpel decides to leave, fearful that revenge
will cost him his place in the afterlife. Gimpels image of Paradise reveals his deep
sadness. He defines it with negatives rather superlatives. It is a place without
ridicule, without deception there even Gimpel cannot be deceived (459, italics
mine). Furthermore, in an effort to diminish this world, he calls it only imaginary
only once removed from the true world. His image of Paradise expresses his pain,
underscoring the suffering his tormentors caused him, while emphasizing his longing
for a simple and peaceful existence.
While Gimpels unwavering faith in a just afterlife is admirable, he fails to
reconcile his faith with a practical way to live in this world. He cannot create a
cohesive philosophy binding his strong business skills with his reflective, passive life.
He becomes obsessed with the afterlife to the point that he no longer seeks any
happiness on earth and decides to wait for death. Since Gimpels life is ultimately
unfulfilling, I dont think Singer endorses his values at least not completely.
6. Both Gimpel and Brown reconstruct their lives based on visions. Both, at least in
part, withdraw from the human community. Brown seems more pessimistic about
human nature and redemption, whereas Gimpels storytelling, particularly to the
young, suggests some hopefulness. Although Brown remains at home and fathers
several more children, he is more withdrawn than Gimpel, who leaves home.

Bad Characters Jean Stafford (p. 460)

Possible Responses to Questions page 472
1. Responses will vary. Emily and Lottie are familiar childhood types. Emily is the
child who thinks she is wiser and more rebellious than she really is, while Lottie is
wiser than her years and more rebellious for her own good. Lottie enjoys showing off
and bragging about her bad behavior to Emily, whom Lottie sees as a potential
partner in crime.
2. In the opening paragraph, the narrators behavior and language, as described by the
narrator, lead us to believe that the voice is that of a boy. When we hear that the
narrators name is Emily, we are surprised and find it amusing, and perhaps our
interest is stimulated a little bit more.
3. Emily defines herself as a bad character (467). While her actions and language can
be cruel and her tantrums childish, she is nowhere near as bad as she thinks. She
exaggerates when she says, if Id rooted out all the badness in me, there wouldnt
have been anything left of me (472). What she considers bad behavior, which
does need addressing, seems largely to be that of a spoiled or immature child. She is
more innocent and less worldly than she supposes. In fact, most of the illustrations of

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her bad character or her awful tongue are more humorous than alarming, such as
when she calls Virgil a son of a sea cook (461). Note the contrast with Lottie, who
not only swears but also steals, and then has the presence of mind to cover up the
theft by coolly feigning deafness. Lotties behavior is genuinely alarming, and Emily
might be right when she says Lottie is now probably either on stage or in jail (471).
Emilys overall goodness is revealed by her innocence and conscience: she
believes that Lotties teacher killed several people with her ruler (463), and she does
not know the slang meaning of the word lift (464). In fact, when Lottie proposes
stealing, Emily is stunned, having never conceived of participating in a crime.
Naively, she exclaims that stealing is a sin (464). Furthermore, she expresses guilt
about taking money from her mite box intended for widows and for being mean about
baby-sitting her younger sister Tess (467). I also think Emilys conscience will not
allow Lottie to carry out the theft (470-71).
After spending time with Lottie, Emily acknowledges that her own life is deadly
prim (464). However, she feels like Somebody next to the villainous Lottie (469),
expressing a familiar childhood pride and thrill when one is deemed acceptable by the
toughs. But the experience Emily relates is a shaping experience for her, one in
which she loses much of her fascination with being bad. As a result, she becomes
more sociable and more tolerant of others and more capable of retaining friendships.
4. Emilys seriousness creates humor, especially when she so gravely discusses her
wicked exploits and bad character (see, e.g., the first paragraph or 467). Although
unintentionally, Emily also exaggerates: she describes Lottie as this lofty Somebody
from Oklahoma who was going to hold up the dime store (469). She also says the
floorwalker wanted to sentence her to reform school for life for her part in the
shoplifting (471). There is humor too in the contrast between Lotties experience and
daring and Emilys innocence.
Stafford also retains the light tone by setting the story in the somewhat distant
past. As the first sentence states, this is a story about someone who learned a lesson;
in other words, everything worked out fine. The narrator is an adult looking back at
an episode in her youth, which is obvious by the vocabulary. It is this adult
perspective which allows for the tongue-in-cheek irony of the references to her bad
character.
5. Yes, Emily is privileged. Emilys family is financially comfortable and well
connected. Judge Bay is a regular guest in the family home. Lottie recognizes her
friends status with their exchange of names (462). But Lottie is not just poor, but
neglected as well: her clothes are not just ill-fitting and old, but also dirty; she did
not brush her teeth; her hair probably had nits, and her parents exercise little control
over her. In fact, she reminds Emily of a dog who lives on handouts (463). Emily
has advantages over Lottie, but does this imply that something is wrong with America
and its system? This question can be addressed in a writing assignment. What could
or should the government do about the Lotties in America? Require that students
keep their responses and recommendations practical and doable.

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6. You may ask students to concentrate on how adults in the dominant ethnic or cultural
group treat the minority or disadvantaged children in the stories.

Why I Live at the P.O. Eudora Welty (p. 473)

Possible Responses to Questions page 481
1. Responses will vary, but perhaps students can compare the narrators family to
dysfunctional and comical families from a popular television series or a film as well
as literature.
2. A close reading of the first paragraph will reveal a large part of the narrators
character. She unwittingly exposes her own bitterness, pettiness, vindictiveness,
jealousy, and aggression. We should be immediately suspicious of her opening
statement. Could a person who expresses these emotions so quickly and directly be
easy to get along with? While our reading experience confirms our thoughts of her
character, we could never anticipate her extreme reactions and responses to events in
the home or her often-bizarre behavior. What we do discover about her as we read is
how little self-awareness she possesses.
3. While the narrator is obviously the protagonist, the antagonist might not be so
apparent to students. They may too quickly identify Stella-Rondo, but she has other
concerns than battling her sister. It is the narrator who launches her attack on StellaRondo practically upon her return. More accurately, the antagonist is the narrator
herself. The narrator is her own obstacle to any peacefulness she claims to desire. It
is her bitterness and resentment towards her sister that consciously and unconsciously
drive her to disturb whatever peace is present in the home. She is not able to
overlook the past with her sister, especially what she sees as her sisters theft of Mr.
Whitaker. The narrator attacks Stella-Rondo and her daughter at every opportunity.
For example, she keeps raising the issue of the daughters adoption. She is implying
that Stella-Rondo was pregnant at the time of her marriage. It is her obsession with
getting revenge on her sister that brings about the crisis in the story.
4. It is difficult to find the narrator reliable. If she were getting along fine with her
family, why are they so quick to turn on her? Her vengefulness makes it difficult for
the reader to believe much of what she says. For instance, are we really to believe
that she was trying to preserve her sisters dress and watch out for her trousseau
(478)? Do we believe her when she claims to be just terribly sensitive to noise of
any kind, and did the doctor really say that she was the most sensitive person he
had ever seen in his whole life (478) or did he intend it as she thinks? Her selfpitying and her petty-mindedness make her comments and narration difficult to trust.
Consider her statement that she shudders to think of the reception she would have
received if she had been in Stella-Rondos position (476), or the things she takes with
her when she leaves home: including a motor to a sewing machine once given to her
mother as a family Christmas present (479). Her words and her irrational behavior

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cause us to doubt almost everything she says. Even though she does not admit it,
perhaps she did say that Papa-Daddy should cut his beard.
5. This family hardly exemplifies what is commonly referred to as family values.
They do not seem very nurturing, supportive, loving, or tolerant of one another.
Instead, they are irascible, quick tempered, and inconsiderate.
6. Responses will vary, but all these families in some way are dysfunctional and do not
meet the needs of its members.

Contemporaries
Indian Education Sherman Alexie (p. 482)
Possible Responses to Questions page 482
1. Responses will vary. This question could stimulate an interesting student essay.
2. One of the ways to explore the narrators character is through the tone of the story.
His tone is serious, even humorless, laced with frustration and restrained bitterness.
This is not a pleasant look back at his schooldays. For contrast, consider the tone of
Staffords Bad Characters. In Indian Education the narrators experiences
throughout his school years have left him wary of the white, dominant culture and, as
the Postscript suggests, frustrated by the lack of improvement in his peoples
condition. The narrator is obviously proud of his Indian heritage, embittered by the
continued discrimination of his people, and frustrated by Indian resignation to their
condition.
3. Much of the storys force is derived from its episodic structure. The acute brevity of
the vignettes with their powerful closing sentences gives the work a sharpness that
drives home the focus of each vignette. The episodes are linked by character,
chronology, tone, and theme, as all involve the experience of growing up as an Indian
and realizing what it is to be an Indian in America. The author learns from being
humiliated and empowers himself as he rejects the dominant cultures and sometimes
his own cultures perceptions of Indianness. The title obviously refers not just to his
formal education.
4. Because of their compactness, the episodes lend themselves very well to an exercise
or a writing assignment intended to sharpen analytical reading abilities.
5. Responses will vary. It should be noted that the narrator cannot so easily separate the
team name from the culture. Consider the implications of naming sports teams after

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cultures. Is their something inherently disrespectful about this practice? Does it

suggest a trivialization or further marginalization of those cultures and peoples? Does
it suggest cultures that are no longer extant or viable? Is their a difference between
names like the Vikings and Trojans and the Black Hawks and Indians?
6. The story is about various cultural clashes. Most of the vignettes concern conflicts
between white American culture and Indian culture (among others, Second Grade,
Sixth Grade, Eleventh Grade, Twelfth Grade). However, some concern conflicts
between Indians with different cultural perceptions and responses from those of the
narrator (First Grade, Fifth Grade), while one demonstrates a clash between two
minority cultures (Ninth Grade). In Seventh Grade, the narrator is conflicted over his
cultural obligation. The story focuses on the forces that keep Indians excluded from
full participation in the American dream. As the above breakdown suggests, Indians
have been victimized primarily by the white majority culture, but other forces have
contributed to their marginalization as well. The narrator may have escaped
repression through learning, sports, and an occasional word of inspiration (Fourth
Grade), but he is understanding and sympathetic to those Indians who have turned to
alcohol and drugs.
7. Students might examine the issue of identity and cultural confusion in these works.

The Kiss Julia Alvarez (p. 488)

Possible Responses to Questions page 495
1. Responses will vary, but students need to note what the father demands of his
daughters. Before their marriages, he expects them to live according to his somewhat
inflexible code of morality and behavior, and, even after their marriages, he expects
devotion from them (488). He re-exerts his control over them by giving them an
annual cash gift and insisting that, on his birthday, they spend the night in his home
without their husbands. Although his stubborn old-world mindset suggests great
confidence in his cultural traditions, there are signs, ironically enough, that indicate
that he feels a cultural inferiority and insecurity. For instance, he calls his new
grandson Charles and considers the great Charleses of the world, not the great
Carloses, and he is pleased by his grandsons fair Nordic looks (489). He seems to
realize that survival in America depends on assimilation, but he does not want to yield
his own household dominance in the process, and therefore he insists that his
daughters call him by the Hispanic Papi.
2. Although the daughters all came of age in the late sixties and might have protested
against the military-industrial complex, the three oldest daughters would never
challenge the father (490). Sofia, his maverick, was different (490). The youngest
daughter and the most rebellious, Sofia did not allow herself to be restricted by her
father the way the third daughter especially was. Sofia did not repress her
animalistic nature and gave off a fresh, wholesome smell of clean flesh (490).

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Much to her fathers disapproval, she had always gone her own way and had
challenged her father with her many boyfriends, her dropping out of college, and
leaving home without being married (490). Both Sofia and her father are stubborn
and strong-willed.
In the present of the story, Sofia tries to reconcile with her father. However, her
father is not completely willing. He no doubt sees reconciliation as a sign of
weakness and would at least need an apology from Sofia. But the prodding of the
mother and the birth of Sofias son, the first male born into the family in two
generations, compels the father to reach what he might consider a truce with Sofia,
but not a full reconciliation. He would be content it seems to carry his grudge to the
grave (492). Although Sofia does not seem willing to apologize to her father she
would argue she did nothing wrong she does make several gestures of
reconciliation: visits his home one birthday, invites him to see his first grandchild,
then names her son after him, and stages an elaborate seventieth birthday party for her
father, creating a weekend that would offend no one (492). Sofia sincerely wanted
to host a peaceful, fun-filled, uncontroversial visit, one that would at least begin to
repair their strained relationship, although she really wanted to reconcile with her
father in a big way (492). (See response #3.)
3. The weekend did not go as Sofia had planned however. She did not get the gesture of
forgiveness, love, or respect from her father that she had expected. He avoids
embracing his daughter at the door (492), and he never warms up to her. In fact, he
does several things that antagonize his daughter. He is attentive to his grandson, but
inattentive to his granddaughter; he commends Otto for his choice of musicians,
although Sofia selected them; he speaks to Sofia in the same tone of voice he uses for
his sons-in-laws, not his other daughters (492), and he never guesses her name during
the party kiss game (495). Feeling unappreciated and angry at his stubbornness, she
decides to take revenge for a second time in her life. Her erotic kiss is her revenge.
The father is humiliated and embarrassed, and soon the party and any chance of their
reconciliation ends.
What needs to be remembered is that the father is especially conservative in
sexual matters. His biggest fear was having loose women in my family an
attitude the daughters had to put up with (490). Even after their marriages, the
daughters lowered their voices when speaking of their bodies pleasures when their
father was within earshot (490). Earlier in the party, the mother looked angrily at her
third daughter when her comment about the gift of a watch had a sexual innuendo
(493), and the father looked disapprovingly at the third daughter who made
musical chairs of every mans lap (494). Sofia knew the effect her kiss would have,
but was frustrated over his response to her efforts at reconciliation. Therefore, she
decided to stand up to her father for a second time, and once again challenge his
values and sense of appropriate behavior.
In part, Sofia is the product of her new culture, while the father clings to his oldworld values. However, because he is uncompromising and unyielding, he misses out
on his daughters presence in his life. He kept to his revenge and it cost him his
youngest daughter (492). Despite Sofias movement toward reconciliation, the father

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and daughter never confront the root of their problem, and worse, do not seem
capable of such a discussion.
The relationship between the third daughter and the father should also be
considered. Remember when she was younger, she was tentative and terrified and
had such problems with men (490). We hear that she is divorced, but at the party she
hardly seems fearful of men. Ask students to speculate on her character. Why was
she so afraid of men? What might have gone wrong with her marriage? Is the root of
her problem in her relationship with her father? What made her lose her fear of men?
Are there clues in the story? Because hers in not the prime focus in this in The
Kiss, there are no definitive answers to these questions.
4. See response to #1. The father can be difficult for his sons-in-law. For example,
although none of them really wants to go to his home on his birthday, they resent his
control of their wives, which they might consider disrespectful of both their wives
and themselves. The father is not very warm to his sons-in-law, preferring to keep his
distance as his tone of voice suggests (492). Furthermore, he does not see his sons as
real men, their new values and approaches to women make them childish to him; he
believes he is the real man (494). Yet the father seems insecure in their presence,
watching them at the party, jealous of their position in his daughters lives and
insecure that they have replaced him. There is no doubt some tension in the fathersons-in-law relationships, but, on the whole, the sons-in-law seem to tolerate him and
thereby minimize the tension.
5. Both The Kiss and Taking a Husband depict conflicts resulting from contrasting
cultures.
For another interesting comparison, you might discuss father-children
relationships in The Kiss and The Prodigal Son.

Happy Endings Margaret Atwood

Possible Responses to Questions page 499
1. Responses will vary.
2. The six sections of the story hold together primarily because of point of view, which
is third-person omniscient, but more significantly that of an author contemplating a
work of fiction. I use Happy Endings to introduce my students to metafiction,
which I define as fiction about fiction or a fictional work that explores the nature of
fiction. A force in postmodern literature, metafiction has been a technique used by
authors like John Barth, Robert Coover, John Fowles, Norman Mailer, and Gilbert
Sorrentino, and by modern authors like Henry James and Marcel Proust, and as far
back as Laurence Sterne. Atwood takes us into the consciousness of an author as she
considers a new work of fiction. The author seems to have her characters, several
workable plot outlines, but cannot proceed until she decides the ending. She

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struggles with whether to give readers a happy ending, which they prefer, or an
unhappy ending, which she considers more truthful. Her tone is methodical and
workmanlike, but towards the end she expresses some frustration and exasperation,
especially with audience expectations (see F).
Happy Endings opens the way for a discussion about the nature of fiction.
Focus on the last several paragraphs, particularly the references to endings being
fake and authentic. Ask students how fiction can be authentic. Isnt all fiction
a fabrication and therefore by definition fake? Such questions give us an
opportunity to argue for the importance and authenticity of fiction.
Consider the closing line here as well. How and Why suggest it is the
authors obligation to consider the difficult questions of life and to try to provide
some answers or speculations about lifes deepest mysteries.
3. The author wants to write an authentic work of fiction. Therefore, there cannot be a
happy ending, not only because life ends in death, but also because happiness, the
author suggests, is unattainable. To write that the central characters lived happily
ever after is to be deceptive, foolishly optimistic, or sentimental. The finality of death
is emphasized by the repetition and italics on John and Mary die. There is no way
around the fact of death, this italicized and repeated line seems to say. The common
names of John and Mary suggest they are representative of all individuals.
4. Ask students to define a short story and to identify Happy Endings protagonist and
antagonist, the protagonists objective, and other fundamental questions. They will
come away with a more flexible definition of fiction.
By focusing on a fictional author and her struggle to work out an idea for a work
of fiction, Happy Endings takes us into the thought process of one author. We see
her considerations and what is especially important to her (telling the truth, for
instance), even if it conflicts with audience desires and expectations.
5. Responses will vary. But the exercise will encourage students to consider authors and
their intent with stories and how they manipulate their material toward a certain end.

The Lesson Toni Cade Bambara (p. 500)

Possible Responses to Questions page 505
1. Responses will vary. Students should consider a situation in which they felt like the
other or an outsider.
2. The narrator, Sylvia, is an embittered young girl. She presents a tough exterior and
she resists Miss Moores teaching and guidance. Miss Moore is patient with her as
she realizes Sylvias quick intelligence, frustration, and potential. Sylvias anger is
directed at everyone and everything in the story: her neighborhood, Miss Moore,
their homes, her friends, the cab driver, and white people on Fifth Avenue. Her anger
and tough exterior result from her sense of resentment and powerlessness although

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she might not have been able to identify the source of those feelings until the visit to
F.A.O. Schwarz. The question she asks in the second paragraph on page 504
articulates what has been in the back of her mind all her life: What kinda work they
do and how they live and how come we aint in on it? The visit brings her to realize
and then verbalize her feeling of exclusion and marginalization. She is too perceptive
not to be aware of her condition and too proud to humble herself like Flyboy (502).
Sylvia is not angry about missing a day of swimming. Rather she is angry about
confronting her feelings of inferiority and of being ashamed see middle of page
503. She is insecure and resistant to Miss Moores guidance and teaching, especially
because Miss Moore challenges the faade that Sylvia has constructed to make her
life tolerable. Superficially, she feels some empowerment by ridiculing her friends
and people in the neighborhood, and she resents yielding that power to Miss Moore,
to whom Sylvia does not talk directly (503). Miss Moore disturbs Sylvias world by
elevating her awareness and exposing her to new perspectives. At the end of the
story, Sylvia goes off by herself to think through her experience and her feelings.
Miss Moore has begun to get through to her.
3. The story wants to point out the contrast in American culture between the haves and
the have-nots. Bambara draws a stark, immediate, and overwhelming contrast, one
intensified by the proximity between the remarkably different worlds of Manhattans
midtown Fifth Avenue and Harlem, separated in distance by only a few miles and a
quick taxi ride. Bambara hopes to prod the reader into questioning the fairness of a
society in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family
of six of seven (504).
4. Miss Moore is one of her neighborhoods unusual characters which Bambara
implies is regrettable. She demonstrates pride by dressing as if she was going to
church (500); she insists on being called Miss Moore, and she is college educated.
She tries to embody an alternative for the children. She wants them to see the
possibilities available to them, specifically the possibility of recreating the self. She
wants them not to accept their marginalization but rather to demand inclusion in the
American Dream. She sacrifices for the children and offers them broad instruction on
topics as diverse as mathematics, economics, self-discipline, morality, brotherhood
(501), responsibility, and politics. Through example and Socratic questioning, she is
subtle, careful about being too didactic and intimidating, and suggestive consider
when she asks about their desks at home (502). Behind all she does and says is an
attempt to motivate the children to create a better and more fulfilling lifestyle for
themselves and then, through example and reaching out, others in their communities.
Opinions will vary about whether she is a dramatic character or mouthpiece for
Bambara. Certainly, the author uses her to try to guide the children and the reader to
consider a particular perspective with specific conclusions concerning American
culture.
5. Responses will vary. I suggest that the story is saved from being overly didactic and
obviously contrived because of Sylvias character. Sylvia seems a very real
adolescent caught in a very real struggle. She is at a pivotal point in her life, trying to

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determine the proper response to her environment and her experiences. The emphasis
on her character not only supports the political dimension of the story, but also gives
it credibility.
6. These stories are told from a young persons perspective and primarily deal with
turning points in their lives.

Cathedral Raymond Carver (p. 506)

Possible Responses to Questions page 516
1. Responses will vary. But before commenting on the narrator, students need to
consider his rather empty life. After all, he has no interests and no friends, dislikes
his job, is non-spiritual, smokes dope, avoids sleep, has nightmares, and sees his
marriage deteriorating. His smugness, arrogance, and indelicate sense of humor are
devices he uses to mask his insecurity, discontent, and overall emptiness. He does not
confront his own despair.
2. Before Roberts arrival and throughout much of the evening, the narrator is
insensitive to Robert. He is trying to diminish Roberts stature which, in his
insecurity, he perceives as a threat: My wife finally took her eyes off the blind man
and looked at me. I had the feeling she didnt like what she saw (509). Throughout
the evening, the narrator tries to elevate himself at the expense of Robert which
does not work. The narrator has stereotypical notions of the blind (derived from the
movies, 506), but all are broken by Robert. For instance, the narrator is surprised by
his appearance (his beard, dress), his actions (the way he eats), and his responses
(good-naturedly, for instance, to his snide question regarding his seat on the train, and
his addressing the narrator as Bub).
3. Robert refuses to be intimidated by anything the narrator does. I think Robert
assesses the narrator rather quickly, and determines that he will do a social service
for him. (Robert worked in a social service office, 506.) Robert waits for an
opportunity when he is alone with the narrator to raise his level of human and selfawareness. Although he was tired, Robert fought off sleep and drowsiness until he
found just the right moment to enlighten the narrator.
4. I like to chart the narrators movement to enlightenment with my students. After
reviewing his character, as outlined in #1 above, we consider the events of the
evening after dinner. We build our discussion around, among a few others, the
following passages, which will establish Roberts motive and the narrators gradual
change:
Although he is tired, Robert refuses to go to bed: Ill stay up until
youre ready to turn in. We havent had a chance to talk. I feel like me and her
monopolized the evening (512).

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 With ironic awareness, Robert tells the narrator: Whatever you want
to watch is okay. Im always learning something. Learning never ends. It wont
hurt me to learn something tonight (512).
The narrator is uncomfortable, almost intimidated by Roberts intense
listening to the television while he tugs his beard (bottom 512). Yet at the same
time, he feels some sympathy for his struggle to comprehend what appears on the
television.
In a compassionate and helpful gesture, the narrator reports the images
on the screen to Robert and takes seriously Roberts question about frescoes (513
middle top). This discussion represents a break through as the narrator
communicates with Robert without sarcasm or perceived rivalry.
The narrator struggles to help Robert understand the appearance of a
cathedral only to admit that he is not doing so well (513-14). He would not have
made such an admission earlier in the story.
Robert asks about the narrators religious beliefs. The narrator begins
to open up, however vaguely and tentatively, about his personal struggles:
Sometimes its hard. You know what Im saying? (514). The question prods
the narrator, however briefly, to contemplate his spirituality.
The drawing of the cathedral (515). Their joined hands around the
pencil literalizes the bonding which is occurring between the two men. The
narrators intensity and concentration are emphasized when he ignores his wifes
interruption. (At first, she probably thought her husband was playing a prank on
Robert.) The narrators closed eyes, which he keeps shut after Robert says to
open them, seems at once an act of repentance and empathy, as well as a way to
prolong this moving experience.
The closing lines. Robert says, I think thats it. I think you got it.
The narrator in the closing line responds, Its really something, (515).
What does it represent? I would argue that it represents something profoundly
emotional, something difficult for the narrator or Robert to put into words. The
intense contact with Robert brings the narrator human understanding, compassion,
self-awareness, and renewed zest and passion for life. Note how the enthusiasm in
the tone of the narrators closing line contrasts with virtually every other statement of
his in the story, which usually tend to be sardonic or in some way negative and sullen.
As the image of the cathedral implies, the narrator has gained a new appreciation for
the sacredness of the human experience. He is on the verge of self-renewal.
5. The story endorses the values embodied in Robert, which include, among others,
love, sharing, hope, self-fulfillment, self-realization, and sensitivity. Despite an

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individuals condition or situation, the story advocates self-development over self-pity

and participation in life over withdrawal. The narrators movement in the story can
be interpreted as a progression from isolation and self-pity to engagement and selfexamination.
6. As part of your response, you might consider whether the marriages are better off at
the end of the stories than at the beginning. What do the couples need to do to
improve their marriages? Also, consider how a third person causes the couples to
confront their marital difficulties.

Diamond Dust Anita Desai (p. 516)

Possible Responses to Questions page 523
1. Responses will vary, but most students will be able to make references to pampered
pets. This question could lead to an essay assignment.
2. Diamond has a liberating effect on Mr. Das, who since acquiring the pet has become
less restrained, more demonstrative, and less self-conscious. Diamond has renewed
Mr. Dass long-repressed passion and enthusiasm for life, reinvigorating it with
freshness and spontaneity. Because of Diamond, Mr. Das leads a more active life,
one more in touch with his both his own impulses and external nature. He is no
longer afraid to leave the sanitized community and safety of routine. To illustrate the
effect Diamond has on him, consider the contrast between Mr. Das and his friends on
the park bench (517, 518). In a passage on page 518, note how Mr. Das moves
passed his friends at a pace more suited to a youth of twenty, an athletic one at that.
Then symbolically he immerses himself into a landscape teeming with life: He
merely waved at his friends, seeing them arranged in a row on the bench, and, clearly
not intending to join their sedate company, disappeared behind a magnificent grove of
bamboos that twittered madly with mynah birds. Diamond has lifted Mr. Das off the
bench of propriety, decorum, standards of behavior (521) and sobriety (518), and
energized his life with activity and joy. Mr. Das, who can be overly defensive about
the dog, is grateful to him and reluctant to tame Diamonds primal impulses.
Certainly, Mr. Dass closeness to Diamond has strained his personal relationships.
His wife finds his pampering of the dog almost intolerable, declaring that he never
gave his children or grandchildren so much attention (517). The mailman and others
who make deliveries to his home are understandably threatened by Diamond while
Mr. Dass colleagues might be jealous or challenged by Mr. Dass relationship with
his pet. Rather then recognize Mr. Dass new found zest for life and challenge their
own sterility, the bench-sitting bureaucrats criticize Mr. Das as having taken leave of
his senses and pretend to worry about his career. Diamond has upset a neighborhood
in need of upsetting, one that has repressed a life force in the name of propriety,
decorum, standards of behavior (521) and lower-scale positions in a bureaucracy. As
the ending suggests, the town rejects Diamonds lead.

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3. The author sympathizes with Mr. Das. Consider the descriptions of Mrs. Das and the
bureaucrats on the park bench. Mrs. Das complains about the extra work Diamond
forces on her, like mopping up his puddles on the floor, but then the narrator notes
that the little servant girl actually did the cleaning (518). Furthermore, it is Mr. Das
who shops for Diamond in the stinking hellhole on the outskirts of the marketplace
and prepares the dogs buffalo meat, not Mrs. Das. But it is the narrators
descriptions of Mrs. Dass behavior that really cost her the readers sympathy. She
responds to Diamond with a melodramatic flair (519) and drama (521) that is
greatly exaggerated. She also is a bit hypocritical as she once indulged a pet cat
(519).
The bureaucrats come across as small-minded. They lead a safe life in fear of
jeopardizing their minor positions and their status in the community and among each
other. The ironic tone in the passages describing the bureaucrats further reveals the
narrators sympathy for Mr. Das. Consider the paragraph beginning on the bottom of
page 517, in which the narrator discusses their portly and stiff demeanor and how
they discuss Mr. Dass behavior: gravely, and with distaste, as became their age
and station the decent, elderly civil servants with a life of service and sobriety
behind them. The narrator has her tongue planted firmly in her cheek when
describing these pillars of the community. For another similar example, consider the
irony in the use of the word unfortunately just below the middle of page 518. Is it
really unfortunate that Mr. Das did not join his friends to hear their criticism?
4. The ending suggests that Diamond and the impulse for life that he represents has been
repressed by the community. Significantly, the dog-catcher, an agent of the
bureaucracy, encages Diamond and sets off to destroy him and the life force that he
might have stimulated in the community. In an act of love, appreciation, and
desperation, Mr. Das tries to save Diamond, but most likely dies in the process
perhaps emblematic of the communitys destruction of the powerful life impulses that
Diamond had stimulated within Mr. Das. While visually representative of his sleek
coat, the closing images of Diamond as dead coal or black star suggest the
communitys missed opportunity. The community never allowed itself to feel the heat
that coal can give off, nor does it aspire to the dreams and possibilities of life that
stars often suggest. The community is content to live a sedate life of propriety,
decorum, [and] standards of behavior (518, 517).
5. See above responses. The narrator suggests that the gossipy bureaucrats are unfair,
petty, and afraid of life. They are always presented seated on the bench, reflective of
their passivity and lack of engagement in life. This is a group that likes to watch one
another and fears each others comments. They are stiff (517), dour, and smug.
Mr. Das has been fortunate to escape them.
6. Consider how the protagonists in those stories have been separated from their
communities. How has the separation affected their lives?

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The Tumblers Nathan Englander (p. 524)

Possible Responses to Questions page 539
1. On first reading, the opening paragraphs seem to give the story a whimsical almost
fairy-tale quality. Chelm is a village that has strove to retain its seclusion, going so
far as passing a law with much fan-fare to prohibit clouds, whistles, and wind from
entering the town. However, the mention of war in the first sentence and the certainty
of its intrusion in the second, sets an ominous backdrop.
2. The irony in the story underscores the tragedy of the situation. Consider the incident
in which the young girl Yocheved was shot (528 bottom). A sniper shoots Yocheved
just before she is to be attacked by a guard dog. The bullet, which ends her life, is
described as a strange gift. The gift presumably spares her from a more horrible
death from the dog and or perhaps the suffering of the concentration camp.
Apparently, though, the sniper shot Yocheved rather than the dog because the dogs
life is more valuable than her life.
Similarly, when the Mahmirim mistakenly board a Gentile car, they are said to
be oblivious to their good fortune (529). Of course, they may have been fortunate,
but only comparatively. Good fortune would have been to remain in Chelm.
Also, it is ironic that the Mahmirim survive as a result not of retaining their strict
standards and codes of behavior, but because Mendel violates them in satisfying his
desire for alcohol, an act which puts the Mahmirim in grave danger. But, as the
narrator writes, only God can turn a selfish act into a miracle, and Mendel
unwittingly saves their lives (530). Throughout this story, the irony helps convey the
delicate balance between life and death for the Mahmirim.
3. Englander uses humor throughout the story to intensify the tragedy. Consider the
scene in which Raizel the widow departs the train with a monkey on a leash. She
changes the pace of their walk so as to confuse the monkey and grab his banana. She
tries repeatedly without success. The scene is visually funny. However, consider
Mendels reaction as this new degradation another display of wretchedness
brings tears to his eyes (536).
Consider also the ending of the story. The Mahmirims performance is so
awkward as to be funny. However, is it comically or tragically ironic when someone
terms their act a Jewish ballet? Although the Mahmirim escape the concentration
camp, consider the storys final paragraph with its closing, dramatic image of hands
reaching out from chimneys into ash-clouded sides (539). The joy in the
Mahmirims survival is muted because of an awareness of the tragic fate of those who
could not escape the Holocaust.
4. The Rebbe is a bold, resourceful leader of the Mahmirim. At first he seems eccentric
if not vain and foolish when he orders his followers to shave their beards and board
the train only in their long underwear. While his intention was to have the Mahmirim
contrast with the Mekyl and make it easier for the Mahmirim to stay in a group, their
strange appearance ultimately saves their lives. The Rebbe is an unselfish leader (see

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scene with the potato, 527), who realizes and responds to their desperate and bleak
situation with resourcefulness, decisiveness, and energy as he transforms the
Mahmirim into tumblers. While he might sound ridiculous insisting on certain laws
during tumbling (532), the laws are a means of maintaining order, standards,
hopefulness, and at least some routine and familiarity to their bizarre and perilous
situation. The laws matter, he seems to imply, because they will survive, even if
some humiliation must be tolerated. (Consider the Rebbes response to the Jewish
ballet comment, bottom page 538).
The Rebbe is also more tolerant than we might suppose, given the strict
observances of the Mahmirim. For instance, the Rebbe considers Mendel his favorite
(531), even though Mendel does not observe all the laws devotedly (531). The Rebbe
recognizes Mendels spirituality, which the Rebbe values above ritualistic behavior.
By not being overly restrictive of Mendels individuality, Mendel is better able to
serve his community without violating what the Rebbe would consider the most
important concerns of the Mahmirim.
As a result of the Rebbes wisdom, openness, and capable leadership, the
Mahmirim survive. Despite being aware of the dangers and even probable capture,
he keeps everyone focused and hopeful.
5. There are several probable purposes why Englander wrote The Tumblers.
Certainly, he dramatizes the devastation and horror caused by Nazi efficiency (see
537) and its systematic approach to dissolve Jews and shtetls (see 526), thereby
writing both a eulogy for those killed and a tribute to those who survived. But the
story is also about compassion and the human spirits resourcefulness (526). The
Romanians put their own lives at risk by reaching out to help the Mahmirim, and the
Mahmirim demonstrate great courage, resourcefulness, and love of life in their quest
for survival.
6. Both passages show how fragile and tentative the line between life and death was for
the Jews during the Nazi regime. Yocheved loses Mendel and the Rebbe as they enter
the tunnel. She turned to see her uncle being brutalized, and remembered the gifts he
always had for her. The next moment she is dead, shot by a sniper before the
shepherd gets to her. On the other hand, the Mahmirim survive in part because the
Romanians, seeing the Mahmirims peculiar appearance, are reminded of a performer
and his trained bear and the enjoyment they derived from his pranks. They think the
Mahmirim might be a new source of entertainment for them, so they allow them to
board and thereby help to protect them.
In the second passage, a Romanian explains that the Nazis have been
extinguishing the Jews. For the Nazis, he suggests, the Holocaust is little more than a
magic trick or an illusion, requiring little or no emotional investment. It would seem
that Englander intends the analogy to disturb readers as we consider the capacity for
evil that the human spirit can accommodate.
7. You might organize a discussion comparing tone and setting or Gimpel and Mendel,
two very distinctive personalities in their shtetls.

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8. Consider the effects of totalitarian regimes on the individuals in the stories.

To The Gate Ursula Hegi (p. 540)

Possible Responses to Questions page 543
1. Responses will vary.
2. Elise struggles with maintaining her connection to life. She is so consumed with
caring for her dying father, that she feels she is in danger of losing her own life
impulse. As a result she often feels numb, almost going through life in a catatonic
state. She seems to feel some guilt about her lack of emotional response to her dying
father: This is my father who is dying. Yet she feels nothing (540, authors italics).
An important clue as to why she seems lodged in this state of numbness can be
found in her reaction to her mothers death: rage, grief, guilt (541). Rather than
experience those feelings again, she subconsciously shuts down. The lack of feeling
and lack of a life impulse frightens her, as she feels her ambition and energy slipping
away. She wonders, for instance, if she can return to law school after her fathers
death (541).
3. Alarmed by her lack of emotional response to her fathers dying, she tries to activate
her life impulse through sensory experience. She needs to feel alive, and the most
immediate way to obtain that feeling is through the senses. She seeks out sensory
experience at the racetrack, at the bar, and with her father in the closing paragraphs of
the story.
4. The racetrack is an exciting, sensory experience for Elise that she uses to try to keep
herself connected to life. There are bright colors, speedy horses, emotionally engaged
crowds who respond unselfconsciously with shouts and cheers, all kinds of scents,
and the inadvertent touching of flesh. The racetrack is in stark contrast to the home,
with her father, the smell of dying, and her own numbness. You might explore this
contrast through a close reading of the opening paragraphs of the story or paragraphs
#3-6 on page 541.
5. Gates suggest entranceways to new beginnings. There are several gates in the story
with various implications. At the racetrack, horses start the race from the gate and, at
storys end, the father hallucinates about a gate on his childhood home. For the
father, he will be passing through the gate of death (could the gates of heaven be
implied?), and for the daughter we can assume that the loss of her father will require a
new kind of life for her. Those last paragraphs in which she responds emotionally to
her father (her heart beating, throat aching, they tremble, he yields to her
touch) mark the start of her renewal. Her connection with her father in his childhood
memory informs her that her life force and her emotions are very much alive, though
they may have lain dormant from the fear of responding as she did to her mothers
death. We conclude that the way she grieves for her father will be different from the

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way she did for her mother, and that she will develop into someone more whole and
someone who has come to terms with both of her parents deaths. She will feel
relieved as she did when she was six and first linked her feelings to the word love
(540-41).
6. Responses will vary. Some students might want to write about the care their family
or a family member provided to another member in the final weeks of life.
7. Both Elise and Cornelia are devoted daughters who try to make their dying parents as
comfortable as possible in their final days. An interesting discussion or paper could
focus on the emotional states of the women.

How Far She Went Mary Hood (p. 543)

Possible Responses to Questions page 549
1. Responses will vary, but most students will find their sympathy for the granddaughter
increasing through the course of the story. The grandmother and the granddaughter
have a very tense relationship. Probably neither would like to be living with the
other. They have been brought together by the death of the girls mother and her at
least somewhat irresponsible father. It seems as if the granddaughter tries to make
her grandmothers life miserable as a way to force her return to her father. The
grandmother slaps her granddaughter out of frustration, an action for which she later
feels guilty. A nurturing relationship seems hopeless until, ironically, the bikers
arrive. Because of the slap and larger feelings of being dominated and unwanted, the
granddaughter uses the bikers to exact revenge on the grandmother and demonstrate
her independence a living out of the words on her T-shirt that so annoyed her
grandmother (Every inch a woman, 543). However, the girl reveals her innocence
and inexperience as she did not fully understand the implications of riding with them.
The bikers were planning to use her, and when the grandmother thwarts their plans
and humiliates them, they attack her and the girl.
2. The crows who seem to cry Mom reveal the grandmothers guilt concerning the
birth of her now deceased daughter Sylvie. The grandmother regarded her newborn
daughter without emotion, as a package she bought from a store. The grandmother
holds herself responsible for her daughters life and early death, and the continuance
of the misery into another generation through her granddaughter. The grandmother
believes that since there was no love in the begetting and no father to care for her
that she is responsible for their fates, and her sin is unforgivable (545). The
grandmother believes there is some truth in her words when she tells the biker that
she will probably go to hell. Then she quips, Ill save you a seat by the fire (546).
3. The climax of the story occurs as the grandmother and granddaughter are hid under
the dock (547-48). The tension reaches its highest pitch in the passages when the
grandmother drowns the dog and then one of the bikers walks onto the dock, fires his

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gun, and urinates before departing. Because of the grandmothers actions (namely,
sacrificing her beloved pet and risking her life), both grandmother and granddaughter
come to important realizations. The granddaughter realizes her own innocence and
need of guidance as well as her grandmothers love for her. The grandmother realizes
her own capacity for love, of which she was probably unaware consider the
passages in which she thinks about Sylvie. The grandmothers action might enable
her to forgive herself for her lack of emotional response to her daughter.
4. In death, the dog could represent several possibilities. The grandmother says, Oh,
honey three times, and this could represent, as she suggests, each of them: i.e., the
dog, the granddaughter, grandmother. However, the mother holds the dead dog like a
dead child, which suggests that she is substituting the dog for her deceased daughter.
The dogs death brings her to terms with her daughters death. This gesture signals
that her sacrifice in saving her granddaughter will ease her own guilt, prove her
capacity for love, and erase to a large measure the pain from being carried into
another generation. The granddaughter is genuinely humbled and appreciative, and
readers can assume a new beginning for grandmother and granddaughter. The
granddaughter apologizes and then corrects an abrupt response with No, maam.
The grandmother promises not to hold the dogs death against her granddaughter, and
demonstrates the practical advice she gives her about independence and maturity:
Around here we bear our own burdens. The granddaughter reveals her newly found
respect and admiration for her grandmother when she walks behind her, exactly
where she walked, matching her pace, matching her stride (548, authors italics).
5. Responses will vary. Students should focus on the coming together of grandmother
and granddaughter. Perhaps some students may have observed two family members
reunite as a result of a tragedy or catastrophe.
6. How Far She Went is very much like a Flannery OConnor story: deeply
discontented characters in strained relationships who find regeneration through
grotesque agents and catastrophe or tragedy.

Whos Irish Gish Jen (p. 549)

Possible Responses to Questions page 557
1. Responses will vary. Students will recognize that the grandmothers methods and
principles of child-rearing are in general contrast to those of the time and place in
which she now finds herself. The grandmother has difficulty understanding why her
daughter raises her granddaughter as she does. What was fine for her should be fine
for her daughter. The grandmother is practical, stubborn, proud, traditional,
demanding, and close-minded. Although she can be witty and clever, she is
especially proud of her fierceness. She backs away from no one not even gang
members when she operated a restaurant and is certainly not going to yield ground
to her granddaughter. The grandmother can be insensitive and is hardly worried

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about political correctness. Her daughter warns her about saying Irish this, Irish
that (550). The grandmother has persevered through a difficult life with seemingly
few compromises. She is not about, as she sees it, to compromise herself or her
principles with her daughter and her family.
2. The grandmother tells the story in short abrupt sentences and often broken English.
While this structure and language are more a result of the grandmothers comfort
level with English, she is not open-minded and neither are her sentences open-ended.
They are hard sounding, full of literal detail as opposed to contemplation or
speculation, and reflect a proud, defiant, and pragmatic individual, who can be
humorous, intentionally (comments about Johns shooting himself in his foot, 551, or
about Johns being the father, 552) and unintentionally (see comments on food, 550).
3. By accepting the designation of being honorary Irish, the narrator demonstrates a
newly discovered comfort level with others and a contentment that eluded her while
she lived with her daughter. Previously, the grandmother would have found the
designation insulting. Now she delights in it, which reflects her acceptance of that
which is different, including not just the OSheas but her granddaughter with whom
her relationship begins to prosper.
The title has other implications as well. Is anyone really Irish in the story? Have
the OSheas assimilated into American culture to such an extent that they are more
American than Irish? Consider Besss favorite television show, Bloopers. Similarly,
is Natalie culturally more Chinese or American? Part of the grandmothers problem
with her daughters family and specifically with the granddaughter is that she resists
the idea of assimilation, and tries to preserve her Chinese heritage in her
granddaughter. The narrator dangerously believed she could elevate the girls
Chinese side and repress the wild Irish side.
4. The marriage of Natalie and John is already strained because of economic and childrearing pressures, complicated by Johns difficulty in holding a job. Rather than ease
the tension, the grandmothers presence and her stubbornness and criticism contribute
to it (see top 554; daughters crying, 556). She considers her son-in-law plain
boiled (551), and has little tolerance for his depression and the concept that she
must be supportive (551). Furthermore, her principles of child-rearing are too far
apart from her daughter and son-in-laws to make her a regular provider of care for
her granddaughter. She has little understanding, for instance, of the need to instill
creativity in children (552). The issue that causes the central conflict in the story,
however, is spanking (see discussion 553).
5. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the grandmother comes from a homogeneous
culture, where everyone shared similar principles and struggles. In China, she says,
We talk about whether life is bitter or not (552). In other words, the struggles were
more basic and concerned with survival. The grandmother is confused by the childrearing methods she sees in the playground, sometimes understandably so (see
Sinbads behavior, 554). In China, all parents had very similar methods with the
results, she remembers, that all Chinese children acted the same.

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6. Responses will vary. These stories raise interesting issues of cultural collision,
assimilation, and acceptance.

Taking a Husband Ha Jin (p. 558)

Possible Responses to Questions page 568
1. Responses will vary. Students will note that there is no consideration of love. It
would seem as if she were choosing a date rather than a husband. She contemplates
career potential and appearance, but never love.
2. Hong and Lilian have a friendship typical of close friends. They discuss secrets and
concerns, give advice, share curiosities, and support one another. They serve as each
others confidant. Lilian seems more worldly not from experience, but from the
magazines she reads.
3. On one hand, Hong lives in a culture in transition. Compare the childrens slaughter
of a chicken for dinner (opening paragraphs) with the magazine that Hong and Lilian
read (559). New ideas are finding their way into the culture through such magazines.
To decide a husband, for instance, Lilian recommends that Hong sleep with both men.
Hong will not seriously consider the idea, but just the thought and articulation of it
reflects how much the culture is changing. Somewhat recently, a girl hanged herself
after her boyfriend talked of their apparent promiscuity. Consider too the banning of
the traditional wedding feast.
On the other hand, the culture is controlled by the communist regime, which
seems ubiquitous and severe. Not much happens under the red flag without the
governments consent or watchful eye. What is especially unfair is that there is a
double living standard, one for the politicians and one for the citizens. Thus the
attractive Hong seeks a marriage with a young man who will become a party leader.
As part of the response, students should contrast how Hong and her mother lived
before and then after her father, a party official, died.
Hong resides in a world of inequality, unfairness, and lack of opportunity for the
ordinary citizen. Those in prominent political positions have experiences and
opportunities that induce them to look down on the others. Consider the way Hong
and her mother criticize the table manners of the Pangs (562) and conclude that the
Pangs are savages (563).
4. Hongs wedding day experience humiliated her and drove her to attempt suicide.
However, in the final paragraphs, Hong realizes the importance of love, something
she had not previously considered. She is overwhelmed by the responses to her of
Pang, her mother, and Lilian. The very positive imagery in the closing paragraph and
the pun on pang suggest that despite her husbands lack of status she will find
happiness with him.

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5. Details in the story imply that under the Chinese communist system, those in power
are privileged and it is expected that they will take full advantage of their position.
To fulfill a political or personal agenda, the politicians impose their will on citizens.
The whim of a leader can be an unchecked force. Consider the break up of the
wedding banquet. Feng is extraordinarily vindictive causing deep humiliation in
Hong and great debt for the couple. Ironically, Fengs actions will result in a stronger
and happier marriage for the couple. (Also, see #3 above.)
6. All three of the stories concern how totalitarian regimes infringe on human rights.
7. This question can be used to generate a compare-and-contrast paper. There are very
different types and methods of oppression at work in these stories.

Girl Jamaica Kincaid (p. 569)

Possible Responses to Questions page 570
1. Responses will vary. Students might find some humor in the torrent of instruction the
mother gives the daughter, and what seems to be the mothers obsession with her
daughters becoming a slut.
2. From what we see, the mother seems overly worried about her daughter and the girls
future. The mother barks a catalogue of instructions and advice at the girl, who
listens patiently and only voices a mild protest against a false report and asks a
question which the mother misinterprets. The daughter is very respectful of her
mother and possibly frightened of her, and the mother, although loving, is anxious
and overbearing. The title suggests the youth of the daughter, her mothers
dominance over her, and the lack of respect for her as an individual. That her name is
never presented suggests that her culture sees her only as a female with a preestablished role to which she is expected to conform. Part of the womans role is to
be a mother and instill the cultural and gender specific functions into their daughters.
3. The story is not only one paragraph, but also one sentence. This structure is effective
in demonstrating the anxiety and energy of the mother. She barely pauses for a breath
and ignores, if she even hears, her daughters remark about singing in Sunday school.
4. If students consider pieces of the mothers advice, they will see that she is trying to
mold her daughter into a respectable woman who conforms to the standards of the
culture. Much of the advice centers on respectability, housework, gardening, and, in
general, duties associated with family care. There is no mention of education or
career. The culture seems formal, full of conventions (even about smiling and setting
tables), and restrictive. If we consider the mothers advice as representative which
the author seems to intend opportunity for women outside the home seems limited.
See also #2.

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5. Consider how culture, class, and gender affect the advice and the tone of the mother
and Polonius.
6. Consider too the very different styles of parenting presented in the two stories.

Why I Like Country Music James Alan McPherson (p. 571)

Possible Responses to Questions page 582
1. There is some tension in the marriage whenever the narrator seems to take pride in his
Southern roots or talk positively of the South. His wife hates the South (571), but
the narrator would argue that she really does not understand its complexities. She is
filled with stereotypical ideas about the South and cannot accommodate challenges to
her Northern mythology (581). Although the distance between them is
sometimes great (571) and although they are not completely open with one another,
I would caution against making too much of this. Their marriage may not be as
communicative as it could, but this does not imply that it is unfulfilling or
unsuccessful. In fact, it seems typical that he would not pursue a futile argument and
that he would not reveal his childhood love to his wife.
2. The narrator likes country music because it reminds him of his Southern heritage and
childhood, which was relatively happy from what we can see. Square dancing and its
music remind him specifically of fourth grade, Mrs. Boswell, the Maypole
celebration, and Gweneth Lawson. The music induces a sense memory, the same way
as lemons do for him as well (see 573). A banjo reminds him of his ancestors,
perhaps slaves on a plantation, who expressed themselves and found moments of joy
through the instrument. As the narrators need for an explanation suggests, the banjo
is not a popular instrument among contemporary African-American musicians. The
banjo is rarely part of the instrumentation of African-American pop and jazz
recordings from post World War II to the present.
For further discussion, consider the comment of the white Superintendent of
Schools after watching the square dance: Lord yall square dance so good it makes
me plumb ashamed us white folks aint takin better care of our art stuff (italics his,
580). Would the narrator agree that it is a white dance and music? Do your
students agree?
3. Mrs. Boswell is a tough-talking, shrewd, and demanding but loving teacher, who is
genuinely dedicated to her students. She has a sense of humor (573), is perceptive
(574), and takes seriously the business of preparing students for the future (see 574).
She motivates and teaches her students how to learn by providing incomplete
explanations that cause them to inquire of one another and search for answers (575).
She pushes them hard, not for the sake of embarrassing them, but to challenge them
and instill confidence. Her language can be humorous, especially when we consider
that she is a teacher (e.g., Youll square dance or Ill grease your little butt, 577).
At times, she may even seem disrespectful (calls them bunnies). However, she

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embodies one of the points of the story: the South, at least where the narrator was
raised, is not the repressed culture that Gloria and many Northerners think, but
instead it is lively, colorful, and distinctive.
4. The narrator and Gloria come from two different cultures, which might be presented
as Northern black and Southern black. Ask students to consider the differences as
presented and implied in the story. They should discuss Gweneth Lawson (from the
South Carolina section of Brooklyn, 573), Mrs. Boswell, Northern visitors, and the
mythical dimensions of this Northlore (573). The narrator suggests the differences
in culture can be as significant as that of the Ibo and Yoruba, two African tribes.
McPherson seems to challenge his reader to consider Southern black culture with
more dignity and open-mindedness than it frequently receives.
5. Yes, Gloria is shortsighted and close-minded when it comes to both the South and
country music. Gloria associates racism with country music, and sees it as a cultural
index. The more popular country music becomes, the more widespread and
unchecked racism becomes.
6. Students might compare the levels of communication in the marriages. Do the
spouses open up to one another? Why or why not? Is one marriage or another in
more danger of divorce than the others?

The Tenant Bharati Mukherjee (p. 582)

Possible Responses to Questions page 592
1. Responses will vary, but the last sentence implies that she will move to Hartford to be
with Ashoke. Ask students if they are hopeful that Maya and Ashoke will develop a
sustained relationship? How much significance do they attach to their immediate and
seemingly mutual attraction at the airport? Does Ashoke seem honest and direct?
2. Since arriving in America some ten years ago, Maya seems to have been living in a
transitional state. Like a tenant, she has little permanence in her life. She has lived in
different areas of the countries, been married for about two years, had many lovers,
been employed at different colleges, and at the end of the story, is about to leave
again for a new home. She seems never to be completely at home or comfortable, so
she feels the need to move on. A large degree of her discomfort and anxiety results
from her foreignness. Despite her American citizenship, she is made to feel an
outsider, sometimes an attractive and exotic other, but always the outsider and
generally perceived with stereotypes. Like a tenant, she resides in a place or a culture
without a sense of ownership and with only little identification. She is very much
caught psychologically and spatially between her native Indian and American culture,
experiencing the confused world of the immigrant (588). She may have a job,
equity, and friends, but she does not feel completely an American (584). She cannot

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break completely with her past (585), despite her efforts. She cannot enter into the
light, the vigor, the hustle of the New World. She is stuck in dead space (590).
3. Throughout The Tenant, Maya is stereotyped. Fran expects her to be inventive
with food (583) and considers her a headstrong adventurer (584). At Duke,
however, she was not adventurous enough, and was considered too feminine (585).
But Maya is not above taking advantage of others stereotyping of her. For instance,
when she informs Dr. Chatterji that she does not own a car, she does so with an
upper class helplessness (585), only to surprise him with her unsentimental
discussion of her broken marriage (586), which might have suggested to him that she
would be open to his advances. For the most part, however, Maya tries to defy
stereotypes and break with her past. She was trained, for instance, to speak softly
(585), yet she can make nasty and malicious comments to friends (588). She has
tried perhaps too hard to be miraculously rebellious (590), but always the ghosts of
her ancestral past arise to connect her with India (see ancestral secrets 584).
Others are stereotyped as well. Indian men, Fran believes, are more sensitive
than Americans. Mayas response reveals her own aversion at being stereotyped and
an attempt to subvert general cultural perceptions of Indians: All Indian men are
wife beaters (584), she says not with complete honesty. While Dr. Rabindra
Chatterji may not be physically abusive, he is hardly sensitive to his wife, Maya, or
his wifes nephew. Immediately, he positions himself above Maya when he
introduces himself as Dr. Chatterji and refers to her as Mrs. Sanyal, which suggests
that he recognizes her divorced status but not her Ph.D. He is not too subtly
informing Maya that she is not his equal. Consider the insensitivity of his sexual
advance when he drops Maya off. Dr. Chatterji seems to presume that as a divorced
Indian woman, Maya is eager for sex with one from her native culture.
Assumptions are also made about Ted Suminski, who is always referred to with
both names. He is stereotyped because he lives alone, seemingly has no friends, and
communicates little with others in the area. He may seem strange, but the rumors that
surround him are hurtful and unfounded, as we come to realize when we hear he will
remarry (591).
Similarly, Fred, Mayas next landlord and lover, defies stereotypes associated with
those who are seemingly disabled. Fred has no arms, yet is independent, resilient,
confident, and, unlike the other characters, comfortable with himself.
4. There are at least two features in the style that reflect Mayas consciousness. Twice
in the story, Mukherjee uses the single-word sentence But. That abrupt sentence
challenges Mayas perceptions of herself. For instance, on the bottom of page 584,
she thinks of herself as rebellious, as Americanized, but her contemplation breaks off
with but, implying that she is restricted in part at least by her Indianness. Similarly,
on page 585, she considers herself as rebel who has broken with her past, but she
indicates that she is aware that that can never be completely true. Another one wordsentence, similarly abrupt is Never (586). Again, it suggests her cultural conflict.
She considers how she has slept with many men, but never an Indian man. Never.
This suggests her determination to reinvent herself and her attempt to shun her native
culture.

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Mukherjee also tells her story with ironic overtones, which we read is a part of
Mayas sensibility (588). Consider some of her sarcastic ruminations that reveal her
perceptiveness: Dr. Chatterji resides on the cutting edge of suburbia (586); her
image (contrasting with the one intended) of Dr. Chatterjis nephew, one with which
she can identify (587); her statement that even Brahmins can do self-destructive
things (587); and her reference to eerie love songs of Indian men (589). Her irony
can also be self-effacing. Consider the image of Ashoke floating toward her as if in a
shampoo commercial (590).
5. Love is anarchy, contemplates Maya (588), as she considers Dr. Chatterjis nephew
and her own experience. As she explains, the passion of love can cause individuals
to lose their moral sense, their judgment, and their power to distinguish (588).
In other words, love impels individuals to do things that are unexpected, seemingly
out of character, and culturally rebellious. Students might consider the idea of the
anarchy of love in relation to the storys ending. Is Maya in love with Ashoke? Is her
departure for Hartford logical or in her best interest?
6. Responses will vary. This is an opportunity for students to consider the differences in
the way men and women are perceived and the sexist tendencies in our culture.
7. Consider what elements of their native culture these characters reject and retain. Do
they make similar choices?

An Ounce of Cure Alice Munro (p. 593)

Possible Responses to Questions page 600
1. Responses will vary, but most students will sympathize and empathize with the
narrator. They might be reminded of a moment of folly in their own lives. They will
recognize the narrator as a somewhat typical teenage girl who, after being spurned by
her boyfriend, takes drastic actions to dramatize her crisis. She enjoys her selfinflicted misery, the self pity (594), and the attention it brings her from friends like
Joyce who sits beside her at the play in which her former boyfriend stars (594) and
whispers to her over the phone as if she had an incurable illness (595). The breakup
makes the narrator feel older, more mature, as if she has now experienced a depth of
suffering that links her with tragic film or stage heroines. Before her greatest scene,
she describes the uncluttered space in the Berrymans home to be like a stage (595).
Consider her melodramatic actions leading up to her drunkenness: she plays a sad
record, sits in the dark, notices the street light through the partially drawn curtains,
and gives up her soul for dead (595). Students will find her a humorous but
recognizable character.
2. The story is significant to the narrator for several reasons. The episode is one of those
revealing and embarrassing moments in teenage life when we are forced to confront
how unsophisticated and self-absorbed we are, or put another way, when reality

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intrudes upon our delusions of self. On an another level, though hardly emphasized
in the story, the incident might have brought the narrator closer to her mother, who, in
a crowded household, might not have always been as watchful over her daughter as
she might have consider the narrators confession about the aspirin, which was a
mistake (599).
However, most importantly, I think this incident was the beginning of her life as a
writer, although she did not realize it at the time. Looking back, the narrator
remembers that during her teenage melodrama she developed a fascination with life,
very necessary to a writer. I felt that I had had a glimpse of the shameless,
marvelous, shattering absurdity with which the plots of life, though not of fiction, are
improvised. I could not take my eyes off it (600). This interest in the plots of life
or, as she says, the way things happened (600, italics hers) marked the burgeoning
of an authorial consciousness.
Furthermore, as indicated in the storys first paragraph, the mother seems to have
been confused by her daughter. The narrator is different from other girls and the
mother seems to hope only that her daughter would result in a lesser rather than a
greater disaster (593). The narrators differentness might suggest early artistic and
authorial inclinations.
3. In the first paragraph, it is obvious through the consistent use of past tense, the level
of vocabulary, and the mention of key events (first dance, college) that the story is set
in a somewhat distant past. As a result, the narrator can tell her story with
playfulness, self-deprecation, detachment, and even fondness. While the incident
caused her genuine pain at the time (see page 600), she has long since come to terms
with it. Focus on sentences like the following: I showed the most painful banality
in the conduct of this whole affair, as you will see (594) a reference to her teenage
melodramatic responses which she details in paragraph #3, page 594. Or consider her
description of her digging her nails into her friends palm (594) and her comment
on listening to a record at the Berrymans, oh, song of my aching heart (595).
Consider too how the narrator reports the devastating aftermath of her evening at
the Berrymans. She was ostracized but uses humorous metaphors to downplay her
pain. She reports rumors playfully rather than bitterly, and she says she was like the
unwed mother with triplets nobody wants to have anything to do with her (600).
But her final sentence reveals that she has even had the last laugh over Martin
Collingwood. Throughout the story, the narrator keeps the tone light and playful,
never letting the painful parts of the experience to dominate.
4. The narrators home seems in many ways to be that of a typical middle-class family
with several children in different age groups. The house can be chaotic and slovenly,
which understandably may have resulted in the mothers overlooking the teenage
daughters crisis. However, in fairness to the mother, the narrator would not have
wanted her mother to know about it. Her mother might have brought the crisis to a
close and thus end the daughters fun with the melodrama.
The narrators family and the Berrymans seems to have similar values, as their
friendly conversation indicates. Both are more moderate in behavior than the many
Temperance people in the community whom the mother might have labeled as

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fanatical (see page 593). As a result, the incident with the narrator is handled
seriously but undramatically, which contrasts with the narrators behavior. The
families are probably in different stages of development as the Berrymans have only
very young children.
5. The narrator and the reader might have both been surprised by the mothers reaction.
After her initial shock and cry of pure amazement (599), the mother handles the
situation rather coolly. She seems to accept some of the responsibility, perhaps
believing she has been too absent from a daughters life she only heard about all the
events the night of the drunkenness, and she believes that she had made a great
mistake letting her daughter date. She seems especially and understandably alarmed
about the daughters taking of aspirin, which from the daughters point of view may
have led to her mother becoming overly attentive in some matters.
6. You might use this discussion to stimulate a writing assignment in which students
relate a personal learning experience.

Long Distance Edna OBrien (p. 601)

Possible Responses to Questions page 606
1. Long Distance is a challenging story, one that cannot be read and assessed quickly.
Students need to be attentive to detail and the emotional and psychological states of
the characters. Often students will discover that they liked the story more after a
rereading or following a discussion.
2. The characters were very careful with what they said to one another. They avoid
talking about the reasons for their breakup. Although he is anxious to renew their
relationship, the man keeps the conversation light, and talks of his success, his
travels, and supposedly new insights gleamed from Oriental proverbs. He evades
potentially threatening questions with curt, unrevealing answers: asked if he dreams
of her, he says, All the time (602). The man seems content to simply forget the past
and start anew, and, at the end, has little patience for the womans unwillingness to do
so. The woman, however, has suffered deeply as a result of the breakup and will not
reenter the relationship in which so much has been left unresolved, and as she finds
out, with someone who has not changed significantly. She and probably he were
thinking about a lot of things, and yet would not articulate their thoughts to one
another, preferring to keep the meeting cordial and, from her perspective, to see if he
would direct the conversation to deeper issues. In many ways, their meeting can be
compared to a chess match with players not revealing their thoughts. The discussion
is summarized for the reader: Of course much was concealed (602).
3. The point of view is third-person limited. We only see into the consciousness of the
woman. We know exactly what she is thinking, but we can never be sure of his
thoughts.

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4. The references to the painting of The Last Supper (603, 604, 605) are a way for the
woman to conceptualize her relationship with her former lover and to concretize her
feelings. As a woman who has been jilted (604), she feels like the women depicted
in the painting: a woman with a half-torn garb a prostitute on the ground with a
baby in her arms a woman cast aside by judicious men. She identifies her former
lover with the men in the painting: grave, shrewd, and austere cold now,
disapproving. She sees him as the powerful one, the one who judged and discarded
her without explanation, left her feeling torn, confused, supplicant, and used.
Significantly, at no time does she consider him Christlike. The man ends the
conversation abruptly and insensitively, revealing that he has not changed in the
intervening years. The way he ends the conversation is analogous to the way he
ended the relationship. She, however, has become stronger, and will not reenter the
relationship with a still insensitive and unreflective lover. Her explanation that we
would have to come back refers to not only a return from the pleasant distractions of
travel, but also a return to the issues that divided them in the first place. For her,
those issues would have to be confronted before they resume a relationship.
5. The last sentence in the story is a bleak description of love and leaves no hope for the
former lovers to reconcile. The woman describes love as the opposite of a flower or
fruit in bloom. Love is something more beautiful and nourishing when new. A fruit,
however, grows to a ripened stage when it is consumed, and proves nourishing to the
body. Love fades, becomes internalized, a source of turmoil, destructive of soul and
psyche.
6. At the beginning of the meeting, they treated each other cordially, respectfully, and, as
would be expected, tentatively. It was as if a wobbly balustrade sat between them
(605). They were not completely open with one another. The man had apparently
expected to resume the relationship; the woman was more uncertain, first wanting to
see, at the very least, if he had changed at all. The mans expectations were unfair.
He expected her to fall in love with him again and to accept his invitation to travel
together. He turned malicious when she declined his offer, refusing to discuss her
reason.
7. Both Granny and the woman in Long Distance suffer as a result of being jilted.
How are their lives similar and different after their jiltings? Does one seem more
anxious for revenge than the other?

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The Things They Carried Tim OBrien (p. 606)

Possible Responses to Questions page 618
1. As indicated by the things they carry, the story is about both the physical and
psychological realities of war. It is about the demands and dangers of marching
through a war zone and the difficulties of living with fear and constant death.
2. Other than necessities, soldiers carry things that help them remain focused on
surviving the war, and not yielding to death or perhaps insanity. They carry things,
for instance, to remind them of their identity, fearful that in the chaos of war they
might lose their core selves. David Jensen, a hygienist, carries vitamins and items
associated with personal cleanliness; Kiowa, a Christian and Indian, carries a New
Testament, his grandfathers old hatchet, and moccasins; Mitchell Sanders, thinking
himself a womanizer, carries condoms. All these things represent how they define
themselves, and remind them of who they really are and their individuality in an
arena where no one much considers their selfhood.
In addition, they carry things to remind them of home and to focus their attention
on what they have to live for. For instance, Lieutenant Cross carries letters and
pictures of the girl he loves; Henry Dobbins carries his girlfriends pantyhose,
sometimes around his neck (610); others carry candy, comics, a slingshot, and other
reminders of home and their life apart from war. To shore up their confidence, some
carry superstitious trinkets: a good-luck pebble from a girlfriend or a rabbits foot,
for instance. Norman Bowker carries a thumb cut from a Viet Cong corpse. The
thumb bolsters the confidence and machismo of Bowker, a very gentle person
(612).
3. They all carried ghosts (610) and the emotional baggage of men who might die.
Grief, terror, love, longing (616). A close reading of the lengthy paragraph about
cowardice on page 616 would be a useful exercise. You might discuss the contrast in
tone and content with the brief paragraphs preceding it.
4. Initially, the moral is obscure (612). However, a few pages later (615), the moral is
clarified. The soldiers fight and struggle to survive, yet, ironically, the peace they
seek can be found in death. Nothing can hurt the dead Viet Cong boy any longer and
Lavenders corpse seems incredibly tranquil, evincing a tranquillity Lavender never
found in his drugs.
5. The soldiers have several methods to help them survive the ever-present reality of
death, but primarily they assume an identity much like an actor playing a role. Some
acted with a sort of wistful resignation, others with pride or stiff soldierly discipline
or good humor or macho zeal there were numerous such poses (615). The
soldiers try to believe in the pose. Thus jokes and seeming callousness are survival
techniques. Consider the soldiers reactions to Lavenders death. Furthermore, the
reader now understands the significance of those things they carry that reaffirm their
true identities.

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6. Lieutenant Cross may not have been responsible for Lavenders death, but he feels as
though he were. Lavender was shot by a sniper just after wandering away from the
others. Cross believes that his lax procedures led to Lavenders death and determines
to be a more rigid disciplinarian for the safety of his troops. He burns Marthas letters
and photographs because he thinks his constant review of them and thoughts of her
have distracted him from effective leadership and interfered with his responsibilities
(see page 610 middle, for instance). Since Martha is still in his mind, he realizes the
gesture is largely symbolic and perhaps stupid and sentimental (617).
Significantly, however, the gesture reinforces his dedication to his men, and helps him
work through his grief and guilt over Lavenders death. Without the letter and
photographs, it is possible that in time the strength of her image will diminish. It
should be noted that Lieutenant Cross is only twenty-two, a kid at war, in love
(612).
7. At the point in the story in which OBrien references the great American war chest
(613) there is an ironic bitterness. Consider the incongruity of giving soldiers
colored eggs and sparklers especially when we read that they often explode
Claymore mines and grenades for fun. But the passage suggests that America is a
great war-producing complex, with industrial and natural resources all available,
designed, and cultivated for the purpose of war, and specifically in Vietnam, a war
fraught with ambiguities (613).
8. Each story concentrates on different aspects or stages of war: soldiers on the
battlefield (Things They Carried), soldiers as prisoners (Guests of a Nation), the
effects of war on the parents of soldiers (War), and the psychological effects on
soldiers as a result of war (Soldiers Home). In all these stories, the action occurs as
much internally as externally.

The Bunchgrass Edge of the World Annie Proulx (p. 619)

Possible Responses to Questions page 634
1. Responses will vary.
2. The exposition at the beginning of the story tells the history of the family and their
settlement on the ranch while setting a tone, which seems at times mock heroic,
fanciful like that of a fairy tale, and darkly humorous. Consider the following details,
among others: the landscape of weather and distance in the opening paragraph, the
naming of Aladdin, the wedding scene, the sowing of the wedding wheat,
Waunetas insistence on not cutting the wheat, and Aladdins stoning of his father.
3. Ottalines parents have instilled deep-rooted feelings of inferiority in her. Ottaline is
introduced to the reader as the family embarrassment (619), and, as we come to see,
she receives no emotional support from her family. We hear that she finished school a

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year after her younger sister, that she is very large, and that she thinks of herself as
appalling (622), which is no surprise when we see how her parents treat her. Her
father, for instance, refuses to drive her to town because, he says, her size ruins the
springs on his truck (623), and one evening when Ottaline seemed especially
depressed, her mother tells her simply to accept her fatness and the consequential
jokes (627). That conversation with her mother is probably the most tragic scene in
the story, as the mother denies her daughter solace or understanding.
Ottaline is desperately lonely with nothing to do when the workday ends except
look at the landscape, imagine being in love, and listen to banal cell-phone
conversations on the scanner (624). She could not even watch television as Red
controlled the programming. She dreams of being swept off the ranch by a lover and
riding in his pickup truck in a sexy dress and drinking from a bottle shaped like a
hula girl (622) the dark humor is just about everywhere in the story. It is a vision
of herself as a sexy adventurous, which is, of course, contrary to how she sees herself
in actuality.
Her loneliness is first relieved by the talking tractor but more completely when
she meets and then marries Flyboy Amendigger, whose situation and psyche parallels
hers see his description on page 631. She and Flyboy may have fallen in love out of
desperation, but nonetheless they do seem to love one another. At the end of the
story, they control the ranch and perhaps, for the first time, their lives. However,
knowing the familys history and the aura that seems to surround the ranch, it is
difficult to be overly optimistic about their future.
4. Readers can disagree as to whether the tractor actually talks or not. Given the
fantastic characters and uncanny events on the ranch, we can certainly find it
plausible that the tractor speaks. However, since no one else hears the tractor, it
seems equally plausible that in her desperate loneliness, Ottaline imagines the
tractors speaking to her. She might be imagining what she wants to hear or her own
thoughts. Certainly, however, she can identify with the tractor; both are allowed to
deteriorate with no care from the family.
5. The story has a darkly humorous tone with passages and images of wonder that
relieve some of the darkness, like the wedding wheat and talking tractor. Overall,
however, the grotesque humor and the tragicomic tone dominate. Consider, for
instance, the descriptions of Ottalines weight which are insensitive but, in their
freshness, humorous; Tylers birthday gift to his father of two coyote ears (622);
Reds possible sexual abuse of Ottaline (621), and the frequent insults the characters
exchange. This off-balance tone fits the events of the story. As the tractor says,
This old world is full a wonders, aint it (626). Even the ending with Aladdins
death is not presented as wholly tragic. Consider the possible causes for the crash:
Aladdins inexperience with the new plane, the tractors revenge, the cutting of the
wheat, and the mothers ordering him to land. Consider too the references to planting
Aladdin, his fathers lack of emotion and his sense of contentment at being able to
stand around long enough.
6. Marquez seems to employ his magical realism for more satirical purposes.

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7. Students can develop a paper by comparing secondary characters and discussing their
impact on family members and events.

Yellow Woman Leslie Silko (p. 635)

Possible Responses to Questions page 642
1. Responses will vary. Yellow Womans actions will disturb some students. She sleeps
with another man even if a mythical figure and has no remorse about leaving her
family, including a baby, whom she casually says will be raised by her mother and
grandmother. However, students need to understand that Yellow Woman with Silva
or the katsina entered a kind of mythical domain that she feels fated for: Silva had
come for me I did not decide to go (639). By voicing disapproval of Yellow
Woman, students might be unfairly applying their own cultural values to a member of
another culture.
2. Responses will vary. Students can support either interpretation or they can combine
the two. For example, could Yellow Woman have so desired a mythical experience
that she interprets her affair as a contact with the mythical? Are there any hints in the
story as to why she would desire such an experience? Might it be tied to her deceased
grandfather, whom she misses greatly? Certainly, there is enough vagueness in Silva
or the katsina spirit to allow for any reading. Since the story is told from the thirdperson limited point of view, we do not know what Silva is thinking. Consider his
ambiguous response to Yellow Womans narration of the Coyote and Badger. She
asks if he has heard the story, and he says, What story? Did he not listen to her
words, or is he implying that it is not a story but factual? He is incomprehensible
even to the narrator (641).
3. The setting can be interpreted as simply a beautiful landscape teeming with life or a
primordial world, resembling settings of myths and stories of personified coyotes and
badgers. Certainly the landscape is lush and harmonious. There is fresh water, fruits,
floral, and fauna, and even the insects and lizards seem to co-exist harmoniously with
people. A close reading of the opening paragraphs to sections 1 and 3 will be useful.
4. The response to this might be complicated. For Yellow Woman, myths are important,
but it seems that her mother, grandmother, and husband have replaced myth with
mundane suburban values and realistic explanations. A screen door keeps insects
from intruding and the grandmother prepares Jell-O from a packet (641). Consider
the contrast when with Silva, Yellow Woman fell asleep outdoors with ants at her feet
and ate potatoes and apricots. Realizing that her family has discarded myths, she
explains her absence by saying she was kidnapped by a Navajo, an explanation they
can understand. Although we do not see much of the family, they seemed to have lost
a significant part of their heritage, including their closeness to nature and their
mythology with its belief system and values. With this loss, the family may have

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surrendered some of their passion for life, which might be signaled by the
dispassionate tone Yellow Woman uses whenever she talks of her family (639, 641).
The story suggests that in nature the mythical and primordial still exist and that
regeneration of our souls is still possible.
5. Both stories concern women who find passion and renewal in adulterous
relationships. Are students more sympathetic with one character than the other?
6. In Yellow Woman, the narrator enters a primordial world full of myths and full of
life. Include as part of the discussion, Silvas statement: But someday they will talk
about us, and they will say, Those two lived long ago when things like that
happened (637).

Rules of the Game Amy Tan (p. 642)

Possible Responses to Questions page 650
1. Responses will vary. However, the mother is a complex character. She is strong and
proud, although willing to make some concessions to the majority culture. For
instance, she politely accepts the chess set at the Christmas party, but demands her
son discard it when he gets home because the set has been used and is missing a
piece. Her family, she suggests, will not accept someone elses trash. She strives to
balance her life in America with her Chinese values. As a mother, she is watchful,
strict, demanding, and yet loving. She tries to instill traditional Chinese values in her
children, which include hard work, pride in heritage, and duty to family. She is proud
of Meimeis accomplishments with chess and upset when Meimei, through what her
mother considers arrogance, asks her to stop introducing her as her daughter. The
strongest wind is a reference to unseen influences and powers powers derived from
family, heritage, and intellect. To reject those influences results in powerlessness.
2. The title could refer to several possible games and several possible rules or codes of
behavior. The narrator learns the rules and etiquette (646) of chess, rules or codes
for living in America and being a part of a Chinese family. Speaking of immigration,
the mother tells her daughter that she must learn the American rules, a position she
asserts again in relation to chess and chess tournaments (645, 647). The mother
demonstrates one of those rules when she graciously accepts the chess set. Through
the course of the story, the narrator is learning rules. What she especially learns is her
obligation to family. She must always be concerned with family as her mother says
(649). Otherwise, she will end up alone. She is finding a way to balance her
individuality with her obligations to family, and learning how to be both Chinese and
American.
3. Yes, the narrator uses her chess skills for many selfish reasons. In addition to
enjoying her local celebrity, she no longer had to do chores (647); she procured her
own room while her brothers slept in the living room, and she did not have to finish

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her dinners (648). The mother was proud of her, but she was not necessarily favoring
her. She could have been teaching her children how a family responds to a member
with special need. What the narrator was losing out on was a closeness to her
brothers, who, rather than play chess with her, played cowboys with each other (646)
while no doubt resenting how she exploited her success at their expense. Also,
instead of playing in the playground and in the alley of Waverly Place (648), she
practiced chess.
4. The mother introduces the daughter as Waverly to strangers, and reserves Meimei for
when they are alone or among family. Through the names, the mother is trying to
balance two cultures within the daughter. Waverly, derived from the street on which
they live, indicates her place of residence, while Meimei emphasizes her Chinese
identity and soul (her strongest wind) and her place within the family.
Significantly, after the daughter insults her mother, the mother refers to her as this
girl (648). Meimei is a common designation for little sister in Chinese and
Chinese-American homes.
5. At the end of the story, the narrators daydream is a visualization of the mothers
comment about the strongest wind, thereby unifying the first part of the selection
with the last. At this point, somewhat ironically, the narrator is temporarily cut off
from her family. In the vision, the strong wind of the mother destroys all the
narrators success in chess; the narrator then drifts away from her family, and she is
left alone (649). What the daughter realizes is that without her mother and family
her success in chess is meaningless. The strongest wind is the unseen bond with
her family, not her large trophies on display in shop windows. Through this
daydream, she realizes that she has been arrogant in taking advantage of her familys
support. Ask students what they think her next move will be.
6. There are several clashes in the story. Consider the Christmas party, the tourist, the
sign in the shop window proclaiming that the turtles and fish are sold for food not
pets (643), the conversation concerning Chinese torture (644), and the narrators date
of birth (644), among others. What the tensions suggest is that while the Chinese are
willing to sacrifice some rules and etiquette to make their home in a new country,
some of their traditions and practices are non negotiable. The yielding of certain
traditional foods, medicines, and other rituals would be equated with loss of pride and
heritage. In their new country, food becomes one way to retain ties with their native
culture and to pass on the culture and traditions to future generations.
7. Consider the tensions caused by assimilation. Do the mothers want to assimilate?
What about their daughters?

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Im Your Horse in the Night Luisa Valenzuela (p. 650)

Possible Responses to Questions page 653
1. Responses will vary. Students might address the following questions in their
response: Is the narrator a spiritual inspiration to Beto? Is she used as a sex object by
Beto? Is she really serving the revolution?
2. This response depends on what conclusions the student reaches in question #1.
However, the narrator seems to be part of the revolution. She is trusted with a secret
signal and she does have contact with others in the cause although it was not
actually Andrs who called in section two. Certainly, the police watch her house
closely and she and Beto worry that her home is bugged. From the information
presented in the story, it is impossible, however, to determine her precise role.
3. The three sections of the story might be summarized as follows:
Section One One evening the doorbell rings in code. The narrator meets her
exiled lover Beto and they spend the night together.
Section Two The narrator is awakened from a deep sleep by the telephone. The
police, pretending to be a fellow revolutionary, inform the narrator that Beto has been
dead for at least six days. Her response reveals that she had seen Beto within that
period. They race to her house and search for information about the revolution and
Beto. They physically threaten her and imprison her.
Section Three The narrator is in prison and, to herself, proclaims her loyalty to
Beto.
The three sections of the story each have a different focus. Section One concerns the
narrator and Beto; Two, the narrator and the authorities; and Three, the narrator in
prison. The story begins and ends with the narrator alone and with her convictions in
the revolution strengthened as a result of her experience. The story is also unified by
the narrators insistence (to herself, the authorities, and the reader) that the night with
Beto was a dream.
4. In sections two and three, the narrator says that Beto appeared to her only in a dream:
Id dreamed it, dreamed every bit of it (652); I dreamed you that night (653).
However, her statement is unconvincing. She uses the concept of a dream to fortify
herself in her tough and silent stance to the authorities. If she convinces herself that
the experience of that night was a dream then she cannot reveal anything to them.
One indication that it was not a dream, however, appears in section three when she
mentions the record and the bottle of cachaa. She realizes that they will provide
clues to the authorities. Ask students who they in the storys last line refers to. I take
it to be her fellow revolutionaries. By not destroying or discarding the record and

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bottle, she realizes that she may have given the authorities a couple of details that
might be useful to them.
5. The author is clearly more sympathetic to the narrator and Beto, even though we do
not know the details of their cause. From what we can see, the authorities seem brutal
and oppressive. Was there sufficient evidence, for instance, to arrest the narrator?
The author effectively gains sympathy for the narrator and Beto by mentioning the
torture devices used by the authorities (652).
6. Students can discuss the ways these governments abuse power and basic human
freedoms.
7. Students might discuss how and why each author is intentionally ambiguous.

Everyday Use Alice Walker (p. 654)

Possible Responses to Questions page 660
1. Responses will vary, but Maggie and Dee are certainly not close or even similar. Dee
seems only to pay attention to Maggie when she has something to gain. The mother
reports that she thought Dee hated Maggie, i.e., until the family and church began
raising money for her education. Perhaps Maggie reminds Dee of her heritage and
parts of herself that she does not appreciate i.e., until they become fashionable.
When living at home, Dee used to read to her mother and sister but only to make
them feel inferior (655). Similarly, when she went off to college she said she would
visit, but she would be too embarrassed to bring friends home (656). As the final
pages indicate, Dee has not changed. She has no genuine pride or respect for her
heritage or the struggles of her mother and sister. Without regard for their
inconvenience and emotional stress, Dee simply wants to take things back to her
home to make a fashion statement and to look chic.
2. As indicated in #1, the sisters are very different in appearance, attitude, and concerns.
Maggie is self-conscious, selfless, and, like her mother, a survivor who does not
always appreciate her own abilities and strengths. Dee is selfish, attractive but
pretentious, gifted but arrogant, judgmental, capable of harsh sarcasm (656), and
disrespectful to her mother and sister.
The house fire is a pivotal point in the familys history. Maggie, who barely
escapes with her life, is devastated by the fire, scarred physically and emotionally.
After the fire, she walked with chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle (655).
Much of her confidence was destroyed with the house. Yet despite the near loss of
her sister, Dee seemed suspiciously pleased with the fire. Could she have started it?
Her mother half expected her to dance around the ashes since she had hated the
house that much (655). The house signified all that her heritage was and all that it
was not she was anxious to reinvent herself without the baggage of her and her
familys past.

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3. Dee wants the churn and quilts for decorative purposes, to show off her now stylish
background and taste. Maggie wants the items for the functional purposes they were
intended, i.e., for everyday use. Maggie lives the culture as evident by her
knowledge of crafts and family history (658). Dees respect for the items and her
culture is merely superficial. Consider her insincerity when she asks for the quilts
sweet as a bird (659). When her request is refused, Dee turns bitter and exposes her
real feelings about her family and her lack of appreciation for her culture: Shed
probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use (659). Although Maggie
is the one who knows how to quilt and lives the heritage, Dee, again revealing her
ignorance and arrogance, tells her, You just dont understand Your heritage
(660).
4. Maggie feels triumphant. For the first time in her life, she and her mother stood up to
her sister and said no (see second paragraph 654). Mother and daughter withstood
Dees raid on their things and their integrity. At the end, they sit proud and relaxed;
no longer will they feel intimidated by Dee.
5. The tone of the storys five sections might be discussed this way:
Section One (first two paragraphs, 654) the briefest section expresses the
mothers apprehension over Dees visit.
Section Two the overriding emotion is apprehension, nervousness, insecurity,
and only a brief expression of confidence, which soon dissolves.
Section Three the mother considers Dee with anger. Dee has never treated her
mother or her daughter with adequate respect.
Section Four the mother is reflective, as she considers her history and her life
with Maggie. She is still nervous about Dees visit, expecting the worse.
Section Five there are several emotional shifts here. The mother finds humor in
Dee, and although she likes her dress, she sees through her posturing. With the
climax that begins with Dee asking for the quilt and Maggies shocked reaction
(revealed when she drops something in the kitchen), the mother loses her
intimidation of Dee and confronts her. The story ends triumphantly as Dee leaves
in defeat (see response #4).
6. The authors sympathy is obviously with Maggie. All of Dees actions, gestures, and
words reveal her as self-centered, callous, and affected. Conversely, Maggie is
considerate, honest, and caring. There are few positive details associated with Dee
and many with Maggie.

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7. Both the mother in Everyday Use and Phoenix Jackson in A Worn Path struggle
through poverty and oppression to live with dignity. Students can compare the
similarities and differences of their struggles.
8. Dee, Joy-Hulga, and Julian are all arrogant. Do their experiences through the course
of the stories result in enlightenment and change?

Damballah John Edgar Wideman (p. 661)

Possible Responses to Questions page 666
1. Responses will vary, but the boy in Damballah is caught between two cultures: the
American slave culture and his African roots which he comes in contact with through
Orion. Aunt Lissy warns the boy to stay away from Orion as she believes him a crazy
heathen. However the boy cannot deny the voices that crowd his head with braying
and cackling (663), the voices of his African heritage. The Aunt, whether she
realizes it or not, has carried some tribal conventions and beliefs with her. Consider
the imagery when she talks about the frogs singing at the clouds and calling down
the thunder (662).
2. Orion struggles to assert his own identity and his tribal traditions and beliefs while
resisting the slave culture, including Christianity, that his latest owner tries to impose
on him. He is like a giant stone (665), hard and stubborn whose light came from
within (661). He refuses to speak the language and eat the food of his oppressors
(661, 662), and he still conducts tribal rituals. Is it possible that he is responsible for
the drought? In life and in death, the owners are afraid of him, fearful of his magic
and his resistance to control. The other slaves regard him as troubled, inferior, and
unenlightened. Ironically, they hold themselves superior though he is less bound by
slavery than they are. But Orion, like the stones in the river, is worn down by slavery,
and looks forward to death when his ancestors will sweep him away, carry him home
again (661). His insistence on being an African leads to his death. He hopes the boy
will carry on the sacred rituals and tries to mentor the boy by practicing under the
boys watchful eye and by appealing to his heart through the word Damballah. Ask
students to consider the significance of the name Orion. In Greek mythology, Orion
is a giant hunter of great beauty who some say was slain by Artemis in a fit of
jealousy. After his death, Orion was placed in heaven as a constellation with girdle,
sword, club, and lions skin. Is he a shining example to the boy?
3. The storys title is a word that is primal and powerful to those from Orions tribe. The
boy responds instinctively to it and his aunt responds with rage. It is an expression of
cultural pride that has power to energize dormant sensibilities.
4. The letter suggests that Orions protest has proved bothersome to his current owner.
It is also quite possible that Orion cooperated with his previous owner. The letter is
full of irony and reveals the inherent deceit, self-deceit, and corruption of slavery as

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an institution. The author of the letter, for instance, considers himself honest and
fair and a good Christian who is gentle and generous to a fault with his slaves,
satisfying their spiritual and temporal needs. Does this describe his treatment of
Orion and the other slaves? In the letter, he refers to Orion as a creature with an
utter lack of a soul and slaves as savage blacks (664). Additionally, he tells how
he has flogged Orion and he does not allow him to practice his own religion. Right
below the letter, we hear Aunt Lissy state that many slaves are inadequately dressed.
Is there not disparity between promise and performance in what the slave owner
thinks of himself and how he really is?
5. This question could be approached by concentrating on the values of the slave holder
as revealed in his letter, the values of the slave as revealed in Aunt Lissys actions and
comments, and Orion. Aunt Lissy has adapted some of the values of the oppressor
while Orion clings to his tribal traditions and dies a martyr.
6. Consider how the protagonists in these stories insist on their culture. Do any
compromise?
7. Consider how Gimpel and Orion are treated by their own communities.
8. Consider how both the boy in Damballah and the narrator in The Lesson will use
the knowledge they gain from their experiences.

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Part Two

Poetry

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Chapter Seven

Reading Poems
Most students approach poetry with little or no enthusiasm and strong resistance. I
didnt like it then and I wont like it now seems to be the attitude of many. Its best to
get their feelings out in the open. Ask them to tell you about their previous experiences
with poetry. Most students find poetry difficult and intimidating, often believing they
have to know a lot of poetic terms before they understand or appreciate a poem. The
approach in this chapter will help break down some resistance.
DiYanni begins by connecting the reading of a poem with other kinds of reading.
As readers of other genres, we make observations, connections, and inferences, and we
respond emotionally. We read, interpret, and evaluate those texts the way we do our life
experiences. Students need to do the same with a poem. Although as DiYanni accurately
states, reading a poem is different. The compression and density of a poem create a more
intense and more demanding experience. Students need to slow down when reading
poems and be more attentive to the connotation of words, to syntax, to tone, to
implication, and to other nuances.
Highly motivated students will often read a poem at least some poems perhaps
several times, and still feel confused. To engage themselves and hopefully relieve the
frustration, they need to develop a process for approaching poems. The questions
phrased on page 670 and later on page 679 will help students develop such an approach
although they need to be informed that experiencing a poem is not just a matter of
responding to a set list of question. The questions are a starting point that will lead to
different and more specific questions with each poem.
Students also need to realize that the process of interpreting a poem is recursive,
and not linear, as a list of questions might imply. We move around a poetic text the way
we move around a new space, perhaps a public garden: we consider and reconsider as
lines or stanzas respond to or clarify earlier lines or stanzas, ultimately to form an overall
impression. Our experience of a poem, like that of the garden, does not necessarily end
with our reading or touring, as often we reflect and reconsider the work, perhaps as we
head home. It is frequently at that unexpected moment that the poem appears clearest
and most meaningful to us.
I like to read Robert Haydens Those Winter Sundays in class and ask students
to respond to the questions on page 670. We then consider the impressionistic response
of the reader on pages 671-72. This activity encourages students to open themselves to
the poem, to engage in dialogue with it. They see that they can respond very subjectively
to a poem. I also point out the authors consideration of detail, like polishing shoes, and

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the contemplation of confusing lines and phrases, like chronic angers. We then discuss
the quality of the writing. I remind students that theses are notes, not intended for
presentation; however, the activity of writing helped to focus this readers attention and
stimulated a meaningful response to the poem. I then ask students to do a freewriting
activity after reading a poem, which, if they choose, they may share with the class. Of
course, I assure them that this activity is about discovering their own response to a poem,
not about presenting a well-written essay.
Before proceeding and drawing from the text, I like to summarize a few key
points about poetry to my students:
1. Use the questions on pages 670 and 679 in the text as a starting point for your
experience of a poem.
2. Read slowly and deliberately. (I prefer they read closely one or two poems
between classes rather than race through several. The freewriting activity is
important here.)
3. Do not search for the definitive interpretation of a poem. Every reader brings
his own experiences to the poem, which can lead to varying interpretations.
However, this is not to say you should feel free to project any interpretation
you want onto a poem. Be sure you have read the poem literally and your
interpretation can be supported with textual evidence.
4. Do not confuse the I of the poem with the author. The I functions like a
narrator in a work of fiction.
5. Do not be afraid of the chaos in your freewriting. The chaos is most likely an
indication of an active, fully engaged mind.
6. Reading poems is a recursive process. You should let out your ideas and
attitudes about the poem whenever they come to you. Be aggressive with
your pen while reading. Make comments or annotate a poem as you read it
see Roethkes My Papas Waltz (681).
7. Your interpretation of a poem might change as your life and reading
experiences enlarge.
I then divide my class into groups of three and ask them to consider Richs Aunt
Jennifers Tigers. Depending upon time constraints, I might ask each group to consider
only questions #1-4 or #5-10. We consider the remaining questions when the class
reassembles. I ask one member of each group to report on the discussion within his/her
group. I very rarely have more than thirty minutes for this activity, but I find it helps to
get our exploration of poetry off to a good start. As a result of this activity, students feel
safer in sharing their thoughts with the entire class. Using other poems (like Heaneys
Digging or Mid-Term Break, and Hughess Theme for English B), I have repeated
this group activity later in the semester to re-energize the poetry discussions of the class.

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Chapter Eight

Types of Poetry
This chapter briefly explains the different poetic genres. Under narrative poems, the text
defines the epic, romance, and ballad, and under lyric poems the text includes the elegy,
epigraph, sonnet, sestina, aubade, and villanelle. While I do not tend to concentrate much
on poetic form in my introductory literature classes, I find this chapter a useful reference
source for some class discussions. For instance, if considering Donnes The Sun
Rising, Thomass Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night, or a Shakespearean
sonnet, I make it a point to turn to this chapter for definitions of aubade, villanelle, or
sonnet. I want students to know that there are several types of poetry and that further
information is clearly presented in their text.

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Chapter Nine

Elements of Poetry
This chapter defines and illustrates critical terms. I usually wait a few classes before
turning to this chapter. First, I want my students to feel at least somewhat comfortable
with the approach outlined in Chapter Nine. Then I encourage them to integrate the
elements of poetry into that approach, an approach the text supports and directs.
This chapter is divided into the following sections: Voice: Speaker and Tone;
Diction; Imagery; Figures of Speech: Simile and Metaphor; Symbolism and
Allegory; Syntax; Sound: Rhyme, Alliteration, Assonance; Rhythm and Meter;
Structure: Closed Form and Open Form; and Theme. Each section includes several
poems to illustrate the element under discussion.

Voice: Speaker and Tone

(p. 686)

These two crucial elements to a poem present problems to beginning literature students.
One point I find that needs constant reiteration is that the speaker and the poet are not
necessarily one and the same. Of course, at times they are. However, I try to convey that
readers should approach the speaker as a separate entity, just as they would a narrator of a
work of fiction. Students do not grasp this concept easily, especially since some poems
are autobiographical and many sound as though they are. Still, it is an important point to
work on.
Beginning literature students are not often sensitive to tone. It will take practice.
However, once students realize that the tone is an absolutely essential part of the poems
communication process, they will try to develop skills to detect it. They need of course,
to be sensitive to every part of the poem: language, sound, rhythm, images, even
punctuation. To demonstrate the importance of tone, I ask if they have had disagreements
over not what was said, but how it was said. I ask a specific question, May I have a ride
home? How many ways can no be said? How might a rift in a friend develop from
that one-word response? The poems that follow in the text provide excellent illustrations
of the importance of tone. To challenge your students further, you might assign a poem
like John Donnes Batter my heart, three-personed God. The several tonal shifts more
fully illumine the speakers sense of desperation and confusion.

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War Is Kind Stephen Crane (p. 687)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How does the visual layout of the poem emphasize the irony?
2. Characterize the speaker of this poem. Why does Crane have him address a maiden,
babe, and mother? What is the significance to the tone of addressing them?
3. Explain the image of the mothers heart humble as a button. How does that image
contrast with the war imagery? How does it deflate the war imagery?
4. Compare the speaker in War is Kind with the speaker in Thomas Hardys The Man
He Killed. Are the views towards war in the two poems similar?

My Last Duchess Robert Browning (p. 688)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Contrast the dukes way of looking at the world with that of his last duchesss.
2. Why would the duke tell the ambassador about his last duchess?
3. Browning may suggest the ambassadors actions, but not his thoughts. Write a report
of this meeting that the ambassador will send to his count. Consider that the
ambassador might have been impressed. After all, the ambassador is at least
somewhat of an elite male in a male-dominated culture, and, presumably, his standard
of living is high, in part because of his cultures emphasis on convention and
decorum, upon which many of the elite, like the duke, insist.

In the Orchard Muriel Stuart (p. 690)

Possible Responses to Questions page 691
1. The boys tone shifts as the dialogue progresses. He is at first lighthearted and
romantic, as he has no idea of the girls affection for him. His references to the
harvest moon shining in her hair and the drum in the booth smack of clichs that
he might have used before in what, to him, is the game of seduction, which ends
with necessary words of comfort to the girl. As the poem moves on, he becomes
impatient, as she does not understand that their lovemaking was an act of fun, not
love. He becomes curt: Well, boys are like that (16), or Stop that now (26). He
accepts her reassurance that she is alright, though she obviously is not, and he uses
the threat of rain to hurry the end of the evening.

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The girls speech is full of disappointment, frustration, and pain. She is

devastated when she realizes that he is no different from other young men. Her
references to the stoning of a black bird and the drowning of a kitten indicate her
identification with other victims of immature male cruelty and violence. Her tonal
shifts after those lines are abrupt, from the emotional denial of Not you! Not You!
to the icy resignation of Go on, brought on by his use of a girl, which is all she is
to him, and from the disbelief and despair of But I gave you everything, to the
angry realization of how he will talk of her (27). She realizes that he is uncaring and
that his attitude will not change, so she decides to leave. Perhaps she asks for a kiss
to see if she can detect any trace of love. Her words are full of anguish, while his
suggest both triumph and impatience, as he is anxious to depart.
2. The questions, ellipses, and repeated words help to reveal the youth of the speakers
and add realism to the poem, as actual conversations are filled with such hesitations
and uncertainties.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Ask students to consider staging the poem as a play. What choices would they make
regarding the ages of the characters, their dress, the setting, lighting, and most
importantly for our purposes in this chapter, the pace and delivery of the lines?

Thou art indeed just, Lord Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 692)
Possible Responses to Questions page 692
1. The speaker uses words with legal connotations; he sounds like a lawyer before a
judge. He is confused and he believes he has not been treated fairly. His tone, like a
lawyers pleading an appeal, is respectful, but firm and argumentative.
2. The speaker is disappointed and angry at what he sees as the inequity in life: why do
sinners thrive more than I? How come nature seems to thrive while all my efforts
fail? The speaker is frustrated, weary, and self-pitying, but hopeful in the final line,
which de-emphasizes the whine from the poem, and instead, emphasizes an honest
confusion and recognition of Gods mysterious workings in the world.
Other Topics for Discussion
1. Compare the speaker in Hopkinss poem with John Donnes Batter my heart threepersoned God or Hymn to God the Father.
2. Contrast the imagery in the poem (the sots and thralls of lust, the banks and
brakes, birds building nests, and the speaker as eunuch). How do these images
support his complaint that life is not fair? Consider especially the abundant life that
springs up even among the passive banks and brakes.

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Western Wind Anonymous (p. 693)

Possible Response to Question page 693
The couplet expresses desperation, despair, and a sense of tragedy and loss. There is no
sense of tragedy in the alternate lines, merely yearning and longing.
Additional Topics for Discussion
What connection do the first two lines in Western Wind have with the final two lines?
Do they set the scene? Why would the speaker want rain and wind? Ask students to
create a context for the poem. Western Wind was originally a song, probably first
performed in the court of Henry VIII.

Naming of the Parts Henry Reed (p. 693)

Possible Responses to Questions page 694
1. The first voice might be identified as the drilling instructor, and the second is the
inner voice of a young soldier. The drill instructor begins each stanza and speaks
until his sentence ends in line four. The remaining three lines are those of the young
soldier. The drill sergeant presents his information in a dry, direct tone, reducing the
weapon to its parts with no mention of its destructive capabilities. The young
soldiers language contrasts with the instructor as his thoughts are expressed lyrically,
in vivid images of a garden teeming with life. The irony in the contrast is clear.
2. The voices converge in the opening line of the final stanza. This effect underscores
the irony. To the drill instructor, easing the Spring suggests the mechanism used to
fire the weapon and cause destruction; to the soldier Spring suggests life as he
contemplates the image of bees fertilizing the flowers.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Does the poem make a statement about the military frame of mind or the militarys
desired state of mind in its soldiers? How do you think the instructor would react if
he knew what the soldier was thinking?
2. If students are familiar with George Orwells essay Shooting an Elephant, ask them
to compare the soldier in the essay with the one in the poem.

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Family Portrait Jacques Prvert (p. 694)

Possible Response to Question page 695
The tone of the first three lines is matter-of-fact. The language is commonplace, and
description and images are minimal and ordinary. The family is living what they consider
the prescribed pattern of life. All is proceeding as business as normal. As the poem
develops, the rhythm and syntax of the sentences suggest the repetition and monotony of
their existence. When the son dies, they simply include visits to the cemetery in their
routine. The simplistic language, repetition, syntax, lack of vivid imagery, all point to a
dull, unexamined life, in which the family follows prescribed cultural formulas. In the
family, there seems to be a tragic absence of feeling, especially love and grief.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Compare the responses to war of the parents in Family Portrait with the responses
of the parents in Pirandellos War.
2. Does the resignation of the family in Family Portrait seem unusual and extreme, or
do most people resign themselves to their circumstances?
3. Compare the view of life in Family Portrait with the view presented in Audens
The Unknown Citizen.

Diction (p. 695)

The discussion of diction emphasizes the distinction between the denotation and
connotation of a word. As the chapter notes, the works connotation is especially
important to poetry. Poets will often choose words richly suggestive. Students are
encouraged therefore to not only use a dictionary when reading, but to consider also the
implications of a particular word. This introductory section takes students through the
process of using the dictionary to discover the meaning and implications of the word
countenance. This strategy is practical and emphasizes the care and time needed for a
fuller understanding of a poem.

I wandered lonely as a cloud William Wordsworth (p. 697)

Additional Topic for Discussion
The poem can be used to discuss the differences between prose and poetry, between
reporting and art. The poem is based on an entry in Dorothy Wordsworths journal,
recorded two years earlier after a walk she and her famous brother had taken:

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[A]s we went along there were more and yet more [daffodils]; and at last, under
the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore.
I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about
them; some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness; and
the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with
the wind.
What are the essential differences between the poem and the journal entry? How
indebted would you say the poet is to his sister?

Miniver Cheevy Edwin Arlington Robinson (p. 699)

Possible Responses to Questions page 700
1. Words suggesting that Miniver loved the days of old include swords, steeds,
warrior, Thebes, Camelot, Priams neighbors, Romance, Medici,
medieval grace, iron clothing.
Verbs suggesting Minivers action: assailed, wept, loved, set him
dancing, mourned, would have sinned, cursed, eyed, scorned,
scratched, coughed, kept on drinking.
Verbs suggesting inaction: grew lean, sighed, dreamed, rested,
thought. Many of the verbs that suggest action (loved, mourned, would have
sinned, e.g.) might simultaneously be expressing inaction, as they indicate an active
imagination, but no physical action.
Miniver was a cynic who refused to look for excitement or imaginative
stimulation from the present. He merely longs for the days of old, which he
comprehends only superficially. His hopelessness and bleak approach to life has led
him to drink and poor health.
2. The words ripe and fragrant suggest fruits and flowers at their peak of perfection.
To Miniver, Art and Romance were at their peak in the days of old; they are
now faded and decayed, stripped of their nobility. What passes for Romance today
is cheap, ordinary entertainment found on the town. Art has been abandoned.
With no support, art has become a vagrant. This imagery, of course, follows
Minivers belief in the decline of contemporary culture.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How does Miniver define days of old? Does his juxtaposing Thebes, Camelot, and
the Medici family suggest historical ignorance or knowledge? Where might Miniver
have acquired his impressions of history? When do you think Miniver would mark
the decline of civilization?
2. Can Minivers attitude about contemporary culture be compared to Willy Lomans?
See Willys soliloquy in Death of a Salesman, Act II, in which he discusses his

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fathers and brothers streak of self-reliance, and concludes by lamenting the

absence of comradeship and gratitude in the contemporary business world.

It is a beauteous evening William Wordsworth (p. 700)

Possible Response to question page 701
These words all suggest spirituality and therefore support the speakers idea that the
experience of nature can be a religious one, as sacred as any experienced in a church or
during a religious ritual. Several words in the last four lines continue the religious
imagery: divine, Abrahams bosom, worshipst, Temples inner shrine, God.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Define what the speaker means by Temples inner shrine.
2. Discuss the little girls reaction to the sunset.
3. Explain the paradox in the comparison of the sunset to a sound like thunder.
4. Compare the speakers response to nature in It is a beauteous evening with the
speakers response in I wandered lonely as a cloud.

Delight in Disorder Robert Herrick (p. 701)

Possible Responses to Questions page 701
1. All those words suggest spontaneity, disorder, and liveliness. Err comes from the
Latin errare (to wander, to go astray); tempestuous comes from the Latin tempestas
(a calamity, storm, tempest). Both words, in the context of the poem, suggest
deviation, an arousing one, perhaps a sexual daring.
2. The connotations of these words suggest the speakers passionate response to the
womans dress. He is sexually aroused by her tastefully disordered dress, as he finds
delight in [her] disorder.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What is meant by wild civility? Is it an oxymoron?
2. Drawing upon the sense of the description in the poem, describe what a contemporary
woman would look like.

Rape Adrienne Rich (p. 702)

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Possible Response to Question

Used together, the words prowler and father suggest that the cop is part authority
figure and part thief, like a prowler in the life of a woman who constantly lurks
threateningly in the shadows, ready to rob women of their dignity and autonomy. The
image reveals the speakers distrust of the policeman and, perhaps, the male-dominated
culture. Confessor links the policeman with another authority figure, the priest. The
woman to confess must turn to another male; the implication is that males dominate the
culture and that women are forced to deal with men on the most intimate of concerns. In
addition, the policeman is associated with the rapist and a warlord, two images of brutal
violation. The poem uses rape (the actual violation and the womans reporting of) as an
intense and angry illustration of male power and culture-wide domination, and the
resulting oppression of women.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What is implied by the use of cop instead of policeman?
2. What is the significance of repeating the second line of the final stanza?
3. Consider the poems closing words: lie your way home. What do they imply?
What does the speaker finally conclude?
4. This poem might also be taught effectively alongside Yeats Leda and the Swan and
Williamss Queen-Anns-Lace.

Imagery

(p. 703)

The discussion of imagery defines image and considers its use to trigger memory, to
stimulate feelings, and to command response. This brief introduction prepares students to
interpret and evaluate a poems use of imagery.

First Death in Nova Scotia Elizabeth Bishop (p. 704)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. To understand a poem we must consider its point of view. The text discusses the
double perspective of the adult/child used in this poem. However, suppose this poem
were written from the point of view of Uncle Arthur or the childs mother. How
would the poem be different? What images would be discussed differently? Which
ones would not appear?

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2. What is the significance of the title of the poem? How does the title unite the poems
imagery and meaning?

The Lake Isle of Innisfree -- William Butler Yeats (p. 706)

Possible Responses to Question page 707
Images of sound include bee-loud glade, cricket sings, evenings full of the linnets
wings, lake water lapping with low sounds.
Sight images include small cabin of clay and wattles, nine bean-rows, a
hive, peace dropping from the veils of the morning, midnights all a glimmer,
noon a purple glow, roadway, pavement gray.
The images of the first ten lines contribute to the sense of solitude, peace, beauty,
and independence of Innisfree, where he builds his own dwelling, plants his own crops,
and lives off the land. The images in line 11 contrast sharply, showing the barrenness and
lack of beauty in life away from the small cabin.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Yeats said he was inspired to write this poem as he stood outside the British Museum
and listened to or imagined he listened to the sound of a fountain, which contrasted
with the hustle and bustle of the city racing before him. The poem reflects, he said,
his yearning for the simple life that he experienced in his youth in the west of Ireland.
How does the poem reflect this yearning without being factually specific?
2. Compare the speaker with Miniver Cheevy. How do they demonstrate similar
attitudes towards the modern world? How are their responses to that world different?
3. How is the speakers view of nature comparable with that of the speaker in any one of
Wordsworths poems?
4. Caedmon Records has released an impressive recording of Yeatss reading The Lake
Isle of Innisfree. It is worth playing in class, and a good listening experience for
students.

Meeting at Night Robert Browning (p. 707)

Possible Response to Question page 707
The images in the poem can be identified as follows:
visual: gray sea, long, black land, yellow half-moon, startled little
waves, fiery ringlets, three fields, farm, blue spurt.

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aural: a tap, a voice, a quick sharp scratch, two hearts beating. [Note
the onomatopoetic effects in lines 5-6 as the rating sound of the boat docking in the sand
is echoed in the s, sh, and ch sounds in pushing quenching speed slushy sand.]
tactile: pushing brow, slushy sand.
olfactory: warm, sea-scented beach.
gustatory: quench its speed.
This ordering of images is hardly definitive. Slushy sand could appeal to our sense of
sound, for instance, while we may consider the quick sharp scratch/ And blue spurt of a
lighted match as appealing to our senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell. The point of
the sensual images is to convey the heightened emotional state of the lover going to his
beloved. All his senses are fully alive and opened as he eagerly anticipates the meeting.
The imagery infuses the poem with energy and urgency.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Ask students to create a context for the poem. [Students might be interested in knowing
that the father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning was bitterly opposed to her relationship
with Robert Browning. The couple eloped in 1846.]

Heat H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) (p. 707)

Possible Response to Question page 708
In stanza one, the wind is depicted as a tailor or seamstress who must cut through the
heavy fabric of the heat. In stanza three, the wind is addressed as a farmer who must cut
through the hardened soil to plow his lands, enabling them once again to be fertile and
productive. In stanza two, the imagery offers a more positive picture of heat, as the heat
keeps fruits on their branches until they ripen and are properly shaped. Therefore, the
imagery seems to suggest that the heat is an ambiguous force: both oppressive and lifegiving. The wind, we might conclude, is its opposing dynamic, which brings relief to
people, but perhaps destruction to fruit. The poem offers a complex view of the elements
and, by extension, of the world.
Additional Topic for Discussion
There is a 1919 painting called Heat by Florine Stettheimer that reminds me of this poem.
It visualizes the oppressiveness of heat. If you have access to a copy of the painting,
students will enjoy seeing how a visual artist treats the similar theme.

Neutral Tones Thomas Hardy (p. 708)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 708

1. The images in stanza one suggest coldness and barrenness: winter day, the white
winter sun, gray leaves on the starving sod. The images intensify in stanza two and
three by suggesting death and hopelessness: the smile was the deadest thing, a
grin of bitterness, an ominous bird a-wing.
2. By juxtaposing the face of the lover with the natural images that appeared earlier and
through the comparison of the deceptive lover with the God-curst sun, the final two
lines clarify that the relationship has ended. Some of the concluding images seem to
be more stark than their earlier references: face is devoid of any expression, Godcurst sun for a sun chidden of God, and tree for ash.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Discuss the significance of the title.
2. Discuss the tone of the poem. What does it reveal about the speakers character?
3. Explain the paradox of lines 9-10: The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing/
Alive enough to have strength to die.

Figures of Speech: Simile and Metaphor (p. 709)

This section helps students understand the difference between literal and figurative
language. Figurative language is used by poets as a means to say more, or to state more
fully a feeling or condition. To demonstrate how this works, I find it helpful to review a
few clichd metaphors, like Go jump in the lake (from the opening paragraph of the
section). I ask students to list others. Are they particularly intense? Are any particularly
hurtful, offensive, or complimentary? (Not an easy task when dealing with clichs, but
women will usually suggest some offensive names that they have heard men use in
reference to them or other women.) I intend this exercise to open students to the power
of figurative language. I then ask students to substitute adjectives for the figurative
language. Why is the substitute language not as effective? This exercise helps to convey
the importance of connotation as well. Before turning to Shakespeares That time of
year, I conclude this preliminary discussion by citing examples the text culls from
Wordsworths I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Since this discussion will hopefully have an impact on the writing and speaking of
students, you may, at this point, discuss the problem of mixed metaphors and reasons for
avoiding them. The following examples demonstrate the confusion and distraction, not to
mention the unintended humor, created by the mixed metaphor:
He took a chance. He took a shot, and after the dice stopped rolling, he hit a
home run, Mr. Ackerman said.
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from the Washington Times [rpt. in The New Yorker 31 March 1986, p. 68]
In suggesting that Lilco be taken out of the political arena, Mr. Purcell said that
the public-power issue needed to be thoroughly studied. We shouldnt jump into
something that will be an Achilles heel down the road, he warned.
from the New York Times [rpt. in The New Yorker 3 March 1986, p. 107]

That time of year thou mayst in me behold William Shakespeare

(p. 710)
This poem forms a neat bridge between a discussion of imagery and figurative language.
As the explication in the text indicates, the images in the first four lines appeal to sight,
hearing, and touch, while Shakespeare uses metaphors to develop the comparison of
aging with autumn, twilight, and the dying of a fire.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Whom is the speaker addressing? Assuming students are dealing with the poem apart
from its place in Shakespeares sonnets, ask them the possibilities. If time permits, ask
them to debate which possibility seems most plausible. This will encourage them to
consider further the implications of the metaphors.

Hymn to God the Father John Donne (p. 711)

Possible Responses to Questions page 712
1. In stanza two, the speaker says that one sin of his encouraged others to sin. Thus his
sin has opened the way for others to sin, the way a door serves as an entrance point.
He continues to ask if God will forgive the sinful action he has quit within the past
two years, but which he committed for twenty years, or wallowed in a score.
Wallowed connotes dallying or dawdling, much like a pig in a pen, further
emphasizing the lowliness and disgust of his sinful life. In stanza three, my last
thread refers to running out of yearn or running out of breath, the material for life.
His fear is that he will die while on the shore, an image of transition, which
suggests that he fears dying just as he embarks on a more virtuous course of behavior.
2. In line 15, Donne puns on son, comparing Gods son to the sun that shines, and in
line 17, Donne puns on his own name with done, suggesting God in his mercy has
provided humankind with the necessary forgiveness and that God now has Donne as
his devoted follower. Both puns contribute to the affirmation of the speakers
conclusion.
Additional Topics for Discussion

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1. Some argue that puns have no place in a deeply felt religious poem, believing that
puns reflect a linguistic preoccupation that detracts from the spiritual complexity of
the inner life. Agree or disagree.
2. How does Donne pun on his own name in line 5?
3. Referring to the poem, what sins do you think the speaker has committed?
4. Compare the speaker in this poem with the speakers in Donnes Batter my heart
three-personed God and Hopkinss Thou art just indeed, Lord.

The Double Play Robert Wallace (p. 712)

Possible Responses to Questions page 713
1. Words and phrases that connect the double play to a dance include the following:
bounds, shortstop magically scoops, whirling above his invisible shadows,
poised, pirouettes leaping. Like a ballet, a successful double play requires
precision, well-rehearsed collaboration, and stylized movements, and, frequently,
speed and grace.
2. Some of the most interesting comparisons concern the pitcher. The pitchers mound
is compared to a distant place, visible like something illuminated under the sea. This
suggests the mystery of the pitchers thoughts, the lack of clarity and assurance with
which we or the batter anticipates his next sequence of pitches. The pitchers
preparation to throw is compared to the winding of a clock which will soon strike
perhaps an implied pun. In stanza two, the ball in flight is compared to a string,
visible when near but invisible from a distance.
3. The double play has occurred on the page through the description of the action. But it
has also occurred in the poem with its double play of images and metaphors,
especially comparing the fielders actions with a dance.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Compared the image of the sea lit pitchers mound with the image f the drowning
soldier (line 11-16) in Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum Est. How does this
similar image take on different overtones?
2. Compare the depiction of the pitcher in this poem with that of the pitcher in Robert
Franciss Pitcher.
3. Compare the rhythm of The Double Play with that of William Carlos Williamss
The Dance. What effect does the use of enjambed lines have on the rhythm?

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4. What other routine plays or moments in athletic competition resemble dance

routines? How then is a dance different from an athletic event? How do the
participants differ in intent?

The Battle Louis Simpson (p. 713)

Possible Responses to Question page 714
The helmet, rifle, pack, and overcoat are synecdoches, suggesting that the soldier has
been de-humanized. He has been reduced to a piece of equipment, an instrument of war,
no longer regarded as human. In the final image of stanza one, comparing the night to a
throat that has been cut emphasizes the mutilation and destruction of war as the soldiers
are compared to moles. The poem ends with bleak images of fatigue, weakness, fear, and
despair. The soldiers fear and desperation are revealed in the tense, full breath with
which they inhaled their cigarettes.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Compare the imagery, speaker, and tone of The Battle with Wilfred Owens Dulce
et Decorum Est.
2. Discuss the visual imagery in the poem. What effect does it have on you?
3. How does Simpson convey the intensity of the battle in stanza three? What words
and images are especially effective?

Woman to Child Judith Wright (p. 714)

Possible Response to Question
I interpret the expressions as follows:
All a world I made in me the speaker has created a world by nurturing new
life within her. The image also implies her connectedness with the process of creation,
that same process which gave birth to everything in the universe.
All time lay rolled in me the speaker feels her connectedness with the entire
birthing process, both past and present, both human and non-human.
I hold you deep within that well the speaker conveys the idea that the
mother will always feel as though the child is a part of her, even after birth. The well is
an image of depth and life, reflecting the depth of the mothers commitment and her
natural life-giving powers.

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I am the earth, I am the root this image reflects the concept that the mother
is the source of life, both in and out of the womb.
I am the stem that fed the fruit this image emphasizes that the mother is the
source of the childs life, a source that produced something healthy and healthful.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What is the tone of Woman to Child?
2. Explain the significance of the title. Why does Wright use woman instead of mother?
3. Woman to Child employs a Biblical imagery and cadence particularly stanza
three. What does this contribute to your interpretation of the poem? You might read
John 15: 5-6:
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in
me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast
them into the fire, and they are burned.

Symbolism and Allegory (p. 715)

This section begins by discussing symbolism. I especially note a couple of points: first,
not every object in a poem or literary work has symbolic significance, and, second, a
symbol derives meaning from context. These points, though obvious, need to be stressed.
Some students engage themselves too eagerly in the symbol hunt, with the result that
their interpretations are frequently farfetched. Other students, more timid, have asked me
if there is any available manual which unfolds the meaning behind symbols. They
believe that every time a noun like water appears that it will carry the same symbolic
significance. The text provides a commonsensical and unintimidating approach to
understanding symbols.
I spend time reviewing the questions on page 715. I consider this a very
important part of my presentation. These questions offer a guideline to detecting symbols
that will make students feel more comfortable. I close this overview by informing
students that symbols are open to interpretation and often resist definitive interpretations.
I encourage them to speculate, but to examine their speculations rigorously for validity.
I discuss allegory, as the text does, after a reading of Advice to My Son. I rely
on the text (717) for my discussion of allegory, which I keep brief. I sometimes discuss
allegory in the context of other works, like Faulkners A Rose for Emily or
Shakespeares Othello.

Up-Hill Christina Rossetti (p. 717)

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The allegorical interpretation to Up-Hill is rather obvious. (See page 717.) However,
it will help to build the confidence of beginning poetry students to ask them to interpret
specific images, like days journey, resting-place, inn, wayfarers, and beds.
Ask too for an interpretation of line 14: Of labor you shall find the sum.

A Poison Tree William Blake (p. 718)

Possible Responses to Questions page 719
1 & 2. The poem tells a chilling story, perhaps, of revenge. The speaker is angry with an
enemy. Rather than try for a peaceful settlement of their differences, the speaker feeds
his anger and encourages it to develop. He deceives his foe with the appearance of
friendliness, and tempts him into a trap. In the final two lines, the speaker seems to boast
that he has destroyed his enemy. The story suggests the destructiveness of hidden anger.
But who has been destroyed? Certainly, the speakers foe, but what about the speaker
himself? Has his obsession for revenge made him less human? Thereby destroying a
part of his soul? This latter reading is encouraged by the Biblical imagery, which
suggests that the speaker drew on the evil in his soul to tempt his victim to his demise.
Like Satan in the Garden of Eden, the speaker used an apple to entice his victim.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What effect do the many monosyllabic words have on the poems rhythm and tone?
How does the sound of these words help to characterize the speaker?
2. Write an essay describing a time in your life when you let your anger grow. What
were the consequences of the growing anger? Did you end up hurting yourself as
much as the object of your anger?
3. During your discussion of A Poison Tree, consider James Baldwins statement near
the close of Notes of a Native Son: Hatred, which could destroy so much, never
failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost (p. 719)

Possible Responses to Questions page 719
1. The final stanza invites us to read the poem on more than a literal level. After all,
why else would the speaker tell us, with a sigh, about a walk which he expects to
talk about for ages and ages hence? Clearly, the two roads are meant to be
representative. But of what? Many students will have heard this poem at their high
school commencement exercises. They will interpret one path as representative of the
conventional way of life and the other as representative of the non-conformist
lifestyle. The speaker whom they see as Frost chooses, they believe, the life of a

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poet, the non-conformist path. They read the poem as a celebration of the
independent life, as a call for them to dare to be different.
However, a close reading of the poem fails to sustain this very optimistic
interpretation. Line 6 states that both paths are equally fair. One was only slightly
less traveled, and after the speaker walked on that path, they were worn about the
same. Significantly, the speaker has not shunned the other path; he saves it for
another day. The poem is really about choices and their consequences: way leads
on to way. The choices in the poem are not between good and evil, or conformity
and non-conformity. The choices are very similar, but lead the speaker down
different roads, each establishing a different chain of events and decisions. The poem
is also about lifes limitations. Although the speaker would like to walk both paths,
he can only travel one.
In Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph, biographer Lawrance Thompson states
that the poem is about Welsh poet and Frosts friend Edward Thomas. The poem
captures the excruciations through which this dour Welshman went each time he was
required to make a choice. Frost once told Thomas, No matter which road you
take, youll always sigh, and wish youd taken another. For a laugh, Frost sent the
poem to Thomas. But Thomas missed the joke, not realizing that the poem was about
him. Frost, writes Thompson, could never bear to tell the truth about the failure of
this lyric to perform as he intended it.
2. Responses will vary.
Additional Topic for Discussion
If Frost intended the poem as a joke, where is the humor or playfulness? Consider the
exaggerated and overly dramatic quality of the last stanza. Remember the roads were
about the same.

Virtue George Herbert (p. 720)

Possible Response to Question page 720
Symbols of transience include a beautiful day, a rose, springtime, and finally the world
itself. The idea in the poem is that all things of this world will eventually perish.
However, a soul, sweet and virtuous, is immortal. You might consider with your
students the apparent contraction in the comparison of the soul to seasoned timber,
which would perish with the world. Does it effect your evaluation of the poem?

Because I could not stop for Death Emily Dickinson (p. 720)

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Possible Response to Question page 721

The poem is an allegory with Death personified as a kind gentleman who takes a busy
woman for a carriage ride. Lines 9-13 indicate that Death drives past the various stages
of life: childhood (School), adult world of work (Fields), and retirement (Setting
Sun). This stanza suggests that death is always near us, taking us closer to the grave
with each passing day. Lines 17-20 suggest a grave or a tomb. The Roof scarcely
visible calls to mind a nineteenth-century grave where slabs of stone were often laid flat
across the burial site. The poem is an allegory of posthumous experience.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Where is the speaker? Is she in heaven or hell, neither?
2. Interpret the poem as a meditation on death. Does the contemplation make the
speaker more or less fearful of death? Support your answer by referring to words and
lines in the poem.

Syntax

(p. 721)

The discussion of syntax emphasizes the importance of word order to the meaning
conveyed. Syntax obviously affects rhythm, but it also affects the readers interpretation
of tone and characterization as well. Poetry will make use of a wider range of syntax
variations than prose, and sometimes students might have to rearrange a line to
understand its literal meaning. Stanza two of Donnes The Sun Rising will become
literally clear to some students only after inverting the first and second lines.
Poetic variations of syntax will have implications for the prose writing of
students, who generally pay little attention to the word order of their sentences.
Depending upon the writing level of my class, I might remind students of the following
ways to achieve syntax variation: subordinate clauses or phrases at the beginning of
sentences, parallelism, inversion of standard subject-verb patterns, and contrasting
sentence lengths.

The Sun Rising John Donne (p. 722)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Illustrate the definition of aubade by referring to The Sun Rising.
2. Does the speakers praise of his lady seem extravagant? Refer to images and lines.
3. How does the speaker seem to change his attitude toward the sun? Consider his
words in stanza one, which mock the sun and try to banish him, with his words in the

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final stanza, which invite the sun to shine here to us. What might have caused him
to change his attitude?
4. Is there anything humorous or playful in The Sun Rising?

The Man He Killed Thomas Hardy (p. 725)

Possible Responses to Questions page 725
1. The first two stanzas are parallel in structure. They establish the conversational tone
of the poem, as the speaker offers a personal statement based on his war experience.
The simple, colloquial language and the speakers reduction of war to personal
observation contrast with the propaganda, jingoism and elaborate machinery of war.
The speaker considers the human tragedy of war in a heartfelt, but low-key tone, like
one resigned to the absurdity of human affairs.
2. The dash in stanza two indicates hesitation as he gropes for an explanation for why he
killed the opposing soldier, which he finds: Because he was my foe. But this
explanation is insufficient, despite his three attempts to sustain it (Just so: my foe of
course he was;/ Thats clear enough ). The following word, although, signals that
his attempt at reassurance is unsuccessful. In stanza four, the dash suggests hesitation
brought on by a sudden thought. He considers that the soldier he killed was probably
just like him unemployed, and with no strong convictions about his countrys
reasons for fighting. The speaker experiences an epiphany as he realizes the probable
similarities between himself and the man he killed. He is trying to come to terms
with the bitter ironies of war.
3. The final stanza does not necessarily suggest that the speaker has worked through his
realization of the middle stanzas, but it does indicate a sense of resignation,
understated bitterness, anger perhaps at the militaristic machine, and increased
awareness of human folly.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Characterize the speaker.
2. Compare the view of war presented by the speaker in The Man He Killed with that
of the narrator in OConnors Guests of the Nation.

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death William Butler Yeats (p. 726)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 726

1. Each pair of lines is balanced in structure and contrasted in meaning. These carefully
controlled pairs of lines reflect the airmans sense of being locked into a fated pattern.
2. The parallel structure calls attention to the contrasts in the paired lines and
emphasizes the lack of traditional motivation the airman feels as he goes to war. The
pairs in lines 1-10 reject most the standard reasons for going to war, while lines 11-16
reveal the speakers actual motivation.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Compare the speakers motivation for things military with that of the young soldier in
the Naming of Parts.
2. Consider this poem alongside Lady Gregorys The Rising of the Moon. How does the
sense of Irish nationalism inform both works? Does this nationalism imply a negative
attitude toward England?

The Silken Tent Robert Frost (p. 726)

You might have some fun before you begin. Inform students that The Silken Tent
compares a woman to a tent. Ask them to anticipate the details of the metaphor.
Possible Response to Question page 727
The She of the poem is compared to a tent that is connected to earth by many ties,
almost imperceptible ones. Similarly, the poem is one sentence, tied together almost
unnoticeably by several conjunctions that unite the details and images of the poem. Thus
the syntax reflects the theme. The poem is also a sonnet that follows the strict formal
arrangements (meter and rhyme scheme) of the English sonnet, thus reflecting the idea of
freedom within the constrictions of time and space.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What kind of tent is the woman compared to? Students have preconceived images of
tents that often interfere with their understanding of the poem. You will probably
need to emphasize the following:
the tent is silk (not canvas);
it sways at ease in a summer breeze;
it is supported by a central cedar pole (cedar is a costly, aromatic wood and
could suggest Psalm 92 in which the godly grow like cedar in Lebanon);

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the pole points heaven ward;

The tent is circular.
2. What does the comparison to the tent suggest about the woman? Look for images to
suggest beauty, grace, piety, humility, poise, gentleness, strength, thoughtfulness,
lovingness, freedom, and dependence.
3. Explain the use of capriciousness in line 13. Does it refer to the tent, the woman, or
the summer air?

Meet up at does E. E. Cummings (p. 727)

Possible Responses to Questions page 727
1. A possible arrangement: Out of the floor, a poisoned mouse, still alive, who does
quietly stare up at me, is asking, What have I done that you wouldnt have? The
first three lines of the poem need the most adjusting; perhaps the speaker is so
shocked at the sight of the mouse that he loses his coherence for a few seconds.
2. As signaled by the poems first word, in lines 1-5 we read the speakers point of view;
then, as the speaker relates to the mouse, we read the mouses point of view. The
speakers identification with and sympathy for the mouse are surprising and
humorous.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How is it that the speaker in the poem can identify with a mouse? What would the
two have in common? Does the identification have implications?
2. Compare the speakers response to finding a dead animal in me up at does with the
speakers response in William Staffords Traveling through the dark.
3. Whenever discussing Cummings, I find that his syntax will make more sense to the
students if I show them Cubist paintings. Generally, I just hold up copies of the
Cubist work of Picasso or Georges Braque. The paintings will clarify Cummingss
poetry and provide an interesting visual counterpart. It will also expose many
students to a style of painting unfamiliar to them.

Mother, Among the Dustbins Stevie Smith (p. 728)

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Possible Response to Question page 728

The balanced phrases and repetitive word groups suggest the cadence of the King James
Bible, a fitting work to echo given the content of the poem. However, the words (like
dustbins and manure, broom, cobwebs) the speaker uses to discuss theology
contrast with the ponderous and authoritative rhythm of the poem. The speaker playfully
turns on herself in line 16: Man is most frivolous when he pronounces. Line 18
presents a reversal as it suggests that God is a folly created by man. The question at the
end is at once direct, accusatory, playful and incisive like the tone of the rest of the
poem.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Characterize the speaker. Does her theology have anything in common with JoyHulgas in OConnors Good Country People or Beneathas in Hansberrys Raisin
in the Sun?
2. How do you think the mother would respond to each of her daughters statements and
questions?

Sound: Rhyme, Alliteration, Assonance (p. 728)

This section concerns various sound devices that a poet may use to convey or enhance
meaning. I find it beneficial to review carefully the presentation in this section. The
examples are excellent, clarifying for students the sometimes abstract definitions of
rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. While hearing slant rhymes presents some difficulty
for students, rhyme and alliteration are relatively easy to grasp. You will probably need
to spend more time on assonance, which students do no hear so readily.
I emphasize to students that these sound devices are not merely window-dressing
or stylistic tricks, but rather integral parts of the poems foundation and meaning. Poets
use these devices for functional reasons, not decorative ones.

In the Valley of the Elwy Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 731)

This poem will provide a clear and thorough illustration for the way sound establishes
meaning. See the discussion in the text on pages 731-32.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Compare the speakers prayer in In the Valley of the Elwy with that of the speakers
prayer in Donnes Hymn to God the Father or Hopkinss Thou art indeed just, Lord.

During Wind and Rain Thomas Hardy (p. 732)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 733

1. The rhyme scheme is abcbcde: in the first and third stanzas the d line has internal
rhyme. The repetitions serve almost like a chorus and give the poem the feeling of a
ballad. They convey the idea that time (Ah, no; the years) will intrude, inevitably,
to destroy the beauty and joy of the world (yea and aye).
2. There are multiple examples of alliteration, including the following: treble and
tenor (line 3), garden gay (11), shady seat (12), blithely breakfasting (15),
men and maidens (16), rotten rose is ripped (21), clocks and carpets and chairs
(24). The alliterations create a strong, pounding rhythm, almost like a chant or a
dirge, which heightens the sense of lifes movement towards inexorable decay.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Explain the significance of the title.
2. Read aloud the closing line: Down their carved names the rain drop ploughs. How
does its descending rhythm reflect the sense of inevitable decay? Why is the final
word (ploughs) so appropriate? Why do you think Hardy begins the line with Down?
Why does he use all monosyllables? What effect do eight consecutive monosyllables
produce?

Sound and Sense Alexander Pope (p. 733)

Possible Responses to Questions page 734
1. Students should note the colon following line 4. This signals that illustrations will
follow, which is exactly what happens. See response #2.
2. In lines 5-6, the sense of a soft, gentle breeze is conveyed as much through the lines
graceful rhythm as in the words. Note the use of the soft s sound, alliteration,
assonance, and the exact end rhyme. Lines 7-8 tell of a storm causing high waves to
crash against the shoreline, and employ harsh-sounding words to reflect the storms
ferocity: loud surges lash, hoarse, rough, roar. The loudness and stridency
of the storm are also mirrored in the combination of accented syllables, particularly
LOUD SURges LASH and HOARSE ROUGH VERSE.
By contrasting the rhythm of lines 5-6 with that of 9-10, students will readily see
the latter lines lack of fluidity. Of course, the lines are meant to reflect the struggling
arduousness of Ajaxs labor. This rhythm is achieved by the juxtaposition of such
words as rocks vast weight and by the use of syntax, as Pope inverts the more
conventional word order. Ask students to rearrange the word order: When Ajax
strives to throw some rocks vast weight. Lines 9-10 also contrast with the lines
immediately following, in which the mostly gentle-sounding, monosyllabic words
read quickly, reflective of Camillas gliding along the plains.

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Additional Topics for Discussion

1. Why does Pope tell of Timotheuss varied lays and their effects on Alexander the
Great? Is he making a point about the power of poetry?
2. Summarize Popes poetic theory as revealed in Sound and Sense.

The Universe May Swenson (p. 734)

Possible Response to Question page 735
Swenson uses repetition to reflect the circular nature of the universe and the questions
about it and us, which have no definitive responses and are therefore endlessly asked
generation after generation. The rhythm of the lines also demonstrates the hesitations,
pauses, and uncertainties of the thinking process, while the limited vocabulary suggests
the limited knowledge humankind has been able to achieve on the most fundamental of
questions our place in the universe.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How does the tone of the poem change? Is the speaker always serious? playful?
fearful?
2. How is the theme of Swensons poem similar to Stephen Cranes A Man Said to the
Universe?
A man said to the universe:
Sir, I exist!
However, replied the universe,
The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.

Adams Song Bob McKenty (p. 735)

Possible Response to Question page 735
McKentys rhyme scheme is clever and witty. The poem is written in couplets, each of
which ends with eye rhymes (but not ear rhymes). The lack of rhyme frustrates our
expectations, as the short, mostly swift-reading lines prepare us for an exact rhyme. The
self-deprecating playfulness of the last line induces ironic laugher, as we read that The
Fall has brought us deaf poets, and therefore poems that, despite their appearance, do not
rhyme, like this one.

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The Word Plum Helen Chasin (p. 736)

Possible Responses to Questions page 736
1. The initial sounds of several words in line 2-3 spell out plum: pout and push,
luxury, and murmur. Thus, the poet connects sound and sense.
2. Examples of alliteration: pout and push (line 2), self-love, and savoring (3), full
falling fruit (5-6). Examples of assonance: plum luxury (1-2), skin
bitten (7-8).
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How is this poem about both the sound of the word plum and the eating of the fruit?
Do you think there is reciprocity of sound and taste in the poem? Does it reflect the
correlation of sound and sense in the poem and poetry in general?
2. To what senses does the poem appeal?
3. Explain what Swenson means by question and reply in lines 9-10. What is the
question? What is the reply?

Rhythm and Meter (p. 736)

This section explains and defines different patterns of poetic meter. I do not spend too
much time on metrical patterns. It takes awhile for students to become sensitive to them
and many students quickly lose interest. For some, scanning poems is the equivalent of
learning the internal workings of a hair dryer they do not care how it works, as long as
it works when they need it. With that said, I do like to scan a few poems in class. It is
important for potential English majors to begin to become aware of the process and to
know where they can find a clear, somewhat detailed discussion of the patterns. On their
own, they will have no difficulty following the discussion. For non-English majors,
reviewing a few metrical patterns reinforces the fact that serious poetry is not some kind
of spontaneous burst of emotion, but rather involves craft, care, and revision to produce
the desired effect.

The Destruction of Sennacherib George Gordon, Lord Byron

(p. 742)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 743

1. The meter of the poem is anapestic tetrameter. The rising, rapidly moving rhythm
suggests the swift, bold movements of the Assyrians.
2. The regular, insistent thumping of the two unaccented beats and one accented beat
suggests a military rhythm, fitting to the poems content. The Biblical rhythm of the
lines is particularly appropriate for a poem that takes its inspiration from the Bible.
You might read a verse or two from the Biblical story:
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria. He shall not
come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with
shield, nor cast a bank against it.
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand:
and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead
corpses.
(2 Kings 19: 32, 35)
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Summarize the events of each stanza. How are we to regard the Assyrian? the
Gentile?
2. The poems dramatic turning point occurs in stanza two. Explain with reference to
the imagery of the seasons.
3. Ask students to write a prose version of the story. You might want to read the
Biblical conclusion:
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and
dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the
house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote
him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And
Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
(2 Kings: 19: 36-37)

Her Kind Anne Sexton (p.743)

Possible Responses to Questions page 744

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1. The metric pattern in Her Kind is varied. The use of caesura creates a pounding,
insistent rhythm in some lines (1-4), while other lines move swiftly in an outburst of
anger, which the speaker manages to keep somewhat controlled rhythmically (see
lines 8, 11, 13). Sexton uses enjambment as the emotion of the speaker swells (see
lines 17-19).
2. Enjambment (lines 3-4, 17-19) suggests an emotionally charged moment, here rage,
which despite the speakers control cannot be contained in a single line. Caesuras,
used perhaps most effectively in lines 1-4, and 15, cause the reader to pause briefly,
and consider the significance of the words just before and just after the break. The
effect here is dramatic and chilling, suggestive of the speakers anger.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Three times the speaker says, I have been her kind. In your own words, tell the
three types of women, mentioned in the poem, to which this statement refers? What
do the three types of women have in common?
2. In line 6, the speaker says, A woman like that is not a woman, quite. Explain this
statement.

The Red Wheelbarrow William Carlos Williams (p. 744)

Possible Responses to Questions page 744
1. The poem forms a symmetrical metrical pattern. The poem consists of sixteen words
broken into four two-line stanzas of three and one words. Lines 1 and 7 have four
syllables and lines 3 and 5 have three syllables, while even-numbered lines contain
two syllables.
2. The break in the lines, particularly between 3-4, 5-6, causes the reader to pause and
consider the images carefully.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What do you think depends on the red wheelbarrow?
2. Williams, a doctor, was inspired to write the poem while sitting at the bedside of a
seriously ill child. As he gazed out her window, he saw the images described in the
poem. Does this information affect your reading?
3. At one time, Williams had wanted to be a painter. The Red Wheelbarrow reflects
his view that poetry is, at least in part, a visual art. Look at the poem. What does
each stanza look like? a wheelbarrow? Do the words on the page visually suggest
something else? raindrops?

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4. You might review a few critical comments on the poem: M. L. Rosenthal suggests
that so much depends on the way we see color and relationships. Marjorie Perloff
ranks the poem with the severe, hard-edged space of Williamss Depression America
and sees the poem as a composition in primary colors. Louis Untermeyer considers
the poem as a kind of haiku that makes us aware of glories in the commonplace.
Others suggest that Williams is having his clever, aesthetic joke. He sets us up with
so much depends and leaves us looking at the wheelbarrow and the chickens.

Structure: Closed Form and Open Form (p. 744)

This section illustrates closed and open forms by studying the structures of sonnets and
free forms. For beginning literature students, structure needs to be emphasized. You will
need to review the importance of structure as an integral part of the poem. In their own
writing, many students either let structure take care of itself or they follow recipe-like
structures: e.g., tell readers what you will say, tell them, tell them what you said.
Consideration of a poems structure will provide an opportunity to discuss structural
options for their own writing. In short, this section can be taught so as to get students to
think about the importance of structure not only to a literary work, but to their own
writing as well.

On First Looking into Chapmans Homer John Keats (p. 746)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Line 11 contains one of the most infamous of literary mistakes. Balboa, not Cortez,
discovered the Pacific Ocean. Does this affect your appreciation of the poem?
2. Characterize the rhythm of lines 11-14. Does the poem build to a crescendo in line 13
and drop abruptly? How would this reflect the action of the simile in those lines?
3. Explain the paradox of lines 7-8: Yet never did serene/ Till loud and bold.

When I heard the learnd astronomer -- Walt Whitman (p. 747)

Additional Topics for Discussion

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1. Compare Whitmans poem to Poes Sonnet To Science:

Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poets heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How can both poems be interpreted as explorations of the tension between scientific
thought and poetic feeling? Do you agree with the conclusions of the poems? Has
science ever been guilty of a lack of feeling? You might consider Whitmans use of the
word sick when answering.
2. Compare Whitmans poem with Wordsworths The World is too much with us?
How are the thematic contents similar and different?

[Buffalo Bills] E. E. Cummings (p. 749)

Additional Topics for Discussion
1. You might want to tell students a bit about Buffalo Bill Cody. The following facts
might be useful:
By his own account he killed 4,280 buffalo. Buffalo were crucial to the
Indians survival.
After the Indian wars and near-extinction of the American buffalo, Cody made a
fortune touring in his Wild West shows, in which he demonstrated his skills as
sharpshooter and horseman.
Although Buffalo Bill denied it, historians say he received 137 bullet, arrow,
and tomahawk wounds. Bill said he was only wounded once, an accidental bullet
wound from the gun of a comrade.
His funeral in 1917 was attended by many fans, his widow, and six mistresses.
He was buried in a tomb that had been dynamited out of solid rock on Lookout
Mountain near Denver, Colorado.
2. President Theodore Roosevelt said that Buffalo Bill Cody embodied those traits of
courage, strength and self-reliant hardihood which are vital to the well-being of our
nation. Does the poem express an equally admiring viewpoint?
3. Why does Cummings use the word defunct instead of dead? Does it imply the
demise of a cultural icon and a piece of Americana with him? What does it tell us
about our culture that Buffalo Bill was such a large hero?

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The Dance William Carlos Williams (p. 750)

Possible Responses to Questions page 751
1. The poem describes a country dance, one that includes swinging and stomping, and
emphasizes fun over choreographed precision. The first long sentence imitates the
lively peasant rhythms as they move sometimes awkwardly and ungracefully (note
the enjambment of lines, particularly 3-4, 5-6) to the not always melodious music of
the band (whose instruments squeal bare [and] tweedle). The dancers are
celebrating, somewhat riotously, but we do not know the occasion.
2. The first and final lines of the poem are the same, suggesting that the dance moves in
a large informal circle. The two parallel lines also serve as a frame to the poem, just
as a painting is contained in a frame.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Show the students a print of Breughels The Kermess. Ask them to compare for
similarities and differences. Williams has focused his attention on what part of the
painting? Is his description accurate? Does the poem convey the same mood as the
painting?

O Taste and See Denise Levertov (p. 751)

Possible Response to Question page 751
The structure, as it stands, emphasizes and more clearly delineates the imagery. It also
mirrors the meditative frame of mind of the speaker, who reflects on the words of the
subway poster.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What sense does this poem evoke?
2. What is the religious message in taste and see? What is the imaginations
tongue?
3. How is the poem a commentary on the relationship between the sensual and the
spiritual?

The Waking Theodore Roethke (p. 752)

Possible Response to Question page 752

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The Waking uses the fixed form of a villanelle: a nineteen-line poem divided into five
tercets and one quatrain, with two rhymes, and with the first and third lines alternating
throughout the poem. The repetition of I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow
emphasizes the paradox of the lines, while I learn by going where I have to go suggests
a slow, but continuous progression onward in lifes quest for meaning. The two rhymes
and the repetition of two lines interlock the stanzas and reflect a progression that builds
from one stage to the next.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. What kind of sleep is Roethke describing? Is he waking form a physical or spiritual
one?
2. Explain the central paradox in the poem: I wake to sleep, and take my waking
slow. In Dionysus and the City, Monroe Spears states that Roethke is a complex
poet whose poetry finds its strength is in its deep inwardness and closeness to the
Unconscious. However, Spears continues to say that Roethke can tend toward
incoherence on the verge of real obscurity.
3. To aid our explication of this elusive poem, I draw upon the following statements of
Roethke, quoted in Stanley Kunitzs On Theodore Roethke, in Contemporary
Poetry in America, ed. Robert Boyers:
Each poem is complete in itself; yet each in a sense is a stage in a kind of a
struggle out of the slime; part of a slow spiritual progress; an effort to be born,
and later, to become something more.
I believe that to go forward as a spiritual man it is necessary first to go back. Any
history of the psyche (or allegorical journey) is bound to be a succession of
experiences similar yet dissimilar. There is a perpetual slipping-back, then a
going forward; but there is some progress.
4. How does Roethke establish a slow rhythm? Note the use of long vowel sounds in
key words, and the use of caesura and end stops.

Reflections in Black & Blue Christine K. Molito (p. 752)

Possible Response to Question page 753

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The poem is about aging. The speaker, a woman conscious of her fading physical beauty,
wonders if her lover will still love her when she has grown old. Although he has
promised her that he will, she ends the poem by stating that it is not his choice to remain
in love with her. Whose choice is it then? The speaker is aware that we cannot always
control our emotions. We cannot always dictate how we feel about someone or whom we
love.
Additional Topic for Discussion
Characterize the speaker and her tone. Is she insecure or honest? Is she worried?

The City C. P. Cavafy (p. 753)

Possible Response to Question page 754
There are two voices in the poem. In lines 1-8, the voice, identified by the speaker only
as you, delivers an angry, embittered, and hopeless harangue about his life in the city
where he has resided for many years. Everywhere he turns he is reminded of some past
failure or disappointment. In lines 9-16, the speaker responds to the harangue with one of
his own. He is impatient and unsympathetic to the speaker in stanza one, reminding him
that leaving his home will not solve his problems. This city will always pursue you, he
tells him, meaning that he cannot escape his past and his pain so easily.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Explain the last two lines of the poem. Why does the speaker tell you that youve
wasted your life here? How has the speaker in stanza one destroyed his life
everywhere else in the world? The following passage from Emersons SelfReliance might help to initiate discussion through comparison:
Traveling is a fools paradise. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends,
embark on the sea and at last wake up at Naples, and there beside me is
the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from my
giant goes with me wherever I go.
2. How does the rhythm of the poem help establish the tone and convey the meaning?

Theme

(p. 754)

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The section serves as a reminder to students not to oversimplify the theme of a literary
work. I find it helpful to repeat the contents of the discussion here on several occasions
throughout the semester. Students seem to be anxious to express a poems message in a
quick phrase or a few words usually drawn from an adage. Consider spacing your
readings of Haydens Those Winter Sundays, Roethkes My Papas Waltz, and
Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (the poems referred to on pages 754),
so as to have a reason to turn to this page to remind students of the need to consider the
complex implications of theme. The extended discussion of Dickinsons Crumbling is
not an instants Act demonstrates a process of reading a poem closely for thematic
implication.

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162

Chapter Ten

Transformations
This chapter discusses poetry in a larger artistic framework. Usually in this text and
others, poems are presented as separate entities, i.e., in their finished form and apart from
relationships with other art forms, painting or music, for instance. Here, however, we see
some early drafts or lines of classic poems, parodies, translations, and painterly, musical,
and other poetic counterparts. I like spending time with this chapter as it widens student
consciousness about the possibilities of poetry and the flexibility of the artistic process.
Because of its comparative nature, I find that this chapter lends itself to group
work or individual presentation very well. This is especially true when there are art or
music majors/enthusiasts in the class, or students who have a working familiarity with the
language of one of the poems presented in the original and then in translation. Because
of time constraints, I have organized eight panels of two or three students and assigned
each panel a set of poems or works, each from a different section of Transformations.
This enabled the class to consider each topic of the chapter in relatively little time.

Revisions (p. 756)

Beginning students of literature sometimes believe that poems are written spontaneously,
as an emotional expression of the moment. They do not always realize that to capture the
appropriate emotional quality requires revision, craft, and experiment. Similarly, most
students do not realize that professional writers draft and revise more than nonprofessionals. The thinking, naively of course, is that professional writers, including
poets, will get it right the first or second time around. The implications of this section on
students own prose writing are obvious, and worth stating. Among other things, I
remind them of the importance of revision, of searching for the right word, of
organization, of additional detail, and of organization.
Before turning to the close analysis of Blakes London, I like to consider the
lines from Keatss The Eve of St. Agnes (pp. 756-57). It is especially instructive to
consider the five versions of the one line. This emphasizes the importance of each word
and phrase to the written text. Students are sometimes surprised to learn that Keats spent
so much time on one line in a poem with over 375 lines. The close analysis of London
that follows provides a more detailed review of the revision process and allows us to
consider, the implications of what may seem the most insignificant of changes: Man
for man, for instance.

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Following the discussion of London, two versions of three different poems

appear. I follow one of two options: either I cover with my class one of the sets or I
assign group work, with students presenting their conclusions to the class in a panel
discussion. I find that almost this entire chapter lends itself to group activity.

A Dream of Death William Butler Yeats (p. 760)

Possible Responses to Questions page 761
1. The first version is more romantic and tender. The low-key, melancholy tone of This
lady by the trees suggests compassion and tenderness, underscored by the caring,
mournful stars and mournful breeze. In the second version, the tenderness is
diminished by tragic awareness: the stars are indifferent, and her death would have
gone unmarked and unmourned if not for the speaker. The stark reality of the
situation is reinforced by the hard-sounding diction and rhythm of the final line: But
now lies under boards.
2. Several details have changed from the first to the second version: for clarity, a
comma has been added to the end of line three; planted has been changed to to lay
her, a less promising image; the yew tree, a traditional and almost clichd symbol of
death, was dropped in the revision; in the revised poem, we read that the cross has
been made of two bit wood, indicating a hasty, somewhat crude burial; as indicated
above, the last four lines have been significantly revised, and although the number of
lines remains the same, the structure of the poem has been changed the one-stanza
structure, with its unequal line lengths, presents a visual image more indicative of the
burials lack of form and ceremony. The four-stanza structure, which appears more
ordered, suggests more organization than the burial actually had.

The Wind begun to knead the Grass / The Wind begun to rock
the Grass Emily Dickinson (p. 761)
Possible Responses to Questions page 762
1. The poem becomes much easier to read when divided into stanzas, especially since
the images in those stanzas are closely related. The images in the first version are
more difficult to grasp as they seem to run into each other, which might, however,
resemble the chaos that a thunderstorm provokes. In the revision, the one image that
does run over to the next stanza is the appropriate picture of the hands parting the sky
to allow the water to flow.
2. The tone in the revision is more ominous and grave, more consistent with the storm
being described. In the first version, the wind appears as a woman preparing to bake
bread, an image of peaceful domesticity. In version two, the wind rocks and
threatens the grass instead of kneading it.

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3.

In the first version, the metaphor is vague, and therefore not as threatening. In the
second version, the image of lightning as an approaching and menacing bird of prey
is clear and more vivid, and therefore more effective, especially in a poem about the
approach of a thunderstorm.

The Piano D. H. Lawrence (p. 762)

Possible Responses to Questions page 763
1 & 2. Among the revisions: the entire first and fourth stanzas have been eliminated. By
cutting the first stanza on the piano that induces his memory of his mother and the
fourth stanza that introduces his sister, Lawrence has focused the poem more
completely on the speakers relationship with his mother and the warm magic he
felt when she played. He has removed digressions, which weaken the dramatic
presentation of an emotional moment for the speaker. Also, in line 2 of the
revised poem, the speaker is transported back to his youth by listening to a
woman sing, whereas in the first version he has crept back to the past on his
own. The revised version implies that the speakers memory of his mother came
upon him suddenly and unexpectedly, and was, plausibly, more overwhelming. In
the third line of the new stanza two, darkness becomes winter, providing a
stronger contrast between the coldness outside and the warmth his mother
generates in the home.
The final stanzas are very different. In the first version, the speaker and
his memory of his mother are overpowered by the singers ability. He is fully
engrossed in her performance, absorbed by her wild Hungarian air, her bare
soul, and the musics ravaging glamour. In the revised poem, the speaker
cannot respond to the singer as he is overwhelmed by the memory from his
childhood. Thus, his description of the singer is minimal and the description of
the impact of the memory more dominant.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. Define sentimental. Are the second version of The Piano and the first version of
Yeatss A Dream of Death sentimental?
2. Some scholars consider music as a symbol of an intermediate world between the
material world and the spiritual one. Can we apply such an interpretation to
Lawrences poem?
3. Why does Lawrence call music insidious? How does music betray him?
4. Write an essay about a song or an object that evokes a powerful memory in you?

Ballad of Booker T. Langston Hughes (p. 764)

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Possible Responses to Questions page 766

1. Changes include the following: in version two, Hughes drops Old before Booker
T. in line 1 with the effect that the line (and the poem) becomes more aggressive and
urgent and less colloquial and folksy. Line 7 eliminates the local, backyard image,
and replaces it with fate, perhaps emphasizing the importance of each ones life in
what may, to an individual, seem a small arena. The mention of Tuskegee specifies
one of Washingtons accomplishments. In version two, Hughes adds two lines near
the close of the poem which emphasize and summarize Washington as a visionary and
a pragmatist, whose life can inspire others to be far-seeing and practical.
2. Hughes admires Washington as one who was able to execute grand visions through
hard work and physical effort. The poem holds Washington up as an inspiration and
defends his compromises, which some have criticized along with what they
sometimes consider his self-exultation.

Parodies

(p. 766)

The text provides four parodies of very well-known poems. I like to cover at least two or
three of the parodies. Students enjoy them, and they illustrate that we can laugh at even
the most famous poetic icons. Parodies are a fun way to break down student intimidation
and resistance to poetry.

This Is Just to Say William Carlos Williams (p. 766)

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams Kenneth Koch
(p. 767)
Possible Responses to Questions page 767
1. Kochs title puns on a musical variations of a theme. For a humorous effect, Koch
darkens Williamss theme of light apology in This Is Just to Say. Instead of eating
plums, a thoughtless but harmless action, Kochs speakers destroy a house, kill
flowers, give away someones savings, and break someones leg.
2. The four stanzas, or perhaps movements, reflect the variations of the titles. The
stanzas are effectively arranged. The shocking, but comic understatement of stanza
one signals that we are reading a light poem. Stanza four has a sense of finality to it,
as the violence has escalated to result in injury to another individual the tone of the
lines and the surprisingly ludicrous reason for inflicting the injury is humorous,
however. The long lines seem to mock the short somewhat cryptic lines of Williams.

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3. These four variations all involve thoughtless, destructive actions carried out for
idiosyncratic reasons, followed by a casual and pathetic apology.
4. Kochs poem, like all parodies, exaggerates. The playful tone, however, is more
respectful than critical of Williams. The poem, especially its humor, could not be
fully appreciated without being familiar with This Is Just to Say.

Carrion Comfort Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 768)

Carrion Comfort Gary Layne Hatch (p. 768)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. The speaker of Carrion Comfort refuses to capitulate to despair. The speaker of
Terrier Torment also refuses to yield. But to what?
2. Define carrion. What does Hopkins mean by carrion comfort? How do you think
this phrase inspired Hatchs poem?
3. Hopkins experimented with rhythm; his lines break away from conventional patterns.
In Carrion Comfort, as in other poems, he places three or four consecutively
stressed syllables side by side (line 6), and he uses alliteration widely. How does
Hatch make use of Hopkinss poetic rhythms and use of alliteration for humorous
purposes?
4. Hopkins too makes regular use of compound words, especially adjectives. Again,
Hatch finds an opportunity for humor. Contrast Hopkinss compound words with
those of Hatch.
5. What other poetic techniques of Hopkins does Hatch send up? You might use this as
an opportunity to review assonance, caesura, and rhyme, in addition to some of
Hopkinss poetic eccentricities, such as his use of interjections and parentheses.

Shall I compare thee to a summers day William Shakespeare

(p. 769)
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day? Howard Moss (p. 769)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. Shakespeares tone and diction is elegant and formal. Contrast Mosss tone and
diction.
2. Shakespeares sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. Mosss lines are shorter and
irregular in meter. What is the effect of Mosss shorter lines?

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3. Contrast the rhyme schemes.

4. Create a context for Mosss poem? Who might be the speaker?
5. Ask students to response to the following: So Mosss language may not be as
beautiful or as rich as Shakespeares, but at least I understand what hes talking about.
I wish Shakespeares plays were put into regular words too.

Dust of Snow Robert Frost (p. 770)

Snow on Frost Bob McKenty (p. 770)
Possible Response to Question
McKentys poem uses the same stanzaic form as Frosts two-line stanzas, each rhymed
abab, and each written in iambic dimeter. The visual similarities and the title indicate
immediately that McKentys poem will be comic. The wry sense of humor is established
in line 1 with the image of a crow and McKentys transformation of Frosts way to
wayward. McKentys final stanza represents his most humorous change. In Frosts
poem, the speaker talks of how the surprising and somewhat humorous occasion of a
crows dropping snow on him led to a brighter frame of mind. In McKenty, Frosts mood
is lightened, but only because he escaped another kind of dropping from the crow. In
Dust of Snow, the speaker finds gladness in a bit of the comedy in nature, while in
McKenty, the reader finds humor in envisioning Frost narrowly escaping a crows
dropping, or perhaps imagining the distinguished poet not escaping.

Translations

(p. 771)

A study of translations will be enlightening. Students are surprised to see the differences
in translations of the same work. These differences will illustrate, among other poetic
concerns, the importance of diction, especially the connotative properties of words, and
the concern of poetry with complicated subject matters, for which a vocabulary and
imagery can be difficult to find both for the poet and the translator.

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume Horace (p. 771)

translations by David Ferry (p. 772) and
Helen Rowe Henze (p. 773)
Possible Topic for Discussion
Consider the differences and similarities in the translations. For instance, are the tones
more similar or dissimilar? Discuss the use of capitalization, line length, and the

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specificity of the imagery. After a few general comments, have students focus on one
stanza for a close analysis of similarities and differences.

Samor non , che dunque quel ch io sento Francesco Petrarco

(p. 774)
translations by Mark Musa (p. 774) and Robert M. Durling
(p. 775)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. Musas and Durlings translations are structured differently. Ask students which one
they prefer. Why? Which one is closest to the original? You might point out that the
Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is divided into an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet
rhyming cde cde. You might compare the structure of this sonnet to one of
Shakespeares sonnets in the text. Shakespearean or English sonnets are divided into
three quatrains and a couplet. Students should, of course, discuss the content of If
its not love.
2. What seems to be the speakers problem in If its not love, then what is it I feel?
Are his feelings typical of someone in his situation?

Der Panther Rainer Maria Rilke (p. 775)

translations by Stephen Mitchell (p. 776) and
C. F. McIntyre (p. 776)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. Compare the panther in the two translations. What images and words in the Mitchell
translation contribute to the panthers pain, frustration, and agony? What images and
words in the MacIntyre translation emphasize the panthers helplessness, ennui, and
suppressed power and rage?
2. The rhyme scheme in the original is abab, cdcd, efef, reflective of the ritual pacing
and turning of the caged panther. This aspect of the poem is lost in translation. Do
the translators try to suggest the panthers movements by using other poetic elements,
like repetition or enjambment?

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Le Pont Mirabeau Guillaume Apollinaire (p. 777)

translations by Richard Wilbur (p. 778) and W. S. Merwin
(p. 778)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. Discuss the differences of the translations in terms of rhyme, tone, and sentence
pattern. Wilburs translation is more formal, both in tone and form. Merwins
sentence patterns more closely approximate conversation; as a result the tone is more
informal. Wilbur maintains the same rhyme scheme as the original, whereas
Merwins rhyme scheme is less rigid.
2. Compare translated images in the poems, particularly from lines 10: Weary of
endless looks the rivers flow and The loose waves of our gazing which is endless.
Lines 16: How violent the hope of love can be and And hope is so violent a
thing.
3. Discuss the difference in refrains:
Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay
Night comes the hour is rung
The days go I remain
4. Describe the speaker in the translations. Is he much different in each?

Nocturno Soado Juan Ramn Jimnez (p. 779)

translations by Eleanor L. Turnbull (p. 780) and
Thomas McGreevy (p. 781)
Possible Topics for Discussion
1. The translations make use of different prepositions in lines 1-3. What is the difference
between the use of through and by? Does one suggest connection, intermingling?
Does the other imply passing or standing beside? Is one more mystical than the
other?
2. Turnbulls translation reads that the earth is the way of the flesh, while McGreevy
substitutes road of the body (italics mine). What effect does each produce? Does
one have Biblical echoes? Is the other starker?

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3. Turnbulls translation is more lyrical while McGreevys is starker. How are these
different tones established? What effect does each have on your interpretation and
evaluation of the poem? Does the journey to death seem different in each?
Connecting the Translations
Based on the selections in Translations, would you say a translator is more of a literary
interpreter or a linguist?

Responses (Point-Counterpoint)

(p. 781)

This section offers a collection of four pairs of poems with the latter poem responding
and critiquing, often playfully, the viewpoint of the former. As with the other sections of
Transformations, this section provides an excellent opportunity for group work.
Students may decide for themselves which one of a pair is more persuasive and/or they
can speculate or create a rebuttal for the earlier poem.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Christopher Marlowe (p. 781)

The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd Sir Walter Raleigh
(p. 782)
You might begin your discussion on Marlowes poem by introducing students to the
pastoral, a highly conventionalized form of poetry dating back to the Sicilian poet
Theocritus in the third century B. C. The form was especially popular in England
between 1550 and 1750. The pastoral idealizes rural life, country folk, and often makes
universal and complex themes simple. No one does any actual work in the pastoral, and
in the lovely Arcadian setting, the season is either spring or summer. The shepherds, who
speak in the pastoral, are elegant and speak in a diction and imagery more courtly than
rustic. The form is therefore highly artificial and unnatural, and, I think, appeals to our
hope that some wonderfully idyllic, golden (or perhaps green) world exists.
Marlowes poem follows the above conventions. However, the nymph in
Raleighs poem seems skeptical of the shepherd. Certainly, his diction and imagery are
more appropriate to a courtier, not a simple country shepherd. She seems to suspect
seduction in his references to pleasures and dress more suitable of the court: madrigals,
embroidered and studded garments, slippers with gold buckles, a belt with semi-precious
stones, and much singing and dancing. To her and some readers, his invitation to a life of
rustic bliss is filled with a language and imagery that self-indicts.
Raleighs nymph reveals her suspicion in each stanza: line 1-2 (If truth in
every shepherds tongue), line 7 (she implies that she could be another Philomel), line
11-12 (A honey tongue sorrows fall). Her thoughtful reply indicates that she will
not become involved in a relationship based on fleeting joy and material gifts.

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Questions for Discussion

How much emphasis does Marlowes shepherd place on love? Does Raleighs nymph
give the shepherd a fair hearing?

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments William Shakespeare

(p. 783)
Not Marble Nor the Gilded Monuments Archibald MacLeish
(p. 784)
As in Shall I compare thee to a summers day, the speaker expresses both his love for
the poems subject and his confidence in his artistic achievement. Again, Shakespeare
puts forth his belief that great art poetry in particular is immortal and can withstand
the ravages of time, war, and other forces, unlike monuments and statues. Since this
poem will live on, so will his beloved, the subject that inspired the poem.
MacLeishs speaker is more cynical, at least at first. According to him,
Shakespeare and other poets lie when they claim to make their beloved live on in a poem.
He mocks Shakespeares Shall I compare thee to a summers day in stanza three.
MacLeishs speaker uses a more conversational, less elegant and elevated language than
Shakespeare in Not marble or Shall I compare The diction in MacLeishs
poem sounds a note of harsh realism that his speaker claims to advance. However, after a
specific memory of his beloved, the speaker in MacLeishs poem seems to change his
mind to agree with the promise of immortality that art holds our: Till the world and the
eyes are out and the mouths broken/ Look! It is there! But on closer reading, the harsh
monosyllabic words and the crude imagery of these lines indicate that MacLeishs
speaker is being ironic, mocking the concluding imagery of the two Shakespearean
sonnets under discussion.
In connection with these poems, you might find it amusing to read Shakespeares
My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun.

Nurses Song [Innocence] and Nurses Song [Experience]

William Blake (p. 785)
In 1789, Blake issued his Songs of Innocence and in 1794, he published his Songs of
Experience companion works and landmarks in the movement towards Romanticism.
The collections of short lyrics were intended for children, with the result that although the
poems are frequently complex and profound, they are lucid and accessible. Occasionally,
they can seem sentimental and saccharin.
The Songs of Innocence, filled with hope, celebrate the sense of wonder and a
directness of spiritual apprehension that the child in his innocence can feel. Blake finds
the world of childhood to be wonderfully impulsive, spontaneous, and resistant to
control; he creates a world without fear or repression, not unlike Eden. However, in his
Songs of Experience, in which a far bleaker outlook dominates, he explores what happens

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to the world of childhood and innocence when it experiences the complexities of life,
society, and institutions. It is a world of ambiguity in which beauty becomes intertwined
with evil. The social criticism in Experience is often expressed in a tone of moral
indignation or outrage.
Consider the above comments in relation to the two songs of the nurse in the text.
Does one seem any darker than the other? Consider the closing lines. What is implied by
the echoing hills in Innocence? What does the nurse imply with wasted and disguise
in the last lines of Experience? Does the nurse seem much different in the two poems?

Dover Beach Matthew Arnold (p. 786)

The Dover Bitch: A Criticism of Life Anthony Hecht (p. 787)
Arnolds speaker considers the challenges to traditional values, patriotism, and religious
faith that were part of Victorian culture. Like many Victorians, the speaker here is
frightened as he feels his traditional world slipping away. The conservative Victorian felt
himself under constant attack from such sources as Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Victorian
industrialism, and an increasing crime rate, perhaps most terrifyingly represented by Jack
the Ripper. In a world that lacks joy love light certitude peace or relief
from pain, the speaker seeks refuge in the couple, as he asks for and promises faithfulness
to the woman he addresses. In their devotion to one another, they will create an island of
security in an otherwise violent and uncertain world.
Hechts humorous but bitter response suggests the womans reaction to the words
of Arnolds speaker. The woman that Arnold addresses, to Hecht, is hardly concerned
with traditional values; she is simply out for a good time. She feels sad only because she
cannot possess the splendors of France (lines 13-16). Hechts speaker says that he knows
this woman and occasionally meets her for a casual sexual encounter. She can be
depended on for that, and Arnolds speakers were foolish to ask for an intellectual and
emotional commitment from her. Hecht mocks what he perhaps considers Arnolds
inflated self-pitying: see lines 3-6 and Hechts casual, down-to-earth diction and
rhythms.
Questions for Discussion
Where does Arnold make use of alliteration and assonance? You might find this a good
place to review these terms, particularly the s sound in the description of the sea, lines 1214.

Queen-Anns-Lace William Carlos Williams (p. 788)

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Queen Anns Lace Anne C. Coon (p. 788)

On one level, Queen-Anns-Lace is a poem about a flower. However, the poem also
has strong sexual connotations. Ask students to note sexually charged words and images.
Peter Schmidts comment in William Carlos Williams, The Arts, and Literary Tradition,
might focus the discussion in class:
Pumping blood into Emersons rather cerebral equation of natural and spiritual
facts, Williams Queen-Anns-Lace follows Whitman and shows them to be
signs of sexual facts as well. Metaphor, personification, and mythmaking
accompany literal description, and the still lifes landscape is emptied or filled
within the leap of a line of verse.
In Queen Anns Lace, how does Anne Coon comment or respond to Williamss poem?
Students will enjoy the humor in her poem.

Siesta time in sultry summer Ovid (p. 790)

Amores (after Ovid) Jay Parini (p. 791)
Concentrate on the imagery, the tone, and the rhythm of Ovids poem. How do they
reflect the sultry summer afternoon? Students will be surprised by the sexual nature of
a poem some two thousand years old. Then consider how Parini creates a variation on
Ovids theme. Are there any images or words in Parinis poem that suggest it was written
only some twenty years ago? Do the poems unite past and present human experience and
human nature? Are we really so different from our distant ancestors? Is that why
literature from the ancient world still speaks to us today?

Adaptations (Poetry and Song)

(p. 792)

When discussing song lyrics, I think it is important to play a recording of the song if at all
possible, since the melody, rhythm, and musical arrangement can convey as much
meaning as the words. Recordings of most of these songs are available in many libraries.
I like to begin my discussion by recalling the episode involving Sir Walter Scott,
an early transcriber of Scottish folk songs, who was reprimanded by an old woman for
writing our her song: They were made for singing and no for reading, but ye hae
broken the charm now and theyll never by sung mair. I use her reprimand as a caution,
and always keep sight of the fact that lyrics are only part of the way to convey meaning in
a song.

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from Ecclesiastes: 3: 1-8 (p. 792)

Turn! Turn! Turn! Pete Seeger (p. 792)
Seegers song emphasizes the Biblical repetitions not only by repeating the phrase a
time to , as does Ecclesiastes, but also by inserting the Turn, turn, turn lines in the
refrain. Seegers most significant change comes in the final line. In Ecclesiastes, a time
of peace is emphasized as it is the concluding phrase in the poem. Seeger, however,
sounds a note of desperation and a political comment when he adds, I swear its not too
late. The implication is that war has been accepted as a part of twentieth-century life,
but the pleading tone suggests that world peace can be a possibility. Using words from
Ecclesiastes gives Seegers song moral authority and attaches additional urgency to his
closing phrase.
A recording of Turn! Turn! Turn! by the Byrds (1965) is widely available in
different formats on several compilations.

Richard Cory Edwin Arlington Robinson (p. 794)

Richard Cory Paul Simon (p. 794)
Simon makes several changes from his source material:
Robinsons speaker serves as a voice for his community and offers a more
sympathetic, eulogistic portrait of Cory than Simons narrator, who is more confused than
sympathetic, and speaks only for himself.
Unlike Robinsons speaker, Simons narrator receives as much attention as
Cory. The repeated refrain emphasizes his life of poverty, and the contrast in his lifestyle
with that of his employer. There is also more discontent and bitterness in Simons
narrator, who curses his life and his poverty, whereas Robinsons more restrained narrator
more obscurely curses his bread.
Cory in Robinsons poem appears more dignified (note the royalty imagery) and
admirable. In Simons song he is rich, vulgar, pampered, and self-indulgent.
Both narrators are surprised by the suicide. Robinsons speaker is emotionally shakened
by it, whereas Simons narrator is confused, but with little emotional response. He
regards the tragedy as another story in the newspaper, one with more interest to him than
other stories, but not one to be overly concerned about.
Note: Even after knowledge of the suicide, Simons narrator sings that he wishes he
could be Richard Cory. What is the implication of this? Would he too like to be rich,
have orgies on yachts, be miserable, and die young? Perhaps. Maybe the narrator is
concluding that the human condition brings misery, and one may as well be miserable
with money. Possibly, however, Simon is following a pop song convention that calls for
the repetition of the chorus there.

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Simon & Garfunkel recorded Richard Simon for their lp Sounds of Silence (1966).

Dream Deferred Langston Hughes (p. 795)

Same in Blues Langston Hughes (p. 796)
Same in Blues gives specific illustrations of dreams deferred, at times somewhat
humorous illustrations. The conversational rhythms and slang diction indicate that
Hughes is writing about the black community, which he makes clear in the angry
repetition of the closing line: Harlem to you! The anger of this closing refrain is
similar to the implicit warning of the closing question of Dream Deferred.
Sometime during the discussion of these works I read the following statement
from Hughes: I explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America. This applies to
90 percent of my work.

This Land is Your Land Woody Guthrie (p. 797)

Students are frequently surprised to hear/ read the full song, being familiar only with
abridged versions which usually omit the last three stanzas. These three stanzas mark the
reversal in the song. Up to that point, the song celebrates the beauty, breadth, and
unlimited potential of America. However, in the fifth stanza, we begin to hear that the
American landscape and perhaps, by extension, the American Dream are not as available
as we have been led to believe. We see the rebellious spirit of the singer who rejects the
No Trespassing sign and accepts the lack of authority in its blank side. In the
penultimate stanza, the singer notes the food lines, which contrast with the uplifting
images of early stanzas, and cause him to doubt whether this land is indeed made for
you and me. However, in the final stanza, he reasserts his claim that the land was made
for you and me, but does so in a different spirit. Here, the singer is defiant, even angry
at those individuals in power who limit access to the land and, he implies, human
freedom and potential.

Blues Sonia Sanchez (p. 798)

Sonia Sanchez writes frequently about pride in African-American womanhood and
African-American culture. How does she unite both these themes in Blues? Consider
the speaker of Blues and her directness with her lover. Consider the form. Sanchez
relies on traditional blues structure, diction, and rhythm, appropriating a form that has
lost some of its influence on contemporary African-American youth culture.

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No Mo Blues Lonnelle Johnson (p. 798)

If this recording is hard to come by, another blues recording similar in lyrical and musical
style should be substituted. I think it is important for students to hear how the repeated
first two lines sound. No Mo Blues is humorous. The singer tells the story of how he
used to be a big-time blues singer, who paid union dues (presumably dues to the
musicians union) and the dues of the lifestyle (Drinkin and smokin and screwin
round). But he could no longer sing the blues after he met his pretty baby. Now he is
hummin a brand new tune, and as a result he has fired his agent and retired. He is too
content and happy to sing the blues. Ironically, the singer chooses a traditional blues
musical and lyrical structure for his renouncement.

Lost Your Head Blues Bessie Smith (p. 799)

Bessie Smith was known as the Empress of the Blues. Lost Your Head Blues is one
of her most famous songs, and is available on several lp and CD compilations, including
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. Apparently, according to an often-repeated
story, Smith ad libbed the words and rhythm to Lost Your Head Blues in the studio to
fill out a recording session that had turned out one song short. (It should be noted that
improvising lyrics was common for blues singers some say the convention of repeating
the first line of a verse was a device originally intended to give the singer time to think of
a follow-up line.) With just a few words, Smith tells a complex emotional story with, as
the recording demonstrates, a powerfully climactic ending. She died in an automobile
accident in 1937.

Amazing Grace John Newton (p. 800)

Most students will be familiar with this famous hymn, but few may have considered the
lyrics carefully. Ask students why they think the hymn has endured. Consider the
themes of regeneration and faith. You might also include the parable of the Prodigal Son
in your discussion.

Vincent Don McClean (p. 801)

McCleans song can be included in your discussion of Sextons The Starry Night and
its relationship with Van Goghs painting. As the title indicates, McClean focuses on the
artist rather than a particular work, and as the familiarity of the title suggests, the singer
identifies with Van Gogh. The key question: what is it about Van Gogh with which he
can identify? The singer identifies with Van Goghs despair and his efforts to free that
despair through his art. Thus the song intertwines the two most powerful forces in Van
Goghs life and the singers life: despair and the act of creation. In the song, the singer
tries to explain that Van Goghs art has been misunderstood because viewers could not
see that the painter was releasing powerful forces of inner turmoil. He hopes his song
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will finally clarify this point: Perhaps theyll listen now. Given the fact that Van
Goghs art has been celebrated for quite some time, is this statement by McClean
outdated? anticlimactic? or arrogant?

Poetry and Painting

(p. 802)

The poems in this section have all been inspired by paintings. For some poems and
paintings presented here, first, I like to interpret the painting with the students, then read
the poem, and then compare our interpretations and conclusions with the poets. This
exercise works especially well with Ferlinghettis Short Story on a Painting of Gustav
Klimt, Bishops The Prodigal, and Safirs Matisses Dance.
With other poems and paintings, I prefer to explicate the poem first and then study
the painting. I find this approach more helpful with Sextons The Starry Night, Audens
Muse des Beaux Arts, and Langlands Hunters in the Snow: Breughel. Of course,
after these initial analyses, these processes become recursive, as we move back and forth
from poem and painting.
You will be limited to the number of poems and paintings you will be able to
cover unless some sets are assigned as topics for group work. I have found that some
students have had little experience with painting or the visual arts, excepting film. You
might need to spend some time in helping them find an approach to viewing a painting.
The following questions will help:
What is the setting of the painting? Indoors? A city street? A quiet country
hill? If there are people in the picture, what is their relationship to the setting? Do they
seem at ease or uncomfortable? Does the setting seem to be more important than the
people? Do the human figures or other forms dominate?
Is there more than one person in the painting? How do the people relate to each
other? Does one person seem to be more prominent than another? Do the people seem to
be opposed to one another? What do their expressions and postures suggest? Tensions?
Anger? Cooperation? Curiosity?
Does the painting tell a story or part of a story? If so, what is happening? What
might have led up to the incident depicted in the painting? What might happen after the
incident? Does the title provide any clues about a story?
What mood is evoked through color? Why is one part of the painting brightly
lit while another part is in shadow?
Is there any visual direction in the painting to guide the viewers eyes? How is
this visual direction established? What seems to be the purpose of it? Is this direction
similar to the function of a narrator in a work of fiction or a speaker in a poem?

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 What is your response to the painting? Are you amused? Horrified?

Surprised? What emotion does it evoke?
The poem and its visual counterpart have become an important and exciting part of my
class, but at first I was unprepared for the length of time required for discussion.
Students needed guidelines on viewing paintings. In recent semesters, however, I have
spent a single class on two sets of paintings and poems, and assigned others for group
discussion and presentation.

Possible Responses to Questions page 802

Creation of Adam Michelangelo
A goiter it seems I got from this backward craning Michelangelo
1. In January 1509 Michelangelo began work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which
he would not complete until 1512. Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo, but it
was not a job Michelangelo took willingly. He had done only a few paintings to that
point, and was not anxious to undertake the challenges a huge vaulted ceiling
imposed. He argued that he was a sculptor, not a painter (see the sonnets last line),
and he recommended that the Pope turn to Raphael. Julius, however, insisted on
Michelangelo, who confronted immediate challenges with the scaffolding and the
paint at first the paint was put on too wet and caused mold to grow from the ceiling
and cover the work. As time passed and as the poem indicates, Michelangelo grew
weary but persistent: I strain more than any man who ever lived, he wrote, and yet
I have the patience to arrive at the desired goal. His patience was not matched by
the Popes, who grew increasingly frustrated by the length of time Michelangelo was
taking. Michelangelos sonnet details the physical pain and demands he suffered
while painting the ceiling. The original copy of the poem in the authors hand also
features a drawing of the artist at work standing, not lying on his back as the legend
goes.
2. Responses will vary to the detail from Gods creation of Adam.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Pieter Breughel the Elder

Muse des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus William Carlos Williams
1. Auden introduces the painting at the beginning of the second stanza to illustrate the
thesis of the first stanza: the Old Masters were never wrong about suffering. Auden
ends with an image of the ship sailing calmly on (although its crew must have seen
Icarus), to suggest that the Old Masters knew that each of us must endure our own
pain alone; the world does not concern itself or even notice our personal tragedies and
disasters.

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2. Audens first two lines establish his intention: to demonstrate that the Old Masters
understood the human condition. The rest of the poem reveals what they understood
about suffering. If the stanzas were reversed, Icarus would not serve so forcefully as
an illustration of the Old Masters understanding. The reader could perhaps interpret
the fate of Icarus as an isolated instance. By ending with the ship sailing on, the
poem achieves an almost chilling, although understated climax that would be lost if
the stanzas were reversed.
3. See response to #1.
4. Auden, who entitles his poem after a museum, sees Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
as representative of the Old Masters, one in a collection of masterpieces that
illustrates the human condition of suffering.
5. Williamss poem is closer to a poetic description of the painting. There is no
introductory stanza, as Audens has, to direct our interpretation. Yet Williamss poem
has a level of meaning beyond merely the descriptive. The idea that Williams finds in
the painting is not much different from what Auden finds. Like Auden, Williams is
struck by the paintings implication that the world is largely unconcerned with
individual suffering and tragedy. Consider Williamss use of words like
unsignificantly and unnoticed.

Hunters in the Snow Pieter Breughel the Elder

Hunters in the Snow: Breughel Joseph Langland
1. Langlands precise descriptions call our attention to details in the painting that we
might otherwise overlook: the sooty lamps in the kitchen (line 9), hunched dame
with her bundled sticks (17), and the half unhitched sign of the inn (23).
2. Langland sticks close to the details of the painting. He seems to sense something
ominous in the details, but he only seems to reach an understanding in the final stanza
when he offers an interpretation of the painting: the hunters and all that lies around
them are stalked by darkness and ultimately by death. Ironically, the hunters are the
hunted.
3. The opening stanza emphasizes description, particularly that of late afternoon with its
fading lights. There is nothing imprecisely ominous in Langlands description as he
focuses on the shadowless hounds, neutral evening of indeterminate forms, and
sooty lamps. The ending suggests that the hunters themselves have been stalked by
death.
4. The poem begins and ends with reference to the hunters, which reflects the circle
images in the poem (see lines 11, 19, but especially 44, 48). The tone is ominous, but
not overly dark, as the speaker seems to be looking for implication in the paintings

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details. Langland uses metrical devices such as alliteration (lines 14, 21, 26, 30, 35,
43, 49). Note how the d sound unites lines 5-9 to help create a falling rhythm that
reflects the action described.

The Return of the Prodigal Son Rembrandt van Rijn

The Prodigal Elizabeth Bishop
1. Bishop emphasizes the sons squalid life among the pigs. He had to live in the most
wretched conditions, which included horrible odors, a rotten floor, dung-plastered
walls, smug pigs, puddles, bats whizzing by, and more. His pride kept him from
returning home sooner.
2 & 3. The parable does not include as many details as the poem. We hear in the parable
that the son was hired to feed swine and, after a period of time, he returns home. The
horrible conditions in which he lives and works are only hinted at. (Certainly, the
early audiences for the parable would have been more familiar with pigsties than
more recent audiences and would not have needed details.) The painting, as the title
indicates, focuses on the sons return and emphasizes the sons humiliation and the
fathers forgiveness and mercy. The father is gentle, notice especially his face and his
embrace, and his son is repentant. The painting, like the poem, renders one detail in
the parable. However, the poem is more concerned with the sons pride, which he
must overcome before returning home, while the painting emphasizes the theme of
forgiveness and repentance.
You might also include Garrison Keillors play Prodigal Son (Chapter Twentytwo) as part of your discussion.

The Sick Rose William Blake

1. The Sick Rose is from Blakes Songs of Experience (1794). In 1789, Blakes Songs
of Innocence treated love in a joyful and hopeful tone. However, Blakes treatment of
love in Songs of Experience was considerably darker, as the poems recognize a
conflicting duality in nature, such as beauty and cruelty, love and destruction. If we
read the poem literally, we see that it concerns a rose being destroyed by a worm, or
more generally, innocence and helplessness destroyed by evil. However, the art helps
us to read the poem as a metaphor, as the roses in the art are females. Therefore, we
can argue that Rose, which is capitalized, is a womans name, probably a young
woman, and that the bed in line 5 refers not only to a flower bed, but also a
maidens bed. Crimson joy suggests both the color of the flower and passionate
love-making, perhaps illicit, as we consider the following lines reference to dark
secret love. The invisible worm in line 2 could refer to the phallic during sexual
intercourse or a rapist, unseen, until his attack. If the male lover forces himself on her
or is untrue or insincere and one of these is the case here he will destroy the life of
the innocent, pure Rose. Thus, the picture encourages us to read the poem as a
metaphor for the destructive side of sexuality.

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2. See response to #1. It seems as if the picture were drawn to illustrate the poem.

Girl Powdering Her Neck Utamaro

Girl Powdering Her Neck Cathy Song
1. Ask students to study the entire portrait, focusing not only on the action of the
painting but also the perspective, the background, and the use of color and lines.
2. Song describes the girls morning beautification ritual. The girl performs the ritual
methodically but not with at least some contemplation and self scrutiny. The literal
description of the painting, the references to articles of clothing, and the colors, as
well Songs decision to extend the portrait to include the knees and legs, invite the
reader to review the painting more closely.

The Third of May, 1808 Francisco de Goya

Goyas The Third of May, 1808 David Gewanter
1. Gewanter focuses on the moment of the painting, which, as his opening line indicates,
his speaker will interpret for us. Gewanter conveys the brutality and horrors of war
with ironic images of domesticity and comfort: blood is spread like jam on bread,
the executioners are compared to mothers and the Madonna, and the speaker calls for
a butterknife to continue Goyas work. With these surprising images, the poet
captures the shocking sense of horror one encounters when one first experiences the
Goya painting. The domestic images are also appropriate as the victims in the
painting were defending their home city against invaders. The outrage in the tone of
Gewanters poem suggests an anger directed not only at the executioners in the
painting, but also at humankind as a whole, as we have not learned from works like
Goyas. His focus on the moment might also suggest that such moments are still
commonplace.
2. Certainly, Gewanters poem is comprehensible without the painting, but full
understanding or appreciation of the poem is difficult without its visual source.
Gewanter helps us focus on the innocent nobility of the victims and the brutality of
the soldiers.

The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night Anne Sexton
1. Sextons poem will probably introduce the subject of madness, not necessarily
gleaned from looking at the painting. The epitaph introduces the themes of religion
and the quest for inner peace, but as the swirling motion of the curls, the great

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dragon, and the movement in the painting indicate, the exorcising of inner troubles
does not appear to be successful.
2. The poem is written in the first person with Van Gogh as speaker. Sexton
concentrates more on the artist and the artistic process as well as the painting. The
starry night becomes a metaphor for what the poet perceives as the frenzy of Van
Goghs creative process and the inner turmoil of the artist.

The Kiss Gustav Klimt

Short Story on a Painting of Gustav Klimt Lawrence Ferlinghetti
1. Responses will vary. Among other things, students will note the colorful circles of
the womans dress and the oblong, black and white shapes associated with the man.
They will speculate on her smile; some will interpret her differently from Ferlinghetti.
After reading the poem, you might want to point out the tenseness of her body, which
will support Ferlinghettis view.
2. Responses will vary. Ferlinghetti depicts the man as passionate in his desire and love
for the woman (so passionately/ holds her head to his/ so gently so insistently), but
she is unable to return his passion or love. There are images that suggest that
Ferlinghettis sympathy lies with the man: one of her hands is compared to a dead
swan and the other is compared to a languid claw.
3. Ferlinghetti often provides a literal description of the painting followed with
interpretation. For instance, lines 1-7 are literal, while lines 8-11 are more subjective.
Similarly, lines 12-13 are literal, but the following image of a dead swan is
subjective and interpretative. His last line is his most obvious interpretation as he
concludes that the man is not the One for her.
4. The title of the painting focuses the audiences attention on the most significant
feature of the painting the kiss. Ferlinghettis title indicates that the poet has been
inspired to create his own story based on the painting. The titles are certainly
appropriate.

Dance Henri Matisse

Matisses Dance Natalie Safir
1. The painting captures the dancers elation, unity, energy, and spontaneity. We see joy
in the lithe, graceful movement of the dancer on the left, in the jump of the dancer
who holds her hand, and in the smile of the dancer in the upper right. We see unity
and support as the women hold hands and reach out to stay connected. We see energy
in the movement and spontaneity in the lack of uniformity of the dance, particularly
the leg movements. Along with their free-style movement, their nudity suggests a

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sense of freedom and of restraint triumphantly cast off. The womens arched arms
similarly suggest lifted spirits and jubilation.
2. The ring of the dancers suggests unity and continuity. The break and reaching out
might suggest the difficulty of maintaining unity, but it also suggests vitality, as the
dancers whirl around in a frenzied celebration that makes holding on difficult. Of
course, the break seems only temporary and the women will no doubt complete the
circle. In addition, the ring could suggest the cycle of birth and renewal. The figures
are all female, and the curves of their bodies reflect the natural curves of the
paintings landscape, establishing a connection between the dancers and Mother
Earth.
3. Safir captures the joyful mood of the painting. She notes, for example, the spirals of
glee that the joyful sisters create, and the fervor of their spirit as the dancer on the
left pulls the circle around with the fire. Safir implies the similarity of the dancers
bodies to the landscape: Grass mounds curve ripely Breasts swell and multiply.
She structures her poem like a circle, beginning and ending with reference to the
detached dancer, who Safir sees as frightened, perhaps because of the figures
desperate stretch in the painting.
4. The dancers are sandy colored, faintly tinged with pink. Their bodies are not
rendered in anatomical detail. Their sandy coloring suggests a purity, a lightness of
spirit, and an unrestrained joyfulness, while the pink reminds us of their physical
assertion. Matisse outlines their breasts to inform us of their gender, but the lack of
detail in their rendering suggests that Matisse was more interested in capturing the
spirit of the movement than realistic, anatomical precision. The deep blue of the sky
and dark green of the grass highlight the lightness of the bodies and, through contrast,
create a fire-like frenzy in the connectedness of the arms. The contrast between the
color of the sky and the ground with their bodies helps to focus the viewer on the
dancers. When considered with the similarities between the curves of the earth and
the curves of the dancers, the depth of color suggests the dearest freshness deep
down (Hopkins, Gods Grandeur) and connects the spirit of the dancers with the
earth and its natural forces. (You might consider reading Gods Grandeur along
with this painting. The richness of Matisses color can provide a visual counterpart to
that poem as well).

At Five in the Afternoon Romare Bearden

Lament for Iganacio Snchez Mejas Federico Garcia Lorca
Ignacio Snchez Mejas was one of Spains most celebrated bullfighters. A close friend
of Lorcas, he was also a respected dramatist whose intellectual powers were growing at
the time of his death. On August 11, 1934, he was gored by a bull in the ring and died
two days later. Lament for Ignacio Snchez Mejas, a poem in four sections, is Lorcas
tribute to him. Section one (Cogida and death) concerns the moment in the ring when
Mejas was wounded and is the direct inspiration for Beardens painting. Throughout the

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section, Lorca repeats the line At five in the afternoon the approximate time of the
fatal wound:

Now the bull was bellowing through his forehead

At five in the afternoon

The wounds were burning like suns

At five in the afternoon

Ah, that five in the afternoon!

Sections three and four are entitled The Laid Out Body and The Absent Soul. The
complete poem makes an excellent topic for a research paper.
1. Lorcas poem emphasizes the tragedy of the death and the speakers sense of
overwhelming loss, which is both personal and communal. Lorca depicts the fight as
an epic struggle between a supernaturally inspired, almost mythical bull and a brave
warrior. Consider the portrait of Mejas, who was from Seville, in lines 44-70.
2. The repetition emphasizes the sense of loss and pain that the speaker feels. Consider
not only I will not see it!, but also the elongated sighs of how(66-70), oh (8386), and no at the end of the poem.
3. The painting depicts the precise moment at which the bull inflicts the fatal wounds on
Mejas see introduction above. The impact is intense, bloody, and dramatic, as
Beardens bright colors and the merging of bull and fighter indicate. It is difficult to
see where one figure begins and where one ends. For this painting, Bearden has
chosen a Cubist style, a movement begun very early in the twentieth century by
Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubists rely on geometric shapes and use the
canvas to show multiple sides of an object simultaneously. Like the poem, the
painting captures the paradoxical fusion of beauty and lyricism with violence and
tragic death.

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Chapter Eleven

Writing about Poetry

As in the other chapters about writing (Chapter Four Writing about Fiction, Chapter
Seventeen Writing about Drama), the text offers a practical method for students to
approach a writing assignment about literature. Such writing assignments encourage
close reading and demonstrate to students the possibilities of interacting with a text.
Students are often pleasantly surprised by their own insights about a work. This, of
course, leads to a fuller appreciation and understanding of literature.
I make it a point to review the following:
Annotation this emphasizes the importance of aggressive reading and helps to
begin the writing process.
Freewriting this helps students explore the text more fully, as they write out
ideas and speculations, with one leading to another. I find it helpful to consider the
examples of freewriting in the text. Many students resist freewriting, pausing to consider
diction, grammar, punctuation, etc. I use the examples in the text to try to free them.
More Formal Writing I review the student essays in the text to indicate how
writing evolves from annotation to freewriting to the more formal essay. These student
essays are more accessible for students than those of literary critics, and present models
to which they can aspire.
Questions (beginning on page 818) these questions, like those in the other
chapters about writing, help students to find and then focus on what they consider
especially important aspects of a poem. They need to be reminded to limit their
discussions to, at most, only a few points. I emphasize the need for a detailed, focused
discussion; otherwise papers will tend to be abstract and largely speculative. I ask
students to identify the thesis statements in the student essays in the text and to note how
those students develop their theses.
Suggestions (pages 820-21) You may organize group work around these
suggestions. Consider dividing your class into groups of four. Ask each group to discuss
one poem and each student within the group to consider the poem in light of one of the
suggestions. Students will discuss their ideas within the group and present them to the

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class as a panel. For instance, one panel might discuss Dylan Thomass Fern Hill, with
students presenting three- to five-minute papers on topics such as the following: the
speaker of the poem (suggestion #3), the closing lines (#6), the imagery (#11), and a
reading of a critical essay on the poem (#25 I modify it to one critical interpretation of
the poem under discussion). This assignment has helped to break some of the resistance
to poetry that I have encountered among my students. As students become involved with
a poem, they realize that a poem requires time and patience, but time and patience well
spent. This exercise may not make your students readers of poetry, but it could lead them
to a genuine respect for and appreciation of a well-crafted, meaningful poem.

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Chapter Twelve

Three Poets in Context

This chapter provides an opportunity to study one or more poets in depth: Emily
Dickinson, Robert Frost, or Langston Hughes. In survey courses, we tend to cover many
works by many writers. For beginning literature students, the writers, especially poets,
often lose their distinctiveness. If we are careful or if we fall behind, we sometimes
present authors and works at a dizzying pace, in which the works, especially poems, seem
to run into one another. Concentrating on one or two poets, for perhaps three to five
hours, slows the rhythm of the course, providing welcomed breathing space, and seems to
allow more opportunity for close reading. In those three to five hours, we can study
anywhere from five to twelve poems. If we do not discuss as many as I anticipate, I can
more comfortably assign them for home reading. I do not feel so pressed to get through
the syllabus. But just as importantly, a study of one or two authors teaches students how
to read a poet rather than a poem something most students will not otherwise have an
opportunity to experience. And, after spending time with Hughes, Dickinson and/or
Frost, students will like and appreciate them.

Reading Dickinson, Frost, and Hughes in Depth (p. 822)

This introductory section provides a direction for reading several works by the same
author. Based on the text, I have outlined below a few ways or contexts for reading a
single poet.
The primary context for reading any single poem is other poems by the same
author.
Other contexts include other poems by contemporary poets and by those with
similar thematic or stylistic inclinations.
The poets life and letters may be considered. However, the inner life of the
poet should be of primary interest.
The culture of a poets environment provides an appropriate context.
The literary movements and trends during the poets lifetime may be explored.

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 The poets comments on the art and craft of poetry may be considered.
Critical interpretation can provide another context for examining a poets work.
The text provides an opportunity to consider all of the above, although an extensive study
of either poet will require that students use a library.
Suggestion: Ask students to write a short paper (two to four pages) exploring Dickinson,
Frost, and Hughes.

Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson in Context (p. 824)
Without seeming forced or artificial, this brief introductory essay demonstrates the
contexts listed above. It furnishes details about nineteenth-century American literature
and Dickinsons life, discusses her work in context with Walt Whitman, considers her
diction with reference to two poems, situates her in relation to her Puritan ancestors,
quotes from a letter/poem to indicate her poetic theory, and refers to Richard Sewalls
biography and interpretation of The Soul selects her own Society. This introductory
material will therefore be useful as not only an introduction to Dickinson, but also as an
introduction to poetic criticism as well. You might want to point out the various contexts
that the essay employs to give students an approach for their own poetic criticism.

Emily Dickinson: Poems (p. 829)

The text includes some fifty poems by Dickinson. Rather than comment on all or most of
them and rather than respond to the questions in the text, I thought I would offer some
specific direction and discussion on about half the poems. Much of what is stated in the
introductory material to Dickinson in the text, many of the questions posed in the text,
and some of what I say about specific poems, will be applicable to other Dickinson
poems.

Im wife Ive finished that (#199, 830)

What is the speakers attitude toward marriage? How is the poem does she demonstrate
scorn for marriage? In this poem, marriage can be rewarding, but the speaker seems
upset by the subordinate role of wife. You might compare this ambivalent view of

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marriage in the temporal world with the marriage as metaphor in Title divine is mine!
(#1072), which begins as follows:
Title divine is mine!
The Wife without the Sign!
Acute Degree conferred on me
Empress of Calvary!
Royal all but the Crown!
Betrothed without the swoon
In Letter #93 (June 1852, to Susan Gilbert), Dickinson writes of the frequent failure of
marriage to live up to the bride' expectations, and her fear at the thought and inevitability
of her own marriage:
How dull our lives must seem to the bride, and the plighted maiden, whose days
are fed with gold, and who gathers pearls every evening; but to the wife, Susie,
sometimes the wife forgotten, our lives perhaps seem dearer than all the others in
the world; you have seen the flowers at morning, satisfied with the dew, and those
same sweet flowers at noon with their heads bowed in anguish before the mighty
sun; think you these blossoms will now need nought but dew? No, they will cry
for sunlight and pine for the burning noon, tho it scorches them, scathes them;
they have got through with peace they know that the man of noon, is mightier
than the morning and their life is henceforth to him. Oh Susie, it is dangerous,
and it is all too dear, these simple trusting spirits, and the spirits mightier, which
we cannot resist! It does so rend me, Susie, the thought of it when it comes, that I
tremble lest at sometime I too, am yielded up!
How is Im wife Ive finished that similar to this letter?

After a great pain, a formal feeling comes (#341, p. 832)

Students will find this poem difficult. Like many of her lyrics, the theme is emotional
suffering. The speaker appears to suffer from acute depression. The following phrases
will require discussion: formal feeling, Quartz contentment, Hour of Lead. If
He in line 3 is interpreted as Christ, how will that direct your interpretation of the
poem? How does the poems final phrase, then letting go, shift the direction of the
entire poem? You might consider this poem with The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens,
Acquainted with Night by Robert Frost, or The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes.
When discussing this poem, I usually reference John Codys biography of
Dickinson: After Great Pain: The Inner Life of Emily Dickinson, 1971. Cody, a
practicing psychiatrist, believes Dickinson was disturbed to the point of collapse. If one
can be induced to stare unflinchingly for a moment into the psychic hell that for a time
overwhelmed her, one sees that the psychotic are not necessarily mindless and absurd
in fact they are far more frequently preternaturally aware of their deeper psychic
processes, hypersensitive, and gentle. And in those rare instances when unusual artistic

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talent, adequate technical skills, and high intelligence combine in them, their mental and
emotional perturbations may become the vehicle through which genius is kindled.

Theres a certain Slant of light (#258, p. 831)

The light in this poem unsettles and oppresses the speaker. This is a light that leads to a
profound, spiritual reflection that disturbs the speaker, who is stunned in the final line by
a sense of mortality. Note how the speaker uses religious imagery and how the light
operates on not only the soul, but nature also.

I taste a liquor never brewed (#214, p. 833)

The speaker defines herself as a Tippler, one who is intoxicated by nature. She will
continue to drink until the Seraphs and Saints see her Leaning against the Sun. Ask
students to note the different words and phrases used to convey drunkenness. What did
the speaker actually drink? How would you characterize the tone? Consider the
speakers state of euphoria and her sense of humor, especially the whimsical nature of the
last stanza. What are the inns of Molten Blue? Is the speaker leaning against the sun
for support or does against suggest confrontation? In Lunacy of Light, Wendy Barker
writes the following: With the enormous strength she brings from the dark that allowed
these Tankards of dew to collect, she can even move the sun aside to make room for
her.
Compare this poem for theme and tone to Wordsworths I wandered lonely as a
cloud and/or It is a beauteous evening.

I dreaded that first Robin, so (#348, p. 834)

This poem, like After great pain, a formal feeling comes or There is a pain so utter,
is about mental anguish and the speakers ability to transcend her torment. Why does the
speaker dread that first Robin? How does that which she dreads bring her comfort and
lift her? What is meant by unthinking Drums? What does Queen of Calvary
imply? Compare this image to Empress of Calvary in Title divine is mine (#1042).
Does your interpretation of this poem change significantly because of this image?
Compare also to the opening lines of T.S. Eliots The Waste Land:
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in the forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

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I dreaded that first Robin, so can be paired with Howards The soote season (955).

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (#986, p. 835)

The poem concerns the speakers fear of snakes and provides an opportunity to
distinguish between poet and speaker (here, a man recalling his experience as a young
boy). As typical of Dickinsons poetry, the imagery is precise, extraordinarily so.
Consider narrow Fellow, divides as with a Comb, and Whip lash/ Unbraiding. You
may need to inform students that whip lash refers to entwined leather, unbraiding as
it dries out in the sun. The speaker of the poem, a boy, has befriended many of Natures
People (birds, animals, etc.), but never feels anything but fright when he sees a snake.
He distinguishes the snake from the creatures of nature by calling it a narrow Fellow,
suggesting inferior breeding and behavior. The boy is frightened by the snakes
sneakiness; its ability to startle and strike him, whether he be alone or with others, with a
sudden terror that chills one at the Bone.
Ask students the denotations and connotations of certain words and phrases, such
as rides, transport of cordiality, and Zero at the Bone. Contrast the warmth
suggested by cordiality and the coldness suggested by Zero at the Bone.
Is the poem simply a playful consideration of a boys fear of snakes? Does
Dickinson imply more when she distinguishes the snake from other creatures of nature?
Does the last stanza seem too strong emotionally, compared with the rest of the poem, not
to imply more? Does the boys innocence and harmony with nature suggest that the
snake is invading his Eden? Given the frequent use of Christian imagery in Dickinsons
poetry and the centrality of the snake to the Genesis account of the Fall of humankind, an
allegorical reading of this poem would certainly seem appropriate.

Further in Summer than the Birds (#1068, p. 836)

Here, the speaker is inspired with an almost religious enthusiasm upon hearing the sounds
of crickets at noon in late summer. What words have a religious connotation? This poem
is an excellent illustration of Dickinsons not uncommon use of unconventional syntax.
Ask students to paraphrase the difficult last two stanzas, which include inverted phrase
order, omitted words, and uninflected verbs. In Emily Dickinson: A Poets Grammar,
Cristanne Millers paraphrase reads as follows:
The custom of grace is felt to be oldest at Noon, when the August sun is burning
low and this spectral canticle arise(s), typifying repose; up until this moment, no
grace has been remitted and the glow remains unfurrowed (unblemished); yet a
druidic difference enhances nature now.

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The Heart Asks Pleasure first (#536, p. 838)

What is the tone of the poem? What effect do the short lines produce? Why is it a
privilege to die? Can this poem be considered a hopeful vision or, perhaps, a recipe for
a simple, but unfulfilled life?

There is a pain so utter (#599, p. 838)

Like After great pain, a formal feeling comes, I dreaded that first Robin, so and Pain
has an Element of Blank, this poem concerns itself with mental torment. What does
Dickinson mean by the closing line? Discuss the relationship between Bone by Bone
with Goes safely.

Pain has an Element of Blank (#650, p. 838)

The poem talks about a constant pain, probably psychic. However, the tone indicates the
speakers acceptance or, at least, resignation to her torment. Additionally, there is a sense
in the final two lines that such suffering can be ennobling. Why does the speaker use the
plural verb contain in line 6? Secondarily, you can also discuss this poem as a definition
poem in which Dickinson works toward an elucidation of pain see discussion below
under Remorse is Memory awake.

Remorse is Memory awake (#744, p. 838)

Another feature of Dickinsons poetry is the definition poem. Here, as in other similar
poems, the speaker presents herself as a preacher-sage, who will pass on her wisdom to
her audience. While a full definition is developed through the course of the poem, the
opening line reads like a Biblical proverb. Often the poem will move towards a sermonic
conclusion as it does here.
Other similar definition poems include Nature is what we see (#668), which
concludes with the following two lines:
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity
Or The Bat is dun, with wrinkled Wings (#1575), which concludes as follows:
To his adroit Creator
Ascribe no less the praise
Beneficent, believe me,
His Eccentricities

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Other definition poems include Hope is the thing with feather (#254), Ideals are the
Fairy Oil (#983), and Renunciation is a piercing Virtue (#745).

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (#280, p. 839)

Describe the different phases of the funeral to which the poem alludes. How does the
poem draw the reader into the experience through specific, sensual detail? Why does the
poem end so abruptly or inconclusively?

We grow accustomed to the Dark (#419, p. 840)

The poem extends the metaphor of nights darkness to larger Darknesses, which we
cope with and adjust to in much the same way we find our way through the night: we
grope a little and sometimes hit a Tree, but within a short time we adjust our vision
and proceed almost straight. What could these larger darknesses be? What is the
tone of the poem? How can the poem be read as a reflection on the experience related in
I dreaded that first Robin, so and other poems in which the speaker overcomes despair?

I died for Beauty but was scarce (#449, p. 841)

You might want to read this poem along with other poems about truth and beauty, like
Much Madness is divinest Sense, I like a look of Agony, Tell all the Truth but tell it
slant, or Some keep the Sabbath going to Church. The poem succinctly states
Dickinsons poetic intention to combine truth with beauty, and her willingness to adhere
to that concept at all costs, here death, but in life, isolation and misunderstanding. The
somewhat whimsical scenario of the poem is representative of Dickinsons
unconventional poetic viewpoints and presentations. You might also compare
Dickinsons treatment of the relationship between truth and beauty with Keatss view in
Ode on a Grecian Urn.
For a different emphasis, you can discuss this poem with other Dickinson poems
that use deceased speakers, such as I heard a Fly buzz when I died or Because I
could not stop for death.

I heard a Fly buzz when I died (#465, p. 841)

Dickinson presents a speaker who contemplates life after death, a fairly commonly used
technique in her poetry. In part, this poem and others (I died for Beauty but was
scarce, Because I could not stop for Death) suggest the limitations and frustrations of
human knowledge and certainty. However, they also serve as meditations on death that
make the inevitability of death easier for the speaker to accept. This poem is fraught with
indefiniteness. The poem can be interpreted through its symbols. But how definite can
our conclusions be? Is the fly the Angel of Death? Does the King refer to Christ or
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Death? Does the fly replace the savior, as David Porter suggests in Dickinson: The
Modern Idiom:
The fly takes the place of the savior; irreverence and doubt have taken the place
of revelation. Her fly, then, With Blue uncertain stumbling Buzz is
uncomprehension, derangement itself. It is noise breaking the silence, not the
worlds true speech but, externalized, the buzz of ceaseless consciousness.
The last line is not easy to grasp. Windows refers to the speakers eyes, and I could
not see to see could simply refer to the failure of her eyes and the complete breakdown
of the body in death, or it could refer to her eyes failing to see the souls transcendency
into the afterlife. Dickinson also focuses on the eyes during the final moment of life in
Ive seen a Dying Eye (#547).
However, the poem can also be approached as a comedy. There is more humor,
frequently dark, in Dickinson than is often recognized. Here, Dickinson presents us with
a death scene. Family and friends gather around the bed of the speaker, awaiting her
death. They take deep breaths to sturdy themselves for the speakers final moment. Then
a fly buzzes into the room, distracting the speaker and perhaps her friends. We have been
told that in our final moments our whole life passes before our eyes, but the fly keeps the
speaker from experiencing such a contemplation. Extend the poem a bit and ask students
to visualize the scene as all eyes move from the speaker to the fly and his Uncertain
stumbling. The family and friends could have missed the speakers final breath. This
reading interprets the poem as mocking the overly solemn way humanity approaches
death, since death, as this poem suggests, is only a transition state in which the deceased
passes from one type of existence to another. Thus the poem makes light of the
unnecessary human fear of death.

Ive seen a Dying Eye (#547, p. 842)

This poem can be used effectively during a discussion of the final stanza of I heard a Fly
buzz when I died (#465).

The Bustle in a House (#1078, p. 842)

Contrast the action of The Bustle in the House, with either I heard a Fly Buzz when
I died or The last Night that She lived. Student who have experienced the death of
someone close to them will have little trouble understanding phrases like the solemnest
of industries. However, their response to the final stanza is less assured. What does
Dickinson mean by Sweeping up the Heart? You could ask students to discuss or write
their own experience of putting Love away not to use again until Eternity. They
probably have never considered their own feeling for a deceased loved one in these
terms. Is Dickinsons phrasing appropriate to them? Is this really what we do following
the death of a loved one?

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The last Night that She lived (#1100, p. 843)

Students who have experienced a similar deathbed vigilance will understand the
universality of feeling that Dickinson captures here. The following words, phrases, and
lines might need clarification: Common Night, Dying Made Nature different,
Italicized, Jealousy for her, and Too jostled were Our Souls to speak. The inverted
syntax of the final two lines may present some problems. I rearrange as follows: And
then Belief was to regulate an awful leisure, which I loosely interpret as faith will make
bearable the inactivity of the following days, as we no longer need to care for the one
who is dying.

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church (#324, p. 844)

The speaker is at home on Sunday, choosing to spend her time in her church or nature.
Her service takes place under a dome formed by the trees in the orchard and includes a
bobolink for a chorister and God as a preacher. The service, unlike the traditional ritual
in church, is never boring and always uplifting note the reference to wings and the final
two lines. The tone is playful, fanciful, and at least slightly facetious.

Apparently with no surprise (#1624, p. 848)

The subject of this poem is the violence in nature and the apparent indifference of God.
Consider the references to the frosts action of beheading and its designation as the
blonde Assassin. You can compare this poem to Frosts Design, as both raise similar
issues and both give the color white portentous and destructive connotations. Students
often think that white can only represent purity and innocence.

Wild Nights Wild Nights! (#249, p. 851)

See Tates and Farrs discussions on pages 864 and 865. You might use this poem of
romantic ecstasy with its quick pace and excitement to demonstrate the range of
Dickinsons poetry. It will be especially revealing after a discussion of Im wife Ive
finished that and I like a look of Agony.

My life closed twice before its close (#1732, p. 852)

After reading some poetry by Dickinson particularly The Bustle in a House and The
last Night that She lived students will understand that the first line refers to the death
of persons she loved. We cannot feel so certain about our interpretation of the third
event, however. It could refer to the speakers own imminent death; it could refer to the
speakers uncertainty about her own immortality; or it could refer to her own uncertainty
over whether or not she will join her friends in the afterlife consider the closing lines of
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The Bustle in a House. The closing references to lower case heaven and hell
underscore this theme of uncertainty and the limitations of human knowledge, as we
know very little of heaven and hell. The poem suggests that they are somewhat artificial
designations. Question: according to the speaker, how can death make parting from a
loved one be both heaven and hell? Consider The last Night that She lived with
regard to this question.

I like a look of Agony (#241, p. 853)

Why does the speaker like a look of Agony? Because there is no hypocrisy and
falsehood in a look of Agony? The adamant, straightforward tone and the final image
of the sweating forehead reveal the speakers disgust with human deception. She prefers
pain and anguish to lies. Students may need throe defined a violent spasm or a sharp
attack of emotion. Words and images in the poem are strong and perhaps unpleasant.
How does this lack of euphemism reflect the poems theme?

Much Madness is divinest Sense (#435, p. 854)

Dickinson fills her poetry with paradoxes, oxymorons, and ironic juxtapositions:
Heavenly Hurt (#258), Tis so appalling it exhilarates (#281), a sumptuous
Destitution (#1382), A piercing Comfort (#522), and Tell all the Truth but tell it
slant (#1129), among others. Explain the paradox in line 1 here. How can Madness
be divinest Sense? To help illustrate the line, you might mention that many considered
Teiresias mad in Oedipus, until his divinest sense came to pass. In Emily Dickinson:
Daughter of Prophecy, Beth Maclay Doriani writes that Dickinsons use of paradox
connects her to Biblical prophets:
The paradoxes important to the Biblical prophetic tradition extend to the cultural
position of the prophet, which Dickinson shared: isolated, yet speaking to the
spiritual community, yet rejected because of the confounding or painful nature of
the prophecy; translating the familiar spiritual heritage of the religious
community, yet resisted or rejected in part because of the seemingly radical
expressions (called eccentric or private in Dickinsons case) in which that
heritage is couched. Indeed, the prophetic voice of the Biblical writers and of
Dickinson speaks to those who are attuned to indirection, to the expressions of
truth in highly figurative, parabolic, and enigmatic ways, as the prophets play
these paradoxical roles.
Christ too spoke in paradoxes. In John 12: 24-25, Christ says, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

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The poem also speaks to the concept of majority rule. Does the poem seem to
support the concept? What does the poem imply about a dominant cultures acceptance
of different voices?
Are there any historical figures that would prove or disprove Dickinsons closing
lines? Consider in your discussion the following statements of Emerson and Thoreau:
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist I am ashamed to
think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and
dead institutions.
Self-Reliance
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of
the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to
rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this
seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest.
But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based
on justice, even as far as men understand it Moreover, any man more
right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
Resistance to Civil Government

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant (#1129, p. 854)

This poem argues that we should Tell all the Truth but tell it slant because the full force
of a direct truth will be too much to bear. What is the implication of this line? Why does
Dickinsons speaker believe this? Is the line contradictory or paradoxical? The speaker
could be implying that human activity is so estranged from truth that direct truth will
prove too shocking for us to digest. Some critics have interpreted the poem from a
feminist perspective, indicating that a woman writer of the nineteenth century had to stay
within the bounds of women writing in order to be publishable; i.e., women writers had
to soften or camouflage their messages and theories.
Another reading might argue that Dickinson recognizes that truth is elusive and
difficult to discern, and, therefore, can only be conveyed indirectly or through image,
especially given the limitations of language. Or perhaps Dickinson is anticipating
Samuel Becketts comment: The danger is in the neatness of identifications. This
poem could provoke lively discussion.

I like to see it lap the Miles (#585, p. 855)

Dickinson compares a train to a large animal. The beast is horselike in that it neighs and
has a stable, but it also crawls and hoots. How does the rhythm of the lines reflect the
trains progression through the countryside? How does Dickinson slow the rhythm in
lines 4 and 15, for instance, and speed it up in lines 5 and 12? You will need to explain to
students that Boanerges means sons of thunder, a name Jesus gave to John and James,
his disciples (Mark 3: 17). Does it alter your interpretation of the poem, perhaps giving

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the poem a spiritual dimension? (Incidentally, I dont think so. I believe Dickinson is
only trying to covey the strong, thunderous sound of the locomotive.) Compare to similar
references, similarly placed, in Wild Nights Wild Nights! and I dreaded that first
Robin, so. I like to see it lap the Miles makes an excellent companion for either
Whitmans To a Locomotive in Winter (not in text) or Popes Sound and Sense.

My Life had stood a Loaded Gun (#754, p. 855)

Donne and the metaphysical influence on Dickinson are clearly evident here. To
demonstrate the influence, you might want to consider Donnes A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning. My Life had stood can be interpreted as another meditation on
the afterlife. Here, the Owner is God or Christ, who transports the speaker at death into
Heaven. However, the final lines of the poem, with the implication of the Owners
mortality, weaken this reading, as does the lack of religious referents, so common in
Dickinsons poetry.
Another reading could see the Owner as lover, with the speaker and her Owner
going off to their earthly paradise. Still another reading, advanced by Cristanne Miller in
Emily Dickinson: A Poets Grammar, interprets the poem as an adolescent fantasy about
coming of age that breaks down before what should be its happy conclusion powerful
adulthood. Miller notes that the poem begins and ends with the speakers life in stasis,
while in the middle stanzas the speaker lives out her fantasy. Significantly, the images in
those middle stanzas all concern power: The speaker imagines that she can kill beyond
Gods power of resurrection. Students should locate images of violence in the poem that
would support Millers reading. Consider also that the speaker says she has the power
to kill,/ Without the power to die . Why doesnt Dickinson capitalize power in
those final two lines?

A Route of Evanescence (#1463, p. 856)

The poem reads like a riddle, one of Dickinsons favorite tactics. It has the same playful
tone of a riddle, and the closing image is deceptive. Students might have fun guessing
the poems subject. In a letter to Thomas W. Higginson, Dickinson entitled the poem A
Humming-Bird. The poems ornithology is more fanciful than actual. The
hummingbirds wings flap fast, but they do not revolve like a wheel, and the bird is
probably not delivering mail form Tunis to a New England bush, an easy Morning Ride
or some 4,000 miles. Of course, the poet is trying to capture the magical quality in this
fast-flying, ever-vanishing, and colorful bird. Compare Dickinsons look at the
humming-bird with D. H. Lawrences in Humming-bird and McClatchys
Hummingbird.

Connecting the Poems: Questions for Discussion and Assignment

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1. Consider several poems of Dickinson that concern the afterlife. Do the poems
express a consistent vision of the afterlife? How are they inconsistent? Among other
poems, you might consider I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, Because I could not stop
for Death, and I died for Beauty but was scarce.
2. Several of Dickinsons poems express emotional and/or psychic torment. Discuss the
similarities and differences in the conditions of the speaker in several such poems.
Among others, you might consider Pain has an Element of Blank, After great
pain, a formal feeling comes, There is a pain so utter, and We grow accustomed
to the Dark.
3. Discuss Dickinsons use of birds in the following poems: I dreaded that first Robin,
so, A Route of Evanescence, Some keep the Sabbath going to Church, and
Further in Summer than the Birds. What function does the image of a bird
provoke? Compare for similar and different uses.

Three Poems with Altered Punctuation (p. 858)

Fewer than a dozen of Dickinsons poems were published during her lifetime. After her
death, her sister Lavinia found almost two thousand poems, all short lyrics, among her
papers. Over a period of many years, her poems were issued in a series of volumes.
However, family and friends decided to smooth out the idiosyncratic rhythms, rhymes,
punctuation, and capitalization. It was not until 1955 that a fairly reliable edition of her
poems was issued. Still, however, problems remain concerning the dating of poems and
variant editions of many poems with no way of knowing the authors preference.
The poems in the text represent three altered versions of poems. Compare each to
Dickinsons intended text: Pain has an Element of Blank appears on page 838, The
Soul selects her own Society on page 828, and The Brain is wider than the Sky on
page 846.
What is the difference in effect of the two versions? Which do you prefer?
Which is more inviting to read? What is gained in the altered versions? What is lost? Is
the gain worth the loss? How do the dashes and capitalization contribute to the visual
presentation of the poem?

Poems Inspired by Dickinson

Notes from the Other Side Jane Kenyon (p. 859)
1. Identify the speaker and the perspective.
2. How is death depicted in the poem? Consider the tone as part of your answer.

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3. Compare to Because I could not stop for Death, I died for Beauty but was
scarce, and I heard a Fly buzz when I died.

Three Times My Life Has Opened Jane Hirshfield (p. 860)

1. Consider the rhythm of the poem. How does it convey tone and meaning?
2. Compare to My life closed twice before its close, Dare you see a Soul at the White
Heat? and Theres a certain Slant of light.

Taking Off Emily Dickinsons Clothes Billy Collins (p. 860)

1. What does the speaker imagine doing? Is this a metaphor for his fascination with
Dickinson and his desire to understand the depths of her poetry?
2. Collins alludes to several poems, including Because I could not stop for Death,
My Life had stood a Loaded Gun, and I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, among
others. Why? How do these allusions serve the metaphor?

Emily Dickinson Linda Pastan (p. 862)

What portrait of Dickinson emerges from this tribute? Is it consistent with your reading
of Dickinsons poems?

Dickinson on Herself and Her First Poems (p. 863)

Topics for Discussion
1. This revealing letter is important for scholars and biographers of Dickinson. Why?
What does it reveal about Dickinson?
2. Ask students to rewrite the letter as a poem approximating Dickinsons style.
However, limit them to three or four, four-line stanzas, and ask them to include, what
they consider, the most revealing lines or phrases of the letter. Ask them to explain
their editorial decisions in an accompanying essay. This assignment will lead to a
close reading of the letter, and immediately engage them in her work.

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Dickinson and Knowledge Allen Tate (p. 686)

The essay can serve as a demonstration of how to support a literary assertion. Look at
Tates broad statement:
Dickinson writes close to the traditions of post-Romantic poetry and womens
poetry in that her poetry expresses strong emotion [Her] poetry runs the full
emotive range from ecstatic celebration to numb despair.
Note how Tate supports his theory with references to Wild Nights Wild Nights! Ask
students to explain how other poems in the text similarly support Tates statement.

On Wild Nights Judith Farr (p. 865)

Farr situates Wild Nights in the cultural context of the mid- to late-nineteenth century.
She compares the poem to canvases by the Hudson River and Luminist painters.
Students will enjoy seeing prints of the paintings to which Farr refers, and drawing their
own conclusions. She also makes reference to the use of the rowing image during the
nineteenth century, and Dickinsons water imagery elsewhere. However, you might want
to spend some time discussing Farrs statement that Dickinsonian lyrics are frequently
ironic, paradoxical, voluptuous, and terse all at once.

On Because I Could Not Stop for Death Allen Tate (p. 866)
If you like and if you have time, this passage along with the other critical excerpts can
form the foundation for group work and a lengthy class discussion. For instance, a group
might discuss Tates statement that Because I could not stop for Death is one of the
greatest poems in the English language. How does Tate support this statement? Do you
agree? Regardless, ask one group to argue for the superiority or at least equality of
another poem, while another group can compare Dickinson and Donne by explicating one
poem of each author.

Dickinsons Method Helen McNeil (p. 867)

As with the other critical excerpts, this selection too has several statements that students
could explore to come to a fuller understanding of not only the critics insight but
Dickinsons poetry. Groups can elaborate and then clarify one of the following
statements by relating it to specific lines:
Dickinson takes on a frightening abstraction and evolves its attributes from
experience, not tradition.

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[Dickinson] is an epistemological poet, a poet who advances a theory of

knowledge.
American poetry characteristically embodies acts of process: the Dickinsonian
process is a passionate investigation.

Robert Frost
Robert Frost in Context (p. 868)
Similar to the introduction to Dickinson, the opening sections discusses Frosts poetry in
relation to his biography, his literary theory, his milieu, his contemporaries, literary
movements and trends, and critical reception and interpretation.
There are several points in this introduction I think especially worth noting.
Students with limited familiarity with Frost are surprised to learn that this very
American and very New England poet was born in San Francisco and first achieved
success abroad. Similarly, students also think of Frost as a very pleasant, grandfatherly
figure who celebrated the beauty of nature in poem after poem. But in actually he could
be a bitter and nasty competitor towards those he considered poetic rivals, and his view of
nature is not always positive. As a reading of just a few poems in the text will reveal, his
vision of nature is complex and ambiguous. Contrast The Tuft of Flowers with Desert
Places, for instance. In addition, his poems are not as simple to understand as many
expect them to be nor are they as cheerful. His poems often express loneliness and a
sense of alienation.
Why then was Frost such a popular poet among the general public? For one
thing, he marketed himself towards both a critical and popular audience. He did this,
however, without compromising the integrity of his verse. After all, his poetic theory
called for a use of familiar subjects, an accessible language, and an apparent simplicity of
thought. But Frost did not let his poetry sell itself. He gained sympathy by promoting
himself as an underdog, a literary exile unappreciated at home. He also developed an
image of congeniality and modesty, and he refused to read his bleaker poems in public.
In short, Frost managed his poetic career, which included his image, very carefully and
strategically.

Robert Frost: Poems (p. 874)

Rather than respond to the questions in the text, I thought I would offer some additional
approaches to the poems and class discussion.

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The Tuft of Flowers (p. 874)

The poem moves from pessimism to optimism, from bleak recognition of aloneness to
cheerful recognition of togetherness. Ask students to chart the poems course. What has
brought the speaker to feel so sad? Where is his sadness most deep? What is the agent of
change? What is the purpose of the butterfly? Compare his words in lines 9-10 with
those that conclude the poem. Do you agree with the speakers vision of work? Or, is he
revealing his private yearning to move out of isolation and into a sense of community?

Mending Wall (p. 876)

See Poiriers commentary on the poem (page 898). Most students will grasp the meaning
behind the image of the wall, and the barriers it represents in human interaction. Ask
students to consider the speakers character. Is the speaker teasing his neighbor? Is he
having a joke at his expense? Or does he want to have a joke, but is too timid to bring it
off? (Consider in this context what he would like to say but does not.) Is the speaker
smug? Self-righteous? Or, is he playful and hopeful that one of these springs his
neighbor will open up? Does his neighbor with his succinct expression and somber
nature represent the stereotypical New England farmer? If students have read Eugene
ONeills Desire under the Elms, they might write an essay comparing the neighbor to
Ephraim Cabot. Mending Walls can be interpreted as another poem (with The Tuft of
Flowers and others) about loneliness and reaching out through poetry to master the
depression that comes with the realization of aloneness.

Birches (p. 877)

Birches can be approached from a number of directions: as a poem about Frosts
vision of an artist who in time comes to climb black branches up a snow-white trunk/
Toward heaven; as a poem about a boy triumphing over his father (he subdues the
fathers trees); as a poem about finding comfort from loneliness in nature; as a nostalgic
poem about boyhood Lawrance Thompson said Frost wrote the poem during a spell of
homesickness, 1913-14, when he and his family were living in England. Compare for
content and tone line 43, when Im weary of considerations, with line 14 of
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, But I have promises to keep. How is
swinging on birches an effective image of freedom? Why does Frost italicize Toward in
line 56.

Home Burial (p. 879)

Many of Frosts poems are about being alone. Despite being married, how are the
husband and wife alone in Home Burial? What event has occurred that so affected the
marriage? Why is Amy so angry at her husband? Does she fail to understand her

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husbands response to their childs death? Was he so callously indifferent as she seems to
think?
What arrangement does the husband propose in line 50? Why does he dislike the
proposal? What does it reveal about his feelings for his wife? What does the husband
mean when he says in lines 49-50 that A man must partly give up being a man/ With
women-folk?" What is the husband's fear at the end of the poem? Is he afraid of her
leaving him? Committing suicide? Is she beginning to come to terms with her childs
death and her husbands response to it? Are you hopeful for this couple?
You might construct an interesting discussion around Frank Lentricchias
comment in Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscapes of Self:
Perhaps the last clue to his wifes problem in Home Burial is in the macabre
play of the title itself which suggests a triple home burial. This is a poem not only
about the burial of a first-born, but also about the burial of a relationship; it is a
poem about the way a woman buries herself a little bit every day in the domestic
setting as if smothered she says, I must get air.
What is the reason for her need for air? Does this poem demonstrate how men and
women cope with tragedy differently, especially the loss of a child?

After Apple-Picking (p. 883)

Describe the speaker. Is he merely physically exhausted? Consider the references to
winter and sleep. What does he mean when he writes in line 38, whatever sleep it is?
Is this poem a description of apple-picking or the speakers meditation on life? At what
point does the poem seem to become more meditative rather than descriptive?

Putting in the Seed (p. 884)

Whom is the speaker in this poem addressing? What does he mean when he defines
himself in line 9 as a Slave to a springtime passion for the earth? In line 10, what does
Frost suggest by capitalizing Love and Putting in the Seed? Compare the poem to
The Tuft of Flowers. How are they poems about the loving relationship between
people and nature, with each helping to sustain and breath new life into the other?
Consider the poems closing image of the seedling with arched body shouldering its
way upward. Compare Putting in the Seed with William Carlos Williamss Spring
and All.

Two Look at Two (p. 884)

This poem relates a magical moment for two lovers. As they descend a hill, aware of
natures dangers (lines 5-6) and wonders (11-12), they decide to rest for the night. They
espy a doe across a wall, who perhaps senses their gentleness so is unafraid (20). A

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buck appears and seems not only unafraid, but confident and outgoing as well (32-34).
The couple, transfixed, almost extends a proffering hand (36), but the buck walked off.
The last lines indicate in one of Frosts most delicate passages that something mystical
has occurred, a communion with the natural world (40-43). A wave of love seems to
have washed over them as nature returns their appreciation, respect, and love. The poem
does not seem sentimental because Frost sets up the couples wonder, their love, and the
separation of the two worlds of human and animal there is a physical barrier between
the couple and the deer.
Compare this poem with other poems of Frost (The Tuft of Flowers, Putting in
the Seed, The Most of It) that celebrate the reciprocally giving relationship of people
and nature. How does this poem differ from the others in intensity? Frank Lentricchia
says that Two of Us embodies one of the supreme moments of wonder in American
literature.

Fire and Ice (p. 886)

The first line refers to those who accept the Biblical prophecy that the world will end in
holocaust, and the second line refers to those who accept what some scientists predict
about the world ending when the sun burns out. The poem derives its humor from
understatement, and the final rhyme ends the poem with a click, underscoring the
absurdity of the argument.
Describe the speaker in the poem. How does he call to mind the speaker of
Mending Wall? How is he similar to the neighbor in the same poem?

Acquainted with the Night (p. 887)

The sonnet is written in terza rima with its interlocking rhymes linking the stanzas.
Robert Pack suggests Frosts indebtedness to Dante here extends beyond form:
Frost is in his own circle of hell locked into an obsessive I of selfconsciousness. The poem returns at the end to the line with which it begins, for
there seems to be no way out of this circle. The city light, and later the moon,
the luminary clock, paradoxically illuminate only this essential darkness, this
absence of meaningful self identity.
(Frosts Enigmatical Reserve: The Poet as Teacher and Preacher,
in Modern Critical Views: Robert Frost)
What effect does the initial repetition in lines 1-5 produce? Is the poem completely
bleak? Is there a sense of pride in the poem? What view of nature is presented in this
poem? Does the vision of nature here recall Cranes A Man Said to the Universe?
included in this manual under May Swensons The Universe. Compare the speaker in
Acquainted with the Night to the speaker in Tree at my Window, or to the narrators
of Gilmans Yellow Wallpaper or Poes The Black Cat.

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Tree at My Window (p. 888)

This is a poem about interior and exterior landscapes, or about human and nonhuman
concerns. We see Frosts duality of vision with regard to nature. On the one hand, the
speaker wants to maintain a dialogue with nature, but on the other hand, natures
concerns are far different from his. Unlike the Romantics from the previous century,
Frost in this poem seems to suggest that nature can only offer a limited response to
human problems. See DiYannis discussion in the text on page 872.

Departmental (p. 889)

This poem is a gentle satire on modern culture, which has created a giant bureaucracy in
which individuals operate as ants, i.e., servants of the bureaucratic cause. The poem
mocks the increasingly bureaucratic tendency to departmentalize life, with the result that
all human functions are provided by the state and all human activity is depersonalized
and dehumanized. Frost seems to deliver a humorous treatment of an idea Emerson
expresses in The American Scholar.
the individual to possess himself, must sometimes return from his own labor to
embrace all the other laborers. But, unfortunately, this original unit, this fountain
of power, has been so minutely subdivided and peddled out, that it spills into
drops, and cannot be gathered. The state of society is one in which the members
have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking
monsters, a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man. Man is
thus metamorphosed into a thing, into many things.
Compare this poem to Audens The Unknown Citizen. What are the specific dangers
of bureaucracy to Emerson, Frost, and Auden? As a writing assignment, ask students to
draw from their own experiences to agree or disagree with the vision of these authors.

Desert Places (p. 890)

This poem, like Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, employs a snow imagery.
However, in Stopping by Woods the snow is alluring and tempts the speaker to rest, but
in Desert Places the snow terrifies the speaker and induces feelings of loneliness, as the
snow mirrors the emptiness of his interior or psychic and emotional landscape. What
effect does the repetition of loneliness and lonely produce in lines 8-10? How does the
emotional intensity of the poem build? Is the final line surprising? Did you expect the
speaker to triumph over the vacant landscape?

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Design (p. 891)

The opening octave of the sonnet describes a scene in nature: a white spider on a white
flower holds a white moth. In the sestet, the speaker asks who created this design. Who
gave these elements their colors? Who brought them all together? The speaker seems to
be suggesting that the design proves the existence of God; however, the concluding two
lines posit choices: either a force of evil brought those elements together (design of
darkness) or maybe just chance (If design ). Another possibility, design of darkness
to appall could refer to the creator and his mysterious ways, which are sometimes
frightful. Design raises questions concerning the existence of evil in the world. How
does the nursery-rhyme iambic rhythm serve as a counterpoint to the scene the speaker
describes? Does it produce a more chilling effect on the reader? Compare Design with
Whitmans A noiseless patient spider. Compare the form of this sonnet with a sonnet
of Shakespeare, Wordsworth or Milton.

Provide, Provide (p. 892)

Ask students to paraphrase the advice the speaker gives. He suggests that rather than end
up like the once beautiful Abishag who now cleans steps, you are better off dying young.
But if you are fated to die late, you should plan to protect yourself from insults and
humiliation with either money (line 10), political power (11), knowledge (13), or loyalty
(14) the latter virtues are to be cultivated only for pragmatic reasons, i.e., as a shield in
old age. Of course, the speaker is being facetious. But how do we know this? Consider
the quick rhythm of the tercets, which suggests that the speaker is not deeply
contemplative, and consider the ironic use of dignified in the final tercet: can it ever be
dignified to buy friendship?
For contrast, you might wish to play the rock anthem by The Who entitled My
Generation, which is full of angst and seriousness: I hope I die before I get old. This
will help students find the humor in Frost. Compare Provide, Provide also with one of
the carpe diem poems in the anthology, e.g. Herricks To the Virgins, to Make Much of
Time or Marvells To His Coy Mistress.

The Most of It (p. 892)

This poem can be effectively read as a companion to Two Look at Two. But in The
Most of It the speaker is alone and looks intentionally at nature for a sign that he is not
really alone. He wants nature to respond to him and fill up his emptiness with a counterlove. One day he is especially hopeful when he hears a splash in the water, but instead
of another human, from the water emerges a great buck, who has no interest in the
speaker and his circumstances. This is the opposite of what happens in Two Look at
Two, where two lovers are surprised and inspired by two deer. The poem is despairing
as nature fails to comfort or even respond to the speakers isolation.

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Connecting the Poems: Questions for Discussion and Assignment

1. For a paper, you might ask students to discuss Frosts use of animals or insects in his
poems. Students can discuss the buck in The Most of It, the horse in Stopping by
Woods, the deer in Two Look at Two, the spider in Design, and the butterfly in
The Tuft of Flowers, among others.
2. Consider how, in several poems, Frost treats the theme of human alienation, the
feeling of not being connected to either another individual, a community, nature, or
ones self. You might discuss Mending Wall, Home Burial, Tree at My
Window, and The Most of It, among others.
3. Create a continuum and chart Frosts poems on an axis with polarities like
optimistic pessimistic, faith doubt, contentment discontentment, sense of
community sense of isolation, nature as source of wisdom and comfort nature
as indifferent, etc.

from The Figure a Poem Makes (p. 894)

This excerpt provides several pithy lines that you can draw from for writing assignments.
For instance, ask students to explain one of the following statements and illustrate with
reference to one of Frosts poems in the text:
[A poem] begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
[A poem] ends in a clarification of life in a momentary stay against confusion.
For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didnt
know I knew.
The line will have the more charm for not being mechanically straight. [You
might allow students to refer to Robert Herricks Delight in Disorder
when explaining this statement.]
Of course, this assignment can be used for group work instead.

from The Constant Symbol (p. 895)

This passage indicates the importance of sound to Frosts poetry. He describes a sentence
as a sound. The better or more marked writer, he says, is the one who produces the
more striking sentence sounds. He suggests that sound gives the sentence its primary
meaning, that the grammatical sentence is mere accessory to the vital sentence,
which might be defined as the more meaningful, perhaps emotional, part of
communication. Frosts definition of a sentence is a lifting of restraint in that it frees

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writers to draw on the ear as much as their mind for communication. He asserts the
importance of intonation and rising and falling voice patterns.
Additional Topics for Discussion
1. How does Frosts definition of a sentence at once free and encumber writers? Does it
free writers from grammatical and conventional restrictions, but impose a new
challenge?
2. Compare Frosts statements in paragraph six (They are apprehended ) and in the
excerpt from The Unmade Word, Or Fetching and Far-Fetching (page 896) to
Wordsworths Preface to the Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads and Emersons in
The American Scholar:
The principal object, then, proposed in these poems was to choose
incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them,
throughout, as far as possible, in a selection of language really used by
men Accordingly, such a language, arising out of repeated experience
and regular feelings, is a more permanent and a far more philosophical
language than that which is frequently substituted for it by poets The
poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human passions. How, then, can his
language differ in any material degree from that of all other men who feel
vividly and see clearly? The poet must descend from this supposed
height; and, in order to excite rational sympathy, he must express himself
as other men express themselves.
Wordsworth
If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action.
Life is our dictionary. Years are well spent in country labors; in town in
the insight into trades and manufactures; in frank intercourse with many
men and women; in science; in art This is the way to learn grammar.
Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the workyard made.
Emerson
What do Frost, Wordsworth, and Emerson imply about the ordinary man and ordinary
labor? What do they imply about traditional grammar and what might be considered
conventional or artificial, elegant language that belongs to books (The Unmade Word
896).
Also, consider Frosts statement in the last paragraph on page 895: Every poem
is a new metaphor. Challenge students to explain and illustrate this with a reference to a
poem. Depending upon what you have covered thus far, you might explain this statement
by referring to what in the theater is considered subtext.

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On Stopping by Woods William Pritchard (p. 896)

This excerpt is a strong reminder that poetry is, in a large sense, about sound. Pritchard
considers the poems primary achievement to be its use of sound. He quotes Frost to
solidify this point. You might issue students two challenges:
1. Without considering content or meaning, explain the sounds a particular poem
creates.
2. Pritchard says that lines 9-10 are the hardest ones in the poem out of which to
make anything significant. Do you agree? What might it say about the speaker that he
notices the bells and considers what the horse thinks?

On Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Richard Poirier

(p. 897)
Basing his reading on the speakers shifting language and the sound it creates, Poirier
convincingly suggests that the speaker contemplates suicide.

On Mending Wall Richard Poirier (p. 898)

Poirier makes a significant comment at the beginning of his discussion: Frost considers
forms a precondition for poetic expression. This belief, like his theory on poetic diction,
connects Frost to Wordsworth, who said that [poetic] meter obeys certain laws, to which
the poet and reader both willingly submit because they are certain, and because no
interference is made by them with the [poems] passion but such as the concurring
testimony of ages has shown to heighten and improve the pleasure which coexists with it
(Preface to Second Edition of the Lyrical Ballads).
Poirier notes that the speaker in Mending Wall initiates the fence-mending. He
continues to say that this suggests that the speaker enjoys the yearly ritual. However, he
does not say why he enjoys this activity. Why do you think the speaker likes mending the
fence with his always laconic neighbor?

Robert Frost: Or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet Yvor Winters

(p. 899)
Winter criticizes Frost sharply. For a possible activity, ask students to break into groups,
summarize Winterss argument, and then, by referring to several poems, support or reject
Winterss conclusions as articulated in the last paragraph.
You might ask another group to consider or you might begin your class by
discussing Winterss comments towards the end of paragraph two (Poetry is the most
difficult ). Is his analogy to the improvising violinist accurate? Do you agree with

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his statement that to appreciate poetry a reader must have intelligence, training, and
patience? Can we understand difficult matters naturally?

Langston Hughes
While his career spanned five decades, Langston Hughes can be identified as a central
figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a movement I explain as an artistic expression of pride
in African heritage and in African-American culture that blossomed between the World
Wars in a number of American cities, not just Harlem. While the artists of the Harlem
Renaissance experimented with literary forms often adapting musical structures to
poetry and blending folk art with high art ideals, for instance their work tends to be
more accessible than many Modernists. However, like most Modernists, these AfricanAmerican authors express disillusionment with America and its promises.
After placing Hughes in the context of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, I read
the following statement by Hughes: I explain and illuminate the Negro condition in
America. This applies to 90 percent of my work. We keep this statement in the
forefront of our discussions on the author.
Hughes often recited his poetry to musical accompaniment. The music was not
just background for the poetry, however. He would tell the musicians to improvise
around what he read, and then he would respond to the music by shifting perhaps his
intonations or the rhythm of the poem (see Nat Hentoff, Langston Hughes: He Found
Poetry in the Blues, Mayfair August 1958). Thus the poet and musicians maintained a
dialogue. I find it helpful to listen to a couple of blues songs before reading Hughess
poetry a piano blues by Otis Spann (such as Worried Life Blues), Champion Jack
Dupree (Door to Door Blues), Ray Charles (How Long), or Memphis Slim (Harlem
Bound). There are many compilations available, like Collectors History of American
Blues (Murray Hill Records) or Blues: Juke Box Hits (United Audio Entertainment). I
have used other blues artists too: B.B. King, Willie Dixon, and Muddy Waters (I Cant
Be Satisfied in connection with The Weary Blues). If I feel especially courageous or
daring, Ill read a couple of poems (surely Trumpet) to the background of something
from Miles Daviss Bitches Brew. A little humor will always rescue me if the effort
proves embarrassing.

Langston Hughes: Poems (p. 905)

As with the poems of Dickinson and Frost, rather than respond to the questions in the
text, I have suggested some additional approaches, questions, and materials for class
discussion.

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Dream Deferred (p. 905)

Dream Deferred is more subtle than many readers realize. Through images, the poem
explains what could happen to those whose dreams have been deferred. Ask students to
consider each image. What are the implications? Why is the last line set apart and
italicized? Is Hughes issuing a warning to white America about what could happen if
African Americans are not permitted to pursue their dreams? Has the poem proven
prophetic in anyway?
The poem can be read in connection with Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun, whose
title comes from the poem.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (p. 906)

1. See Onwuchekwa Jemies commentary on page 929.
2. Consider the tone. The speaker is assured and proud of his African heritage. Hughes
wrote the poem at the age of seventeen. How does it reflect the defiance of a young
man? Ask students to relate the poem of a rap song theyll mention several.
Consider how the use of I, both aurally and visually, establishes tone.
3. Consider the river as symbol. The river represents currents of the speakers heritage
which run through his soul and which he tries to give voice. As he acknowledges and
appreciates the convergence of all these rivers within him, he becomes a deeper, more
complete person.

Mother to Son (p. 906)

1. Consider the folk diction and rhythm of the monologue. What does it suggest about
the speaker?
2. Despite the speakers hardships, the poem is constructed on an image of ascent. What
is the mother trying to communicate to her son through this image? How has she
been able to overcome her burdens? Consider her struggle, her pride and her efforts
to inspire her son. Does the image of ascent and her namelessness add a mythic
dimension to the poem? Is it as if she is addressing all African Americans?

I, Too (p. 907)

1. Hughes expresses his vision of America through a metaphor. Explain the metaphor of
the darker brother who eats in the kitchen.

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2. The poem is constructed on an irony. Hughes sings America, but is his anthem like
The Star Spangled Banner or America, the Beautiful? Is his more a blues or song
of protest?
3. Explain why the speaker says in lines 16-17 that theyll be ashamed. Who
specifically will be ashamed? Why?
4. Consider the indignation, strength, and conviction of the last line. What does it
suggest about the speaker and black America?
5. Compare the poem to Whitmans I Hear America Singing (not in the text):
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
. . .
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else
. . .
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

My People (p. 908)

How do the use of repetition and the arrangement of the six lines into three two-line units
emphasize the quiet pride the speaker has in his people?

The Weary Blues (p. 909)

1. The poem is noteworthy especially for its use of sound to create a blues mood. The
poem becomes the song that inspired it. Consider Hughess use of alliteration, rhyme,
meter, assonance, and repetition.
2. Consider the lyrics of the blues singer. Why cant he be satisfied? Why does he
wish he were dead? How does sleep provide a substitute for this wish?
3. There is an interesting reciprocity in the poem as the speaker communicates for the
singer in poetry, while the singer communicates for the listener in song. Both poem
and song express torment, but both find catharsis in artistic expression. The singer
goes home to a comforting sleep, while the finality and hard stop of the poems
closing line communicate a sense of rest and relief for the speaker. The poem is about
the powers of art to help both creator and audience/participant reach a fuller
understanding of life and self, and, paradoxically, to provide solace when that
understanding reveals pain.

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Young Gals Blues (p. 910)

Morning After (p. 910)
1. You might consider using these poems to illustrate Hughess definition of the blues,
quoted in the introduction on page 902: sad funny songs too sad to be funny and
too funny to be sad, songs that contain laughter and pain, hunger and heartache.
2. Describe the speakers in the poems. Do they seem content with their lives?
3. In Langston Hughes: Poetry, Blues, and Gospel Somewhere to Stand, Steven C.
Tracy writes that the last two lines of Morning After could in fact be a metaphor
for African American blues and gospel: they may seem small and unimposing, but
you should hear them roar. And resound (in Langston Hughes: The Man, His Art,
and His Continuing Influence, ed. C. James Trotman, 1995).

Trumpet Player (p. 911)

Trumpet Player can be read as a work of musical analysis. The speaker considers the
influences on the trumpet player. Why does he play as he does? The response is the
paradox behind much great art, i.e., how can such anguish produce such beauty? Here
the paradox is identified as honey/ Mixed with liquid fire and Trouble/ Mellows to a
golden note.
The musician, for Hughes, chronicles the history of the African American as
surely and effectively as a historian or literary artist. Consider, for instance, the
references to slavery, desire, and alcohol. (The Weary Blues can be approached in a
similar way.)
Ask students to explain what Hughes means when he says that the riff slips/
Its hypodermic needle/ To his soul. Is music a necessity for the player? Must he play?
Is it hypnotic for him?
See James A. Emanuels commentary on page 929.

Dream Boogie (p. 912)

1. Hughes adapts an upbeat jazz rhythm for this poem, but neither the poem nor the bebop beat that inspires the poem is as cheerful as a first listen might suggest You
think/ Its a happy beat? the speaker asks incredulously. Consider the irony of the
rhythm.
2. Consider the bitterness in the reference to white kids in lines 22-26. Why is he
angry toward them?
3. Consider the reference to the Pledge of Allegiance and its juxtaposition to the
recreated be-bop rhythm. What does the juxtaposition suggest about freedom for the
African American? Can it be found in music or art, but not American rhetoric and
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institutions? Does Hughes use the sounds of be-bop at the end to suggest the
hollowness of much of the rhetoric of America for the African American? Is it ironic
that the sound is more truthful and revealing than the words?
4. For an interesting comparison, you might play Jimi Hendrixs instrumental version of
The Star Spangled Banner, available on the Woodstock albums and cds.

Ballad of the Landlord (p. 914)

1. See Richard Barksdales commentary on page 928.
2. Describe the tenant and the landlord. Does the power structure better protect one than
the other? How is this reflected in the whistle, bell, and arrest?
3. Consider the newspaper headlines. Is the first one a distortion? Is the media depicted
as a tool of those in power? Consider the references to the protagonist in the
headline: man, tenant, Negro. Does the very order of the words suggest
increasing victimization and powerlessness while in the hands of the system?
4. What is suggested by the shortness and harsh sounds of lines 28-30?
5. Consider if the poem supports or shatters one of Simples reasons for loving Harlem:
Its so full of Negroes I feel like I got protection. (See page 924.)

Madam and the Rent Man (p. 915)

1. In Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha says her family suffers from acute ghetto-itus. Is
that what the woman suffers from in this poem? What are the symptoms? Who or
what is responsible?
2. How does the last line of the poem demonstrate Hughess pride in the African
Americans ability to survive? How does the language of the woman throughout the
poem reveal that same pride?

When Sue Wears Red (p. 916)

1. Identify the speaker.
2. How would you characterize the rhythm of the poem? What does it reveal about the
speakers feelings for Susanna Jones? How does Hughes establish the quick pace?
Students should note the absence of caesura in the verses.

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3. Which type music would be a musical equivalent of the song? Ask students to
explain their responses. They may not be familiar with the New Orleans jazz of King
Oliver and Louis Armstrong.

Listen Here Blues (p. 917)

1. Identify the speaker and the audience.
2. You might discuss this poem with Bessie Smiths Lost Your Head Blues (page 799).
In addition to playing a recording by Bessie Smith, you might also play Ma Rainey
and Billie Holiday.

Consider Me (p. 917)

1. What exactly does the speaker want us to consider about him?
2. Discuss the tone and the finality and defiance of the closing line.
3. You might read this as an introduction to Theme for English B.

Theme for English B (p. 918)

1. How is the poem about self-identity? Why are many of the details that the speaker
catalogues inadequate at helping him arrive at self-definition?
2. How does the poem destroy stereotypes of the twenty-two year old African-American
male?
3. How does the tone shift as the poem develops? Does the speaker become
increasingly bitter? Consider his final line.
4. Is the speaker similar to Walter Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, who considers himself
all wacked up with bitterness?
5. How would the speaker define America?

Aunt Sues Stories (p. 920)

The poem is about the importance of the oral tradition in African-American culture. The
child listens to the fictions, but realizes that they are all true and finds enlightenment in
his peoples history. He has great respect for his aunt, which reflects the respect he has
for all in his race who have come and struggled before him.
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Consider this poem in light of Jemies statement at the end of the first paragraph
on page 927. Jemie states that the African-American tradition has largely been an oral
tradition, which has inadvertently imposed problems for the black writer. How does this
poem celebrate and try to work within that tradition?

Madrid1937 (p. 920)

The poem was inspired by a news item concerning the Spanish Civil War. Many
American intellectuals supported the republican government against the fascist uprising
led by General Francisco Franco, who had the support of Hitler and Mussolini. The
United States, Great Britain, and France decided to remain neutral. Does Hughes take
sides? How does he reveal his politics? What is the war in Madrid a symbol of? Does
the war reveal anything about human nature or human history? What does he mean by
put out the lights and stop the clocks?

Let America Be America Again (p. 922)

The poem is a succinct expression of Hughess ambivalence towards America. He is
hopeful that one day America will fulfill its promise, but he is aware that that promise has
never been available to him or his people. Consider the image of the pioneer on the
plain. Why for Hughes is the pioneer the image of an ideal American? How does the line
within parentheses qualify the hope?

Im Still Here (p. 923)

The poem is a statement of pride in survival. Consider the poem with The Negro
Speaks of Rivers, Mother to Son, Aunt Sues Stories, and any poem in which a
central theme is survival.
Connecting the Poems: Questions for Discussion and Assignment
1. After reading a Langston Hughes poem, Ezra Pound wrote to Hughes: Thank God;
at last I come across a poem I can understand (qtd. in Nat Hentoff). In the
introduction to Hughes in the text, DiYanni quotes the poet: Poetry should be direct,
comprehensible, and the epitome of simplicity (903). Arnold Rampersad writes that
Hughes wished to write no verse that was beyond the ability of the masses of people
to understand (926). How are these statements reflected in Hughess poems? Does
Hughess poetics limit him as a poet? Are his poems simplistic in style and theme as
a result? Or are they in some way energized, specific, and very meaningful? In a
sense, can they be simple but not simplistic?

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2. Consider the final line in several of Hughess poems. Do they seem especially
dramatic? Compare them to other last lines from poems in the text.
3. Based on the poems in the text, how would you define Hughess vision of America?
How can it be said that Hughes is engaged in a continuous dialogue with the
principles of the founding fathers?

A Toast to Harlem (p. 924)

Hughes developed the Simple character during his more than twenty years as a columnist
for the African-American weekly Chicago Defender. With his first appearance in 1943,
Jesse B. Semple or Simple achieved popularity. Simple can be defined as a black urban
Everyman shrewd, aware, cynical, and funny, but with a piercing sense of humor.
Hughes issued five collections of stories based on his Simple columns. As a mouthpiece
for Hughes, Simple is paired with another black man, who serves as his straightman.
This character (the narrator) speaks in a more standard English and is more trusting of
America and optimistic about the future for African Americans. Simple usually exposes
the narrators naivet.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why does Simple like Harlem so much? What do his reasons imply about America?
2. How does Simple claim ownership of Harlem?
3. Why does Simple call himself a colored Indian? Does this imply that the situations
of Indians and African Americans are similar? How so?
4. How does Hughes develop humor in a rather bitter story?

I Remember the Blues (p. 925)

1.

The essay explains why the blues had such an impact on Hughess work and, in a
larger sense, the African-American culture. The essay reminds me of a passage from
August Wilsons Ma Raineys Black Bottom (1984), in which blues singer Ma Rainey
says, White folks dont understand about the blues. They hear it come out, but they
dont know how it got there. They dont understand thats lifes way of talking. You
dont sing to feel better. You sing cause thats a way of understanding life.

2. While Hughes may have believed he was reporting the truth, his description of Bessie
Smiths death is inaccurate. On the night of September 25, 1937 Smith was a
passenger in a car that hit a stationary truck in Mississippi. The impact tore the roof
off the car and turned it over. The driver of the truck called for an ambulance. Dr.
Hugh Smith, a surgeon from Memphis, came upon the scene and administered aid to

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Smith. He and his companion put Smith in the back seat of his car to take her to the
hospital. Before they could leave, his car was rammed from behind. Two
ambulances then arrived. One took Smith to the African-American Hospital where
she was operated on, but she could not be saved.

Langston Hughes as Folk Poet Arnold Rampersad (p. 926)

This is a good introduction to Hughess poetics. Rampersad explains the conscious
directness of Hughess poems as the poets desire to be accessible, which does not
diminish the integrity of his verse. Importantly, Rampersad emphasizes that for Hughes
poetry was a sacred commitment.
Consider the final paragraph of the excerpt, specifically Hughess definition of
poetry and his call for poets to hang themselves with their own words. Ask your class
to explain his definition and statement.

Hughes and the Evolution of Consciousness in Black Poetry

Onwuchekwa Jemie (p. 927)
Consider how Hughes attempts to solve the dilemma of the black artist. That is, how
does he unite the oral folk tradition of African Americans with American written
traditions? Consider some of his poems which involve what Jemie calls a media
transfer.

On Hughess Ballad of the Landlord Richard K. Barksdale

(p. 928)
Barksdale discusses how reactions to the poem have changed. When it was first
published in 1940, Ballad of the Landlord was considered innocuous, a depiction of a
highly probable incident in American urban life. In the1960s, a Boston teacher was
fired when he assigned the poem to his class. By then, the poem was considered to have
the power to incite rebellion. Ask students how much and what kind of power they
assign the poem today.

On The Negro Speaks of Rivers Onwuchekwa Jemie (p. 929)

Jemie provides a succinct interpretation of the poem focusing on the river imagery and its
relationship with black culture and history.

On Trumpet Player James A. Emanuel (p. 929)

This essay offers a brief discussion of the influence of jazz trends on Hughess work.

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Chapter Thirteen

A Collection of Poems
This chapter offers a wide selection of poems. I have commented very briefly on them,
offering a suggestion or two, or perhaps a couple of questions that might help to
supplement your ideas.

Classics
Barbara Allan Anonymous (p. 932)
The word ballad derives from the Latin ballare, meaning to dance. This might account
for the ballads pronounced rhythms. Folk ballads like Barbara Allan or Edward,
Edward were transmitted orally, were of anonymous authorship, and were later printed
as broadsides. The most common ballad stanza is a quatrain of alternating iambic
tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme is usually abcb, and a refrain is also
common. The ballad moves towards a single climactic moment, and includes very little
exposition. The listener is asked to draw inferences. The story lines of ballads are
always dramatic, if not melodramatic, and frequently melancholic and haunting. In The
Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English Speaking World, Albert B. Friedman notes that
ballads are often made of the same stuff of tabloid journalism, sensational tales of lust,
revenge, and domestic crime.
1. Is Barbara Allan cruel? What happened when Sir John Graeme was in the tavern
drinking? Were the two social equals? What does Barbara do at the conclusion of the
ballad?
2. Discuss how Emily Dickinson adapts the ballad form. How does she borrow and
deviate from its conventions?
3. Discuss Keatss use of the ballad form in La Belle Dans sans Merci. Is his use of
the form more traditional than Dickinsons?
4. Ask students to discuss in a paper or presentation a song that they would consider a
ballad.

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Edward, Edward Anonymous (p. 933)

1. What was Edwards crime? Why does he curse his mother at ballads end? Does the
word counsels suggest incest?
2. What effect does the repetition have on the tone and the meaning of the ballad?
3. For either Barbara Allan or Edward, Edward, explain what you consider the
background of the story to be. Discuss the characters motives.

William Blake
The Clod & the Pebble (p. 935)
The Lamb (p. 935)
The Tyger (p. 936)
The Garden of Love (p. 936)
See the discussion of Blakes Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in this manual
under Responses in Chapter Ten, page 172. All the above poems appear in Experience,
except The Lamb from Innocence.
1. The Clod & The Pebble might be said to represent a summation of the discourse
presented in Innocence and Experience. How is this the case? Paraphrase the
dialogue.
2. What is the tone of The Clod & the Pebble? Does the speaker serve as a kind of
reporter?
3. Who is the speaker in The Lamb?
4. Describe the setting for the The Lamb. Does the poem suggest the 23rd psalm?
5. What is the speakers attitude towards the tiger in The Tyger? Does the tiger arouse
fear, wonder, awe, or reverence?
6. Why is the speaker confused about the creator of the tiger? Compare to Frosts
Design.
7. You might find it interesting to cover several wildlife poems along with The Lamb
and The Tyger. There are many in the volume, including Frosts Two Look at
Two, Whitmans A noiseless patient spider, Dickinsons A narrow Fellow in the
Grass, Tennysons The Eagle, Lawrences Snake, among others. Several such
poems will illustrate the various ways animals can be used for metaphorical or
thematic purposes.

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8. What criticism of organized religion does the speaker make in The Garden of
Love? What might this Garden represent? What is symbolic about the death
imagery in the closing stanza?
9. Consider Blakes Art and the Imagination in Chapter Twenty-five. How could
some of Blakes poetic subjects be interpreted differently?

To My Dear and Loving Husband Anne Bradstreet (p. 937)

Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan poet. She was careful in her poetry not to express her love
for her husband in such a way as to make that earthly love seem supreme to love for God.
Consider the extravagant praise in the first nine lines. How do the last three lines keep
that deep love from overwhelming her and her husbands love for and faith in God?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (p. 937)
1. Describe the speaker.
2. Compare to Dickinsons Wild Nights Wild Nights, Bradstreets To My Dear and
Loving Husband, and Donnes Song (Go and catch a falling star).

A Red, Red Rose Robert Burns (p. 938)

1. Identify the figures of speech in the poem, and characterize the rhythm.
2. Does the speaker seem sincere to you? Why or why not? Consider Richard Wilburs
interpretation:
[The speaker] forsakes the lady to glory in Love itself, and does not really return.
We are dealing, in other words, with romantic love, in which the beloved is a
means to high emotion, and physical separation can serve as a stimulant to ideal
passion.
3. You might consider Shakespeares My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun as a
response to poems like this.

There Is a Garden in Her Face Thomas Campion (p. 938)

1. The speaker seems stirred to rapture by the woman. Discuss the sensuousness of the
imagery.

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2. Consider how Campion creates character. What words convey his respect and
admiration for the woman?
3. As with A Red, Red Rose, you might consider Shakespeares My mistress eyes
are nothing like the sun as a response to poems like this.

Jabberwocky Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (p. 939)

Consider the following exchange from Carrolls Through the Looking Glass:
When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, it
means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less.
The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so
many different things.
The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be master thats
all.
Humpty Dumpty explicates the poem in Chapter VI of Through the Looking Glass. You
might want to consider his definitions when you read the Jabberwocky in class.
Students will know exactly what Humpty means when he says, I can explain all the
poems that ever were invented and a good many that havent been invented just yet.
1. Did you enjoy the poem? Why or why not? If you cannot understand the poem, how
can you enjoy it?
2. What do Jabberwocky and Humpty teach us about language?

Kubla Khan Samuel Taylor Coleridge (p. 940)

Coleridge and Wordsworth issued the Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Coleridge tells us in his
fourteenth chapter of his Biographia Literaria (1817) that the two agreed that
Wordsworth would present ordinary people and circumstances imaginatively, while
Coleridge would lend supernatural, or at least romantic characters human interest and
a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing
suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.
The story surrounding Kubla Khan is almost as famous as the poem itself.
Addicted to laudanum, or liquefied opium, from an early age on, Coleridge awoke from
an opium dream and began to jot down the vision he had just experienced.
Unfortunately, he was interrupted while writing, and when he returned to the poem, he
could only remember a few more lines. Several hundred, he said, had come to him in the
dream.
1. Kubla Khan has been interpreted variously: some compare it to Carrolls
Jabberwocky believing that Coleridge presents an experience with no metaphorical

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or thematic implication; some see the poem as an allegory of human existence and
Alph as the River of Life; others associate the pleasure dome with Elysian Fields
(Paradise to the ancient Greeks); and others see the poem metapoetically, with its
main concern being poetic inspiration; still others believe the poem introduces and
then reconciles opposites (Alphs savage chasm is balanced by Xanadu.) Ask
students to argue for or against these interpretations.
2. Discuss the relationship between the first and second (starting with line 37) parts of
the poem.
3. With Kubla Khan, you might consider Platos Poetry and Inspiration in Chapter
Twenty-five.

John Donne
Song (p. 941)
The Canonization (p. 942)
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning (p. 943)
The Flea (p. 945)
Death, be not proud (p. 945)
Batter my heart, three-personed God (p. 946)
Donne presents problems for the beginning literature student. They find him sometimes
overwhelmingly complex, and they struggle often unsuccessfully with attempts to
paraphrase his poems. I am successful presenting Donne if I remember the following:
Take time to review his syntax. Students are confused by Donnes arrangement
of words. Rearranging the order of words in lines 5-6 in Death, be not proud will
clarify the image for students. Even moving in us before we in line 22 of The
Canonization lessens student intimidation of Donne.
Consider the drama in Donne. His poems often employ emotionally charged
speakers. See the Canonization, Death, be not proud, or Batter my heart, threepersoned God. But spend time characterizing the speakers in the other poems as well. It
will help enhance clarity and appreciation for students.
Point out the humor in Donne, particularly in The Flee and Song.
The imagery is confusing. Donne uses metaphysical conceits, extended
metaphors which link two apparently unrelated subjects in a surprising combination.
Consider the Stiff twin compasses (line 26 ff.) in Valediction, the flea and the flea
bite in The Flea, or the comparisons throughout Batter my heart.

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 You can at once comfort and challenge students by assigning Johnsons The
Metaphysical Poets in Chapter Twenty-five. Ask them to paraphrase Johnsons
complaint with the metaphysics (which they might share), and then ask them to defend
Donne from Johnsons charges.

She Walks in Beauty George Gordon, Lord Byron (p. 946)

1. The speaker moves from external to internal considerations, or from outer to inner
beauty. How does he suggest there is a link between the two?
2. What is the poems tone? How does this low-key, quiet awe reflect what he admires
most about her?

Thomas Hardy
The Ruined Maid (p. 947)
Channel Firing (p. 948)
Afterwards (p. 949)
Hardy is often considered a realistic poet, an assessment with which he would disagree:
[art] is a disproportioning i.e., a distorting, throwing out of proportion of realities, to
show more clearly the features that matter in those realities, which if merely copied or
reported inventorily, might possibly be observed but would probably be overlooked.
Hence realism is not Art.
1. How do the Hardy poems in the text demonstrate this theory?
2. In The Ruined Maid, two old friends from the country reunite in London. Melia is
now a well-paid prostitute, who with cheerful irony calls herself ruined. Melias
friend is envious. Is this poem immoral? Does the relative reticence of Melia imply
discontent? Can you compare this to a song that has been, or runs the risk of being,
misinterpreted?
3. Who is the speaker in Channel Firing? Compare him to the speakers in Dickinsons
Because I could not stop for Death and I died for Beauty but was scarce.
Contrast the speakers experiences after death.
4. How is God portrayed in Channel Firing? What does this characterization
contribute to the meaning of the poem?
5. Why does Hardy reference Stourton Tower, Camelot, and Stonehenge, all places that
experienced conquer and have since vanished?

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6. Compare Channel Firing with Shelleys Ozymandias or war poems such as

Reeds Naming of Parts, Jarrells The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, and
Yeatss An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.
7. Explain the title of Afterwards. What is the speaker contemplating? Is he
reviewing his life? What is the tone? Has he been content with his life?

George Herbert
The Altar (p. 950)
The Pulley (p. 950)
Herbert is in the metaphysical tradition of John Donne. Like Donne, he delights in
intricately woven conceits. Deeply religious, Herbert has been called a Eucharistic poet,
as the aim of much of his work is a call to or celebration of Communion.
1. What is the central metaphor in The Altar? What is the central purpose of the
altar in the poem?
2. Discuss how the typographical shape of the poem relates to lines 13-14.
3. Discuss the double meaning of rest (as remainder and repose) throughout The
Pulley.
4. Consider the image of the pulley. How does this seesaw-like image suggest that we
can be drawn to God one way or another? The last stanza seems to clarify the image.

Robert Herrick
Upon Julias Clothes (p. 951)
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time (p. 951)
1. What is the tone of the poem?
2. What purpose does the repetition of then serve in line 2?
3. What does Herrick capture with brave vibration
4. Students may be interested in hearing that To the Virgins was probably the most
popular poem in the latter half of the 17th century. Ask them to consider why they
think this poem had such popular appeal.

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5. Consider how Herrick creates a swift rhythm: the short lines, short words, lack of
caesura, rhyme scheme. How does the rhythm reflect the theme?
6. Compare this to another carpe diem poem, like Marvells To His Coy Mistress.
How is Herricks poem different? How is it less sexual, despite its imagery of
rosebuds and marriage? Is Herricks poem more of a call for engagement in life
than sex?

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gods Grandeur (p. 952)
The Windhover (p. 952)
Pied Beauty (p. 953)
Spring and Fall: to a Young Child (p. 953)
1. In Gods Grandeur, what is Hopkinss complaint in the octave? In the sestet,
however, he finds hope. Where or how?
2. How does the dedication of The Windhover (To Christ our Lord) contribute to an
interpretation of the poem? Is the falcon a symbol of Christ? If so, what specifically
about Christ does this poem celebrate?
3. A key word in The Windhover is Buckle! What does it suggest? Does it suggest
the speakers desire to join with Christ? Does it refer to the hawks buckling as it
dives? Certainly, Buckle! suggests glory; note the poems closing images of an old
plough which shines as it works, or an inner fire that burns to the surface in fading
embers.
4. What does the speaker celebrate in Pied Beauty? How does the poem implicitly
define beauty?
5. Who is the speaker in Spring and Fall: to a Young Child. Why is the child sad?
Discuss the speakers tone of gentle consolation and mild reproach. What does the
speaker mean by blight in the last couplet? Can it be related to the Fall of the
title? Might it represent original sin, the fall from grace, the blight of failure,
weakness or death?
6. Ask students individually or in groups to consider the poetics of one of the above
poems. They could discuss Hopkinss use of alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm,
parallelism, compactness of expression, repetition, imagery, etc.

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A. E. Housman
When I was one-and-twenty (p. 954)
To an Athlete Dying Young (p. 954)
1. What exactly is the advice that the wise man gives in each of the stanzas in When I
was one-and-twenty? How does the attitude of the speaker change toward the
advice? Why does his attitude change? What is the tone of the poem?
2. How might we characterize the speaker of To an Athlete Dying Young? Why does
he say the young lad was smart to die young? What is the tone of the poem? Is the
speaker rationalizing so as to come to terms with his grief?
3. Discuss the implication of the threshold imagery in lines 7, 22, 23.
4. Explain the implication of line 20: And the name died before the man. Students
might write an essay or explain the line by discussing an athlete who illustrates its
converse.

The soote season Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (p. 955)

1. The first three quatrains of this sonnet celebrate the summer. What does the speaker
celebrate about the summer?
2. In the concluding couplet, the sonnets focus shifts inward to the speaker. How is he
out of harmony with the season? Consider the pun on spring.
3. You might discuss The soote season along with Dickinsons I dreaded that first
Robin, so.

Ben Jonson
On My First Son (p. 956)
Song: To Celia (p. 956)
In both poems, note the balance and control. Jonsons poetry is sophisticated and
seemingly simple in its directness.
1. Where might the speaker be in On My First Son? Has he come to terms with the
his sons death?

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2. Like in the final line has a double meaning: to be fond of, of course, but also more
archaically, to thrive, do well, get on. How does the archaic sense of the word
contribute to an understanding of the speaker and his grief?
3. Note in Song: To Celia that pledge (line 2) means to drink a toast, and I would
not change for thine (8) could be paraphrased as I would not take it in exchange for
yours.
4. Is the speakers declaration of love for Celia convincing? When do you become
suspicious of him? Compare the speaker here with the speaker in Donnes The Flea
and Marvells To His Coy Mistress.

John Keats
When I have fears (p. 957)
La Belle Dame sans Merci (p. 957)
The Eve of St. Agnes (p. 959)
Ode on a Grecian Urn (p. 969)
Ode to a Nightingale (p. 970)
1. In When I have fears, the speaker expresses a fear of death. But why does he fear
death? He, of course, fears death because it will end his writing and his loving. What
qualities, according to the speaker, do writing and love share?
2. Compare Keatss sonnet with Shakespeares When in disgrace with fortune and
mens eyes and Miltons When I consider how my light is spent?
3. Discuss the features of the ballad form found in La Belle Dame sans Merci.
4. The Romantic poets had a fascination with the Gothic. What is Gothic about La
Belle Dame sans Merci and The Eve of St. Agnes?
5. The Eve of St. Agnes was inspired by Fanny Brawne, Keatss fiance, and develops
an old wives tale that young woman could dream of their true love on the eve of St.
Agnes Day (January 21) as long as they obey certain rituals and customs.
6. Ask students to summarize the story of The Eve of St. Agnes. (Madeline retires to
bed and hopes that St. Agnes will grant her a vision of her future lover. Porphyro, an
enemy of her family, sneaks into her chamber with the help of an aged servant. When
Madeline awakes she is surprised to find that Porphyro has prepared an elaborate
banquet. They make love and flee into the storm.)
7. Critics have often written of the perfection of form of St. Agnes and of Keatss
ability to construct a whole from magnificent parts and achieve an overall

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masterpiece of sensuous aestheticism. There are many devices and techniques that
can be explored: the Spenserian stanza (eight ten-syllable lines and one ninth line of
twelve syllables called an Alexandrine line) with its interwoven rhyme scheme, the
use of contrasts, alliteration, and the sumptuous imagery and its appeal to the readers
senses. Almost any stanza will be useful for a close analysis of technique. I would
recommend one of the following stanzas: #1, 7, 28, 31, 37.
8. Ask students to describe the scenes depicted on the urn in Ode on a Grecian Urn.
How does the speaker react to the scenes on the urn? Does the speakers attitude
towards the urn and its scenes change?
9. What does the urn teach us? Paraphrase the odes final two lines.
10. Do you think Ode on a Grecian Urn influenced Dickinsons I died for Beauty
but was scarce? How so?
11. See Keatss letter, The Authenticity of the Imagination, in Chapter Twenty-five.
Compare his observations on truth and beauty in the letter with those in Ode on a
Grecian Urn.
12. What exactly does the speaker yearn for in Ode to a Nightingale? Does he want to
escape reality completely? Does he place any value on the real world, or does he
long only for a fantasy world?
13. For a writing assignment, you might ask students to read the Book of Ruth and
discuss Keatss use of it in stanza seven. The Bible emphasizes Ruths loyalty and
Keats her sadness.
14. To lighten the mood a bit, try reading Nerudas Ode to My Socks after the Keatsian
odes.

To His Coy Mistress Andrew Marvell (p. 972)

1. Ask students to paraphrase the poem. Their paraphrases may begin with the first
works in each of the three stanzas: Had But Now therefore
2. Discuss the extensive use of hyperbole in stanza one.
3. What does the speaker mean by vegetable love? How fast do vegetables grow?
How long would a vegetable take to grow into an empire?
4. What does he mean by Times winged chariot hurrying near? How does this
introduce a sense of urgency to the speakers argument?

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5. Some of the imagery in the second stanza is grotesque. Why would the speaker use
such images when talking to an especially coy young woman?
6. Similarly, in stanza three, the speaker employs violent images. Why? How can we
determine that the ball in line 42 is a cannonball?

John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent (p. 974)
On the Late Massacre in Piedmont (p. 974)
1. Review the parable of the talents, Matthew 25: 14-30, when discussing When I
consider How does knowledge of this parable affect the speaker? What is the
speakers one talent?
2. Discuss the form of the sonnet. How is the sestet a response to the octave? What
realization does the speaker come to?
3. What is the tone of On the Late Massacre? How does the tone differ from the tone
in more traditional prayers? What does the speaker want God to do in response to the
deaths?
4. What words and phrases does Milton use to establish and maintain sympathy for the
Waldensians?
5. The enjambment in On the Late Massacre is especially effective. What effect does
it create?
6. Compare this prayer with Donnes Batter my heart, three-personed God?

A Litany in Time of Plague Thomas Nashe (p. 975)

1. Describe the speaker. What is his situation? What is his tone? What is he telling the
survivors? Is he prepared for death?
2. What effect does the repetition produce?

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Edgar Allan Poe

To Helen (p. 976)
The Raven (p. 977)
1. What do each of the classical references (Nicean barks, hyacinth hair, Naiad airs,
Psyche) add to the characterization of Helen? How do these pagan references relate
to the final line?
2. Direct students to Guy Davenports discussion of To Helen in his essay The
Geography of the Imagination, the title essay in Davenports collection.
3. Compare Poes celebration of a woman with Byrons in She walks in beauty.
4. Consider the mood of the speaker. Describe his psychological and emotional state as
the poem begins. Follow his mood swings, which range from mournfulness, fear,
calmness, jocularity, and despair.
5. Consider Edward H. Davidsons statement that The Raven is a demonstration not
only that a mind can go mad under the influence of a non-rational external agency,
but it can also watch itself in the very process of going mad.
6. Poe discusses The Raven in his Philosophy of Composition. In the essay, Poe
says that the student because of his melancholy state, reads more into the bird than
there is, and he reveals the human thirst for self-torture and the luxury of
sorrow. The raven, he continues, becomes emblematical of Mournful and neverending Remembrance Poe cites lines 109-10 here.
7. Poe was always concerned with using unique forms. The Raven is composed of
eighteen six-line stanzas with unusual metrical variations. The lines are trochaic, and
lines 1, 3, 5, of each stanza are octameter acatalectic, lines 2 and 4 are heptameter
catalectic, and line 6 is tetrameter catalectic. Students will no doubt be more
comfortable discussing Poes use of alliteration, rhyme, repetition, and parallelism.
8. In your discussion of Poe, direct students to Daniel Hoffmans discussion of The
Raven in Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe.

from An Essay on Man Alexander Pope (p. 980)

1. How does Pope view humankind in this brief selection? How does the structure of
his poem reflect his view?
2. You might use this selection to define and illustrate the heroic couplet.

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William Shakespeare
When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes (p. 980)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds (p. 981)
Th expense of spirit in a waste of shame (p. 981)
My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun (p. 982)
1. Ask students to paraphrase any of the above sonnets.
2. Discuss the tonal shift of When in disgrace Where and why does the tone shift?
3. What does the speaker claim in Let me not to the marriage ? How does he
convey his certainty?
4. The speaker argues against lust in Th expense of spirit What is the tone of the
sonnet? Is his argument convincing?
5. Does the speaker love his mistress in My mistress eyes ? Or is he attacking her
inadequacies? The couplet indicates that the sonnet can be read as a satire. What is
the target of the poems satire? To illustrate the satire, you can compare this sonnet to
Shall I compare thee to a summers day, Burnss A Red, Red Rose, and
Campions There Is a Garden in Her Face.
6. Describe Shakespeares technique in one of the sonnets. The following questions
may help to direct students: What is the rhyme scheme? How would you
characterize his diction? What sound devices does Shakespeare employ?
alliteration? assonance? Define the rhythmic pattern. How does he make use of
metaphor and simile? Consider the tone.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ozymandias (p. 982)
Ode to the West Wind (p. 983)
1. Identify the speaker of Ozymandias. How far removed is he from Ozymandias?
2. Describe Ozymandias. What kind of king do you think he was?
3. What is ironic about his words? What does Shelley imply through the irony?
4. Compare Ozymandias with Shakespeares Shall I compare thee to a summers
day. Do the poems agree or disagree concerning the nature of decay and the ability
of words to survive?

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5. In 1818 Shelley wrote about Ode to the West Wind: This poem was conceived
and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the Arno, near Florence. And on a day when
that tempestuous wind, whose temperature is at once mild and animating, was
collecting vapours which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at
sunset with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent thunder
and lightening peculiar to the Cisalpine regions.
6. Ask students to summarize each section and discuss the form. Students might not
immediately notice that each section forms a sonnet. The first three sections describe
the effects of autumn on the landscape; the fourth section contrasts the speakers
situation with those of the natural elements; in the final section the speaker calls on
the West Wind to inspire him and bring him and his poetry to a new birth.
7. Describe the speaker. What is his tone? Some have regarded his mystical reverence
for the West Wind as paganistic. Do you agree? Why might critics think this? How is
he a more extreme version of the speaker in Wordsworths The World is too much
with us? Is the paganism here similar to that of Stevens in Sunday Morning?
8. Is the poem merely a description of the speakers encounter with a strong wind? Or is
the wind a powerful and symbolic agent of regeneration, a kind of strong breath?
9. Consider Shelleys Poets and Language in Chapter Twenty-five. Do the speakers in
Ode to the West Wind or Ozymandias fit his own description of the poet?
10. Following Ode to the West Wind, you might read Nerudas Ode to My Socks for
some humor.

One day I wrote her name upon the strand Edmund Spenser
(p. 985)
1. What is the setting of the poem? What, according to the woman, does the speaker try
in vain to accomplish? What is his response to her?
2. Identify the form of the sonnet Italian or English?
3. Compare to Shakespeares Shall I compare thee to a summers day.

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Ulysses (p. 986)
The Eagle (p. 988)
Under Queen Victoria, Tennyson was Poet Laureate of England for more than forty years.
He has been referred to as a great rhythmic teacher or as a prophet of a Spiritual
Universe, who, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti suggested, tried to appeal to the general reader
by remaining within the realm of the public.
1. Write a character sketch of Ulysses. What way of life does he represent? How does
his way of life contrast with his sons? Will Telemachus make a good governor of
Ithaca? What does Ulysses mean when he says, I am a part of all that I have met?
2. How does the tone change from stanza to stanza? Does the voice of Ulysses grow
more powerful as the poem progresses? Why is that?
3. Consider Ulysses as a dramatic monologue. Whom is he addressing? Asks
students to write an essay, a newspaper column, or a letter in which they respond to
Ulysses.
4. Consider Ulysses with other dramatic monologues in the text, such as those of
Browning.
5. I find The Eagle an excellent selection with which to review poetic techniques such
as personification, metaphor, alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, etc.
6. What is it about the eagle that so fascinates the speaker? How is the speakers
depiction of an eagle different from one in an encyclopedia?
7. The Eagle is a fragment. How can it be argued that the speaker said all he needed
to say? Why is his portrait of the eagle complete?

Walt Whitman
Ones-Self I Sing (p. 988)
A noiseless patient spider (p. 988)
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry (p. 989)
Although he is regarded today as the first major American modern poet, Whitman was
not widely appreciated when he issued the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855. One
review called it a heterogeneous mass of bombast, egotism, vulgarity and nonsense
whose author must be some escaped lunatic, raving in pitiable delirium. Rufus
Griswold, an important editor of the period, called the book a mass of stupid filth.

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Emerson in a famous letter to Whitman disagreed: I find [Leaves of Grass] the most
extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy
in reading it, as great power makes us happy I greet you at the beginning of a great
career.
Whitman offended people with his ruggedness (I sound my barbaric yawp over
the roofs of the world), coarseness (The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than
prayer), narcissus (I celebrate myself I loafe and invite my soul), and nonpoetic
style. Whitman can be credited with freeing poetry from rhyme and set meter: Who
does not tire of rhymes, anyhow and of regularly continued metre? he asked in the
second edition of the 1855 Leaves. As William Carlos Williams wrote, Whitmans socalled free verse was an assault on the very citadel of poetry itself; it constitutes a direct
challenge to all living poets to show cause why they should not do likewise. It is a
challenge that still holds good after a century of vigorous life during which it has been
practically continuously under fire but never defeated.
1. In the first line of Ones-Self I Sing, Whitman claims to celebrate a simple
separate person. But in the lines that follow, does the self seem simple and
separate?
2. Explain the relationship between the two stanzas of A noiseless patient spider.
Consider the rhythm, syntax, and imagery as well as meaning.
3. Summarize each section of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry. How are the sections related
to one another?
4. What images of connectedness appear in Crossing Brooklyn Ferry? Note how I
and you become we.
5. Identify and comment on the time aspect of the poem, that is, now, then, and future.
6. Compare the three poems for thematic similarity.
7. How is Whitman with us (see lines 20-21, 54-55)? Does this recall one of the ideas
behind Shakespeares Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

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William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us (p. 993)
The Solitary Reaper (p. 994)
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 (p. 994)
Lines (p. 995)
1. What is the speakers complaint in The world is too much with us? Is his
complaint still applicable? Why is the human heart a sordid gift? Why would the
speaker rather be a pagan following an outdated religion?
2. Contrast the attitudes of the speakers in The world is too much with us and
Composed upon Westminster Bridge. Where is the speaker in Westminster
Bridge? What time of day is it? Would the images or meaning of the poem be
different if he were there at a different time of day?
3. Most scholars believe Wordsworth wrote The Solitary Reaper after reading the
passage below from Thomas Wilkinsons Tour in Scotland:
Passed a female who was reaping alone: she sung in Erse [Gaelic], as she bended
over her sickle; the sweetest voice I ever heard: her strains were tenderly
melancholy, and felt delicious long after they were heard no more.
Compare and contrast the poem and Wilkinsons passage. Is Wordsworth guilty of
plagiarism?
4. Does the last stanza suggest Wordsworths poetic theory as outlined in Poetry and
Feeling (see Chapter Twenty-five)? In what sense does the maidens song have no
ending?
5. In Lines, the speaker describes how his relationship with nature has changed from
his youth to maturity. Describe the changes by referring to specific images in the
poem.
6. What do the poems enjambed lines and caesuras contribute to the poem? Many
critics suggest that the enjambed lines and the caesuras reflect a mind engaged in the
process of reflection and meditation, a mind in the process of recreating and creating,
of reshaping and shaping.

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They flee from me Thomas Wyatt (p. 999)

1. Consider the form of the poem. Wyatt writes in rhyme royal: seven lines of iambic
pentameter, rhyming ababbcc.
2. The poem is sometimes presented under the title The Lover Showeth How He Is
Forsaken of Such as He Sometimes Enjoyed. How does this change the expectations
of the reader?
3. What is the speakers complaint? Was he in love with the woman in the poem? Or is
his desire for her just erotic?
4. Do you feel sympathy for the speaker?

Moderns
W. H. Auden
The Unknown Citizen (p. 1000)
In Memory of W. B. Yeats (p. 1001)
Funeral Blues (p. 1003)
1. What is the significance of the epitaph in The Unknown Citizen? How does it
reveal the states view of its citizens?
2. Who is the speaker of The Unknown Citizen? How would you describe the kind of
government he works for? Is it so far removed from the United States or England?
3. What made the subject of the poem an ideal citizen? Why is consideration of his
happiness or freedom absurd (see last two lines)?
4. How is Audens view of the citizens life different from the bureaucrats? How can
we determine Audens view?
5. Compare the unknown citizen with Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.
6. For an interesting exercise, one that might give The Unknown Citizen more
immediacy for the students than they might otherwise recognize, I play a couple of
songs from the rock or rap era. I have used songs by The Kinks, Rage against the
Machine, Bob Marley, and Public Enemy. Students have suggested others. I have
asked them to write an essay in which they compare a song of their choice with a
poem in the text.

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7. You will find that students will respond best to In Memory of W. B. Yeats only after
reading a few poems by Yeats. In an introductory course, I de-emphasize the
allusions to Yeatss poems (e.g., Lapis Lazulli lines 68-69, Under Ben Bulben
provides structure for section 3). I concentrate on the poem as elegy.
8. What does Audens speaker say about death? How is his imagery at once
conventional (line 6) and fresh (15)?
9. Explain the following lines: The words of a dead man/ Are modified in the guts of
the living (22-23). Can you illustrate those lines by referring to a poem that has
affected you?
10. Consider section 2. What is Auden saying to Yeats? How are his comments on
poetry both promising (32) and bleak (36)? Are the politics of Auden visible here?
Are Audens politics visible elsewhere in the poem as well?
11. Explain the paradoxical nature of the closing two stanzas of In Memory.
12. Discuss the imagery and the tone of Funeral Blues. How does the cumulative effect
of the images throughout the lyric and the finality of the images in the last stanza
contribute to the tone?

Elizabeth Bishop
Sestina (p. 1004)
One Art (p. 1005)
1. In Voices and Visions: The Poet in America, Helen McNeil suggests that the child is
trapped in the repetition-and-variation of the sestinas rhyme words: house,
grandmother, child, Little Marvel Stove, almanac, and tears. At the end of
the poem, the child draws another inscrutable house. Bishop, whose father died
when she was eight months old, lived for a time in Novia Scotia with her mother and
maternal grandparents. Her mother suffered from mental disorder, and often the
young child would hear her screams of torment. In her essay In the Village, Bishop
tells of sitting in the kitchen during a lull between screams: My grandmother is
sitting in the kitchen stirring potato mash for tomorrows bread and crying into it.
She gives me a spoonful and it tastes wonderful but wrong. In it I think I taste my
grandmothers tears; then I kiss her and taste them on her cheek.
2. What is the emotional undercurrent of Sestina? Is there a mixture of sadness, fear,
and confusion?
3. How would you describe the relationship between the child and grandmother? Does
the kitchen setting of the poem affect your response?

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4. Ask students to determine the form of the sestina, one of the most difficult and
complex of verse forms.
5. What is the tone of One Art? Consider Bishops wit and fancy.
6. Why does the speaker recommend we cultivate the art of losing?
7. How does the last stanza bring the poem to a fitting climax? What is the significance
of (Write it!)?

Gwendolyn Brooks
We Real Cool (p. 1006)
First fight. Then fiddle (p. 1006)
1. We Real Cool focuses on young men, perhaps in their teens. While their posture
seems hard-edged, defiant, and assured, the speakers have little confidence, direction,
and hope for their lives. Brooks helps communicate this by placing We at the end and
not the beginning of the line. The poet explains in the following directions for
reading the poem aloud: The ending WEs in We Real Cool are tiny, wispy, weakly
argumentative Kilroy is here announcements. The boys have no accented sense of
themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance.
2. What kind of sonnet is First fight. Then fiddle? What is its tone?
3. What is the poems theme? Explain the title and the concluding couplet. Is there a
location in the world today, where it might be necessary to fight first and then
fiddle? Was it necessary in America in 1945, after World War II?

My Grandmothers Love Letters Hart Crane (p. 1007)

1. What is the setting of the poem? What is the speakers emotional state? How does he
feel about his grandmother and her letters?
2. Explain the rains gently pitying laughter in the last line.

Incident Countee Cullen (p. 1008)

1. Describe the rhythm of the poem. How does Cullen establish the sing-song rhythm?
Why does he use it in a poem about racism? How does the rhythm set the reader up
for the shock of line 8? Does the readers surprise reflect the speakers experience as
a boy?

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2. Why was this incident a crucial experience in the life of the speaker?
3. Compare the experience of the speaker with that of the narrator in Ellisons Battle
Royal.

E. E. Cummings
anyone lived in a pretty how town (p. 1008)
i thank You God for most this amazing (p. 1009)
1. Summarize anyone lived in a pretty how town. What are the people who live there
like? What do they do? How do they think? Who is anyone? What is the
speakers attitude towards anyone and his fellow residents of the pretty how
town?
2. Compare i thank you God with other prayer poems, such as Donnes Batter my
heart, three-personed God and Miltons On the late Massacre in Piedmont. You
might also consider Hopkinss Pied Beauty and Frosts Design. Or you might
compare the form of this sonnet to other sonnets in the text.
3. E. E. Cummings challenged traditional poetic forms with his unconventional syntax
and word usage. Locate examples in these poems.
4. I have found that students will respond more enthusiastically to Cummings if we
examine the humor in his poems and if I show slides or bring in prints from modernist
movements in art, like the Fauves, Cubists, or Dadaists.

We wear the mask Paul Laurence Dunbar (p. 1010)

How does the rhythm and rhyme mirror the wearing of a forced happy face? The speaker
in the poem is black. Must he be black? Can he represent any oppressed persons who
must wear a mask to survive? If we consider the speakers experience as representative
of all oppressed, does the poem lose some of its force and directness? Does it become a
way for some whites perhaps to diffuse a very specific statement and to perhaps deflect
self-reflection about their own racism?

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T. S. Eliot (p. 1011)

1. How does the quotation from Dante affect the opening mood of the tone?
2. What do we know for certain about J. Alfred Prufrock? What are his fears? What
does his name suggest?
3. What kind of social circle does Prufrock move in? What is suggested by the
repetition of in the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo? What
images seem especially critical of his class?
4. What does Prufrock mean when he says I have measured out my life with coffee
spoons?
5. Explain the last three lines.
6. How is the poem a love song?
7. Do you sympathize with Prufrock? Why or why not?

A Study of Reading Habits Philip Larkin (p. 1015)

By profession, Larkin was a librarian as well as a poet. The speaker in the poem is
obviously not Larkin. The speaker read escapist literature in his youth, and, as he
indicates in stanza one, he especially liked identifying himself with the virtuous hero
capable of defeating villains with powerful punches. As an adolescent in stanza two, he
identified with the dark villain and delighted in reading of his sexual escapades perhaps
Dracula or some other romantic villain. Now as an adult, he escapes no longer into
books, but into alcohol.

D. H. Lawrence
Humming-bird (p. 1015)
Snake (p. 1016)
When I read Shakespeare (p. 1018)
1. How does the speaker feel about the humming-bird? What is it that attracts him about
the bird? Does the closing image of the wrong end of the telescope suggest we
are missing something about the bird?
2. Compare Humming-bird with Dickinsons A Route of Evanescence and
McClatchys Hummingbird.

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3. Discuss the emotional shifts of the speaker in Snake. How is he in conflict with
what he feels and what he has been taught? Identify the voices in [him] (line 25).
Explain what he means by the voice of human education (line 22), which he
ultimately calls accursed (line 64).
4. You may need to explain the reference to Coleridges The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner in line 65 with albatross.
5. In When I read Shakespeare, how does Lawrence at once celebrate the grandeur of
Shakespeares poetry and characters and yet reduce some of his major tragic heroes to
the realm of the ordinary? By making Lear, Hamlet, and the Macbeths seem so
ordinary is he not actually elevating them? Note the diction Lawrence uses in relation
to these characters.

Epilogue Robert Lowell (p. 1019)

1. Epilogue is about artistic struggle. How so? What does Lowell, whose work has
been considered confessional, mean when he says I want to make/ something
imagined, not recalled? What is implied by the question mark after those lines?
2. Does the speaker reach a kind of reconciliation with his struggle by the end of the
poem?

Ars Poetica Archibald MacLeish (p. 1019)

1. MacLeish suggests that poetry is concerned with experience, not with abstract
theorizing or philosophizing. The poem creates experience through symbol and
image. Discuss the images MacLeish uses to communicate his ideas.
2. Compare to Marianne Moores Poetry.

The Tropics in New York Claude McKay (p. 1020)

1. Define the difference in tone in stanzas one and two with stanza three. What caused
the change? Does the speakers sadness seem deeper and more striking because of
the contrast?
2. McKay was a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. You might wish to
discuss this poem with some of Langston Hughess urban poems.

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Poetry Marianne Moore (p. 1021)

1. What does Moore mean when she says she dislikes poetry? Does she dislike all
poetry? What kind of poetry does she like? In an interview, Moore told Donald Hall
that her first stanza attacked poetry that was trivial, insolent or partly true.
2. Explain the paradox in line 24. Her assertion that poetry must present imaginary
gardens with real toads in them suggests paradoxical comments on art by Picasso,
Tennessee Williams, and Joseph Campbell. Picasso believed that art is a lie that tells
the truth. In Glass Menagerie, Williams wrote, I give you truth in the pleasant
disguise of illusion, and Joseph Campbell said that myths are facts of the mind.
3. You will need to explain the allusions to Tolstoy (lines 17-18) and Yeats (21-22).
Tolstoy excluded business documents and school books from poetry. Yeats
complemented Blake by calling him a literalist of the imagination.
4. Moore is concerned with the raw material of poetry in/ all its rawness (26-27).
What in this poem might be considered raw? Consider content, diction, and form.
Particularly the zigzag arrangement of the lines.
5. Compare to Archibald MacLeishs Ars Poetica.

Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen (p. 1022)

Owens theme will be obvious to students. Ask them to state his theme in a sentence. Is
this the first time that they have considered this theme? Why does it seem so ineffective
when placed in a statement? How does Owens poem bring life to the theme, and coerce
the reader into careful consideration? Students will be interested in finding out that
Owen, who considered himself a conscientious objector with a very seared conscience,
was killed in action during World War I just a few days before the Armistice. Sometimes
the poem is printed with a dedication: To Jessie Pope (a writer of patriotic verse) or
To a certain Poetess. How does the dedication contribute to the irony introduced in the
title?

Blackberrying Sylvia Plath (p. 1023)

Describe the scene and consider the comparisons and descriptions. What seems to be the
emotional state of the speaker? Is there a sense of loneliness or an undercurrent of
despair?

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Ezra Pound
The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter (p. 1024)
The Garden
1. The speaker in the poem is a young woman of sixteen or seventeen years. She misses
her husband who is away on business. Initially, the woman scowled at her husband,
but within a year she loved him deeply. Now, with her husband absent some five
months, she feels lonely and longs for his return. The tone is affectionate and very
loving. What images express the speakers loneliness?
2. Characterize the woman in The Garden. Why is she so upset? What is meant by
emotional ammia and why is talking to her an indiscretion? How can
boredom be exquisite?

Piazza Piece John Crowe Ransom (p. 1025)

Who are the two speakers in Piazza Piece? What is the irony in line 14? How does the
form, rhyme, rhythm, and intentionally archaic expression contribute to the humor?

Elegy for Jane Theodore Roethke (p. 1026)

1. What characterization of Jane emerges from the poem? What is the effect of
describing Jane in animal imagery?
2. Why does the speaker say he has no rights in this matter? Why does he feel like an
outsider?

Two Hands Anne Sexton (p. 1027)

Two Hands takes the form of a creation myth. Compare stanza one with the Genesis
version of creation. What does the speaker see in stanza two? Have things gone wrong?
What does the speaker call on the hands to do in stanza three?

Traveling through the dark William Stafford (p. 1028)

1. Explain the double meaning of the title. The speaker is not only traveling by himself
at night, but he is also in the dark about what to do about the deer.
2. Why is he confused about what to do with the deer? What does he decide to do?
Why? Consider line 18: I thought hard for us all.

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Wallace Stevens
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (p. 1029)
The Snow Man (p. 1031)
1. Some critics read Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird as being about the
inevitability of death. M. L. Rosenthal sees the blackbird as a symbol of the
inseparability of life and death in nature. Which stanzas most effectively support
these critics?
2. Other critics interpret the poem as a reminder to the reader to remain attentive to
physical reality. Are there any people in the poem who ignore physical reality?
3. Still other critics see the poem as representing the elusiveness of truth in an unstable
world. The poem is not a revelation of truth, so much as the process of searching for
truth. The blackbird represents thirteen different truths, since it is seen in thirteen
different ways, at thirteen different times, by a speaker who, like nature, is
continuously changing. How does this sense of instability play out in the poem?
4. Discuss the structure and tone of the poem. Does it seem like thirteen haiku-like
stanzas?
5. You might conclude your discussion of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by
considering Stevens Observation on Poetry in Chapter Twenty-five.
6. According to The Snow Man, what is it to have a mind of winter?
7. How can one behold nothing that is not there and the nothing that is? Does Stevens
seem to admire the ability to do this?

Women May Swenson (p. 1032)

1. Experiment reading the poem vertically and horizontally. Is the sense much
different?
2. What is the tone of the poem? What statement is Swenson making?
3. How does the visual form of the poem relate to its meaning?
4. Compare the image of women in the poem with woman you have encountered in
fiction or drama. Nora in Ibsens A Doll House, the narrator of Gilmans The Yellow
Wallpaper, or Mrs. Ames in Boyles Astronomers Wife, for instance.

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Dylan Thomas
Fern Hill (p. 1033)
Do not go gentle into that good night (1034)
1. What is the point of view of the speaker in Fern Hill?
2. How does the speaker describe the Fern Hill of his youth? Consider the fairy tale and
religious imagery as well as the use of color, specifically green, gold, and white.
3. Who is the antagonist of the poem?
4. Explain the simile in the final line. How is the sea in chains? Does the sea seem
free, when actually it is confined by land borders? Does this image of the sea serve as
a summation of how the speaker regards his seemingly free childhood?
5. Consider Do not go gentle into that good night as a villanelle (five tercets, a final
quatrain, interlocking rhymes) with its repetition and variation, and, here, its quality
of incantation, which the speaker uses to try to rally his father. You might also
consider the use of the g sound in this context.
6. Ask students to explain the paradoxical nature of lines 13 and 16.

Jean Toomer
Song of the Sun (p. 1035)
Reapers (p. 1036)
1. Jean Toomer, like Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, was a central figure in the
Harlem Renaissance. But although his work often focuses on the black experience,
Toomer had only a small amount of black blood in his background. I am not a
Negro, he said. I am of no race. I am of the human race.
2. In Song of the Sun, how does the speaker connect himself with his slave ancestors?
Discuss the pun on son/sun.
3. What us the significance of the title of Reapers? How does it relate to the death of
the field rat and to the workers continued activity after the rat is sliced by the
mower? The tone is ominous. Does this tone help to suggest a metaphor?

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The Death of a Toad Richard Wilbur (p. 1036)

1. Discuss the toads dying. How does he respond to his imminent death?
2. What is the human response to his death as represented by the poems tone? Does the
speaker in anyway admire the toad?
3.

Consider the poems diction. What is denoted and connoted by such words as
sanctuaried, wizenings, monotone, misted and ebullient seas, and haggard daylight?

William Carlos Williams

Spring and All (p. 1037)
Danse Russe (p. 1038)
The Young Housewife (p. 1038)
1. What does the image of the contagious hospital suggest in line 1 of Spring and
All?
2. Why does Williams describe spring as lifeless sluggish/ dazed?
3. What is the theme of the poem? Consider that despite sickness and death, spring
comes with the stark dignity of entrance.
4. Compare Spring and All with Dickinsons I dreaded that first Robin, so and
Frosts Putting in the Seed.
5. In Danse Russe, why does the narrator dance when everyone in the house is asleep?
Does this suggest a poor relationship with his family? Can he not be himself around
his family? What has inspired him to dance?
6. Is the narrator really suffering from a desperate loneliness? Or is he imitating a
performance he has seen? What evidence is there to support a positive response to
the latter question?
7. What is the tone of Danse Russe? How do the final two lines contribute to tone and
to the characterization of the speaker?
8. What portrait of the housewife emerges from The Young Housewife? What do the
images of wooden walls and a fallen leaf suggest?

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James Wright
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffys Farm in Pine Land,
Minnesota (p. 1039)
A Blessing (p. 1039)
1. Why does the speaker in Lying on a Hammock say that he has wasted his life? Do
the images in the earlier lines suggest waste? How does the title give a clue about
why the speaker might have this response to the images of the farm at sunset?
2. Summarize the events in A Blessing. How are the two ponies a projection of the
speakers relationship with his friend? What does the speaker suddenly realize in
line 23? How is stepping over barb wire symbolic?

William Butler Yeats

The Second Coming (p. 1040)
The Wild Swans at Coole (p. 1041)
Leda and the Swan (p. 1042)
Sailing to Byzantium (p. 1042)
A Coat (p. 1043)
The Scholars (p. 1043)
When you are old (p. 1044)
Adams Curse (p. 1044)
1. The title of The Second Coming alludes to Matthew 24 and the Book of
Revelations (I John 2: 18-25), in which John discusses the coming of the Antichrist.
In A Vision, Yeats explained his theory of human history, which he believes is
governed by a Great Wheel. This Great Wheel completes a turn every two thousand
years, at which time begins a new era, announced by birds and incredible violence.
At the time Yeats wrote this poem, his Ireland was in the midst of a brutal war with
England, and the Western world had just experienced World War I.
2. Like Wordsworths Tintern Abbey and Keatss Ode to a Nightingale, The Wild
Swans is a meditation on nature and the passing of time. These poems present a
speaker who is pensive, retrospective, and subjective. Note the contrast between
nature, which regenerates itself every year, and human life, which moves toward age,
decay, and death. How does the first stanza establish an elegiac tone? Does the
speaker move towards an acceptance of the life cycle?
3. Does the poem make light of rape? Leda seems ambivalent during the violation.
How do the last two lines explain her ambivalence? Stanzas one and three are alike
in tone as are stanzas two and four. What words in stanzas one and three depict

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action and brutality? Do the sounds of these words contribute to the scenes
depiction? What words in sound and sense reveal Ledas ambivalence? How is the
reflective tone of stanzas two and four established?
In Selected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Years, M. L. Rosenthal wrote
the following:
The poet asks whether the impregnation of Leda was accompanied by any divine
illumination of her understanding; in the context of Yeatss other poetry, the
question is one to be asked about every miraculous conception reported in myth
and religion. Ultimately perhaps the poem asks what is the relationship between
mans fate and his will or knowledge.
4. Confronted with old age in a country that devalues its elderly, the speaker sets sail for
Byzantium. To Yeats, Byzantium, in the year 1000 A. D., represented the perfect
balance between the material and spiritual. I find it helpful to bring in copies of some
Byzantine mosaics. It helps set the tone for the class and establish the yearning of the
speaker to travel to an exotic kind of paradise.
Why does the speaker want to leave his own land? Where does he look for
inspiration in stanza three? Why is he sick with desire? Does the speaker seem
angry with himself? Does he seem frustrated by his flesh and its physical limitations?
What is the speakers ideal form of existence?
5. What is Yeats saying in A Coat? Is he complaining that readers and critics interpret
his poems without consideration of the authors intent and thereby it is as if they
wrought it? Or he is saying that he was criticized for drawing from mythologies?
And why is it better to be walking naked? Does that mean that poems should be
created entirely from oneself without obvious external influences like mythologies?
6. What is Yeatss attitude towards scholars in The Scholars? How does he mock
them?
7. From the speakers perspective, how is When you are old about a missed
opportunity for love? What does he mean by pilgrim soul?
8. In Adams Curse, the speaker says that since God expelled Adam and Eve from
Eden, every worthwhile human endeavor, particularly those concerned with beauty,
requires struggle. However, the labor to achieve beauty is not to be apparent to the
audience (see line 4-6). How does the form of the poem reflect this concept of beauty
and seeming simplicity? Consider the diction and the use of heroic couplets (rhyming
couplets in iambic pentameter).
Does the moon function as a metaphor at the end of the poem? Does it perhaps
represent a passing of time? Has the human heart grown weary as a result of passing
time and struggle?

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Contemporaries
Spiders Diane Ackerman (p. 1046)
1. Spiders have long fascinated poets. What fascinates the speaker here about the
spider?
2. Is there any metaphorical implication in the poem with?
3. Compare Spiders to Whitmans A noiseless patient spider and Frosts Design,
or for poems not in the anthology, try Edward Taylors Upon a Spider Catching a
Fly and Robert Lowells Mr. Edwards and the Spider. For some fun, play the song
Boris the Spider by The Who, available on several Who compilations, about a
spider whose journey through a home leads to his sticky end.

Sherman Alexie
Indian Boy Love Song (#1) (p. 1046)
Indian Boy Love Song (#2) (p. 1047)
1. Explain why neither song is a conventional love song. What kinds of love do the
poems concern themselves?
2. Is your reading affected by the poets age? The poems were written when Alexie was
sixteen years old.

Margaret Atwood
This Is a Photograph of Me (p. 1047)
Spelling (p. 1048)
1. In This Is a Photograph of Me, are we supposed to believe that the speaker in the
poem has actually drowned and speaks to us from beyond the grave, as the speakers
in several of Dickinsons poems? What other possibilities are suggested by the
images in the poem?
2. Is Spelling about spelling? Or is it about the power of words and how words have
empowered woman, on the one hand, and led to their execution on the other? What
images in the poem suggest that men are frightened by the words of women?

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3. What is the tone of Spelling? How does the rhythm of the lines help to establish
tone?

from Meditations on the South Valley: XVII Jimmy Santiago Baca

(p. 1050)
How does the wind affect life in the speakers barrio? Is the wind symbolic of anything?
Frequently in literature, the wind symbolizes new life, change, or the creative breath. Is
this the case here? Consider Shelleys Ode to the West Wind, and, although not
included in the text, Joan Didions essay Los Angeles Notebook.

Today I Am Envying the Glorious Mexicans Michael Blumenthal

(p. 1050)
1. Why does the speaker envy the glorious Mexicans? There are no details
concerning the speakers life, but based on this poem what inferences do you draw
about him and his life? Could any comparisons be drawn with the speaker in Frosts
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening?
2. Is the poem derogatory about Mexicans?

Anorexic Eavan Boland (p. 1051)

1. Why is the speaker starving herself?
2. Consider the images of enclosure in the poem. What do they suggest about the
speaker?
3. Also, what does it suggest about her that she is able to separate her body from the rest
of herself?
4. Compare the speaker in Anorexic with the speaker in Cliftons Homage to My
Hips.

Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt David Bottoms

(p. 1053)
1. The poem is about a speakers recollection of his father teaching him how to bunt.
(When a batter lays down a sacrifice bunt, his priority is to advance base runners even
if he is out as he runs to first base. It is a conventional part of baseball strategy.) The
speaker describes the technique of bunting for a sacrifice in lines 6-8 and admires his

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fathers ability. However, the speaker was not thinking of sacrificing, but of being the
hero with home runs. It is not until after his fathers death, apparently, that the
speaker learns what the father was really laying down: the importance of
sacrificing for others, of being less self-centered.
2. You might need to explain line 21. The brush across the bill of a cap is a reference
to a coach sending signals to the batter, perhaps telling him to attempt a sacrifice
bunt.
3. Compare this poem to Robert Wallaces The Double Play, the other baseball poem
in the text.

Driving Lessons Neal Bowers (p. 1053)

1. How is driving a metaphor for the speakers life?
2. Consider the failed life imagery in lines 24 (dark infancy) and 28 (stillborn).
Discuss the speakers contemplation of what could have been in relation to Frosts
The Road Not Taken.
3. What does the last stanza and the final image of emptiness suggest about the family
and their individual lives?

Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-second Year

Raymond Carver (p. 1055)
The speaker contemplates a photograph of his father. He begins with a literal description
of the scene, but then begins to interpret his fathers demeanor. Like most portrait
painters, he focuses on the hands and the eyes. He expresses love and pity for his father,
and then compares himself to his father. I interpret line 14, yet how can I say thank you
as ironic but sympathetic. He understands his father and pities him, but he does not
really thank him, at least not for passing on his alcoholism. The poem moves, therefore,
from a literal description of his father, to a psychological consideration of first his father
and then himself. There is sadness and sympathy in the poem, but also, in the irony, a
quiet humor as well.

Pumpkin Eater Sandra Cisneros (p. 1055)

1. What is the situation of the speaker? What is her emotional state?
2. What do you associate with the pumpkin imagery? Who is the pumpkin eater in the
poem?

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3. Do you sympathize with the speaker in the poem? What would you say to her if you
were her friend?
4. Compare the speaker with the speakers in Cliftons Homage to My Hips, Bolands
Anorexia, Smiths Lost Your Head Blues, and Sanchezs Blues and
Towhomitmayconcern.

Homage to My Hips Lucille Clifton (p. 1056)

1. How does the speaker feel about her hips? How, might we conclude, she feels about
herself? How does the rhythm of the poem contribute to our understanding of the
speaker?
2. Can the poem be read as an attack on our cultures generally accepted standards of
beauty?
3. Compare the speaker of Homage to My Hips to the speakers of Sanchezs
Towhomitmayconcern, Bolands Anorexia and Cisneross Pumpkin Eater.

The Game Judith Ortiz Cofer (p. 1057)

1. Discuss the emotional shifts in the poem. The poem expresses sadness, shame,
concern, joy, love, and awe. The emotional current swings gradually upward until the
last two lines. What is the implication of those last two lines?
2. Describe how the mothers attitude changes about her daughter. What is implied by
Gods small mysteries?

Duck/ Rabbit Billy Collins (p. 1058)

How do the lamb/ lion and duck/rabbit images serve as a metaphor for the speakers
relationship?

All I Hear Is Silence Jennifer Ritter-Compasso (p. 1058)

1. Describe the speaker. What is her chief concern as expressed in the poem?
2. Is her family insensitive, lazy, or rude? Can you sympathize with both the speaker
and her family?
3. You might compare this speaker to the speaker of Panaras On His Deafness.

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Steady as Any Ship My Father Doretta Cornell (p. 1059)

1. How is the poem a tribute to the speakers father? What does she celebrate about her
father?
2. Consider Cornells use of details such as father and daughter in the pool, mustard on
the hot dog, and the shoe size. What do they convey?

Marriage Gregory Corso (p. 1060)

1. Describe the speaker of the poem. What is especially unique about him? What
conclusion does he reach about his getting married?
2. How does the speaker respond to clichs about courtship, engagement, weddings, and
married life? Do some hold appeal for him?
3. How is Corsos poem a satire on American life in the 1950s? Is the satire still
relevant today?
4. For a writing assignment, you might ask students to compare Corsos view of
American culture in the 1950s with Allen Ginsbergs in America or David Rabes in
his play Stick and Bones.

After the Move Joseph Coulson (p. 1063)

1. Does the house serve as a metaphor for the speakers marriage?
2. Consider the tone of the poem. Do certain lines seem more filled with sadness or
longing than others?

The Cake Uncut Allen Curnow (p. 1064)

1. What is the situation in the poem? Allen Curnow, a New Zealand poet, bases his
story on actual incident. For religious reasons, parents fail to get medical attention
for their sons cancerous growth. As a result, the boy dies.
2. Consider the diction, tone, and point of view. Curnows sparse language conveys
great passion, sadness, and the confusion and self-searching that come with a great
dilemma. It is a sad, tragic poem, but one in which Curnow retains his objectivity,
never criticizing or vilifying the characters. Identify the speaker or speakers in the
poem.

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Golden Retrievals Mark Doty (p. 1067)

1. Who is the speaker? What does he retrieve in the poem?
2. How is the poem about the human response to time? What does this golden retriever
want to teach us about a more appropriate response to time? The dogs master
contemplates past and future, but ignores the present. The dog calls him into the
present.

Rita Dove
Testimonial
Canary
1. Consider the imagery of Testimonial? How is the poem about innocence? How is
it a testimony to the triumph of innocence?
2. When presenting Canary, consider beginning class with a recording of Billie
Holidays God Bless the Child. Most libraries will have a copy, and the song
serves to illustrate the first two lines of the poem very well. For a fuller appreciation
of the poem, you will need to inform students of a few facts concerning Holidays
tragic life:
dates: 1915-1959
raped at age ten, worked as a prostitute a couple of years later.
experienced racism throughout her private and public life.
turned to alcohol, marijuana, then heroin.
had contractual difficulties with record companies which forced her to record
sometimes banal pop numbers, and prevented her from recording with Count
Basie, with whom she toured for over a year.
often performed with a gardenia in her hair.
by the end of her life, her voice had become raspy, but deeply expressive.
spent time in prison for a narcotics offense, and died in a hospital after being
arrested again for possession of drugs.
The first two stanzas in Doves poem are direct, concerning themselves with the life

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and art of Holiday. But the final two stanzas are more interpretive of her life and art.
What does Dove mean by the invention of women, sharpen love in the service of
myth, or if you cant be free, be a mystery? Does the brief biographical sketch
above reveal someone who is free? What could be the mystery that Holiday held?
Why does the speaker recommend being a mystery?
Holidays mystery, as with most great artists, might be her art and its creation.
There is freedom for her in the act of creation, freedom in the release of pain, and
freedom in the knowledge that no one can restrict her voice during performance.
Like a canary, she sang even though caged. You might end the discussion with
another recording of Holiday. I usually opt for something up tempo, like All of Me
or I Hear Music.
As part of this discussion, I sometimes read Paul Laurence Dunbars Sympathy
(which contains the line, I know why the caged bird sings) and Frank OHaras The
Day Lady Died. Neither poem is included in the text.

Indian Boarding School: The Runaways Louise Erdrich (p. 1068)

1. What experience does the poem relate?
2. Paraphrase the speakers definition of home in lines 1 and 7.
3. Does the poem consider history as old lacerations (line 4), ancient punishments
(17), and old injuries?

Constantly Risking Absurdity Lawrence Ferlinghetti (p. 1069)

1. Describe the role of the poet in society as suggested by the images of the poem.
2. How do the line breaks contribute to rhythm and meaning?
3. How does Ferlinghettis wordplay relate to the imagery and affect the rhythm?
4. Consider Constantly Risking Absurdity along with MacLeishs Ars Poetica,
Moores Poetry, Dickinsons Tell all the Truth but tell it slant, and Yeatss
Sailing to Byzantium.

The Memory of Elena Carolyn Forch (p. 1070)

1. Forch spent time documenting human rights violations for Amnesty International.
She worked closely with Monsignor Oscar Romero in El Salvador between 1978 and
1980, for instance. How does this information affect your reading of The Memory
of Elena?

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2. How is the poem about national and personal loss?

Nikki Giovanni
Ego Tripping (p. 1071)
Nikki Rosa (p. 1073)
1. Ego Tripping can be interpreted in several ways: as a poem of black pride
(identifying with the achievements of Egyptian and Middle East civilizations), as a
contemplation and identification with the accomplishments of the past, or as a
metapoem about the artist who needs a large ego and large sense of self so as to
express the human condition and touch as many as possible. Giovanni has a sense of
humor in the poem, which undercuts the potential for bombast. For instance, in the
final five lines, she explodes in self-praise (line 48), comments that she cannot be
comprehended/ except by my permission (48-49), and stammers as she delivers the
last two lines, suggesting sheepishly that all she wanted to do was to write so she
could soar and feel good about herself.
2. Compare Ego Tripping with Hughess The Negro Speaks of Rivers.
3. How is Nikki Rosa a celebration of Black love?
4. How does the speaker depict her childhood?

The School Children Louise Glck (p. 1074)

1. What portrait emerges of the school children, their mothers, and their teachers?
2. What is the implication of ammunition in the final line?

Mind Jorie Graham (p. 1074)

1. How does the poem use images to say something about the mind?
2. Is the poem hopeful? Consider the final lines.

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Donald Hall
My son, my executioner (p. 1075)
Kicking the Leaves (p. 1076)
1. In My son, my executioner, the son may be a way of sustaining the familys name,
but he is also a sign of the parents age. The sense of responsibility that comes with
parenthood gives parents a sense of aging, as carefree days of youth are forever gone.
In a sense, the baby has destroyed the couples youth, but his love for his son makes it
a sweet death (line 5). The tone is a mixture of tenderness, contemplation, awe, and
fear as he ponders the implications of his sons birth.
2. Kicking the Leaves is a meditative poem. What does the speaker meditate about?
3. Does he reach any conclusion in section 7? Does the emotional pitch of the poem
change in that section?

Eagle Poem Joy Harjo (p. 1078)

1. Joy Harjo is a member of the Creek tribe. The poem is like a prayer that expresses
gratitude for life and asks that beauty be central to existence. How does being an
American Indian inform this poem? Whom do you think the speaker is addressing in
the poem?
2. What is it about the eagle that the speaker wants her listener to emulate?

Meditation at Lagunitas Robert Hass (p. 1079)

1. What is the subject of the speakers meditation?
2. Why does Hass italicize certain words?
3. Explain the paradox of the lines one and two.
4. Compare the ending of Meditation with Elizabeth Bishops The Fish, not in the
text.

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Seamus Heaney
Digging (p. 1080)
Mid-Term Break (p. 1081)
1. Describe the speakers reaction to his brothers death in Mid-Term Break. Was he
bored or grief-stricken when waiting for his neighbor to pick him up at college? Why
was he embarrassed in stanza three? When does he first seem disturbed? Discuss the
tone and force of the final isolated line?
2. In Digging, what is the central metaphor? How is the speakers work as a writer
similar to his fathers and grandfathers?
3. Read Heaneys commentary on composing Digging in his Feelings into Words,
Chapter Twenty-five.

For the Sleepwalkers Edward Hirsch (p. 1082)

Discuss the tone of the poem. It begins almost whimsically before it turns more serious
near the end. What is it that the speaker truly admires about sleepwalkers? What does he
mean by the stupefying cup of darkness?

The Hearts Counting Knows Only One Jane Hirshfield (p. 1083)
What is the poem primarily about? Is it about the monks, the geese, the speaker and her
beloved, or human transience?

What For Garrett Hongo (p. 1084)

1. The first four stanzas concern a childs world. What, to the speaker, is a childs
world?
2. The emotional quality of the poem begins to change with the entrance of the father.
How? Does the adult world intrude on the childs?

Fingertip Milton Kessler (p. 1085)

What is the connection between the nurse and the sparrowlike birds? Explain the
significance of the title.

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Saint Francis and the Sow Galway Kinnell (p. 1086)

How does Kinnell use the extended description of the sow to illustrate the concept of the
first eleven lines? What is his concept? How could this concept be applied to human
lives and relationships? Is there a turning point?

Facing It Yusef Komunyakaa (p. 1087)

Describe the speakers experience at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. What is the
purpose of the reflection imagery and the interplay of light and dark?

I Ask My Mother to Sing Li-Young Lee (p. 1088)

What is the effect of the singing on the singers and the speaker? What emotions are
stirred? What cultural connectives are maintained?

from R. E. M. Brad Leithauser (p. 1088)

1. This excerpt is a description of a kiss. What makes the kiss special?
2. Characterize the rhythm of the poem. How is the rhythm in stanza two different from
stanza one? Consider Leithausers use of caesuras in stanza one. How does the
rhythm reflect the situation?

Hanging Fire Audre Lorde (p. 1089)

1. Describe the speaker in the poem. Are her problems those of an average fourteenyear old? How does the poem reveal the frustrations of being neither child nor adult?
2. How does the rhythm of the poem reflect her character?
3. Explain the title. Hangfire refers to a delay in the detonation of guns or ammunition.
4. Consider Lordes Poems Are Not Luxuries in Chapter Twenty-five. How does
Hanging Fire illustrate her assertion that poems are of vital necessity to the
existence of woman?

Hummingbird J. D. McClatchy (p. 1090)

1. Does the speaker appreciate the hummingbird? Consider especially the closing lines.

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2. Compare this poem with other poems in the text concerning hummingbirds:
Dickinsons A Route of Evanescence and Lawrences Humming-bird. How is
McClatchys perspective different?

Cosmic Simplicities Tom Molito (p. 1090)

1. What is the tone of the poem?
2. Consider the image between Plato and Pluto. Is that an image suggesting distance,
a wide vacuum between the two? Or, when we look at the spellings, does it suggest
that the truth is nearby? How might both interpretations, simultaneously, be
considered appropriate? The image recalls a line from Blowing in the Wind by Bob
Dylan: The answer is blowing in the wind. Is the answer right in front of us or is it
elusive?

Size and Sheer Will Sharon Olds (p. 1091)

1. What is the point of view in the poem?
2. Describe what you think is the relationship between mother and son?
3. Explain the last two lines: longing/ for the surface, for his rightful life.

Poem for My Fathers Ghost Mary Oliver (p. 1091)

1. How is the poem a tribute to the speakers father?
2. To the speaker, how does death liberate the father? In the same way, is the poem
liberating for the speaker as well?
3. Compare to other poems in the text about deceased fathers: Bottoms Sign for My
Father, Who Stressed the Bunt, Carvers Photograph of My Father in His Twentysecond Year, and Cornells Steady as Any Ship My Father. You might also pair
this poem with Hegis short story To the Gate.

A Story of How a Wall Stands Simon Ortiz (p. 1092)

The poems meditative tone and deliberate rhythm suggest that the reader is to consider
the wall as a metaphor. For what? Could there be several responses? Relationships,
writing, or anything intended to last?

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On His Deafness Robert F. Panara (p. 1093)

1. What does the speaker mean by Fancys artisan?
2. Consider the use of onomatopoeia. How in this poem does this technique contribute
to the speakers celebration of literature? What does poetry bring to the speakers
life?
3. You might compare the speaker here with the speaker of Ritter-Compassos All I
Hear Is Silence.

Ethics Linda Pastan (p. 1094)

1. Identify the two sections of the poem.
2. What does the poem suggest about the relationship between fine art and human life?
3. How can saving be interpreted in the final line?

Now Look What Happened Molly Peacock (p. 1095)

1. Explain the opening lines. Would you say the speakers situation is common today?
Are many women concerned with aging and having children? Is there self-pressure
as a result?
2. Explain the reference to and significance of bear baiting, the one-time sport
(popular in Elizabethan England) of releasing dogs to fight a captive bear.
3. As a child, the speaker became a mother figure. To whom? Why? As a result, how
were her relationships affected outside the home?
4. Is the speaker ambivalent about not having children? Is the pain eased by the
recognition that she might not have been a capable mother earlier in life, i.e., until she
was emptied of hatred? Consider the imagery in the closing stanza.

A Work of Artifice Marge Piercy (p. 1096)

The bonsai tree serves Piercy as a metaphor for the way men have historically treated
women. Just as the gardener prevents the bonsai tree from maturing to its natural size,
men have controlled women from maturing. Furthermore, as the gardener convinces the
bonsai that its natural habitat is an attractive pot (see lines 12-15), men shape women

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since birth to conform to accepted roles. The poem ends with images of how women are
shaped.
Inform students that the poem was written in 1973, and then ask if there are still
men who are gardeners and women who are bonsai trees. You might think of
assigning the poem just before or just after Ibsens A Doll House or along with Cisneross
Woman Hollering Creek, Gilmans Yellow Wallpaper, Boyles Astronomers Wife,
or Bolands Anorexia.

Dying Robert Pinsky (p. 1096)

1. The poem is a meditation on death. What inspires the meditation? What are the
speakers observations? What kinds of dying does he consider?
2. As a result of the meditation, does the speaker come to terms with his friends
imminent death?
3. Who is the monster in the last line?
4. You might read the poem with Donnes Death, be not proud or Thomass Fern
Hill.

A Martian Sends a Postcard Home Craig Raine (p. 1097)

The poem uses the fictional technique of the innocent observer. The speaker is a Martian
who records his observations of human inventions and behavior. What do you think is
the purpose of Raines poem? Is he trying to make a statement about how people deal
with suffering?

A Dream of Husbands Alberto Rios (p. 1099)

Describe Doa Carolina. How do you think the speaker has come to know her? What
tone does he adopt when speaking of her?

Waiting Table Kraft Rompf (p. 1099)

1. What is the speakers attitude towards the diners? Do you sympathize with him?
2. How does form and tone reflect his restrained hostility? His public persona?

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Welcome to Hiroshima Mary Jo Salter (p. 1100)

1. What are the speakers impressions upon entering Hiroshima? She seems struck by a
profound irony. How can life seem so routine in a city where an atom bomb was
dropped? Do or can the citizens of Hiroshima have her thirst of history?
2. Is her ambivalence in the museum similar to her feelings about the city?
3. Explain her statements that hopes only as renewable as pain and that the
debasements of the past might surface like a tongue. Does the past still speak to
us? Is it necessary for healing and progress that we listen to the past?

Towhomitmayconcern Sonia Sanchez (p. 1102)

1. What is the tone of Towhomitmayconcern? Is the speaker angry, playful, or
confident and unrestrained? What does the non-standard diction and spellings
suggest about the speaker?
2. What is the effect of connecting the words in the title?
3. Compare this poem with other poems or songs by women at least in some way about
relationships. Consider, for example, Sanchezs Blues, Smiths Lost Your Head
Blues, Cliftons Homage to My Hips, Bolands Anorexia, Cisneross Pumpkin
Eater, and Piercys A Work of Artifice.

Signs Gertrude Schnackenberg (p. 1102)

The signs in the poem to be ominous, foretelling disaster. Is there a cumulative effect? If
so, what might the poem be implying?

Lost Sister Cathy Song (p. 1103)

1. What is the depiction of Chinese peasant women that emerges from the first three
stanzas? Consider phrases like luxury stolen from birth, redundant as the
farmyard hens, and surviving, learning.
2. Discuss the experience of living out of China as expressed in stanzas 4-5.
3. What does the speaker mean when she refers to the fragile identification of being a
Chinese woman?

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Behind Grandmas House Gary Soto (p. 1105)

1. What did the speaker think of himself when he was ten years old? What does the
mature voice of the speaker think as he looks back at himself? How does he
communicate his adult view to us? Consider tone in your answer as well as the
finality and irony of his grandmas action.
2. We only see the grandmother briefly, but we get a fairly good idea of what she is like.
Describe her and tell how you reached your conclusions.

Two Trees Ellen Bryant Voigt (p. 1105)

1. The poem retells the story of Adam and Eve. Contrast the version of the poem with
the Biblical version. Consider the portrait of God that emerges from the poem.
2. What is the implied definition of beauty in stanza one? Do you agree with this
definition?

Invisible Mending C. K. Williams (p. 1106)

1. Describe the three women as presented by the speaker. What are they doing?
2. Describe the narrator and his emotional state.
3. Explain the title. How is the womans mending like the minds procedures?

Friday Night Baron Wormser (p. 1107)

Wormser celebrates what he takes to be an ordinary Friday night. What specifically does
the poem celebrate about Friday nights?

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Poetry of the World

from Requiem Anna Akhmatova (p. 1109)
Akhmatova wrote Requiem, a lyric cycle, between 1935-1940. It was occasioned by the
authors grief over the arrest and imprisonment of her son in 1937. The poem serves as a
monument to the suffering of the Russian people during Stalins reign of terror. Requiem
was not published in Russia until 1987. Ask students to consider the overwhelming
communal and individual suffering and grief in the selections here. How does the
epitaph and Instead of a Preface set up the selections? How are the selections in the
text a tribute to the suffering wives and mothers, who kept vigil for the imprisoned?

The Bride Bella Akhamadulina (p. 1111)

1. What is the point of view in the poem? Is it a bride or a woman who contemplates
being a bride? What difference does it make in the characterization of the speaker?
2. Discuss the speakers contradictory feelings: lucky and poor (19), terror and
desire (21).
3. Compare The Bride with Corsos Marriage. How are the speakers similar?

A Pity We Were Such a Good Invention Yehuda Amichai (p. 1112)

1. What is the poem about? Who is the speaker addressing? Is he talking to his former
lover and regretting their breakup, which he blames on outside interference?
2. Who are the surgeons and engineers?
3. What does the metaphor of the airplane suggest about their relationship?
4. Compare to Poes poem Lenore, in which Guy Devere rails at those responsible for
his breakup and the death of his beloved. Poes poem is similar in situation but more
intense and dramatic as Lenores death would suggest. Comparisons to Romeo and
Juliet could also be drawn.

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At the Mosque Chairil Anwar (p. 1113)

1. Define the speakers conflict in the poem. Is his conflict spiritual? Consider the title.
2. Consider along with Donnes Hymn to God the Father and Batter my heart, threepersoned God.

Three Haiku Matsuo Basho (p. 1113)

I begin with a definition of haiku as a form of Japanese poetry with three lines of five,
seven, and five syllables. The haiku presents a clear picture intended to arouse an
emotion and suggest a spiritual insight. (Remind students that the number of syllables
could be altered because of the difficulties of translation. Furthermore, to no objection,
some haiku in the original run somewhat longer than seventeen syllables.) The haiku in
the text lend themselves to several interpretations.

The Albatross Charles Baudelaire (p. 1114)

The central metaphor of the poem compares the albatross to a poet. How is the poet like
an albatross? How according to the poem is the poet regarded by the contemporary
culture of Baudelaire? Is the poet regarded much differently today? Is the poem
sympathetic to the albatross and the poet?

The Black City Breyten Breytenback (p. 1114)

1. Breytenback is a white writer who has used his voice to win sympathy and support
for the blacks of South Africa. Directly or indirectly, how does this poem accomplish
that?
2. What is his message to the black child? What does he warn him of? Where can the
black child find hope?
3. Do you think bitterness is dangerous? Can it be self-destructive?

Chess Rosario Castellanos (p. 1115)

1. Who is the speaker? What is her relationship like with her opponent? Does chess
serve as a metaphor? What description of love emerges from the poem?
2. Ask students to read Lovesong by Ted Hughes in his Crow collection. Compare the
attitudes toward love.

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Fugue of Death Paul Celan (p. 1116)

Paul Celan is the son of German-speaking Jews who died in a Nazi concentration camp.
Celan himself was a prisoner before he escaped to the Red Army after eighteen months.
Fugue of Death is set in a Nazi concentration camp. Identify the speaker or speakers in
the poem. Does one speaker seem more detached? A fugue is a contrapuntal musical
composition for two or more voices.

I Give You Thanks My God Bernard Dadi

1. How is the poem a celebration of not only the speakers self but also his race.
2. Compare to Hughess The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Giovannis Ego Tripping,
and Cliftons Homage to My Hips.

Declaration Bei Dao (p. 1118)

Bei Dao joined the Chinese Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, but became
quickly disillusioned and went to live in the isolation of the countryside. In his poetry, he
searches for new modes of expression. His imagery is sometimes oblique and difficult to
translate. He is a considered among the major Chinese misty poets. His poetry often
marks a search for spirituality, purity, and intimacy (in a land where trust can be a matter
of life and death). He was forced into exile after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in
1989. Consider Declaration in light of this information.

Drinking the Corinthian Sun Odysseus Elytis (p. 1119)

Consider the tone and how the poem celebrates the Greek landscape, culture, and
personal renewal.

Before You Came Faiz Ahmed Faiz (p. 1119)

Since his beloved has come to him, the speaker is in a heightened emotional state. Does
he wish these feelings to subside? Does he want his love to decrease? Or does he want
her to stay so that the two become so accustomed to one another that their emotions have
no need to become so aroused since they never experience the opposite, which is despair
at missing someone? He wants the love the two now share to become as commonplace in
his life as the sky and a road.

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Nature and Art Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (p. 1120)

1. What statement does Nature and Art make about art and the artistic process?
2. Compare this poem to MacLeishs Ars Poetica, Moores Poetry, and
Ferlinghettis Constantly Risking Absurdity.

Pebble Zbigniew Herbert (p. 1121)

What qualities of the pebble does the speaker admire? Consider some of the phrases:
mindful of its limits, a scent which does not remind one of anything, does not
frighten anything away, full of dignity, a calm and very clear eye. Is Herbert
suggesting that people would be better off adopting some of these features? How does
the calm rhythm and tone help to communicate meaning?

Ono No Komachi
Submit to you (p. 1122)
They change (p. 1122)
Imagining her Death and Cremation (p.1122)
Little is known about the life and circumstances of Ono No Komachi. However, she did
come from a literary family and she did correspond with other Japanese poets. She is
considered one of the Six Immortals of Japanese Poetry. Much legend surrounds her
life, particularly stories about her beauty, amorous activities, and her wanderings as an
embittered hag at the end of her life.
1. Submit to you is a poem about love. What is the situation? Discuss the speakers
tone of disbelief.
2. How is They change a poem about transience?
3. Imagining her Death and Cremation is a meditation on death. What do you think
the speaker feels about death? Compare this to some of Dickinsons poems on death.

The Stalin Epigram Osip Mandelstam (p. 1123)

Mandelstam was sent to prison in Siberia because of this poem and his other anti-Stalinist
writings. In The Stalin Epigram, Mandelstams portrait of Stalin and his followers is
bitterly sardonic. Consider the imagery associated with them. What does this poem and
Akhmatovas Requiem suggest about life in Stalinist Russia? In this context, what does
the first line of The Stalin Epigram imply?
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Czeslaw Milosz
Encounter (p. 1124)
A Song on The End of the World (p. 1124)
1. Encounter is about those fleeting moments that remind us of lifes transience. What
are the images in the poem that communicate this?
2. Who is the speaker addressing in Encounter? How does the tone change in the
final stanza? How does this tonal shift reflect the theme?
3. Explain the significance of the last line.
4. In A Song on The End of the World, Milosz subverts readers expectations about
the end of the world. How?
5. In the same poem, consider the tone and how it reflects the theme.
6. Compare A Song on The End of the World with Frosts Fire and Ice.

The Eel Eugenio Montale (p. 1125)

1. How does the speaker describe the eel? Does he admire the eel?
2. What phrases or lines invite us to interpret the eel as a metaphor?
3. Explain the last line with its reference to recognizing a sister.

Ode to My Socks Pablo Neruda (p. 1126)

1. Is Ode to My Socks a typical ode? An ode is generally a fairly long poem, serious,
dignified, and exalted in style. Compare to Keatss Ode on a Grecian Urn and
Ode to a Nightingale or Shelleys Ode to the West Wind. Do the closing lines
seem a playful response to Keatss Beauty is truth, truth beauty?
2. How does Neruda achieve humor in the poem? Is part of the humor dependent on the
reader having at least some familiarity with traditional odes? Consider also lines like
my feet/ were honored/ in this way.
3. What does the speaker celebrate about the socks?

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Boundaries Jos Emilio Pacheco (p. 1128)

1. Who is the speaker addressing?
2. What is the tone?
3. Explain the significance of the title.
4. What do you think is the something in time/ that has sailed away forever?

Piano Solo Nicanor Parra (p. 1129)

1. Explain the title. Is the poem in any way like a piano solo?
2. What is the speaker contemplating in the poem?
3. How can chaos be a consolation?
4. What are the implications of the last line?

Hamlet Boris Pasternak (p. 1130)

1. Who is the speaker in the poem? What is he contemplating?
2. Where does the actor end and the part begin? Does the actor or Hamlet acknowledge
that the end of the road is preordained? Who is among the Pharisees? (You
might need to explain to students that a Pharisee is a reference to a sanctimonious or
hypocritical individual.)
3. Explain the last line.

The Street Octavio Paz (p. 1130)

1. Summarize the poem.
2. Can the poem be read as an allegory, like Christina Rossettis Up-Hill?

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Pleasure A. K. Ramanujan (p. 1131)

1. Explain some of the paradoxical imagery throughout the poem: the vigor of long
celibacy, at every twinge,/ Pleasure. How does this imagery reflect the monks
situation?
2. What is the monks struggle in the poem? Explain the last line. How does the body
become intangible?

The Cadet Picture of My Father Rainer Maria Rilke (p. 1132)

1. What is the portrait of the father that emerges from the photograph?
2. What does he seem to realize as he contemplates the photograph? How is the poem
as much about lifes transience as it is about the speakers father?
3. What is the speakers tone? How does he feel toward his father? What is the
implication of the exclamation point at the end of the poem?

Narration George Seferis (p. 1133)

1. Consider the protagonist, that man [who] walks alone. Does the community seem
upset by him or do they accept him?
2. Is the poem about apathy and the lack of human sympathy? What does it imply that
the community has grown used to him and that he doesnt stand for anything?
3. How does the speaker feel about the man? Why does he have a need to talk about
him?

I Am Alone Leopold Senghor (p. 1134)

Leopold Senghor was a poet, philosopher, and first president of Senegal. Elected in
1960, Senghor served for twenty years and helped to establish stability, fairness, and
vitality in the west African nation. Senghor was also a central figure in establishing the
concept of Ngritude, which rebelled against colonial values, glorified the African past,
and celebrated the beauty and harmony of traditional African culture.
Consider Senghors following statement when considering I Am Alone:
The image has no effect on the African unless it is rhythmical. Rhythm is
consubstantial with the image. It completes it by unifying it into a single and
whole sign and sense, flesh and spirit.

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How does Senghor establish rhythm in I Am Alone? How does the speaker see himself
in the poem?

Hamlet Wole Soyinka (p. 1135)

1. Wole Soyinka has been harassed and imprisoned by the Nigerian government for
years. He has described the government as routinely handed down from villain to
villain and extended retroactively to shield past villains. Consider this when
discussing Hamlet. How is Soyinka like Hamlet and how is Nigeria like Denmark?
According to the poem, is Soyinka more of a thinker than a doer? Does he proceed
too cautiously? Could his minds unease [have] bred indulgence to the states
disease?
2. Consider the last line and the reference to The Murder of Gonzago, which provided
the evidence for Hamlet of Claudiuss guilt. Is Soyinka making a statement about his
own certainty about the governments corruption?
3. Consider the form of Hamlet. Is it significant that Soyinka wrote a sonnet?

Bodybuilders Contest Wislawa Szymborska (p. 1135)

Szymborska won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. In The New York Times
Magazine (December 1, 1996), Edward Hirsch wrote the following:
Szymborska is a philosophically inflected poet who investigates large
unanswerable questions with terrific delicacy. She pits her dizzying sense of the
worlds transient splendor against unbearable historical knowledge. Szymborska
has a sardonic voice with which she sheds unexpected light on common
experiences.
Hirsch quoted Szymborska:
Poetry doesnt save mankind or people. It is my strong belief that poetry cannot
save the world. It may help the individual reader to think. It may enrich his
spiritual life. Reading it one may feel a little less alone.
Consider the tone of Bodybuilders Contest. Is there demonstration here of what
Hirsch called Szymborskas sardonic voice? Are there any particularly humorous or
sardonic lines? Does the speaker admire the bodybuilder?

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Picnic to the Earth Shuntaro Tanikawa (p. 1136)

Shuntaro Tanikawa is one of Japans most celebrated and prolific poets. The author of
some sixty books of poetry, Tanikawa has also written plays and scripts for film,
television, and radio. He has also translated Mother Goose rhymes and the comic strip
Peanuts. Consider Picnic to the Earth as a love poem. What is the effect of the
repetition of here and the cataloging of activities?

Sea Grapes Derek Walcott (p. 1136)

Derek Walcott was born in Saint Lucia, West Indies. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1992. In Sea Grapes, the title poem of one of his collections, Walcott
draws on Greek mythology. For what purpose? Does the poem suggest anything about
the universality of experience and emotion? What does he mean by the ancient war/
between obsession and responsibility?

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Part Three

Drama

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Chapter Fourteen

Reading Plays
To begin my discussion on drama, I ask students to consider the differences between
writing a play and writing in another genre. What are the unique concerns of the working
dramatist? For instance, is the length of the work more of a concern to a playwright than
to a poet or fiction writer? Producers are less apt to stage very short (say, twenty
minutes) or very long plays (say, four hours).
Because of legal restrictions and unpredictability, producers (not to mention many
adult actors) would prefer that the stage presence of children and animals be limited, if
not excluded entirely. What would happen if Poe conceived The Black Cat as a play or
Marquez insisted on staging the infants relationship with the very old man with
enormous wings? Depending upon the theaters budget and expertise, special effects and
settings might need to be compromised; a crowd scene, for instance, on a railway
platform like that in Borgess The Garden of Forking Paths could cause insurmountable
problems to some companies, and how convincing do you think a staging of the car chase
in Hoods How Far She Went would be in a small theater of fewer than seventy-five
seats?
The playwright must tell his story in dialogue, which is easier than it might seem.
More difficult is finding plausible methods to reveal a characters inner thoughts, which
they share with no one, the thoughts of a character like Mrs. Mallard in Chopins The
Story of an Hour or Charlie Wales in Fitzgeralds Babylon Revisited. Shakespeare
used soliloquies or asides, but these devices are unavailable to contemporary realists like
Lorraine Hansberry or Wendy Wasserstein, who choose not to break the illusion of reality
in A Raisin in the Sun or Tender Offer. The problem is generally solved in consultation
with the director and actor, as gesture, facial expression, costume, lighting, and other
devices can work to reveal character.
These differences and others emphasize to students that reading drama is a
different experience from the experience of reading poetry or fiction, and they as readers,
less accustomed to reading drama may need to adapt.
I like to focus on the phrase armchair directors (p. 1162). I ask students to
consider the dramatic text as a script, one the director is reading just prior to the
beginning of rehearsals. How do you see the play on stage? How do you hear it
performed? How do the characters move and react? Who is the protagonist? What does
he/she want? What obstacles are in his/her way? What part of the play is the climax?
What especially do you want this play to communicate?

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The Experience of Drama (p. 1164)

The selection from The Rising of the Moon is an excellent way to begin discussing drama.
It is a comfortable, easily accessible scene for students to ponder and speculate. They can
usually relate to the characters and the events with little confusion or intimidation. I
assign the scene for reading outside or at the beginning of class, and I review DiYannis
perceptive analysis of the text in class. While they read, I ask students to note three or
four lines that seem to hold some hidden meaning, lines that catch their interest and that
might prove to foreshadow events. Responses will vary, but the following might be
selected:
his friends might have a boat to meet him.
There isnt another man in Ireland would have broken gaol the way he did. He
must have some friends among the gaolers.
And if we get him itself, nothing but abuse on our heads for it from the people,
and maybe from our own relations.
Its those that are down would be up and those that are up would be down, if it
wasnt for us.
Its very lonesome here with nothing but the moon.
I then ask the following: Is this one method a playwright uses to hook the audience? Did
any of these lines especially hook you? As a director, how would you want your
actor/actress to speak these lines? Remember, I caution, you can ruin the effect if they
make the foreshadowing too obvious.
I find this activity a good way to teach students how to read a dramatic text
closely.

The Rising of the Moon Isabella Augusta Persse, Lady Gregory

(p. 1166)
DiYanni discusses The Rising of the Moon immediately after the play and throughout the
two sections following, The Interpretation of Drama and The Evaluation of Drama.
During some semesters, I have asked students to read the play and form their notes from
their own reading and DiYannis insightful commentary. We discuss their notes at the
beginning of the class.
In connection with The Rising of the Moon, I play a few very political Irish folk
songs. Among selections, I am sure to play The Rising of the Moon, a couple of verses
of which are sung in the play. I use a recording on The Best of The Clancy Brothers and
Tommy Makem. In addition to the verses in the play, the song also includes lyrics like a
thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon death to every foreign traitor
by the rising of the moon our army fights for freedom by the rising of the moon. The

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song gives the students much more of a feel for the political climate of the era, for the
drama and nationalistic urgency implicit in the plays title, and for the significance of the
sergeants dilemma. All of which would have been readily apparent to the 1907
audience.
I play a few other songs as well, perhaps Free the People by the Dubliners,
which tells of a father dragged away at night from his wife and children because he has
been working for Irish liberty, and perhaps The Teddy Bears Head by The Wolfe
Tones:
On the outskirts of Europe in Atlantic so dear
Theres a country called old Ireland
That looks like a teddy bear
Its an island thats split in two
With the border in her head
Her face and tail are all her own
But her brains are foreign led
Heres up the rebels, get back our teddys head
Her face and tail are all her own
But her brains are foreign led
These songs of revolution have been very effective in enhancing the students experience
of The Rising of the Moon. Most libraries will house, if not the above recordings, similar
songs.

The Interpretation of Drama (p. 1174)

The text takes students through the interpretive process with references to The Rising of
the Moon. This section explains the complex act of reading-interpreting that careful
readers perform often unconsciously.

The Evaluation of Drama (p. 1177)

I find a brief review of DiYannis comments under this section to be helpful in affirming
student confidence in their interpretation and evaluations. While his comments might
sound obvious to instructors, they are not to students, who too often believe that their
judgments, if different from the instructors, are inferior and less enlightened. More
importantly, the section sensitively informs students that our moral and cultural values
can be questioned and perhaps reconsidered during the reading experience. In many
ways literature confronts our values. At times the confrontation can be especially intense
for traditional college students, who are experiencing many changes and developments.
Useful for this purpose are questions like, What do you think of the sergeants attitude
toward his work responsibilities, toward the law, and toward Granuaile? Responses can
be surprising.

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Chapter Fifteen

Types of Drama
This brief chapter defines the two major dramatic modes, tragedy and comedy. I turn to
this chapter before or during a discussion of a particular play. For instance, I review the
section on tragedy with Oedipus and the section on comedy with Arms and Superman or
A Marriage Proposal.
I find it helpful to outline the chapter with the students. I list on the board the
characteristics of the mode under discussion and then we consider how the assigned play
demonstrates them. Sometimes I wait until the class has read two comedies before
discussing comedy. I have found that livelier discussions result.
On occasion, I have asked students to write a paper that illustrates a particular
mode with reference to one movie. I assign this before the chapter is presented in class,
so as to encourage a careful reading and deliberation of the definitions. This assignment
also speeds the class time spent on definition and outlining.

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Chapter Sixteen

Elements of Drama
This convenient chapter can be covered during any of your early discussions on drama.
With Chapter Fourteen, I have assigned this chapter for my initial class on drama. This
has proven effective as DiYanni frequently illustrates terms with references to The Rising
of the Moon. Since the elements of drama are at least somewhat different from those of
fiction, students find it helpful to review the elements of drama in class.
Like the text, I begin by defining plot, an obvious term to all. But other terms,
like exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement, are not as familiar
to students as instructors sometimes suppose. Defining the terms in class at the
beginning of the sessions on drama helps create better readers and helps discussions of
plays move smoothly, with fewer of those grinding and distracting interruptions to define
and explain what we think obvious. If students have not read a play for my class yet, I
ask them to illustrate the terms with references to commonly experienced plays, like
Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth, or popular movies.
We then discuss methods by which the playwright reveals character. Through
dialogue is obvious, but I challenge students to be on the look out for gestures, dress,
actions, and other stage business. When they begin reading, I direct them to interpret and
evaluate the characters as if they stood before them, and as they read further into the text,
I ask them to re-interpret and re-evaluate their initial judgments, just as they would in
actuality after becoming more acquainted with someone. Their discovery of character
actually parallels that of the playwright. I often refer to Ibsens comment that while
writing his first draft he knew the characters like people he traveled with on a railway
journey; during the second draft he felt as if he had just spent four weeks with them at the
same resort, and by the third draft he knew his characters as intimate friends. If they read
attentively, students will know the principal characters as they know their closest friends.
I also remind them that the material in italics is necessary reading, and they might miss
an important action or revealing moment if they skip over it. The discussion of
protagonist, antagonist, and conflict is especially helpful and gives students a vocabulary
for beginning their deliberations of a play.
The excerpts from Othello in this chapter illustrate well the functions of dialogue:
to advance the plot, to establish setting, to reveal character, and to reveal relationships
among characters. The section on subtext will prove especially enlightening to students,
many of whom have not consciously considered the term and its implications. While the
section on staging reminds students that plays are meant to be performed, it also serves to
create more imaginative armchair directors. Some students have never considered the

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importance of blocking or stage business, at least not while reading. Sometimes they
believe that details like blocking, selection of costumes, determination of lighting, just
sort of happen automatically or require little deliberation. By considering production
details in class as fully as possible, you will not only make students more appreciative of
theater, but also create more imaginative and involved readers.
Although you may have discussed theme, symbolism, and irony under fiction, it is
worth considering again, even repeating your previous comments. Too frequently, for
instance, students reduce a complex work of art to a simplistic moral statement or two:
Romeo and Juliet teaches us how dangerous our petty rivalries can be. Macbeth
teaches us not to be too ambitious or greedy. Once they do this they believe they have a
full understanding of the play. I think instructors need to emphasize that such statements
might be helpful, but they limit a fuller understanding of the work, particularly its
psychological depth, cultural revelations, and artistic significance.
I also remind them that the theme will usually be implicit in the text and all its
elements. A character will not usually state the theme the way an author does in an essay.
I support my comments with the following quotations:
Shakespeare is too good a showman to force a sermon down our throats, and too
experienced a theatre man to do less than provide us with entrancing
entertainment, leaving us to draw the moral for ourselves.
Margaret Webster
If you are going to write what is called a propaganda play, dont let any character
know in the play what the propaganda is.
Howard Lindsay
A good way to destroy a play is to force it to prove something.
Walter Kerr
These statements serve to de-emphasize theme and encourage students to appreciate the
other elements in not just a drama, but other literary works as well.

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Chapter Seventeen

Writing about Drama

Although Writing about Drama offers very clear direction, easily grasped by students
on their own, instructors will need to spend some class time emphasizing various points.
Throughout the semester, I find myself reminding students of the importance of
aggressive reading, i.e. annotating the text (p. 1202) and taking notes (p. 1204), followed
by a writing activity (brainstorming, freewriting, or a very rough draft) to formulate,
develop, and discover further ideas. Students need to be reminded that for most people
their most insightful and inventive thinking occurs while writing, as writing focuses
attention by harnessing our intellectual energies.
Through this process, students will more likely realize that they have something
meaningful to say about a text, which means they will more willingly enter and engage
themselves in the revision stage of the writing process.
The student essays in the text serve as models to which students can aspire.
Essays by literary critics are too far removed from their capabilities; however, they can
show students how to raise question about plays how to go about the process of
interpretation by developing arguments and providing evidence to support them.
The chapter ends with questions and suggestions for writing about drama. Many
of the thirty suggestions beginning on page 1214 could serve as research topics.

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Chapter Eighteen

The Greek Theater:

Sophocles in Context
I find that an in-class introduction to the ancient Greek culture and theater not only
motivates students, but also provides them with resources to read Oedipus Rex and
Antigon more capably as armchair directors. They usually enjoy the introduction,
during which I use visuals. Depending on time, I might show a film, slides (which will
include Greek sculpture), or, when falling behind in the semester, I simply bring in a
book with photographs of Epidaurus, Delphi, and an artists rendering of what an
experience in an ancient Greek theater would have looked like.
My introduction covers much of the same material presented on pages 1217-1222
of the text. (If pressed for time, you might just review what the text presents.) A rough
outline of my introduction looks like this:
Origins:

6th century B.C.

Political structure of Greece: the city-state
Thespis, chorus
Festival of Dionysos, dramatists submitted three plays and
a satyr (a short, comic afterpiece), prizes awarded for best
plays, the festival was funded with public and private
moneys

Theaters:

Size, construction, acoustics, scenery

Audiences:

all could attend, but predominantly male

foreign dignitaries invited
active, even aggressive in response unlike passive audiences of
today

Actors:

Thespis uses one actor, Aeschylus two, Sophocles added the third
only men acted
carefully trained, especially in vocal dexterity and movement
costumes
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a specialized and well-respected profession (In 277 B.C. a decree

was issued which exempted actors from military service and
allowed them to travel in hostile territories in time of war.)
Dramatists:

Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes

(I review the introduction to Sophocles in the text, and
usually only mention the names, dates, especially
significant plays, and the number of plays written and
number extant of the others students are astonished to
hear, for instance, that these authors wrote close to or more
than one hundred plays each, but that a very small
percentage of the texts has survived.)

Structure:

Of Sophocless plays: prologue (establishes the conflict, provides

exposition), prodos (entrance of the chorus), four scenes
(build and later resolve conflict), each separated by an ode
(or stasimon, presenting the communal voice of the
chorus), exodos (resolution).

Classical Unites:
Brevity:

Time, Place, Action

I note that Greek tragedies are sparse and that only the most
necessary details are included this sets up later questions.

I say very little about the chorus until our discussion of Oedipus, but I warn them that the
choral odes will present difficulty for them as they read. I tell them not to become too
frustrated by them as they are brief, and I direct them to focus on character and plot. For
many, this is their first experience with reading a Greek tragedy, and I want it to be
positive and enjoyable and to their surprise, it usually is.
While the above represents more than an hour of introduction material, I must
admit that I sometimes have less than half that to introduce the Greek theater. During
those classes, I forego the film and slide and cut some material from the origins, theater,
and acting.

Oedipus Rex Sophocles (p. 1222)

I begin by asking students to summarize the plot, scene by scene, which also serves as a
review of the structure. The summary brings into discussion Sophocless skillful use of
exposition, the classical unities, and the conciseness of the play, from which much of its
power emanates. I ask students to mention the point in the play where they realized
Oedipus was the killer. Did this decrease your enjoyment of the play? The response is
predictably no, which leads us to study the use of foreshadowing and the effectiveness
of the dramatic irony.

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Before beginning our discussion of Oedipus as tragic hero, I ask students the
following question:
As the play opens, what is Oedipuss objective? Does it change as the plot progresses?
At first Oedipus wants to rid the country of its torment, which remains his goal. But it
becomes more specific with the return of Creon from Delphi: to find the killer of Laos.
Finally, it becomes to identify his parents, which is to say, to identify himself. His
objective becomes more specific, but never deviates or becomes inconsistent with service
to country.
I then present the Aristotelian characteristics of a tragic hero and ask students to
discuss how Oedipus qualifies. At this point you might have students turn to the section
on tragedy on page 1180, then read Aristotles The Six Elements of Tragedy (p. 1293),
and Aristotles On Tragedy in Chapter Twenty-five. I usually list the characteristics of
a tragic hero on the blackboard and have students apply them to Oedipus. My list reads
like this:
1. Extraordinary in rank and deed of high estate, great reputation and
prosperity.
What kind of King was Oedipus? Students need to look at how the citizens in the play
react to him at the beginning, and, perhaps more revealingly, how they respond to him
after his downfall. Is anyone in the play pleased with Oedipuss fall and humiliation?
What heroic deeds did he perform? It is obvious, but because the Sphinx episode is not
depicted onstage students may need to be reminded.
2. A Tragic Flaw Hamartia
A tragic flaw in the character of the tragic hero sometimes helps to bring about his fall.
Some argue that Oedipus is guilty of pride or hubris, others that he is too rash (he
certainly is, and students will find ample evidence), and still others, including myself,
argue that it is his whole character that contributes to his movement from happiness to
misery in a sudden reversal of fortune. Oedipus may be proud and he may be rash, but he
is very caring, very honest, and relentless in his pursuit of the truth; in short, very noble
and very brave.
Hamartia is often inaccurately defined as a tragic flaw. Hamartia refers to
errors, missteps, or misjudgments, which set the heros reversal of fortune in action.
Oedipus, obviously, makes several, perhaps beginning when he left Corinth.
3. Outside elements cooperate in the heros fall.
The oracles, Laos, Iocast, bad luck, fate.

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4. Recognition Anagnorisis
Oedipus becomes fully aware of the import of his past actions only when the messenger
from Corinth addresses him. He also gains knowledge about himself, the gods, and the
world.
5. Willing to Suffer
As an extraordinary and now fully informed individual, the tragic hero must prove
willing to suffer for his transgressions, even though he may not be fully guilty. Oedipus
not only accepts his edict issued earlier in the day, but he also blinds himself as further
punishment.
This leads to some interesting questions that could spark debate: Does the
punishment exceed the crime? If you were responsible for Oedipuss punishment, what
would be the sentence? If any? What could Oedipus have done to avoid his downfall?
Anything? Do you feel pity for Oedipus? Why or why not?
I then move on to other qualities of traditional tragedy, beginning with poetry as the
language of traditional tragedy and its effectiveness in depicting the heights and depths of
human emotion, achievement, and failure.
We then consider DiYannis final full paragraph on page 1181. I ask students to
react. I also remind them of the pattern of upheaval and restoration that is common to
tragedy. At the end of Oedipus, Thebes future looks promising: the curse is removed
and Creon seems well-suited to be King.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1262
1. Responses will vary.
2. See discussion above. Oedipus is more fascinating than horrifying because he does
something we continue to do all our lives: define and re-define ourselves. Oedipus
strives to establish an identity which he knows to be honest. Our process of selfidentification, it seems to me, often begins with the details surrounding our birth:
date, place, parents, etc. Oedipus believes he cannot adequately re-define himself
until he can determine these details. In this way, we can identify with his pain,
although he is a King in an ancient land. We care about him and his quest. We might
even wonder how we might react if we discovered the details of our birth had been
kept from us.
3.

Irony of circumstance or situation occurs when a discrepancy exists between what

seems to be and what is, or when an individual expects one thing to occur only to
discover that the opposite has happened: Oedipus believes that by leaving Corinth he

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can escape the prophecy, and he believes that the prophecy is wrong when he hears of
Polyboss death.
Dramatic Irony occurs when a discrepancy exists between what the characters
know and what the audience or readers know: in Scene I, Oedipus says, I take the
sons part, just as though I were his son, to press the fight for him and see it won!
(lines 45-50). In Scene III, Oedipus says, I cannot be dishonored, luck is my
mother (lines 161-62).
4. The imagery of light and darkness throughout the play reinforces the shadowy nature
of knowledge. It can be very difficult to detect the truth among all the shadows,
camouflages, and ambiguities. There are references to the sun, lightning, flaring
light, and more in Odes I, II, III, and IV. In the Prologue we hear that Thebes is all
darkened (line 33) and that Oedipus must bring what is dark to light (line 134); in
the Prodos the chorus tells of the nightfall of the past (line 7); in Scene I, Teiresias
warns Oedipus that he will be driven from Thebes with only night upon your
precious eyes (lines 202-204) also an example of foreshadowing. In Scene II,
Oedipus tells Iocast that a shadowy memory crossed my mind (line 201).
The irony is that those who are blind see the truth most clearly: Teiresias and
Oedipus at the end.
5. I think it is important to determine the function of each Choral Ode with the students:
Prodos:

The chorus established a melancholy mood and provides

exposition. The leading citizens of Thebes are confused,
frightened, and desperate.

Ode I:

Prepares audience for what will occur, including the fact that the
killer of Laos will be caught and that Teiresias will make a bold,
bewildering pronouncement.

Ode II:

Helps establish themes, such as the importance of keeping the laws

of the gods and maintaining faith in the oracles of Delphi, and
warns against hubris.

Ode III:

Focuses attention on the critical issues: who are the parents of

Oedipus? The tone is desperate and full of concern for their
beloved King.

Ode IV:

Expresses great sympathy for Oedipus, which, in part, manipulates

the audiences emotional response.

Exodos:

The Choragos closes the play with a comment about human frailty
and the unpredictable nature of existence.

Since the violence occurs offstage, the chorus relieves an otherwise static presentation
with its dances or stylized movements as it crosses the stage during the odes. It also

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serves to make the passage of time more plausible, as a few hours in the plays action
sometimes pass between scenes. The chorus interacts with characters in the play
through the Choragos, a functional character who provides cautious advice and
suggestions, verifies the identity of the shepherd, and worries about Iocast after the
truth is established.
6. Some of the horrible events occur before the start of the play: piercing the ankles of
the infant Oedipus, the murder of Laos, the confrontation with the Sphinx but so do
festive, colorful occasions like Oedipuss coronation and marriage. The disadvantage
is that very dramatic scenes are left unstaged. The advantages are that the unity of
action is left unbroken and the sparseness and swiftness of the play are maintained; all
of which propel the tragedy to its inexorable conclusion. That the plays action takes
place in so short a time adds to its tragic tone and emphasizes the frightening rapidity
with which human destiny can change.
To dramatize how different conventions are today, I ask students to imagine that
Sophocles tells a Hollywood producer about Oedipus. The producer likes the story
and commissions a script. How do you think the producer would respond to the
script? The idea too behind this scenario is to demonstrate how exciting a script can
be without staged violence or pageantry.
7. I present Iocast as a foil to Oedipus. (I define foil as a minor character who, through
contrast, underscores distinctive characteristics of the protagonist.) Her suicide,
which many find understandable given her circumstances, contrasts with Oedipuss
dignity and bravery as he confronts his tragic fate. Although Oedipuss tragic stature
may be enhanced, most readers and viewers will not lose any respect and sympathy
for her.
You might suggest that students find a copy of Ruth Eisenbergs poem Jocasta.
The poem opens a window onto the Queens motivations and feelings. But how
consistent are these motivations with Sophocless Iocast? I challenge students with
this question, which can be used as a topic for an essay. We also discuss how
Eisenbergs poem could be staged. How do the students envision the narrator? the
scenery? the pace? the hanging? Eisenberg wrote an essay entitled Writing
Jocasta, which provides insight not only into the artistic process, but also into the
writing process in general, whether writing poetry, fiction, drama, or essays. Writing
Jocasta will help reinforce the importance of revision and illustrate how
methodically a professional writer approaches a writing task.
8. Oedipus is partly to blame for what happens before and during the action of the play:
for instance, he could have consulted Polybos and Merop before leaving Corinth; he
did not have to kill Laos and his escorts for driving him off the road; he could have
stopped his investigation after warnings from Teiresias, Iocast, and the shepherd.
But then we would have a different character, less rash, less quick-tempered, less
truthful, and less brave.
At the beginning of the play, Oedipus appears and speaks boldly and confidently
from a position of power. After the fall, he is powerless, concerned for his children
rather than the whole population, and anxious to be driven from Thebes. He is not

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used to his powerlessness, as revealed when he asks Creon to hurry in carrying out his
exile. Creon admonishes him.
9. Responses will vary. This could be a topic for a student essay.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. How does Creon serve as a foil to Oedipus?
His calm response to charges of treason contrasts with Oedipuss quick-tempered
response to Teiresias.
2. For a play so celebrated for its brevity, what is the purpose of the scene in which
Oedipus bids farewell to Antigon and Ismen?
This scene increases our sympathy for Oedipus who, in the midst of his own destruction
and public humiliation, cares more for his daughters than himself. Sophocles seems to be
taking pains that we leave the theater with respect and sympathy for his protagonist.
3. How does the play make a statement in favor of the traditional religion based on
Homeric mythology and faith in the oracles?
4. Ask students to consider Teiresias. How does he obtain this gift of prophecy? In
what other myths does he display his gift?
5. Consider the feminist theme in Eisenbergs Jocasta (see response #7 above). Ask
students to research the conditions of women in fifth-century B.C. Greece.
6. Read Sigmund Freuds The Oedipus Complex (p. 1295). Is Freud fair to Oedipus?
Do you agree with Freuds analysis of the play?
7. Ask students to read W. B. Yeatss Purgatory, a play inspired by Oedipus and in
which a son kills an abusive father. Was Oedipuss father abusive? How do Oedipus
and the Old Man in Purgatory pay for the murder?
8. Ask students to write a newspaper column based on their interview with one of the
following characters: with Iocast just prior to the messengers arrival from Corinth,
with one of the suppliants after Teiresiass meeting with Oedipus, with the Choragos
after the action of the play has transpired, with Creon three days later, or with one of
Creons sons a few days later.

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An Approach to Teaching Oedipus Rex

Below Professor William Dunning shares his outline on teaching Oedipus along with
Roman Polanskis Chinatown. I find Professor Dunnings approach to be innovative and
stimulating, and I offer it here for your consideration and use.

Cities, Crowds, and Ruins: Recovering the Past in Sophocless

Oedipus and Polanskis Chinatown
William J. Dunning, Ph.D.
St. Johns University, NY

I. Oedipus and the film Chinatown (1972) can be read as urban stories.
A. Oedipus is fundamentally a city story. The city is Thebes and we discover
from the opening of the play that it is struck with plague.
B. In Chinatown the city of Los Angeles is threatened by a water shortage, a
situation comparable to the Theban plague. In Polanskis film, many of the
characters also suffer from colds, fevers, and coughs, showing the deep
ramifications of the drought.
C. In both texts, the plague of the city inspires a criminal investigation: one
persons crime has tainted an entire community.

II. Two Tales of Investigation

A. The major trope of blindness versus sight announces the theme of the search
for knowledge.
B. In Sophocless play Oedipus puts himself in charge of finding the murderer of
the former king. In the meantime, he brings forth Teiresias, the blind seer, to
shed some light on the situation.
C. In Polanskis film, J. J. Geddes, a detective, uncovers a story of murder and
incest.
D. In Chinatown a pair of bifocals is the final piece of evidence that connects
Noah Cross to the murder of Hollis Mullwray. Polanski uses such props as
eyeglasses, cameras, photographs, mirrors, as well as reflections created by
water to reinforce the theme of blindness versus sight.

III. The Art of the Riddle

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A. Oedipus swollen feet is a clue to the plays central mystery, a fact

continually emphasized by Oedipuss limp.
B. Echoing a major theme of the Greek play, Polanski also places an emphasis on
the feet and the inability to stand upright. At a crucial point in the film,
Geddes loses his shoe in a water runoff and limps. There are also camera
close-ups of a tagged toe in the city morgue as well as of the missing shoe on
the body of Hollis Mullwray.
C. Based on riddles themselves, these texts are about the act of making meaning
out of enigmas.
D. The Chinese domestics who inhabit the borders of the film, the conversational
references to Chinatown throughout the film, and the final directorial pan shot
of the Chinese mob in the last scene of the film are Polanskis filmic
reworking of the chorus, the Sphinx, and riddles. That is, riddles and
language can work the same way both are hard to understand if you dont
know how to read the signs and their referents.

IV. Solving the Riddle and Saving the City

A. Oedipus must uncover the origins of his own life. In one sense, he must make
his story out of history. Only after he discovers his past and therefore his
true identity that he has killed his father and married his mother can the
city of Thebes be saved.
B. J. J. Geddes uncovers a tale of incest and murder. As in Oedipus, the narrative
action is crucially related to the saving of the city. Both stories deal with blind
connections and the recovery of true identities.
C. Both Oedipus and Chinatown explore the vexed notions of identity. People
can have two, perhaps even three identities. Perhaps the climatic scene in the
movie is when Evelyn Mullwray tells Geddes that Catherine is both her sister
and her daughter, bringing the familial tragedy to light.

V. The City as Container: Exiting the Texts

A. Both Oedipus and Geddes break seals, trespass through doorways, and
discover secrets.
B. Both Oedipus and Geddes end up as ritual scapegoats their dismissal at the
end of their narratives absolves the rest of the community of infection.
C. Why the title Chinatown? Only in the last scene of the movie do we go to
Chinatown. We know that Chinatown was where Geddes used to work earlier
in his career, and where he got into trouble. It is a place full of ethnic

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traditions and people who speak Chinese. It is also a place where you dont
know who is who, where identities are mistaken, where mistakes are made,
and where you are shot for the wrong reason. On one level, Chinatown is
Geddess primal scene (or rather his crossroads). In order to remedy the
present situation he must return to his past, and that past involves going back
to Chinatown. On another level, what Polanski might be suggesting is that
Chinatown in some epistemological and metaphysical way is where we
have been all along.

Antigon Sophocles (p. 1263)

When I cover Antigon, I do so immediately following Oedipus. While I spend three to
four class hours on Oedipus, I limit our discussions on Antigon to somewhere between
one and two hours. Our lengthy and detailed discussion of Oedipus allows for greater
flexibility and informality when discussing Antigon. I begin class by asking students
very open-ended questions: how did you like Antigon compared to Oedipus? Which
tragedy would you rather see performed? What were the key issues in this play? Is
Antigon completely right, and Creon completely wrong? Was Creon a slave to his own
edict like Oedipus? Has Creon changed since the conclusion of Oedipus? Does this
suggest anything about powers effect on seemingly the most prudent of individuals?
Does Thebes appear changed from the prosperous days of Oedipuss rule?
I also like to explore the father-son relationship of Creon and Haimon, reading
closely Scene III in which Haimon pleads for his wifes life. Haimons line of argument
and his method of approach reveals as much about the father as the son. We compare this
to Scene II of Oedipus, in which Creon defends himself from charges of treason.
Antigon and Ismen present different ideas on the role and power of women in
ancient Greek society. Antigon can be discussed as the progressive and Ismen the
conservative. A close reading of the Prologue from this perspective can be very
insightful.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1292
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary. Students will argue in favor of both Antigon and Creon. They
will see the complexity of the issues. Antigon may be upholding family honor and
religious tradition but Creon has a principality to run. He cannot wave laws in favor
of his niece, especially for a nephew who attacked Thebes and put the lives of its
citizens at risk whether that nephew was justified or not. Remember too, Creon has
just assumed the throne on the death of Eteocls, his other nephew who died in the
attack. His fear of anarchy might be justified. But does Creon prove too concerned
with his own power? Does he demonstrate irreverence for the Gods?

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3. Both Creon and Antigon are strong, stubborn, immovable, and uncompromising in
their positions. Creon may change his position, but only when it is too late. He is
more concerned with political power and his public image, while Antigon is more
concerned with spiritual values and family honor. Antigons inflexibility can be seen
in her interaction with her sister and Creon, and Creons inflexibility can be seen in
his interaction with his son, the chorus, Teiresias, and Antigon.
4. Haimon emphasizes the justness of Antigons position and her decision that ideals
are worth dying for. Haimon approaches his father respectfully and with great selfcontrol, but as his father remains inflexible, Haimon becomes more impassioned and
confrontational.
5. Ismen acts as a foil for Antigon. Ismen is conservative, more cautious, less
decisive, capable of being swayed, and less strong than her progressive, decisive,
immovable, and valiant sister. Eurydic, by her suicide, demonstrates the full
catastrophe Creons obsession with power has brought to himself. Her death fulfills
Teiresiass prophecy.
6. The structure of Antigon follows the traditional format of a Greek tragedy:
Prologue, Prodos, five Scenes, four Choral Odes, Paean (a hymn calling upon
Dionysos for support), Exodos.
7. The chorus comments on the action, provides exposition, helps to establish the proper
tone or mood, develops the theme, and through the Choragos advises, supports, or
warns the principal characters.
8. Responses will vary, but most students will sympathize with Antigon.
9. Creon listens to advice at the end of the play and learns humility and the dangers of
excessive pride.
10. Sophocles, a priest of Asclepius (the god of healing and medicine), endorses the
traditional religious values of Antigon. However, see too the responses to #s 2 and 3
above.
11. This could be a writing assignment. Ask students to speculate on the reasons for
Creons change.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Who is the tragic hero Antigon or Creon? Use Aristotles definition.
2. Compare Oedipus and Creon as kings.

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3. Ask students to comment on George Steiners Principal Constants of Conflict in

Antigon (p. 1300) and the student essay by Alayna Phieffer, Antigon: A Struggle
between Human and Divine Powers (p. 1209).
4. Read Jean Anouilhs Antigon. Compare the similarities and differences. Has
Anouilh taken too many liberties? Are his changes effective?

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Chapter Nineteen

The Elizabethan Theater:

Shakespeare in Context
Although most students will have been exposed to Shakespearean tragedy in high school,
they are nonetheless intimidated by his work. Many will have a difficult time grasping
the plot clearly, let alone the playwrights many subtleties. I encourage them to see
movie versions of the assigned play before reading the text. I find this makes for a more
fulfilling and appreciative reading experience. I also find that demystifying the life and
times of Shakespeare, before reading, serves to motivate students and decrease a bit of
the intimidation. Although I elaborate very little on the outline below, I often have to cut
my presentation because of time constraints. In that case, I rely almost solely on the
succinct and solid introductory material in the text.

Elizabethan England
Who Was Elizabeth?
Lived from 1533-1603, reigned from 1558-1603.
Her reign was generally marked by peace, economic prosperity, and social
advancement.
Despite her success, the age was openly skeptical about a womans ability and
right to rule.
Babington Conspiracy of 1586 refers to a plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Mary,
Queen of Scots was involved and executed when the plot was uncovered.
Elizabeth was a skilled diplomat who dealt effectively with foreign
governments, factions at home, and Parliament.
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 Never married. Marriage would have upset the delicate political relationships
she maintained with one foreign or domestic group or another.
She was a patron of the arts and several poems have been credited to her.
She was succeeded by James I (reigned until 1625). A far less successful
monarch, he was not a good diplomat as he resisted compromise. He was
out of touch with the English people, and his reign helped widen the gap
between crown and Parliament that led to the Civil War.
The Times
a small nation by modern standards, a population of about five million.
a proud nation with a strong sense of national identity.
overseas exploration and empire expansion began (Drake circumnavigated the
world from 1577-1581; Jamestown 1607).
Ireland declared a kingdom under English rule in 1541, but was more a source
of trouble than of economic strength.
England was rural; agriculture chief means of livelihood; mining and timber
were expanding industries.
Travel within England was slow because of poor roads and dangerous because
of highway robbers.
English Renaissance in full bloom. Arts and sciences flourished.
Increased contact with other nations led to new styles of living, new fashions,
new art forms (the sonnet), a broader vocabulary (which Shakespeare
eagerly appropriated).
New domestic comforts included chimneys, metal dishes, beds and pillows,
carpets, windows.
London had trees, gardens, and meadows. London Bridge was a fashionable
thoroughfare with shops festively decorated for certain occasions. But
London Bridge also displayed the heads of executed traitors.
City houses were small and crowded, and the streets narrow and filthy.
Epidemics and plagues resulted from the unsanitary conditions.
The heart of the city stretched for a couple of miles at most.

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Shakespeares Life (1564-1616)

The paragraph in the text (p. 1304) on Shakespeares life provides all the details you
might have time to present. What might be more helpful is a review of pages 1303-04, as
they present a succinct statement of Shakespeares importance. To the two explanations
of Shakespeares appeal (revelation of character, language), I add a third: philosophy
his ability to explore the complexities and paradoxes inherent in the human condition.
If time allows, I add the following information to my presentation of his
biography. His life falls into three main periods: first twenty years in Stratford, where
his father was a fairly prominent member of the community; his approximately twentyfive year career as an actor, playwright, and poet, based in London; the approximately
last five years of his life when he retired to Stratford.
From what we know, his life was rather ordinary for one of his social position.
Apparently a political conservative, he seemed to enjoy London, but never surrendered
his roots in the countryside. He became rich from his work in the theatre, increasing his
prosperity when he became one of the partners in the new Globe Theatre. Thus he was
not only a great writer, but also a very good businessman.

The Globe
I have outlined the information DiYanni presents in the text (pp. 1303-04):
capacity for 2300 theater-goers, including 800 groundlings.
more prosperous spectators sat in one of the three stories nearly encircling the
stage.
stage projected out into the audience, creating more intimacy between actors and
audience than Greek stages.
a fairly versatile stage that contained a balcony, several doors for convenient
entrances and exits, a curtained alcove, and a stage floor trapdoor.
I do not have time to show slides or a film concerning the Globe, but students enjoy
seeing the few artist renderings of the Globe that I bring to class. Sometimes we look
again at the photographs of Greek theaters for comparison.

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Othello William Shakespeare (p. 1307)

Before students begin reading, I do one or two activities: show approximately the
opening twenty minutes of a film version of Othello (see the Appendix), or I guide them
through Act I, summarizing scenes and reading selected passages. Most students have
difficulty with Shakespeare so I use one of these activities to give them a bit of a head
start. After students have completed the reading assignments, I find it necessary to spend
some time reviewing the story line, reading several passages in the process. I think it is
imperative that the instructor read aloud. The students will get a better feel for the
rhythms, inflections, etc. from the instructors reading than a video with its visual
distractions or an audio tape. There is something in the immediacy and intimacy of the
live reading of the instructor that proves especially instructive and enlightening.
I begin our analysis of the tragedy by discussing Shakespeares use of Giraldi
Cinthios Tale of the Moor as source. Most students are surprised to learn that
Shakespeare drew from other works for the plots of his plays. At first, they feel as if
Shakespeare was a plagiarist. But after we review Tale of the Moor, they usually
appreciate even more Shakespeares genius and vision, as he transforms a weak story into
one of the worlds great works of art. Although I discuss other Shakespearean variations
with The Tale of the Moor, the following ones seem especially significant:
In Cinthio only Disdemona is given a name, which Shakespeare changes to
Desdemona. Shakespeares Iago is identified as the Ensign and his Cassio is called the
Captain.
The Moor and Disdemona have lived harmoniously as husband and wife for
some time before the Ensigns destructive scheme.
In Cinthio, the Ensigns wife knows of her husbands plot, but chooses to remain
silent.
In Cinthio, the Moor concealed the Ensign and coaxed Disdemona to rise from
bed and approach her closet, out of which the Ensign rushed and beat her to death with a
sandbag. The Moor and Ensign placed her corpse on her bed and collapsed a portion of
the ceiling to make the death look accidental.
The Ensign, however, arranges for the Moor to be charged with and convicted of
murder. The Moor is banished and eventually slain by Disdemonas relatives. The
Ensign is not charged with this crime, but after a subsequent act of villainy, he is
apprehended, tortured into a confession, and dies a miserable death.
After discussing Othellos source, we turn to the characters, beginning with
Othello. You might investigate some of the following issues with your class: Is Othello

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an Aristotelian tragic hero, like Oedipus? (See the discussion of Oedipus in this manual,
and in the text, see pages 1180, 1293, 2114.) How does his race, the importance of which
is signaled by the title of the play, affect his relationships with the other characters? How
does being a Moor in Venice affect his own confidence and sense of security? How does
Iago use Othellos foreignness to his advantage? (See A. D. Nuttals comments in the
text beginning on page 1503.) I also think it is interesting to look at Othellos past
experiences, which indicate a decisive, resourceful, and intelligent soldier, well-prepared
to be a general. What does this tell us about what Samuel Coleridge called the almost
superhuman art of Iago? What do Othello and Desdemona find attractive about one
another? (See Act I, scene iii, lines 166-67, also Othello brings adventure to her sheltered
life while she offers love and stability.)
To open our discussion of Iago, I ask about his motive. The answers range: for
Cassios position, because Othello has supposedly cuckolded him, for profit from
swindling Roderigo, for fun from deceiving and destroying everyone, because Cassio
supposedly cuckolded him, out of love for Desdemona, out of jealousy for Cassios good
looks, to be in control of other lives, to reshape individual consciousness, to reshape the
world to his liking, and others. Under examination, each of these possible motivations
will prove deficient as the sole force: for instance, if he wants Cassios position, why
does he continue his scheming after Cassios firing? The one that is most difficult to
explain away is fun. Iago enjoys what he is doing. Actors usually deliver his last words
before breaking into a vicious laugh:
Othello:

demand that demi-devil

Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body?

Iago:

Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.

From this time forth I never will speak word.
(V, ii, 297-300)

Othellos question, Iagos last lines, and silence from other characters on the issue of
motive emphasize that no one in the play can rationalize Iagos destructive actions. The
reader is in the same confused position as the characters. Indeed, Iago himself probably
could not have answered Othellos question even if he wanted. Coleridge might serve as
the best guide on the discussion of Iagos motive. He states that the soliloquy which ends
Act One reveals the motive-hunting of motiveless malignancy. Certainly, Iago suggests
and knowingly creates motives for inspiration (e.g., Othellos and Cassios cuckolding of
him), which indicates that he has to inspire himself to evil, since he has no justified
cause. For me, this supports Coleridges very sound argument for motiveless
malignancy. (See Maurice Charneys comments in the text beginning on page 1504.)
I also ask students to find illustrations of Iagos resourcefulness, creativity, acting
ability, cunning, and daring. Why does his plot fail? What does he underestimate about
Emilia? Why does he underestimate her? Any cultural reason concerning wifely loyalty?
The questions in the text, answered below, will provide other ideas as well for your
sessions on Othello.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1392)

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1. Responses will vary.

2. Othello fulfills most of the qualifications of a tragic hero. (See text pages 1180, 1293,
2114, and discussion in this manual under Oedipus.) He is extraordinary in rank,
character and deed, i.e., he is of high estate and great reputation and prosperity;
certainly he experiences a reversal caused by his own mistakes, and he has a tragic
flaw as well he is too gullible, as Iago informs us in Act I, iii, 370-72; but elements
outside of his control also contribute to his fall (Iago, being foreign, bad luck with the
losing of the handkerchief and Biancas arrival with the handkerchief, Desdemonas
naivet, and more); he experiences recognition or agagnorisis; and he is willing to
suffer. I also like to ask students if Othello deserved death.
3. A. C. Bradleys classic essay The Noble Othello clearly traces Othellos decline (in
Leonard F. Dean, ed., A Casebook on Othello). In Act I, Othello is self-confident,
open, clear-headed, and calm; see his reaction when Brabantio tries to arrest him (ii,
58-60, 86-90). In Act III, Othellos jealousy is aroused and it begins to drive him; he
declares his unwavering commitment to murder his wife I cite lines 450-458 to
illustrate how poetry is used in traditional tragedy to express extreme emotional
states. In Act V and as early as Act III, Othello is so completely under Iagos power
that his language takes on the sexual coarseness of Iagos (i, 31-36; ii, 207-14; see too
IV, ii, 58-62); so impassioned has he become that he cannot grant a hearing to his
wifes deathbed denial; after he recognizes the truth, he articulates his epitaph
proudly, rationally, somewhat calmly, and without self-pity (ii, 289-91; ii, 334-52).
4. Iago manipulates others through their weaknesses and desires. Roderigo desires
Desdemona, so Iago promises her to him, even though to just about anyone,
fulfillment of Roderigos desire is hopeless and always has been (see I, i, 93-99).
Iago exploits Cassios poor and unhappy brains for drinking (II, iii, 27-28), his
desire to get back his position, and his trust in him. He exploits Othellos gullible
nature, causing the general to doubt that which he knows, by interpreting events for
him and feeding Othellos jealousy. One reason why Iago seems credible to Othello
is because he always seems to be trying to hide bad news or negative interpretations
of events, a trap Othello leaps into time after time. Iago also exploits Othellos
foreignness. Consider the lines below in which Iago supposedly enlightens Othello
about Venetian women:
Iago: In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands, their best conscience
Is not to leavt undone, but kept unknown.
Othello: Dost thou say so?
(III, iii, 203-205)
See also III, iii, 228-238; 262-267.
5. See discussion above before question responses.

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6. Iago misjudges Emilia. He demonstrates no love for her, using Emilia as he uses
anyone else necessary to his plot. He probably thought she lacked the skillfulness to
detect his scheming, but he compounded this misjudgment by underestimating her
loyalty to Desdemona and her loyalty to truth and justice. She reveals Iagos
humanness he is an incredibly resourceful, malicious schemer, but he is not a devil,
as some very literal readers might believe. Emilias experience, awareness, and
practical morality contrast with Desdemonas inexperience, innocence, and
uncompromising morality see Act IV, iii.
7. Bianca is essentially Cassios prostitute; she is sexually promiscuous in a way
Desdemona could never be, and in a way Emilia would be only for the whole world:
IV, iii, 60-80. She confirms Othellos worst fears when she enters with his wifes
handkerchief.
Brabantio helps set the passionate tone for the play, demonstrates the racial
prejudice against Othello, and utters a statement that Iago uses to his advantage:
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
(I, iii, 286-87)
8. The dual settings emphasize the plays very prominent polarities of reason and
passion. In Venice, reason, as embodied by the Duke, is firmly in control, but in
Cyprus Othellos passions take over and the barbaric Iago moves unchecked. Alvin
Kernan wrote that Shakespeare makes Venice over into a form of the City, the
ageless image of government, of reason, of law, and of social concord, while Cyprus
is an outpost where passions are more explosive and closer to the surface than in
Venice. Kernan also states that the dual settings show a movement expressed in
geographical and social symbols from Venice to a Cyprus exposed to attack, from The
City to barbarism, from Christendom to the domain of the Turks, from order to riot,
from justice to wild revenge and murder, from truth to falsehood (Othello: An
Introduction, in Alfred Harbage, ed., Shakespeare, The Tragedies: A Collection of
Critical Essays, pp. 77, 78, 79-80; also appears in the New American Library
paperback edition of Othello).
9. Othello and Desdemona represent a pure love, untouched by base impulses. In
contrast, the speeches of Roderigo, Iago, Emilia, and Bianca consider love in sexual
terms, not as a spiritual union. Iago has numerous references to bestial sexuality
see Act I, i, when he informs Brabantio of Desdemonas elopement.
10. The handkerchief is a symbol of Othellos love for and trust in Desdemona. The
following scenes make use of perhaps this most famous stage prop:
III, iii, 287-326
III, iv, 46-101
III, iv, 170-185

Emilia finds the handkerchief.

Othello demands Desdemona produce the handkerchief.
Cassio gives the handkerchief to Bianca.

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IV, i, 1-42, 138-165

Iago worries Othello by keeping the issue of the

handkerchief on his mind. Bianca enters with it.

V, ii, 210-233

Othello learns the truth about the handkerchief from

Emilia.

11. At this point, Othello sees himself completing an honorable act. His murder of
Desdemona is her necessary punishment for adultery, which corrupted their spiritual
love. His act can also be interpreted as a sacrifice, as he murders Desdemona to save
her from dishonor. This Othello is more sorrowful, than angry here. Ironically, he
wants the act of murder to be dispassionate and rational.
12. Iagos manipulation of Othello includes three specific techniques:
Iago plants an idea. Othello repeats the idea a few moments later in his own
words. Iago reinforces the idea.
Iago begins a leading statement that he does not complete. Othello finishes it
and Iago confirms it.
Iago uses words that can be interpreted in more than one way. Iago leads
Othello without making the initially damning statement. This makes him
appear more honest and the truth firmer.
13. Responses will vary.
14. Responses will vary.
15. Responses will vary.
16. Responses will vary. But students should consider at least two passages when
discussing the theme of jealousy. When Iago further reveals his plot (II, i, 259-286),
he seems jealous himself (sincerely so?) and says that he must put the Moor/ At least
into a jealousy so strong/ That judgment cannot cure. Later, Iago tells Othello to
beware of the green-eyed monster, Othello responds that he would not make a life
of jealousy. A conversation Iago brilliantly manipulates (III, iii, 165-195). Othello
implies that even the most rational of individuals possess a propensity to be jealous.
17. Responses will vary. Ask students to suggest scenes in which Iagos power is
especially strong and devious.
18. This question could be a good assignment for an essay.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Discuss the appearances of the Clown (III, i; III, iv).

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2. Discuss the use of dramatic irony. How does it make the play more engaging?
3. Rewrite one scene from Othello re-staging it in a contemporary setting with
contemporary characters. Where would you set the play? How would the characters
dress? How old would they be? Paraphrase the dialogue. Retain only the names.
4. Shakespeare tells us almost nothing of Iagos past. What kind of past life do you
think Iago had? Write an essay as if you were a former schoolmate of Iagos. What
was Iago like? Develop one or two anecdotes.

Hamlet William Shakespeare (p. 1394)

If you have time to cover only one Shakespearean play, there is the same advantage and
disadvantage to assigning Hamlet instead of Othello: namely, that most students have
read Hamlet in high school. The disadvantage then is that students are missing an
opportunity to study a different Shakespearean work. (Far fewer students have covered
Othello in high school.) But the advantage to assigning Hamlet is that time spent on plot
summary can be significantly reduced, not eliminated but reduced. Other issues, like
characterization, will also require less time than you would allot for Othello. Thus,
instructors will have an opportunity for different approaches and explorations. Below, I
suggest a few that for a beginning class on literature are accessible, workable, ad
instructive:
1. There are several video versions of Hamlet readily available. (See the
Appendix.) Show three versions of the same soliloquy. Discuss the differences, focusing
on the actors and directors choices. What makes the three Hamlets very different
characters? What parts of Hamlets personality does each actor emphasize? Try this
activity for one or two soliloquies.
2. Does Hamlet have an Oedipus Complex? Students probably did not discuss
this in high school. Discuss how his mothers marriage separates him from her, his
reference to the marriage as incest, and his anxiety about sex (tells Ophelia to Get thee
to a nunnry and tells her we will have no more marriages, III, I, 131, 157). Show
how directors make use of this possibility. Oliviers Hamlet gives his mother an extended
kiss, and Gibsons Hamlet demonstrates the possibility in the confrontation between
mother and son in the bedchamber. (See Adrian Pooles Hamlet and Oedipus on page
1498.)
3. Focus more time on minor characters. For example, discuss the similarities of
the two female characters. Do these similarities reveal anything about the cultural milieu
of Hamlet? Do men use them for their own personal advancement or gain? Consider
Polonius, Hamlet, and Claudius. Does Polonius treat Laertes and Ophelia much
differently?

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4. Discuss the dark humor of the play. What words and/or actions of Hamlet are
darkly comedic? In anyway, can his sending of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their
deaths be considered humorous? What about his treatment of Gertrude? Or Polonius
alive and dead? Do we simultaneously laugh and cringe at Yorick and Hamlets
graveyard scene?
The students who have previously studied Hamlet will have an opportunity to experience
a different reading and get a better feel for the depth of a Shakespearean play.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1496)
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary.
3. Hamlet demonstrates many characteristics of the traditional tragic hero, but he does
not fit so neatly into the category as Oedipus or Othello. Hamlet is of extraordinary
rank, but is he extraordinary in character and accomplishment? At plays beginning,
he is an untested college student and a prince whose circumstances have not
challenged him to be heroic. Should we hold this against him? Through the course of
the play, his movement to the heroic is not swift nor is it always smooth and direct.
He is far more reflective and hesitant than Oedipus and Othello; we tend to think of
our heroes as more action-oriented. But Hamlet is younger and far less experienced
than either of those two when their plays open. By the plays conclusion, however,
Hamlet proves himself heroic as he challenges King Claudius and risks his life for the
sake of Denmark and a rightful King.
In a sense, Hamlet develops not only into a hero, but also into a mature man. I
think we need to remind ourselves of his youth, for too often readers and audience
lose patience with him as he takes so long to act. In fact, the 1948 film version with
Laurence Olivier begins with the narrator delivering an unfortunate statement: This
is the story of a man who could not make up his mind. I have at least two problems
with this statement: when the ghost first appears is Hamlet really a man, or someone
developing into a man? And, is it that Hamlet is simply indecisive? Isnt his initial
caution understandable if not wise and admirable? Certainly, however, his brooding
is excessive at times, and his contemplation of suicide self-indulgent. Oliviers
Hamlet seems about to end his life until the dagger slips from his hand and falls off
the cliff from which he delivered the To be or not to be soliloquy.
Hamlets development into man and hero can be illustrated by reading side-byside two monologues: Act III, scene i, lines 56-89 (To be or not to be) and IV, iv,
32-66 (How all occasions do inform against me). In the first soliloquy he is
philosophical, but broodingly self-centered and indecisive. In the second, he is more
outward looking, still philosophical but committed to action, action requiring great
courage and resolute. To emphasize the emerging man and hero, juxtapose the first
line of soliloquy one, To be or not to be: that is the question, with the last line of the
second, My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth!

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4. Hamlets first soliloquy (I, ii, 129-59) is marked by passion, specifically melancholy,
anger, and disgust, as his emotions spill out uncontrolled with an excessiveness that is
self-indulgent and self-pitying, displaying a kind of teenage angst.
In Act V, Hamlets speeches can still be quite emotional as when he leaps into
Ophelias grave and proclaims his love (scene i), but throughout Act V clearly Hamlet
is more in control of his emotions; he is more philosophical, more concerned with
Denmark and others than himself and his personal concerns which dominate his first
soliloquy. In fact, as he dies he announces his support for Fortinbras to assume the
throne (ii, 367-69). These final words reveal a selfless prince more concerned with
state than self.
5. Both Laertes and Fortinbras serve as foils to Hamlet. When Laertes councils Ophelia
about her involvement with Hamlet, he seems justifiably cautious and even wise. But
when he hears of his fathers death, he seeks revenge. He becomes a man of action,
but one who is imprudent, who is too easily influenced by Claudius. Hamlet contrasts
with Laertes by being far more prudent and slow in his revenge-seeking.
Similarly, Fortinbras is another man of action out to revenge his fathers death and
loss of land. Although his speeches are confident and noble, we can question whether
his actions are too swift. He risks lives for a little patch of ground/ That hath in it no
profit but the name (IV, iv, 18-19). Still, at the end of the play, Fortinbras becomes a
symbol of regeneration and order, meant to inform the audience that Denmarks
restoration is already underway.
6. There are several reasons for Hamlets delay in exacting revenge:
He is not sure that the ghost is his fathers (II, ii, 627-29).
He needs confirmation of Claudiuss guilt (The Mousetrap, II, ii, 623-27).
He does not kill Claudius as he prays as he will send his soul to heaven
(III, iii, 73-96).
Hamlets depression over his fathers death and mothers quick remarriage has
immobilized him, as depression will often do.
His own nature, which tends to be cautious and non-violent.
Students can debate the plausibility of each reason.
7. That most of the action takes place in the King and Queens palace is significant.
This suggests that something is rotten in the state of Denmark (I, iv, 90). The castle
is the seat of power and here the center of corruption, suggesting that the future of the
state is in jeopardy. The play is set in multiple rooms of the palace, many of which
are small spaces and private enclosures, where the characters hope their moral
corruption and duplicity can be hidden and kept private, an impossibility since the
room is private but not the palace, and all emanates from the center of the kingdom.

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The plays first scene is set on a platform before the castle. Here is where the ghost
will be received. The implication is that moral leadership must come from without.
This foreshadows what happens at the conclusion of the tragedy when Fortinbras, a
Norwegian, enters the castle to begin Denmarks regeneration.
8. The kingdom of Denmark is dominated by men. Indeed, Gertrude and Ophelia are
the only two women characters in the play with speaking parts over twenty male
characters speak! The men dominate the political and domestic dramas. Claudius
uses Gertrude to gain power, and Polonius tries to use Ophelia to solidify his position
in the court. Both women are abused, and seem to possess little power or inclination
to defend themselves. Hamlet is directed by his fathers ghost to Claudius as the
object of his revenge, not his mother (I, v, 93-95). The ghost appears to remind
Hamlet of this during the sons rough treatment of his mother in her bedroom (III, iv).
Polonius exposes Ophelia to Hamlets abuse, which results in her madness. Hamlet
seems to speak for those in power or those who seek increased power when he says,
Frailty, thy name is woman (I, ii, 146), a male characterization Gertrude and
Ophelia live up to, no doubt because of the chauvinistic nature of this courts culture.
Refer to Carolyn Heilbruns essay, The Character of Hamlets Mother,
beginning on page 1485.
9. It is hard to conceive of Claudius as a tragic hero, but a pathetic figure, maybe. To do
so, we would need to feel some sympathy for him as an advisor to the King who
wasted his talents in his selfish desire for power. He is a murderer, manipulator, and
coward. Seemingly incapable of love, he watches his wife drink poison rather than
reveal himself. Although he tells Laertes that Hamlet is a murderer, he will not
imprison the Prince, he says, because of his love for his wife which influences his
actions and the love of the common people for the Prince. Claudius does feel guilt, as
evident by his action during The Mousetrap, his prayer, and thoughts: O, my
offence is rank, it smells to heaven;/ It hath the primal eldest curse upont (III, iii,
36-72), which might encourage audience sympathy. His villainy and malice are clear,
but he cannot rival conscienceless Iago for absolute evilness.
10. Horatio serves several functions:
a. Horatio is a confidant of Hamlet, which provides Shakespeare a way to reveal
Hamlets thoughts and plans in dialogue. Hamlet tells Horatio about his intention
with the play, for example (III, ii, 61-92).
b. He helps bring out the plays exposition. He hears of the Kings carousing and
asks, Is it a custom? (I, iv, 10). Hamlets response helps reveal Claudiuss ignoble
nature. In addition, he explains the cause of Denmarks military preparations (I, i, 90110).
c. He is a truly virtuous character, whose genuine love for Hamlet contributes in
raising the audiences esteem for the Prince. Claudius no doubt recognizes Horatios
intelligence and integrity and, although Horatio would serve his plotting, the King

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does not attempt to involve him. Hamlet states his admiration for Horatio, who is as
close to the ideal individual as he has met (III, ii, 59-60, 61-78; I, ii, 160 initial
greeting).
d. He will serve Hamlet, Fortinbras, and the kingdom by providing a kind of
history of recent events. He will truly deliver, as he says (V, ii, 359) a report of all
that has unfolded. His report will help Fortinbras restore a kingdom to decency, avoid
civil unrest, and establish Hamlet as a paragon of absolute integrity and noble heart
(V, ii, 332).
11. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are victims of the courts corruption. At Claudiuss
request, they have traveled to Denmark to help their friend Hamlet break his
melancholy mood. They try to take Hamlet to England where they will present him
and a letter to the King, who will follow Claudiuss request to execute Hamlet.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, of course, do not know the contents of the letter. They
sincerely want to help their friend; by serving the King, they believe they are serving
Hamlet as well. When Hamlet discovers the plot, he arranges for Rosencrantzs and
Guildensterns executions. Hamlet feels no guilt over their deaths, believing they
should not have come between mighty opposites (V, ii, 62). By getting Hamlet out
of Denmark for awhile, they lay the foundation for Hamlets dramatic return in
Act V.
12. Polonius is, above all else, concerned with preserving his place at the court. To that
end, he will flatter, eavesdrop, and lie. A very practical man as his advice to Laertes
indicates, he knows his position in the palace relies on his being useful and agreeable.
He avoids contradicting Hamlet on even the most insignificant of topics. He hopes
Hamlet will marry his daughter to ensure his position in the court. Polonius is a
political creature unconcerned with truth, morality, or love. His advice to Laertes
should be delivered solemnly; this is a man who believes he is passing on valuable
information, a wealth of wisdom acquired over a lifetime. Students should consider
numerous ways to direct his performance: a cowardly, pathetic creature; a shrewd and
selfish politician; a small-minded courtier, comic in his large opinion of himself.
13. See discussion of Hamlet and Othello as tragic heroes.
14. Neither villain draws much sympathy. But most will see Iago as the more malignant.
He destroys from pleasure, with no definitive motive. Claudius destroys for power.
15. The tone of the graveyard scene is at first darkly humorous with the banter of the two
clowns and then Hamlets examination of skulls, including Yoricks skull and
Hamlets reference to Alexander the Great. The tone shifts, however, during his
consideration of Yorick, as Hamlet becomes eulogistic, sincerely mournful, and
respectful of Yoricks memory. The tone becomes more sorrowful and passionate
with the entrance of Ophelias corpse, even melodramatic with Laertes display of
grief, and finally antagonistic as Hamlet comes forward to mock Laertes.

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This penultimate scene reminds the audience of many of the plays themes: lifes
vicissitudes, lifes brevity, death as great equalizer, human folly and vanity, flattery,
violence, revenge, love, and false displays.
16. Responses will vary. But there are many interesting scenes from which to choose: the
appearance of the ghost, The Mousetrap, and the graveyard scene.
17. Responses will vary, but Act II, ii, 440-570, with Hamlet and the players is a good
choice for this activity.
18. Responses will vary.
19. Responses will vary, but certainly Hamlet questions and criticizes Machiavellian
values, i.e., that the end justifies the means and that the acquisition and maintaining of
power can always be justified. Among other ideas, the play supports the notion that
principled leadership is necessary for a healthy political and moral nation, and that
self-sacrifice, which may include death, in the name of the state is sometimes
necessary for those politically empowered.
20. Responses will vary, but students should explore the language (particularly that of
Hamlets soliloquies), the characterizations, the drama, and the various issues the play
concerns (including self-sacrifice, love, death, political corruption, human vanity,
lifes transience, and others).
21. This could be an excellent writing assignment.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Discuss Hamlets insanity. Is he insane or is he just acting? Does the part consume
him to such an extent that he does indeed become insane, or is he always in control of
the part he plays? You may discuss Hamlets acting ability here as well.
2. Discuss Hamlet as actor, director, and writer. What does he want to accomplish with
The Mousetrap? How does The Mousetrap reflect one of the theaters functions?
How does Hamlet direct, act, and create a script outside the play-within-a-play?
3. Discuss the encounter between Hamlet and Osric (V, ii, 80-202). Why does
Shakespeare include this scene? Does Osric remind us of another character? What
theme is emphasized here?
4. List references to Christianity in the play. Then comment on them in light of
Maynard Macks statement: Throughout the play, the idea of Denmark as a possible
type of the fallen garden is kept before us (Killing the King).

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Chapter Twenty
The Modern Realistic Theater:
Ibsen and Shaw in Context
The introduction to this chapter presents sections on Realism (pp. 1506-07) and the
Theater of the Absurd (1507-08). I refer to those sections when introducing students to
those movements. My outline for realism follows:

Realism
The movement towards realism in the theater occurred in the second half of the
nineteenth century.
Realism began as a reaction to the excessively contrived, sentimental, and
didactic melodramas that dominated drama in nineteenth-century Europe and America.
Realism began in Europe with playwrights like Ibsen, Strindberg, and Shaw,
reaching America a few years later where it found its fullest American expression in
Eugene ONeill.
Realists take a mimetic approach to theater, striving to create the illusion of
everyday life on stage, with the audiences eavesdropping on a slice of life.
Realists tend to depict the middle, lower, and lower-middle classes: their work,
family life, language, dress, and problems.
They prefer contemporary settings.
In a direct response to melodrama, realists strive to create complex characters, to
make internal conflict as dramatic as external conflict.
They prefer the open ending, which does not resolve all the plays questions and
sometimes leaves in doubt the future of the protagonist. The resolution or denouement is
generally short in realistic dramas and virtually non-existent sometimes.

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The Theater of the Absurd

Very few students in beginning literature courses have heard of The Theater of the
Absurd. For that reason alone, I think it is a good idea to assign Eugne Ionescos The
Gap. It exposes students to a significant theatrical movement that, unless they major in
English or theater, they might not otherwise have an opportunity to experience during
college. Most students are fascinated by the theatrical concept, but they often find the
actual reading experience frustrating because of the plays lack of action and tedious
because of passages of banal dialogue.
Try to prepare them for reading by explaining the concepts behind the Absurdist
movement. The text offers a succinct, but fairly thorough explanation as to what the
Absurdists were all about. I add very little to the text for my introduction. My outline
follows.
I distribute for discussion copies of Albert Camuss and Ionescos statements
quoted in Martin Esslins The Theatre of the Absurd (3rd edition, 1982, p. 23):
A world that can be explained by reasoning, however faulty, is a familiar world.
But in a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and of light, man feels a
stranger. His is an irremediable exile, because he is deprived of memories of a
lost homeland as much as he lacks the hope of a promised land to come. This
divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, truly constitutes the
feeling of Absurdity.
(Camus, from Le Mythe de Sisyphe)
Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost; all
his actions become senseless, absurd, useless.
(Ionesco, from Dans les armes de la ville)
I also consider Esslins comment that the Theater of the Absurd is the true theater of our
time.
Methods of depicting the Absurdist vision on stage:
rejection of realisms well-contrived plots for storyless plots.
rejection of realisms believable and psychologically complex characters for
barely recognizable figures with little psychological depth, who seem to be pure action
or, perhaps, inaction.
rejection of colloquial patterns of dialogue, grand speeches or intense
monologues, in favor of banal conversation, incoherent ramblings, and disconnected
dialogue.
use of humor, often dark, farcical or scatological.

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 use of violence, often random or illogical, frequently juxtaposed with comedy.

repetitious or meaningless activity substituted for logical action.
abrupt shifts in direction and tone.
If time permits, and it rarely does in this introductory course, I further explain the Absurd
as an aesthetic marriage between the technique of surrealism and the philosophy of
existentialism. This statement will take time to clarify for students, as you will need to
define both terms, which cannot be accomplished that quickly. I usually bring in copies
of paintings by Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali to support my definition.
One further point frequently needs to be made: I emphasize that Absurdist drama
is different from realism and past styles of nonrealism. It is not necessarily superior.
Each style represents an authors method of conveying his experience of the world.

A Doll House Henrik Ibsen (p. 1509)

Students generally enjoy A Doll House, and they come to class eager to talk about it. The
obvious place to begin your discussion is with the Helmer marriage. The marriage is
hardly a partnership of equals. Helmer treats his wife as a child, addressing her with
nauseating pet names, forbidding her sweets, and educating her, so he thinks, with
moralistic platitudes: Something of freedoms lost and something of beauty, too
from a home thats founded on borrowing and debt (1495). Yet we realize immediately
that Nora is not as submissive as Helmer thinks: she lies to him about eating candy and
she keeps secrets. She may appear like a submissive child, but only to manipulate him.
You might continue the discussion considering the implications behind other examples of
dishonesty in the marriage.
The following questions could prove helpful in stimulating conversation: How
has each partner been unfair to the other? At the point in time when the play opens, how
would each partner characterize the other? How would these characterizations change at
the end of the play? What do you think each partner expected of the other? These
questions, as well as many below, usually provoke good discussions. However, if you
have a quiet class that resists discussion, divide them into groups of three or four. Give
each group one or two questions, different questions for each group can work well, and
let one member of each group report on the groups conclusions. Other students can
comment on the reports. This activity gets all students talking about the play, and helps
initiate full class discussions.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1559
1. Responses will vary.
2. Torvald is domineering, egocentric, condescending, arrogant, thrifty, successful at
work, moralistic, explosive, and status-conscious. He does not change by the end of
the play, but he does seem capable of changing in the near future. He understands

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that Nora has just left him, a possibility he could not have imagined until it occurred.
Her leaving has jolted him, and could lead to his transformation. Significantly, he
repeats her phrase (the greatest miracle) for his closing words, suggesting that he
has not ignored what she has said and that he will consider them seriously. This holds
out the possibility of change.
3. Krogstad provides the necessary conflict between Nora and Torvald. He has
committed the same crime as Nora and has lived the kind of humiliation exposure
will bring her. He becomes transformed by love, perhaps suggesting a possibility for
Torvalds and Noras transformations if their love for one another is genuine.
Mrs. Lindes functions are also clear: she brings out exposition concerning
Noras efforts to save her husbands life; as an independent woman who has struggled
to survive, she serves as a foil and model for Nora; she is responsible for the climax
of the play and the surfacing of the truth as she stops Krogstad from retrieving his
letter; she points out the theme concerning the need for honesty and openness in
marriage (Helmers got to learn everything; this dreadful secret has to be aired; those
two have to come to a full understanding; all these lies and evasions cant go on,
page 1547).
Dr. Rank demonstrates the theme of children paying for the sins of parents. He
inherited venereal disease from his father yes, an impossibility, but in Ibsens time
many thought the disease could be inherited. Ibsen has developed this theme
carefully in A Doll House, as most characters lives are shaped by strong paternal
influence or circumstances resulting from their life in the home:
Nora her father encouraged her to remain a little person, passing her from his
home to her husbands. More importantly perhaps, she has inherited her fathers
flimsy values, as Torvald calls them: No religion, no morals, no sense of duty
(1552-53). Of course, her and her fathers flimsy values might not be so corrupt.
We do not know her fathers motivation, but Noras forgery saved Torvalds life and
she has worked hard ever since to repay the note.
Mrs. Linde her mothers poor health forced her into an undesirable marriage
that redirected her life. In addition, because of spending years caring for her mother,
she has developed a desperate need to be needed, a need to take care of others.
Krogstad Helmer says his moral breakdown is most horrible because of his
children: Every breath the children take in is filled with the terms of something
degenerate (1528). Krogstad realizes his perilous situation will affect his children:
My boys are growing up. For their sakes, Ill have to win back as much respect as
possible here in town (1524).
Helmer we do not hear about his parents or his upbringing, but he makes some
strong statements about the moral influence of parents on children: Almost
everyone who goes bad early in life has a mother whos a chronic liar (1528). When
he learns of Noras forgery, he works out a plan for her to live in the house, but she
must not see the children: I dont dare trust you with them (1553).

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This discussion in the play suggests not only the influence on individual
development of parents and home, but the influence of the past on the present as well.
When we consider this theme alongside the theme about cultural and societal
influences on human development and individuality, we realize how concerned Ibsen
was with the theme of human liberation. The first step in human liberation, he
realizes, is to understand those forces that shape individuals.
4. The first scene in the play is filled with tempo changes and lines that arouse the
audiences curiosity by holding perhaps some hidden meaning or foreshadowing
events. Consider the following:
If anything so awful happened, then it just wouldnt matter if I had debts or not.
You could give me money, Torvald.
Ah, I could wish Id inherited many of Papas qualities.
I expect [your little Christmas secrets will] come to light this evening, when the
tree is lit.
Remember last Christmas? dullest time Ive ever lived through.
Oh, the bell.
This question provides an excellent opportunity for close reading and group work.
Students can be assigned any scene in the play and read it with this question in mind,
reporting back their results to the class, even acting out the scene.
5. A few symbols:
Christmas tree: could be identified with Nora; the tree sets the time of year, a
time of happiness and birth, a birth of a new Nora occurs at the end of the play. Like
the tree also, Nora is little more than a decoration in her own home.
Macaroons: signifies a small rebellion that foreshadows her larger rebellion at
plays end. Eating the macaroons and lying about them give her a sense of power
over Torvald; the macaroons are a small representation of her larger secret. Note
the following lines from Nora: Yes, thats really immensely amusing: that we that
Torvald has so much power now over all those people. Dr. Rank, a little macaroon on
that? (1504).
Mending/knitting: Mrs. Linde does the mending of Noras costume, but more
significantly she mends Noras life by allowing the truth about the loan to surface.
She also mends Krogstads life when she declares her love for him.

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Black Crosses: Rank uses two crosses to announce his death. One symbolizes
the death of an old Nora. The cross might also tie in with the theme of human
liberation, as individuals all bear cultural, societal, and parental influences or crosses
that sometimes need to be lifted before liberation into individuality.
Tarantella: a frantic dance, which Nora dances as if [her] life were at stake
(1553). It is a parting gift for her husband, for whom she plans on committing
suicide, rather than let him assume the blame for her criminal act. With its ferocious
energy, Noras tarantella reflects her agitated state of mind. Play students a recording
of the music and they will have a clearer understanding of not just the dance but
Noras frame of mind.
6. Any scene can be used, but remind students to consider dialogue, stage directions,
actions and reactions, clothing, props, and setting.
7. Responses will vary.
8. Ibsen believes that every person should have the right to find his/her direction and
purpose in life without the pressures imposed on society to conform to certain roles.
Society expects Nora to be a wife, to provide a comfortable home for her family and
to be submissive to her husband, while expecting Torvald to be domineering at home
and aggressive at work. Societys expectations and conventions stifle individuality.
Nora is preparing her children to conform, indicated by her choice of Christmas gifts
for them: a sword and clothes for one son, a horse and trumpet for the other son, and
a doll and dolls bed for her daughter. Ibsen once wrote, I think that all of us have
nothing other or better to do than in spirit and sincerity to realize ourselves. That, to
my mind, is the real liberation.
9. Responses will vary, but students will enjoy hearing about the German production for
which Ibsen wrote the alternative ending. Just before leaving, Nora takes a final look
at her children, breaks down, and decides to stay. Few will prefer this ending,
recognizing that it turns the play into a conventional melodrama and takes the bite
from the play. This alternative ending, it might be argued, is artistically dishonest, as
it seems inconsistent with the theme of human rights and Noras self-development. It
merely gives the people what they want, a happy ending.
10. This question could be a good assignment for an essay.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Who is the villain in the play? (Torvald is too simple a response.)
2. Discuss the significance of the title. How would you, as a scenic designer, stage the
play to take maximum advantage of the symbolism implied by the image?

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3. Ibsen was continually asked if Nora returns to her family. On one occasion he said,
Certainly, she does. But on another, How do I know? It is possible that she
returns to her husband and children, but also possible that she becomes an artiste in a
traveling circus. Suppose Nora returns and you are the Helmers marriage
counselor. Write a report for them about what they need to do. Be very specific.
4. Some critics have contended that the play is outdated. That the womens liberation
movement of the twentieth century has provided more options for women. Nora
could have secured a legal loan; the contemporary woman is not so dominated by her
husband. Agree or disagree that A Doll House is outdated. Ask students to draw
upon their own observations and experiences when answering.
5. Past translations usually entitled the play A Dolls House; current translations
generally use A Doll House. There has been a lot of discussion about this. What
difference does the apostrophe s make?
6. Interpret the events in the play from the point of view of one of the Helmer children
who is now an adult looking back at this significant time in his/her childhood.
7. Ask students to write a review of one of the film adaptations of A Doll House. (See
the Appendix.) Consider the actress playing Nora. Did she present a different Nora
than you expected? Consider other character portrayals and issues. For instance,
how effective were the liberties that the film takes with Ibsens text?
8. Consider Ibsens Notes for the Modern Tragedy in Chapter Twenty-five. How does
A Doll House illustrate Ibsens commentary?

Arms and the Man Bernard Shaw (p. 1561)

Produced and published in the 1890s, Arms and the Man at once looks back to the
conventions of the nineteenth-century stage while looking forward to twentieth-century
realism. At first, the play might appear to be a romantic melodrama melodramas
dominated the European and American stage in the 1800s. Certainly, Arms and the Man
includes many ingredients of the successful melodrama: a romantic plot with several
twists and turns, stock characters (like the young woman idealizing her war hero, and
from comic melodrama, the prestigious, wealthy but inept father), obvious foreshadowing
(in the opening scene, Raina says in typical melodramatic fashion: This is the happiest
night of my life if only there are no fugitives. Her servant then informs Raina and the
audience that the shutters cannot be locked because of a missing bolt.) Also, there are
suspense-filled scenes (a desperate enemy soldier climbs through the bedroom window of
the heroine), a subplot involving the servants, and inflated, often excessively emotional
dialogue (Act I opening scene, or Act II, when Raina and Sergius reunite).
But when we look more carefully, we realize this play is not so much a
melodrama as a play about melodrama. (You might introduce the term metatheater at
this point, which I define simply as theater about theater, or a play which discusses, as

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one of its major concerns, the nature of theater or drama itself.) Shaw despised
melodrama and embraced the realism of Ibsen and others. He frequently ridiculed the
formulaic design of melodrama, and the playwrights lack of an attempt to be the
interpreter of life (How to Write a Popular Play, in Playwrights on Playwriting, ed.
Toby Cole). His spleen toward the melodramatic playwright can be felt in his following
statements:
Your plot construction and art of preparation are only tricks of theatrical talent
and shifts of moral sterility, not the weapons of dramatic genius.
The writer who practices the art of Ibsen therefore discards all the old tricks of
preparation, catastrophe, denouement
(qtd. in Eric Bentley, The Playwright as Thinker, p. 112)
Arms and Man uses melodramatic convention only to satirize it. In fact, Shaw makes
only limited use of the conventions of the form, just enough to mock them. For instance,
is Raina a young, idealistic, nave girl? Well, at twenty-three, she is older than the
audience and some characters thought, and by the middle of Act II, at least, we realize
she is not quite so sweet and innocent. Believing that Bluntschli gossiped about her, she
calls him the little beast and says Id cram him with chocolate creams til he couldnt
ever speak again! We would expect someone so sweet and innocent to be more
despairing, rather than vengeful.
A character that most obviously deviates from melodramatic models is Captain
Bluntschli, who is really the plays hero. He forces others to confront the truth,
something he has done all along. His sober attitude toward war and love are set against
the romantic and idealistic attitudes of Sergius and Raina. In many ways, Bluntschli,
with few of the traditional heroic qualities, is a forerunner of the anti-hero that was to
become common in twentieth-century literature: he fights for profit, he runs from battle,
and he admits fear declaring himself as nervous as a mouse (1568). Yet he prospers,
brings out the truth, and will marry Raina, whose experiences will make her more
practical and authentic. Despite his pragmatism, Bluntschli does fall in love, and he does
recognize his romantic nature. I do not think Bluntschli or Shaw are being ironic when
the Captain refers to his incurably romantic disposition (1602). Rather, the reference
indicates how well Bluntschli understands himself and human nature.
Similarly, while Shaw creates suspense, he does not sustain it the way
melodramas do, or even the way A Doll House does. He introduces crises and shortly
thereafter resolves them (Bluntschlis arrival in Act III a melodrama might have the
women concealing him behind closed doors, and running from room to room to escape
near detection). These quick resolutions surprise audiences who are accustomed to being
placed in suspense much longer. While it seems as though Shaw is sabotaging his own
plot, he is really satirizing the melodrama, and pointing out that to keep people interested,
playwrights need not contrive with such a heavy hand. There are other ways to keep
audiences attentive: with issues and with ideas. This is perhaps what most separates
Arms and the Man from melodrama. Melodramas were primarily intended to entertain,
to give audiences a few hours of escape. Melodramas did include morals, but they were
aphoristic, like crime doesnt pay, or, as in the very popular temperance plays, alcohol

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can wreck your life. Arms and the Man is intended yes, to entertain but just as
importantly, to get audiences to think.
To think about what? The title serves as a starting point. Arms introduces dual
themes of love and war. The play points out the absurd concept that most Victorians held
about war, i.e., war as an opportunity for a young man to prove himself heroic and gain
glory. This concept is ridiculed in Act Is discussion between Bluntschli and Raina.
Similarly, the play raises questions about heroism. Was Sergiuss action during battle
heroic? Was he foolish? Was he lucky? Is Bluntschli a hero? Shaw uses Bluntschli, a
professional soldier who has fought for fourteen years, to expose and question audience
concepts of war, heroism, love and courtship, and manhood. Why will Sergius and Raina
marry? They do not seem to be in love. Their relationship is marked by false displays of
affection, deceit, and pretentiousness. It seems as though they are only marrying for the
sake of status and appearance, which Raina seems ready to cast off: I always feel a
longing to do or say something dreadful to him to shock his propriety to scandalize
the five senses out of him (1583).
If we look at the second part of the title, Man (which includes women in my
discussion), other questions arise concerning individual attitudes and behavior. First, in
the traditional sense, what does it mean to refer to someone as a man? Similarly, what
truly makes a person honorable? Are any of these characters honorable? What should be
an individuals attitude toward war? How should one behave during the courtship
process? Do your opinions about characters and their sense of honor change throughout
the play? Shaw might not have all the answers, but it is enough that he raises the issues.
In general, I think Shaw is making a case for the practical honesty of Bluntschli, as
opposed to the pretentious behavior, romantic idealism, and status-consciousness of most
of the others.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1605
1. Responses will vary.
2. Refer to page 1162 in the text, where DiYanni distinguishes satiric from romantic
comedy. Throughout the play Shaw sets up the audience for romance, only to
introduce satire. For instance, we hear of Sergiuss cavalry charge and see Rainas
reaction, only to learn later Sergiuss foolishness. Also see discussion above.
3. Students find Shaws lengthy stage directions so obtrusive that they often skip over
them. This question encourages them to look at some more closely. They will find
that Shaw will use stage directions much like an omniscient narrator in fiction: to
reveal character, to reveal a characters thoughts and feelings, and sometimes to
satirize a character, especially one representative of a type or class. For instance, the
romantic Raina is intensely conscious of the romantic beauty of the night, and of the
fact that her own youth and beauty are part of it (1561), and stage directions tell us
that Petkoff is an unpolished man of about fifty, naturally unambitious except to his
income and his importance in local society (1574).
Shaws settings are also elaborately described in the stage directions. We read of
the natural, majestic background of the Balkins, while the Petkoff home is shabby,

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representing a feeble attempt at gentility. Rainas bedchamber is half rich

Bulgarian, half cheap Viennese (1561). The Petkoffs brag of their library, which
turns out to be a single shelf half full of books, and they hang wash over bushes, yet
they think of their home and lifestyle as opulent. The absurdity of their stance is
made obvious by the truly opulent Balkans, wonderfully white and beautiful in the
starlit snow (1561).
Shaw tends to use shorter stage directions to emphasize characters responses to
situations and statements, to clarify tone of voice, to communicate facial expressions,
to indicate movement and gestures. In his use of stage directions, Shaw is more of a
director or fiction writer than a playwright. He is, of course, trying to safeguard his
plays against misreading or misproduction.
4. See discussion above the responses to questions.
5. Individually and as a couple, Louka and Nicola serve as contrasts to their aristocratic
employers and Bluntschli. While Raina can be indirect, manipulative, and flirtatious,
Louka is more direct, practical, and almost confrontational. She tells Nicola, Youll
never put the soul of the servant in me (1574). When Sergius refuses to release her
in the garden, she realizes protest is futile and suggests they move to a less
conspicuous spot.
Like Bluntschli, Nicola is very pragmatic. He is a professional servant, who has
devised strategies to make his job bearable and profitable. His dream to open a shop
is realistic. But he differs from Bluntschli in one significant way. He is not in love.
He will not compete for Louka the way Bluntschli returns to court Raina. Money and
opening his shop are more important to him than love. His closing words on his and
Loukas engagement and her impending engagement to Sergius are cold and
businesslike: I look forward to her custom and recommendation should she
marry into nobility (1601). As a couple, Nicola and Louka demonstrate that a
relationship built on financial and social considerations is as doomed as one built on
false romantic ideals, like that of Raina and Sergius. Love, as Bluntschli
demonstrates, is a practical consideration when it comes to courtship and marriage.
6. It will be helpful to review a couple of scenes in which Bluntschli and Sergius
interact. Bluntschli is far more practical, sensible, and honest. He mocks the vain
and image-conscious Sergius when Sergius proposes they duel. But by plays end,
Sergius comes to admire Bluntschli and seems ready to follow the Captains example
and live more realistically and honestly.
7. The ending is, to say the least, ambiguous. Shaw has satirized romantic conventions
throughout the play, but he ends Arms and the Man with the romantic convention of a
double marriage, with all presumably living happy ever after. But how happy will
Sergius and Louka be? They become engaged because Sergius kisses the hand of
Louka, who previously made him promise to marry her should he ever touch her
again. But, then again, Sergius seems willing to leap into her trap. He had an
opportunity to break off the engagement, but he quickly refused.

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I take the engagement of Bluntschli and Raina to be based on love, but I will
admit that the quick change of attitude suggests that Shaw is taking his satire on
melodrama to the limit. Thus, one argument can be made that the ending is intended
to underscore the absurdity of the conventional melodramatic conclusion, while
another can argue that Shaw is demonstrating the importance of true love in marriage.
All couples, the second argument goes, will be happy because they are marrying for
love.
8. Responses may vary, but most students will recognize that Shaw endorses the values
of Bluntschli, who is honest, pragmatic, and direct. He also deviates from the stock
characterizations of the melodrama.
9. This question could be assigned as an essay topic.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Find examples of dramatic irony. What is the purpose of each example? How does
each example affect the scene and your response to the scene?
2. Describe Petkoff. No one seems to pay much attention to him. It seems as though the
action is spinning around him without absorbing him. Why is that? Do you think he
cares?
3. Compare the attitudes towards war of Bluntschli, Raina and the speaker in Wilfred
Owenss Dulce et Decorum Est.
4. Consider Shaws The Interpreter of Life in Chapter Twenty-five. Does Arms and
the Man offer an interpretation of life? How would you define that interpretation?

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328

Chapter Twenty-one

A Collection of
Modern Drama
A Marriage Proposal Anton Chekhov (p. 1606)
Possible Responses to Questions page 1615
1. Responses will vary. I recommend that students create a kind of scorecard when
confronted with the multiple names of characters in Russian plays. They can
photocopy the cast of characters and write alternative names alongside the formal
name. They can refer to the scorecard when reading.
2. Responses will vary.
3. Chekhov develops humor in several ways in A Marriage Proposal. Much of the
humor derives from the situation and characters. Lomov, a nervous, but vain
hypochondriac, overdresses as he calls on and attempts to propose to the desperate
but equally proud Natalia Stepanovna. The proposal, which is never formally made,
is nonetheless accepted. We find humor in the confrontations of Lomov and Natalia
as they argue heatedly about trivial issues. In fact, after their marriage and in time,
the Oxen Meadows, a worthless piece of property, presumably will be owned jointly.
Chekhov also employs irony for humorous effect. Chubukov condemns Lomov
and his family, yet he is willing to have his daughter marry Lomov. Chubukovs
asides in the opening conversation with Lomov are humorous as they contrast with
the seeming warmth of his words to Lomov. Similarly, Lomov and Natalia are
anxious to marry one another, yet, in the course of the play, they cannot talk amicably
for longer than a few moments. Consider the irony of Chubukovs line near the close
of the play: What a way to enter matrimonial bliss!
4. Lomov expresses his reasons for wanting to marry Natalia on the bottom of page
1607. Basically, at thirty-five years of age, he believes he should be married.
Besides, he needs companionship and someone to care for him as he believes he is
not in the best of health. Natalia seems desperate to be married. Perhaps she feels

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she is getting old and wont seem attractive to others. Perhaps she is afraid of
loneliness.
5. Both parts of the play are parallel to one another. Each part begins with Lomovs
entrance. Much of each part involves the petty squabbling of Lomov and Natalia.
However, part one ends with Lomovs departure and part two ends with the
engagement although they begin bickering once again after the engagement.
6. Chekhovs keeps the pace especially brisk during the quarrels. These confrontations
are somewhat standard fare for light comedies and the second disagreement is
predictable. Rather than let the dialogue grow tedious, Chekhov moves the quarrels
along and keeps the dialogue sharp and energetic. The beginning scenes in each part
employ a slower tempo, as the characters think rather than react impulsively.
Chubukov tries to determine what Lomov wants in the opening scene, and later (page
1611), Natalia is stunned to hear that Lomov had intended to propose to her. As soon
as she realizes that she may have lost an opportunity for marriage, she breaks into
hysterics. The pace slows again when Lomov faints. But when he recovers, the pace
quickens with the engagement and renewed conflict. There is humor in these
contrasts.
Students might find it useful to compare the tempo of A Marriage Proposal with
slower-paced plays like Andres Mother and Tender Offer and fast-paced plays like
Riders to the Sea.
7. The disagreements and arguments of the characters suggest that they are obsessed
with status and possessions rather than spirituality and love.
8. Lomovs reasons for marrying Natalia (see #4) indicate the role of women in
nineteenth-century Russia. You might ask students to do a short research paper on
this topic.
9. Ask students to consider the ages of the daughters and the cultural differences
between nineteenth-century Russia and contemporary America when answering. Are
the fathers so different given those circumstances?
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
Chekhov once called The Marriage Proposal a wretched, vulgar, boring little skit a
lousy farce, and that such vaudevilles, as he called the play and others like it, gush out
of me like oil from the Baku wells. Do Chekhovs comments affect your appreciation of
the play?

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Trifles Susan Glaspell (p. 1616)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1626
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary. But students should consider the womens motives, the setting,
and the legal milieu of the time. Remember, the action of the play occurs in 1916
before women had the right to vote.
3. The title is ironic. Mr. Hale speaks for the men in the play when he ways that
women are used to worrying over trifles (1618). But it is through trifles that the
women discover Mrs. Wrights motives for murder. To the men, traditional womens
work (cooking, cleaning, mending, etc.) is trivial and inconsequential, but they
ridicule Mrs. Wright for keeping a sloppy house, which suggests their sympathy for
Mr. Wright and thus offends Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Moreover, women
themselves are trifles to the men in the play. The men think the women incapable
of providing any substantial help, and therefore underestimate their intelligence,
sensitivities, and usefulness. While Mr. Wright may have been abusive to Mrs.
Wright, the other men are at least insensitive to their wives needs. As Mrs. Hale says,
I might have known [Mrs. Wright] needed help! I know how things can be for
women We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same
things its all just a different kind of the same thing (1625).
4. The male characters are unattractive in their chauvinism, insensitivity, selfimportance, and ineptitude.
5. We sympathize with the women when we realize the drudgery and isolation that
characterize their existence. Mrs. Wrights life was the most severe. Like the others,
she labored with the unrelenting household chores, but she had an abusive, especially
uncommunicative husband who forbade her pets and new furnishings for the home.
Both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters understand Mrs. Wright's experience, as theirs have
been similar. As Mrs. Peters says, I know what stillness is (1624). The women are
respectful toward the men, never contradicting them or defending themselves against
the mens derogatory remarks. The men tease the women and treat them with
condescension.
6. The most important props include the canary, the birdcage, the quilt, and the sewing
box. The dead canary represents Minnie Wright. Like the canary, Minnie was once
full of life; she liked to sing, socialize, and dress colorfully, until her spirit was broken
by Mr. Wright. The birdcage represents Minnies marriage, the feeling of being
imprisoned or caged in a home with a ruthlessly domineering husband. The sewing
box, where Minnie hides the dead canary, adds dramatic tension at the end of the play.
With the men approaching, the box needs to be concealed. It is too large for a
panicking Mrs. Peters to conceal, and creates an anxious moment until Mrs. Hale
hides it in the pocket of her coat. The quilt represents the trifles of womens work

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that become significant in detecting the details of the murder. It further illustrates the
mens shortsighted and chauvinistic attitudes toward womens work: They wonder
if she was going to quilt it or just knot it! (1621).
7. The play ends with a pun, knot it. Mrs. Hale delivers the pun in response to the
mockingly condescending County Attorney who tries to recall the term of stitching
Mrs. Wright used on the quilt. But the pun also responds to the failure of the
investigation to yield the motive, as in thats not it, a line the men could have
repeated to each other throughout the day, and the failure of the men to reach any
kind of understanding regarding the life of Mrs. Wright. Furthermore, the words have
a finality that seems to close the case in favor of Mrs. Wright, suggestive of a jurys
not guilty.
8. Glaspell could be suggesting that gender and cultural conditions shape perspectives.
The perspectives of the characters are partially shaped by their experiences in a maledominated culture.
9. Responses will vary.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. What is the dilemma that Mrs. Peters faces in the play? What complicates matters for
her? Why does she decide to suppress the evidence against Mrs. Wright? Mrs. Hale
experienced no such dilemma. Why?
2. In Apropos of Women and the Folk Play, Rachel France writes that the truly
awful thing was not the murder of John Wright but the life that his wife had been
forced to endure, isolated in the Wright home (in Women in American Theatre, ed.
H. K. Chinoy and Walsh, p. 150). Agree or disagree.
3. In The Womens World of Glaspells Trifles, Karen Stein says that Glaspell
explores sympathetically the lives of middle-aged, married, rural women, characters
who would usually be minor figures in a play. In this way, Trifles is a uniquely
female and, indeed, feminist document (in Chinoy and Walsh, p. 251). Consider
both parts of Steins statement. Why were such characters usually minor? How is the
play a feminist document? What does it document?
4. Trifles begins with a lengthy testimony by Mr. Hale in which he provides the sheriff
and the audience with background information or exposition. Most plays follow the
lead of Oedipus and provide exposition in bits and pieces as the action develops.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of opening a play with such detailed
exposition? How would you, as a director, keep Hales opening speech from being
tedious and undramatic?

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5. The men do not do a thorough investigation. In fact, their actions involving this case
are inept right from the moment they hear of the murder. List their mistakes or
actions that you would consider unprofessional.
6. Mrs. Wright requests certain items from prison. Why does she request an apron and a
shawl? Why does she care so much about her preserves when she is held for murder?
Reread the passages in which we hear of her requests. See especially pages 1602-05.
Is Mrs. Wright being shrewd? Has she started to enlist the support of the women with
these requests?
7. Consider the wives in three or four of the following plays: Othello, A Doll House,
Riders to the Sea, Trifles, and Fences. What are their duties? What kinds of
relationships do they have with their husbands? Do they accept their roles and
positions within their marriages? Do they harbor hidden resentment? Does the
power of the women within the marriage increase as the date of the play moves closer
to the present?
8. How does Trifles illustrate Ibsens two kinds of conscience, one in man and another
in woman, as defined in Notes for the Modern Tragedy in Chapter Twentyfive?

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry (p. 1627)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1692
1. Most students will enjoy reading A Raisin in the Sun. They will readily identify with
the struggle of the family to improve their living conditions, the tension of
interpersonal relationships, and the clash between family and individual goals. As
Hansberry said her plays are about people who happen to be Negroes, rather than
Negro plays.
2. Responses will vary.
3. Mama is the matriarch of the family. She is very much in control of her adult
childrens lives. She is driven by a strong sense of pride and a strong faith in God,
both of which have sustained her through difficult times. She has endured much and
is not about to see her children do anything less than what she would consider proper
and dignified. As a result, she can be meddling, inflexible, and domineering. She
does not always understand her childrens needs and desires. She is angered and
confused by Beneathas attitude towards religion, by Ruths consideration of an
abortion, and by the emphasis Walter places on money. Mama can accept Lenas
dream to become a doctor much more easily than Walters idea to own a liquor store.
Beneatha, in fact, is very much like a young Lena, who recalls what neighbors said of
her when she was young: I always remember people saying, Lena Lena
Eggleston, you aims too high all the time (1686).

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But Walters dream of owning a liquor store violates her sense of Christianity, as a
liquor store, to Mama, encourages drunkenness and sin, and I dont want that on my
ledger this late in life (1638). However, before it is too late, Mama realizes that she
has been too repressive of Walter; she has not given him the emotional space to
mature. As a result, despite marriage and fatherhood, Walter is still very boyish.
After Mama fulfills her dream by placing a deposit on a home, she turns the
remaining funds over to Walter, with one stipulation about Ruths education. This is a
huge step for Mama, although taken somewhat tentatively. She is passing her role as
head of the family onto her son. She knows he will become a man only if she steps
aside. Of course, his movement to maturity is not as direct as Mama had hoped.
4. There are several explanations for the various family conflicts and arguments: living
conditions (five individuals in a small apartment), the neighborhood (ghetto-itus),
economic conditions, job dissatisfaction, societys racism, and others. But the
tensions are especially strong when an individuals dreams and beliefs conflict with
his/her familial responsibility. For instance, Walters dream to invest in his own
business conflicts with Beneathas dream to be a doctor and with his mothers dream
for a home as well as her sense of morality. Beneathas ambition to be a doctor
provokes a bitter Walter to tell her to become a nurse or get married instead like other
women (1635).
5. George represents a black man who wants to deny his heritage. His family has
prospered in America, and he feels no need to celebrate his African heritage, which in
fact he disparages. He is snobbish, pretentious, and condescending to Walter, which
causes Walter to mock him. George is hardly an admirable character. He illustrates
the blandness and shallowness of a life rooted in the quest for wealth and status: I
want a nice (Groping) simple (Thoughtfully) sophisticated girl not a poet
O.K.? (1648).
Asagai contrasts with George. Asagai is a realistic idealist. He is intelligent,
perceptive, and dedicated to helping his country in its quest for liberation, even
though he is well aware that he could lose his life. Before the audience does, he
recognizes Beneathas idealism hidden beneath her trendiness and sometimes
silliness. It is only when we hear of her reason and her sustained desire to be a doctor
that we recognize her serious idealism (see page 1683).
6. Students can develop several themes, including one of the following: individual
ambition and dreams versus responsibility to family; idealism versus materialism; the
quest to live with pride and dignity; the deprivation and injustice suffered by African
Americans; respect for ones heritage; the need and struggle for self-determination of
African countries.
7. Two props to consider could include the plant and the papers concerning the liquor
store. The plant, as Mama says, expresses me (1677). It represents her ability to
endure despite harsh surroundings, her tenacity in keeping her dream alive, and her
capacity to nurture and care for those in need. As the play ends Mama returns for the
plant to bring it to the new home, where the plant and the family will have an

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opportunity for growth. The papers bring Walter closer to his dream of owning a
business. For the first time he has something tangible regarding the business, not just
late night discussions. He believes his dream is within reach, which makes his
mothers refusal to consider his plans all the more frustrating. When she crumples the
papers he surrenders his dream and quits on life. He submerges himself in self-pity,
fails to report to work, drinks, and drifts.
8. There are several especially dramatic scenes for students to select: Beneathas
expression of atheism (Act I, scene 1), Walters entrance after the check arrives (I, 2),
Walters confronting George (II, 1), and late in the play, either meeting with Karl
Lindner (II, 3; III), or Bobos arrival with the news of the swindle (II, 3).
9. After a close reading of the ending of the play, students will usually find it somewhat
unsatisfying. Mama and Ruth agree that Walter has come into his manhood, but look
closely at his response to Beneathas announcement concerning Asagai and Africa.
Walter sounds, not like a mature man, but an adolescent trying too hard to assume
leadership and appear mature. He is genuinely angry, as the stage directions indicate,
as he tells Beneatha to get all them silly ideas out your head and marry yourself a
man with some loot (1692). He appears dictatorial, materialistic, and inconsiderate.
I make it a point to show the ending of the 1961 film version, starring Sidney Poitier.
The director makes a very effective change when he alters the tone of the scene. He
retains Hansberrys words, but directs Poitier to deliver the lines in a playful, teasing
manner. As a result, instead of trying to be authoritative, Walter appears relaxed,
good-natured, and confident. Showing this scene will illustrate very clearly and
forcefully the impact a director can have on a script.
10. A Raisin in the Sun is a very American play, concerned with typically American
themes: the struggle of a family to fulfill its version of the American Dream, the
clashes of individual dreams with family responsibilities, and the impact of the socioeconomic milieu on the familys life.
11. Like Hughes, Hansberry warns that conflict and destruction can result when
individuals are denied the possibility of their dreams. The play, like the poem, can be
read as a warning, with the alarm clock, which opens the play, sounding a kind of
alarm for Americans to wake up and listen. The image of moving, which concludes
the play, suggests that it is time to move forward in the march toward racial equality.
Asagai introduces the metaphor: A household in preparation for a journey!
Something full of the flow of life Movement, progress (1682).
12. This could be a possible essay topic.

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Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment

1. After completing Raisin, Hansberry commented on Beneatha: Shes me eight years
ago. I had a ball poking fun at myself through her. What is humorous about
Beneatha? Is there anything about her that we should take seriously? What do you
think she will be like in five or ten years?
2. Beneatha says the family suffers from ghetto-itus. What is ghetto-itus? What
causes it? Discuss the apartment and the neighborhood as part of your answer.
3. Discuss the significance of Ruths possible abortion. Why is this especially
distressing to Mama? Consider the abortion in conjunction with Ruths atheism and
Walters liquor store.
4. Is the ending of the play completely happy?
5. Raisin was first produced in 1959. Do you find the attitudes, actions, and conflicts in
the play still relevant today? Would the play be plausible if set in the present?
6. Many American plays depict emotionally unhealthy families that fail to nurture the
dreams of its members. Consider this statement and Hughess Dream Deferred
with regard to Raisin, Death of a Salesman, and Fences.

The Gap Eugne Ionesco (p. 1693)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1699
1. Responses will vary. Students will often express confusion over motive and behavior.
2. Responses will vary.
3-5. While the professor has passed all requirements leading up to the baccalaureate
degree and all the requirements for a Masters and Doctorate, he has, as has recently
been discovered, not satisfied all the requirements for his undergraduate degree. As a
result, his advanced degrees are threatened with nullification.
The Gap satirizes the emphasis education places on credentials over actual
knowledge. No one is concerned with what the professor actually knows, how he
teaches, or that he has numerous awards and advanced degrees, which presumably he
would not have earned had he not the competency required for completing the second
part of the baccalaureate exam. The importance of degrees (or the paper) rather than
the acquirement of abilities they actually represent, is signaled by the setting and its
display of impressive diplomas as well as the statements concerning the scandalous
ways to pass exams. In The Gap, it seems as though educational leaders have become
obsessed with credentials and paper over actual learning. In fact, it seems to be

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common knowledge that advanced copies of the examination are available on the
black market (1696-97).
However, there are indications that the Academician is an arrogant fraud: he has
attacked people in the press for being ignorant; he has failed many students; he
considers bribery; he is obsessed with honors and diplomas, and he responds to the
test questions without any perception or demonstrative abilities (1695, 1697).
Furthermore, Ionesco suggests the importance of politics over education when the
academician wonders if he failed because he did not join her political party (1698).
Through The Gap, Ionesco implies that education seems obsessed with everything but
education and actually teaching, learning, and the advancement of knowledge.
6. The Wife believes the Academician took the examination because he wants fame,
honors. He never had enough (1696). For the Academician, the examination
represents achievement, status, and self-definition (even if delusional) he secretly
counts his awards and diplomas at night. But as the Wife makes clear as the action
proceeds and especially at the end of the play, she is no less selfish and fraudulent.
She is not concerned with her husbands emotional state after his downfall, only her
own loss of status and the life she enjoyed as the wife of a prominent professor.
Consider how readers might change in their respect for her as the play proceeds. On
the final page, she sounds like Torvald Helmer when he discovers the potential
scandal that could surround Noras forgery.
7. Consider too the purposes of the exaggeration in The Gap and A Marriage Proposal.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
What characteristics of the Theatre of the Absurd are apparent in The Gap? How is it
different from a realistic drama, like Raisin in the Sun, for instance?

Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller (p. 1699)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1769
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary.
3. Willy uses the phrase death of a salesman when he refers to Dave Singleman, the
superior salesman who achieves the kind of respect that always eluded Willy (1737).
Dave died on a business trip, and his funeral was attended by hundreds of buyers and
fellow salesmen from several states. Willy hoped for a similar fate. When we
contrast Willys death and funeral with Daves, we realize how completely Willy
failed at achieving his dreams. Willy commits suicide, and his funeral is attended
only by his immediate family, Charley and Bernard.

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There are smaller deaths for Willy throughout his life: the death of his once fulfilling
and joyful relationship with Happy; the death of an era when business included
respect, and comradeship, and gratitude, when all was not so cut and dried
(1737); the death of his dream that he and his sons will be prosperous and wellrespected; the death of his hope that Biff will be a star athlete; the death of his hope
for a home that provides serenity and privacy as urban high rises dominate his space,
symbolically blocking the sunlight from his garden.
4. Loman is a fitting name for Willy, who seems doomed to remain a low man,
economically, intellectually, psychologically, and emotionally. Through the course of
the plays action, Loman becomes a fitting surname for his sons as well. Happy, no
doubt, will remain a low man, but there is hope for Biff, who although he will not
likely become economically wealthy, he will gain psychological and emotional health
as his words and actions at the end of the play indicate. First names are also relevant:
Willy is a boyish name, and suggests his childish perspective on life; Biff suggests a
rugged man who is more physical than intellectual, and Happy reflects that
characters boyish optimism and cheerfulness.
5. Biffs relationship with his father can be divided into three periods corresponding
with Biffs age:
First 17 years Biff was the favored son. Willy took control of rearing Biff. He
trained him to be an athlete and a leader, even at the expense of academics and
morals. Biff idolized his father, and he enjoyed working alongside him as he repaired
the home or polished the car. He believed Willy could solve all problems, even
failing a math test. Biffs attitude toward his father changes completely when he
discovers him with another woman in a hotel room. From that point, he sees his
father as a fraud.
Age 17-34 years Biff rejects Willy, and seeks revenge on him for his adultery.
He determines to hurt his father by failing, since Willy has invested much of himself
and his success philosophy in his sons. As Willy accurately says, Biff lived to spite
his father (1763-64).
The Future By the end of this play, Biff has reconciled himself with his father.
He no longer needs to seek revenge, which has cost him as much as his father.
Instead, as his lines in the Requiem indicate, he accepts himself as he is, and has
come to understand and forgive his father. He can now carry on with his life in a
more productive manner.
Happy has always idolized his older brother. Late in Act Two and in the
Requiem, Biff tries to see the truth of the familys situation and the truth about each
other. But Happy clings to the false hope that Willys dream was a good one, and the
Loman brothers are truly exceptional men who will see the dream into reality once
they catch a few breaks. Biff is frustrated with his inability to reach Happy.

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6. Willy is in his sixties and has reached the point in life when he realizes his dreams
will never come true. He is frustrated, confused, unpredictable, and often volatile.
Life has disappointed him. Just about everyone and everything he comes in contact
with remind him of his failure. Lindas mending of stockings reminds him of his
failure as a father; Charleys weekly loans remind him of his professional failure, and
all the mechanical breakdowns in his home remind him of his inability to get along in
the modern world.
Willys failure results because he followed the wrong dream. He should have
worked with his hands, as a carpenter perhaps, not as a salesman. He deludes himself
into thinking that sales is his proper career. Willy wants to emulate not only Dave
Singleman, but also his own father and brother. Sales, for Willy, become an
approximation of their careers. His father traveled across the country selling flutes,
while his brother claims to have traveled to Africa and Alaska to gain his wealth.
Willy charts new territory for his company, but New England hardly suggests the
same sense of adventure, and Willy is, if we believe Bens reports, far less successful.
Through sales, Willy also believes he could find the respect of men, something he
always craved and never seems to have attained. This need for being well-liked
seems to rise directly from his being denied a fathers and brothers love. Willy
directs Biff into sports so he can acquire the respect of men.
Willy considers himself a failure. He can no longer deceive himself. As he tells
Biff, I havent got a story left in my head (1751). One reason he commits
suicide is because he realizes he worth more dead than alive (1761), a clear
acknowledgment of failure for one who places such an emphasis on money. Yet we
can sympathize with Willy as he never recovered from his fathers abandonment. He
never realized, and never had anyone to tell him, that that was the root of his
problems. As Willy tells Ben, Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had a
chance to talk to him and I still feel kind of temporary about myself (1722).
When the play opens, Willy clings to only remnants of rationality. Miller gives us
a sympathetic portrait of his protagonist:
He was the kind of man you see muttering to himself on the subway,
decently dressed, on his way home or to the office, perfectly integrated
with his surroundings excepting that unlike other people he can no longer
restrain the power of his experience from disrupting the superficial
sociality of his behavior. Consequently he is working on two logics which
often collide He is literally at that terrible moment when the voice of
the past is no longer distant but quite as loud as the voice of the present.
Introduction, Collected Plays
7. Linda lives the role of conventional housewife. She is the home manager, she cooks,
she cleans, she is a loving mother, and she is a supportive wife. In fact, perhaps she is
too supportive of Willy. She allows him to perpetuate his delusions, and she refuses
to confront him about his possible suicide. She must bear some responsibility for the
continual lying. As Biff says, We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!
(1764). Yet she is not as passive as this might suggest. She confronts her sons and
their treatment of Willy with authority and certitude.

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While clearly Willy and his sons love Linda, they have little or no respect for
other women, and Willy demonstrates little respect for Linda: he cheats on her, tells
her to shut up, and minimizes her influence on her sons, especially Biff (see 1716).
To the male Lomans, women fulfill physical needs: they cook, clean, provide sex,
and become the means for Happy to attack his superiors at work. In fact, Willy with
his sons tries to construct an all-male realm of sports and cars.
8. Minor characters are often overlooked, but they give us keener insight into the major
characters and the authors theme. Consider the following:
Dave Singleman unwittingly helped shape Willys self-destructive dream, see
response to #1.
Jenny, the Woman Willys demeaning treatment of women. He makes an
offensive ribald comment to Jenny (Charleys secretary), while the woman who Biff
discovers in his fathers hotel room says she feels like a football (1758).
Charley balances the political point of view. Some debate that Miller is
attacking the capitalist culture that produces greedy corporate heads who callously
dismiss loyal employees when they are no longer of use. But Charley is very
successful economically and very generous to Willy. He gracefully lends him money
regularly and tolerates Willys abuse because of his concern for his friend. Charley
keeps the political and humanistic vision of the play from being too bleak. Miller
called Charley the most decent man in Death of a Salesman.
Ben provides exposition, demonstrates the painful loss Willy experienced at
being abandoned by father and brother. Bens apparent success reminds Willy of his
failure, but reaffirms his confidence in rearing sons to be rugged, well-liked, and
cunning. You might ask students if they trust Bens reports of his success. Could he
be deceiving Willy?
9. At times, a flute plays during the play. The flute is associated with Willys father and
suggests how Willy is still haunted by his fathers desertion. Lighting is used to
suggest dream, memory, or fantasy.
10. Miller addresses this in the preface to Salesman in Beijing: The realities of
Salesman are culture-bound. Willy Loman has sprung out of a world of business
ambition, a society infected with success fever; China was more than ninety percent
peasant and most living Chinese had been taught proletarian socialist values, the very
antithesis of those Willy strives for. In addition, the play is filled with images of
American culture: appliances, gadgets, sports, cars, public schools, and more.
11. Responses will vary, but Willy will resonate as a character who has tried and failed to
achieve the American Dream. Students will know similar personalities. They will
compare Willy with people they know who have failed to attain their dreams, people

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who chose and became entrapped in the wrong career, and/or people who have turned
bitter and blame the present age for their failure.
12. Reading and commenting on Tragedy and the Common Man is a very useful
assignment. It will most likely tie together you discussions on Greek tragedy,
Shakespearean tragedy, and modern tragedy. There are several ways you can
approach this question:
have students list five points in the essay that are illustrated in the play. This
will get the in-class discussion off to a fast start.
have students respond to the question in the text with a somewhat formal paper
of three to five pages.
divide students into groups. Each group should report their response to the
class.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. The original title for the play was The Inside of His Head. Miller even thought of
erecting a huge face, the height of the proscenium arch, that would open up at the
beginning of the play. Would this have been effective? Which title do you prefer?
What does The Inside of His Head reveal about the play and its setting? Miller said
this title was conceived half in laughter, for the inside of [Willys] head was a mass
of contradictions (Introduction, Collected Plays).
2. Willy is desperate for success. What is success to Willy? What is his strategy for
success that he instills in Biff?
3. Read the opening stage directions. How is the house a reflection of Willy?
4. Biff sees Oliver for only a moment and steals a fountain pen from his office. How
does his meeting with Oliver and his theft lead to an epiphany? What does he
realize? Look at Biffs descriptions before answering (1749-50, 1764-65).
5. Explain with reference to the play, Millers statement of Willys suicide:
The image of suicide so mixed in motive as to be unfathomable and yet
demanding statement. Revenge was in it and a power of love, a victory in that it
would bequeath a fortune to the living and a flight from emptiness. With it an
image of peace at the final curtain.
(Introduction, Collected Plays)
6. Linda cannot understand why she has difficulty crying at Willys funeral. How would
you explain her apparent emotional ambiguity?

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Riders to the Sea John Millington Synge (p. 1770)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1779
1. Responses will vary.
2. Riders to the Sea is a modern tragedy. It combines modern realist techniques (use of
contemporary setting, lower class characters, colloquial dialogue), while retaining
some Aristotelian concepts of tragedy. Maurya is the tragic heroine because she is the
character who suffers the most, who engages our sympathy, and who commands our
attention with the most dramatic and chilling lines of the play. Ask students if she has
a tragic flaw. Responses are interesting and generate further discussion. For instance,
in her culture, is being a woman a flaw? Is her love for her sons a flaw? Is she too
dependent on them? Is she not forceful enough with Bartley in demanding he stay
home from the fair? Outside forces, as with Oedipus and Antigon, contribute to her
fall. Nature, here, is especially harsh. Seductively, the sea promises the people
livelihood and adventure, but frequently delivers tragedy. The sea has led directly to
Mauryas long years of suffering and resignation by claiming the lives of her sons.
Maurya experiences her moment of recognition, the agagnorisis, when she sees
Michaels ghost following a racing Bartley as he rides to the sea. The stage direction
is especially significant here. Maurya tells of her vision a little defiantly,
demonstrating all the dignity and courage of an Oedipus and Antigon (1776). She is
resigned to her fate at the end: No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be
satisfied (1778).
Like a Greek tragedy, there is a sense of inexorable doom in Riders to the Sea.
There are no signs of hope that Michael is alive, no moments of comic relief, and no
real hope that Bartley will remain home.
3. The characters speak in the dialect of Irish peasants, specifically those living on the
Aran Islands, a place thought to be primitive and barbarous. Nora and Cathleen call
Maurya herself, a sign of affection and respect. Christian reference is part of all the
characters speech: by the grace of God, God help us, the blessing of God on
you. Synge uses Christian reference similarly to Joyce. He demonstrates how
dominant Christianity is in Ireland, how it controls consciousness and action, and how
it is ineffective in providing guidance for those in contemporary Ireland. Maurya
acknowledges that her prayers and trips for Holy Water have been in vain. The
priests assurance that Almighty God wont leave her destitute (1771) may be
comforting, but it proves feckless and hollow. Catholic ritual in Synge and Joyce
often provides only false hope.
Note: W. B. Yeats encouraged Synge to write about the Irish Catholic peasantry and
to spend time in the west of Ireland to familiarize himself with the dialect of the
peasants. Synge, who was born just outside Dublin into a wealthy Protestant family,
took a room above the kitchen in an inn. He listened through the cracks in the floor
to the inns staff of young women engaged in private conversation, or so they thought.
Synge reshapes the dialect for this and his other plays and creates a truly poetic effect,

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with undulating rhythms that suggest the force of the ocean currents on the lives of
his characters.
4. Cathleen is the older daughter, the next in line after Maurya in the family hierarchy.
Cathleen assumes control when Maurya is not at home, with which Nora is
comfortable. Cathleen directs how the bundle with Michaels clothes are handled.
Later, as her mother prays, Cathleen directs the men to make a coffin. She is calm
and confident during crises, no doubt having learned from her mother. She is, in fact,
well prepared to lead the family when and if necessary. She scolds her mother for not
giving her blessing to Bartley as he prepares to leave for the fair; the mother
reconsiders and attempts to communicate a kind word to her son as he passes her on
the road (1773).
5. Maurya, the tragic heroine, has an enormous capacity for suffering. She has buried
her husband, her father-in-law, and four sons. While food will now be scarce (wet
flour and fish that would be stinking), worrying and long periods of prayer will
end. She has lost all she can; nothing else can touch her. In her resignation, she will
find rest. The actress playing this role needs at all times to convey not just suffering,
but dignity. Students might mention an actress they think suitable.
6. The props have symbolic overtones and dramatic impact:
nets and oilskins: emphasizes the importance of the sea to the culture. It
dominates work and home life.
spinning wheel: suggests the spinning wheel of fate, and the little control these
characters have over their destinies, especially residing where ones livelihood
depends on such a violent sea.
boards: purchased for Michaels coffin, indicates the omnipresent threat of death,
while the absence of nails suggests the difficult time Maurya and her daughters will
have without a man in the home to be responsible for the traditional male tasks.
These three props, all found in the home, suggest the central forces in the lives of the
play characters: sea, fate, and death.
Other props include the bundle of Michaels clothes (adds suspense, when we
hear how Cathleen identifies them; we see the womens role in the home and the
awareness of imminent death that enters even the making of clothes); the rope (to
lower Michael into the grave, but used by Bartley to pull horses and, in a sense,
lowers him to his death as a pulled pony knocked him off his horse); and the bread
that Maurya attempts unsuccessfully to give to Bartley as he passes her on his way to
the fair (perhaps the bread suggests life).

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7. The title conveys the sense of inexorable fate that empowers this play. The men are
driven to the sea to make their living and, inevitably, as they realize, to find their
deaths.
8. Responses will vary. (See response to #2 and perhaps ask students to refer to Arthur
Millers Tragedy and the Common Man in Chapter Twenty-five.)
9. This question could be developed into an essay.

The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams (p. 1779)

Rather than respond directly to the questions in the text, I have decided to share my
outline for teaching The Glass Menagerie. Most of the questions on page 1815 are
answered in the context of the outline.
Opening Night. First produced in Chicago in late December 1944, The Glass
Menagerie opened on Broadway on March 31, 1945 and ran for 561 performances,
winning the prestigious New York Drama Critics Circle Award. After some half dozen
other plays, Menagerie was Williamss first major success. Williams adapted the play
from one of his own short stories, Portrait of a Girl in the Glass, a work only
memorable for the play it inspired. The play was first adapted for a film in 1950, directed
by Irving Rapper, starring Jane Wyman as Laura and Kirk Douglas as Jim. After seeing
the film, I thought Williamss comment fair: the most awful travesty of the play Ive
ever seen horribly mangled by the people who did the film script. Future adaptations
of Williamss plays to the screen fared much, much better.
Autobiography. Although Williamss most autobiographical play, Menagerie
is not simply a chronicle of his familys circumstances in 1935-36. Certainly, though,
Williamss parents seemed mismatched. Like Amanda, his mother was high-strung and
thought of herself as a refined Southern Belle; his father was a hard-drinking, selfconsciously machismo traveling salesman for the International Shoe Company. He
received a promotion to a managerial position which necessitated moving his family from
their comfortable life in small-town Mississippi to St. Louis. It was a tragic move, said
Williams. Neither my sister nor I could adjust ourselves to life in a Midwestern city.
Williamss father, unlike the father in the play, did not abandon the family, however.
Williams sister Rose did collect glass ornaments and she did have psychological
problems. Williams himself did hold a dead-end job in his fathers shoe company, and he
did model Tom after himself. Absent from the play is Dakin, a third child born into the
family while in St. Louis.
Note: After the Chicago opening the actress playing Amanda greeted Williamss mother
by saying that she was pleased to meet the real-life model for her role. His mother was
shocked and appalled. Williams assigned one-half the royalty payments to his mother
which kept her living comfortably until her death.

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 Characters. I begin by reading the following statement by Williams:

the thing that Ive always pushed in my writing that Ive always felt needed
to be said over and over [is] that human relations are terrifying ambiguous. If
you write a character that isnt ambiguous you are writing a false character, not a
true one.
Sometime during our discussion of Menagerie I consider the pattern of frustration
and disillusionment that consumes the characters. Consider Amandas marriage, Jims
fate after high school, Lauras feelings toward Jim, and Toms journey away from home
and into the world. Life is a series of losses for these characters, whose inflated
expectations have little hope for fulfillment.
Before discussing any of the individual characters, we read the introductions at
the beginning of the play.
Tom. The plays central theme can be interpreted as Toms birth as an artist.
As a young man, Tom uses his artistic impulse to escape from his life at home and in the
shoe factory. He sneaks off to write at work; he goes to the movies almost nightly, and
his spins tales about his whereabouts to his mother. But in the scenes that he recreates for
the play, Tom in not yet an artist. For Tom, art in those younger days is escapist. He
needs to learn a more complex definition, which he does after he ventures into the world
and which, by the time he writes the scenes, he has acquired. Consider his opening lines
in which he reveals his definition of art: I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of
illusion. We see Tom the artist in his soliloquies, which are consistently poetic,
reflective, and philosophical, especially when contrasted with the somewhat boyishly
exaggerated tale he tells his mother (Scene III, 1791). Several ofhis monologues should
be considered closely in class, but especially the one that closes the play and which
complements the opening soliloquy.
Tom learns that art is not exaggeration, but truth. To be a successful artist does
not mean escaping into ones powers of invention, but rather confronting ones own past
and shaping the raw materials of ones experience into larger truths, realizing, as Ralph
Waldo Emerson said, that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has
descended into the secrets of all minds The poet in utter solitude remembering his
spontaneous thoughts and recording them, is found to have recorded that, which men in
crowded cities find true for them also (The American Scholar).
What Tom has found in the secrets of his own mind is guilt for having left
behind Laura. (Williams felt guilty about not being of more help to his sister Rose in her
mental torment.) As he expresses in his final soliloquy, he can never distance himself
from her. But his growth as an artist is complete when he stops trying to run away from
the pain the guilt inflicts. In the play, which is presented as character Toms creation, he
incorporates Laura into his art and writes about the persistence of her memory. The
writing of the play will not only result in an art object with significance for others, but it
will also prove therapeutic for Tom as he will gain a depth of understanding of himself as
well as the other members of his family.

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 Laura. I like to consider the following points in our discussion of Laura:

1. The symbolism of the glass menagerie. Her collection objectifies her fragility and her
inactivity. She most identifies with the unicorn which is completely absent from the
modern world and, which by the end of the play, is broken. Her records and her glass
animals combine to form a world into which she can escape from her problems.
2. Her disability, which is larger in her mind than in actuality. She is overly selfconscious about her leg, referring to herself as a cripple (1788). Reminiscing about
high school, she recalls the loud clumping of her walk. Jims response in its
assuredness is revealing: I never heard any clumping I never ever noticed
(1818). Consider too the introduction to her character at the beginning of the play.
What has happened is that her mothers staunch denial of any problem has
exasperated the situation in her daughters mind.
3. Blue Roses, Jims high school nickname for Laura, suggests fragility, beauty,
melancholy, and uniqueness.
4. Relationship with her mother. As indicated above, her mother is overly protective.
More damaging perhaps are Amandas recollections of her past, which set an ideal of
womanhood that Laura can never hope to achieve. Laura is intimidated by what she
sees as her mothers past social graces, beauty, and many suitors. Rather than
compete with her mothers memories and past, she withdraws into her private world
of glass animals and phonograph records. She interacts with Jim only because she
has no choice.
5. Laura and Jim. For all his somewhat inane ideas and expectations, Jim is right about
Laura: she has an inferiority complex (1821). For awhile, Jim brings out the life
force in Laura and instills confidence in her. However, when he informs her of his
engagement, he shatters her and leaves her with a look of almost infinite desolation
(1827). It is difficult to have hope for Laura at the end of the play.
Amanda. She escapes her bleak present by withdrawing into an idyllic world
of romance, a world, Judith Thompson writes, associated with happiness, security,
and peace; the emphasis is often thrown on childhood or an innocent or pre-genital
period of youth, and the images are those of spring and summer, flowers and
sunshine (Tennessee Williamss Plays: Memory, Myth and Symbol 13). In a sense,
Amanda sees her present predicament as a Fall from Eden. All her romantic stories
occur before her marriage and on a Sunday afternoon. Sex, she believes, has brought
about her fall. Consider her reaction to Toms reference to instinct (1797). The
portrait of her husband, which she still hangs, reminds us of his lingering influence on
the home, especially on Amanda and Tom, who, like his father, is anxious to leave.
Sometime during the discussion, consider the significance of the Wingfield. Wing
suggests flight, but field suggests the ground. The implication seems to be that
although the Wingfields try to soar and fulfill their overly ambitious dreams, they are
doomed to remain in the field or on the ground.

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Frequently erratic and flighty, Amanda is just as frequently lucid. Her comments
concerning her children, for instance, are very accurate (see 1796, 1797). She truly
wants what will be best for them. She wants Laura to marry, but not just anyone, not a
drunk for instance. Although she may be well-intentioned, Amandas methods of her
helping her children are problematic: she nags Tom and she denies Lauras problem
with her leg. But at the end of the play at a crucial point in her daughters life, she
displays real tenderness and unselfishness toward her crushed daughter, displaying
dignity and tragic beauty (1830).
Abandoned by her husband, Amanda has desperately struggled to survive and
she is a survivor, and like all survivors gains Williamss admiration and perhaps the
audiences, despite her many detestable qualities and actions.
Jim. Jims treatment of Laura was well intentioned and sensitive, but it was
also unintelligent and clumsy. He is, as Williams states in the introduction, a nice,
ordinary, young man. Jim is a character with whom students will be able to identify,
if not right now then in the future. He is the high school hero whose early promise
never materialized. He can be interpreted as an All-American boy, aggressive,
optimistic and pragmatic. He admires the inventor of chewing gum and will study
technology so he can work in television, the next big thing. Williams is satirizing the
All-American boy through Jim, who in addition to possessing the characteristics
above, is unimaginative and somewhat dull-witted.
Family play. The great subject of American drama in the twentieth century
has been the family, mostly presented in our serious plays as dysfunctional. Consider
some of the American plays in the text: Death of a Salesman, Glass Menagerie,
Trifles, and Fences. Then consider other plays: Hellmans Little Foxes, Albees
American Dream and Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, David Rabes Sticks and
Bones, Tina Howes Painting Churches, and Sam Shepards True West, among many
others.
As a memory play. We do not see objective reality in The Glass Menagerie.
The action of the play takes place in Toms mind and is based on his memory.
Consider the ending with this in mind. Laura is comforted and perhaps resurrected by
her mother. However, Tom did not witness this scene; he had exited. Therefore, we
do not really know definitely what happens to Laura. The image Tom presents can be
interpreted as hopeful or wishful thinking on his part.
Religious imagery. There are many Christian symbols and references:
Amanda is said to look like the picture of Jesuss mother; Annunciation flashes
on the back screen when we hear Jim is coming to dinner; after Laura hears of Jims
engagement, we hear that Holy candles in the altar of Lauras face have been snuffed
out, and many more. The imagery seems to suggest that Christianity has been
reduced to ornament or ritual with no effectiveness to help those struggling in the
modern world. The characters are associated with Christian imagery and seem
completely lost in the contemporary world; religion fails to guide them. Significantly,

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a church has been struck by lightning, rendering the building as useless as the religion
it represents.
Realism-nonrealism. Williams hoped his memory play would contribute to
the development of a new plastic theater that would replace the exhausted theater
of realistic conventions. Williams uses several techniques that break the illusion of
reality and force the audience to think about and analyze the characters and their
situations; he wants to avoid the excessive emotional involvement of the audience
which shuts down the intellect. Consider various techniques he uses to accomplish
this: Tom as narrator, the slides, music, lighting, the fathers lit portrait, and more.
This is not to say that Williams rejects realistic conventions. Of course, he doesnt.
He employs contemporary characters who speak in a colloquial dialogue and he
leaves the ending open.
The American experience. Consider what this play suggests about the
American experience. Read the opening to the introduction to Scene I in class. Then
consider the crammed tenements, the routine drudgery of the enslaved at work, the
quest for money, the cheap sex and glitz of the dance hall, and the lack of poetry and
adventure which makes war enticing. The portrait of America is less than flattering.
The existential vision. The Glass Menagerie embodies Williamss
fundamental existential vision. The individuals life is one of solitude, cut off from
God (as the religious imagery implies) and largely but not completely from each other
(Amanda and Laura at the end). The result is that many live directionless and seek
escape from their situations in manufactured worlds, illusions, or, more productively
and meaningfully, in art, which tries to increase understanding and sympathy.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Compare the Wingfield family to other fictional American families presented in short
stories, drama, film, and television.
2. Compare Amandas struggle to survive with that of the narrator of Gilmans The
Yellow Wallpaper and Granny Weatherall of Porters The Jilting of Granny
Weatherall.
3. Compare Williamss technique of combining realistic with nonrealistic elements with
the techniques of Miller in Death of a Salesman, Wilson in Fences, and Lpez in
Simply Mara.

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Chapter Twenty-two

A Collection of
Contemporary Plays
M. Butterfly David Henry Hwang (p. 1833)
Possible Responses to Questions page 1885
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary, but there are reasons to sympathize with Gallimard. He was an
unwitting spy and his relationship with Song gave him a confidence he never felt
before and helped him to overcome his lifelong sense of inferiority.
3. The three notes at the beginning of the play each have a function:
New York Times That M. Butterfly has been inspired by a historical incident
arouses audience curiosity and adds plausibility to the story that is about to unfold
before the audience/reader.
Authors note Hwang makes clear the creative nature of the play. He imagines
scenes and characters and develops his play based on the outline of the historical
record. The actual story serves as a source for a drama about various themes
concerning cultural and gender stereotyping.
China Girl The song suggests the fantasy and escapism that Gallimard found
with Song.
4. Gallimard has very different lives in the three locations. In Paris, both before he is
sent to China and after his return, he is regarded as insignificant and so he feels
powerless. He lives a mundane existence, a little accounting, regular schedule,
keeping track of traffic violations in the suburbs (1875). In Paris there is nothing to
make him feel important. My life in the West has been such a disappointment
(1876).

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Gallimard is happiest in China, where he acts out his fantasy of being Pinkerton to
Songs Butterfly. He has a secret residence with his Perfect Woman (1877) and he
is made to feel important with her and at work, believing that he makes decisions that
influence the world, or at best, he says in an effort to sound modest, a small
corner.
In prison, he tries to make his situation bearable with a very active dream life. He
replays his story night after night, searching for a new ending to redeem my
honor with an ideal audience who not only understand but envy him (1836). He
tries, as he says, to return to the world of fantasy (1884). However, alone in his
cell, he is forced to confront the truth (1884). What he realizes is that he was
Butterfly in his relationship with Song. He was the one taken advantage of. So, at
the end of the play, he determines, as Madame Butterfly does in the opera, to commit
suicide, and die with honor rather than live with dishonor (1885). With his suicide,
his fantasy and reality finally come together for him.
5. Gallimard fantasizes that Song is his Madame Butterfly, and for espionage reasons
and perhaps for his own sense of empowerment, Song acts like Butterfly. Song
realizes that by submitting to Gallimards fantasy, the diplomat will become generous
to her, meaning he will accommodate her as she wishes. Gallimard fancies himself
the powerful Westerner in the relationship with Song the submissive Oriental woman.
Gallimards desire is so strong that he overlooks the fact, pointed out by Song, that
Madame Butterfly was Japanese and that there are many differences between
Japanese and Chinese women. For Gallimard, he expects his Butterfly to be
submissive, modest, selfless, exotic, meek, loyal, and desirous of domination.
Gallimard sees himself as a more sensitive Pinkerton. The relationship instills in him
feelings of confidence and empowerment. With her, he feels, he says for the first
time that rush of power the absolute power of a man (1853). Ironically, as the title
suggests and he discovers at the end of the play, he is the one disempowered as he
plays to a stereotype. Hwang discusses this in the Afterword on page 2151, stating
that Gallimard had fallen in love with a fantasy stereotype, a stereotype Song
exploited.
Gallimard so wants to believe that Song is his Butterfly that he readily accepts her
transformation from an independent, strong-willed woman to her role as his
subservient mistress. Consider her transformation. In their first conversation, she
asks him to consider her Oriental adaptation of the Butterfly story involving a blonde
homecoming queen and a short Japanese businessman (1844), and she demands that
he light her cigarette (1846). Gallimard concludes that she is outwardly bold and
outspoken very unlike Madame Butterfly and her later persona (1849). He readily
accepts her transition, however, to a small frightened heart a Chinese girl, one
too modest to let her lover see her completely naked (1851, 1867). The
forwardness of my action, she says, makes my skin burn (1851). He delights in
her pose and so badly wants to believe it that he does. While he acknowledges that
she is much different from when they first met, he believes her Butterfly pose is her
true self.

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6. Asian and Western cultures and men and women all have stereotypical views of the
other. Consider the following statements in your discussion:
It seems Monsieur Gallimard was overly anxious to live up to his national
reputation (1836). What is the national reputation of a Frenchman? Did
Gallimard fit the stereotype?
The sad truth is that all men want a beautiful woman, and the uglier the man, the
greater the want (1842).
Consider Gallimards reaction to Songs Madame Butterfly: I wanted to take her
in my arms so delicate, even I could protect her, take her home, pamper her
Compare this to Songs adaptation concerning the homecoming queen and the
Japanese businessman (1843, 1844).
[Oriental women] have always held a certain fascination for you Caucasian men
it is always imperialist (1846).
She must surrender to you. It is her destiny. (1848)
France is a country living in the modern era China is a nation whose soul is
firmly rooted two thousand years in the past (1851).
I felt for the first time that rush of power the absolute power of a man
(1853).
When a woman calls a man her friend, shes calling him a eunuch or a
homosexual (1855).
I was learning the benefits of being a man. We form our own clubs, sit behind
thick doors, smoke and celebrate the fact that were still boys (1860).
But is it possible for a woman to be too uninhibited, too willing, so as to seem
almost too masculine? (1864).
All he wants is for her to submit. Once a woman submits, a man is always ready
to become generous. (1869).
Men always believe what they want to hear. So a girl can tell the most
obnoxious lies and the guys will believe them every time (1879).
Your mouth says no, but your eyes say yes (1882).
This is the vision of the Orient that I have. Of slender women in chong sams and
kimonos who die for the love of unworthy foreign devils. Who are born and

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raised to be the perfect women. Who take whatever punishment we give them,
and bounce back, strengthened by love, unconditionally (1884).
Hwang in the Afterword says that in M. Butterfly racism and sexism intersect
(2153).
7. The play calls into question many cultural issues concerning extramarital affairs,
freedom of sexual expression, homosexuality under a rigid communist regime (see
1861), the deceptions and lies of lovers, the entrapment of a lover and sacrificing a
childs normalcy of life for the good of ones country, the fairness of espionage to
individuals, definitions of man and womanhood, sexism, and many others.
Hwang seems remarkably objective about these issues. Through M. Butterfly,
however, he does voice a strong statement for individuality and an individuals
dreams and wishes, and calls on his audience to look beyond stereotypes and to
understand and sympathize with someone as seemingly perverse as Gallimard.
8. Responses will vary.
9. Students can develop this question into a research paper by consulting criticism on
both the opera and the play. Students can argue the strong influence the opera exerts
on not only Gallimard but the play itself.
10. Consider too Hwangs explanation for the title and his comments on imperialism,
stereotypes within the gay community, making a play more Broadway, and how a
play goes from conception to stage.

Prodigal Son Garrison Keillor (p. 1886)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1891-92
1. Responses will vary, but students will appreciate the play more if they are familiar
with the Biblical parable, which appears in Chapter One.
2. Responses will vary.
3. In his initial address, the narrator sets the humorous and facetious tone of the play, as
he gently mocks the solemnity of moralists. His comments throughout the play
maintain this tone and also fill in some undramatized gaps in the story while making
the passing of time more plausible.
4. Wally is a young man more concerned with fun than work. He manipulates his father
so as to get his share of the farm, which Wally spends on riotous living. Wally
takes no interest in the family business, and spends his energy on a decadent lifestyle.
As the title indicates, he is extravagant and wasteful. He is probably not much
different from the son in the Bible. However, the play modernizes him and shows

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him in action. Ask students if this gets them to sympathize more or less with Wally.
Ask them too if he has learned his lesson.
5. The father, a wealthy businessman, is restrained and passive in his response to his
son. He seems content without discussion to allow his son to go off. He may realize
that Wally has to experience a life of profligacy before he can appreciate a life of hard
work rewarded. He is joyous and forgiving at Wallys return, much to the chagrin of
Dwight. The father allowed Wally to find himself; he was hopeful, it would seem,
that his son would return a more mature and industrious young man. The fathers
silence at the beginning of the play suggests that he has an understanding of the
impulse for lust that is tugging away at Wally.
6. The older brother, Dwight, believes he has been treated unfairly. He has been loyal
and hard working all his life and has never had a party in his honor. He may seem
shortsighted, selfish, and incapable of just now forgiving his father and brother, but
his reaction is understandable. Unlike his father, he cannot seem to understand his
brothers impulse for the wild life. As the opening scene suggests, Dwight is more
passionate about business than alcohol and women. He goes off to sulk at the end of
the play.
7. Wally and Dwight live by diametrically opposite values. Wally seeks a life of
pleasure, extravagance, and easy living, whereas Dwight is hard working, shrewd,
and justice oriented. The play seems to endorse the values of the father, who is
merciful, understanding, patient, and tolerant.
8. See response to #7. But the father is guided by love, forgiveness, and hope as he
hopes that Wally will learn from his experience. In fact, the father seems to
demonstrate the values that Paul discusses in 1 Corinthians 13: There remain then,
faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
9. Keillor adds detail to the Biblical parable. His play emphasizes the sibling rivalry, the
familys successful business, and the sons profligacy, but, above all, he adds humor
to the solemn Biblical story. By giving his characters names and placing them in
specific scenes and circumstances, and by juxtaposing Biblical settings with the
modern consciousness and language of his characters, Keillor creates comedy and deemphasizes the serious implications that the parable holds. Wally, whose repentance
at the end is suspicious (see bottom 1889, anxious for the party 1890), becomes a less
representative figure, one not completely suitable for demonstrating a moral.
10. This could be an assignment for a short paper.
Other Topics for Discussion and Assignment
In addition to comparing the play to the parable, you might also discuss Rembrandts The
Return of the Prodigal Son and Elizabeth Bishops The Prodigal.

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Simply Mara or The American Dream Josefina Lpez (p. 1892)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1915
1. Responses will vary.
2. Lpez distinguishes between the principals and other characters. The first principal
she lists is Mara, indicating that Mara is the protagonist. The subsequent ordering of
the principals is in correlation to their influence on Maras life. Jos, however, lives
only in Maras dream, yet he is her visualization of the husband her parents expect
for her and the husband she will most likely serve if she follows her parents wishes
Jos is just like her father. Although Jos is non-existent, his image is frightening
enough to compel Mara to attend college. The almost fifty other characters represent
either types (immigrants, vendors, valley girls, etc.); cultural symbols, values, and
myths (Statue of Liberty, Salesman, Judge); or Maras subconscious and her
conflicting cultural voices (Mara 2, Myth, Actress).
3. The plays opening scene depicts Carmens elopement with Ricardo. Calling for
her love from her balcony, Carmen appears very much a Juliet, i.e., very young,
innocent, romantic, and starry-eyed. Ricardo is her Romeo, but a Romeo, not in the
Shakespearean sense, but in the contemporary sense of being an untrue lover. He is
married, and he has no plans to marry Carmen, at least not on that night. His aim is
seduction. Naively, Carmen looks for his horse to carry her off to fulfillment of her
romantic fantasy, but Ricardo only has his old bike, perhaps an image of a wellused phallic. His deceitfulness is revealed when she says, Ricardo, you promised!
4. Lpez lists stereotypical characteristics of Mexican women when Girls 1, 2, and 3
teach Mara to be a Mexican girl. Ricardos words and actions at the end of Scene
Two suggest that the typical Mexican man is adventurous, impatient, self-indulgent,
independent, hard working, and unresponsive to his wifes needs. Later in the play,
we see Ricardo and Jos live out these stereotypes in a way that is abusive to their
wives.
Lpez is bothered by her cultures demands on woman and the mens neglect and
disrespect towards women. Carmen is very passive in this scene. Lpez is indicating
that there is no culturally acceptable response to abuse for the Mexican woman. By
depicting the plight of the Mexican woman, Lpez is giving voice to her silent
distress.
5. Scene Three exposes the hypocrisy that Lpez sees in Americas immigrant story.
The Statue of Liberty promises hope, but this offer only seems available to Europeans
and only if the immigrant is willing to conform, adapt, [and] bury your past, a price
Mexicans are not always willing to pay. Therefore, fireworks welcome European
immigrants, while Mexican immigrants are hunted with lights from helicopters and
barking dogs. In Scene Four, we hear of Ricardos journey to Los Angeles in the
back of a crowded truck that was so hot that some passengers feared death from
suffocation.

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6. To Mara, Ricardo, and Carmen, America represents hope, a better life where Ricardo
says we can have the things we dont have (1896). But it is questionable, if not
doubtful, that Ricardo and Carmen find a more fulfilling life in Los Angeles.
Carmens initial disappointment with the city and their apartment (Scenes Five and
Six) does not change. Mara sees America as truly a land of opportunity. She works
hard to achieve a good education, and she is awarded a four-year college scholarship.
Her parents are not entirely pleased. By studying so intensely, Mara has neglected to
become a full participant in her Mexican culture, which is to say that she is not a
typical Mexican girl and will not be a typical Mexican wife. Her parents may not
approve of her decision to attend college, but clearly the playwright does. The play
ends triumphantly for Mara as she overcomes the encumbrance of what Lpez
presents as a demanding, restrictive culture.
7. During THE MAKING OF A MEXICAN GIRL in Scene Two, music is used
ironically. THREE ANGELIC GIRLS hum and sing beautifully with only the
word Mara. But the beautiful voices mask their objectives: to indoctrinate Mara
with her cultures concept of womanhood, and to destroy any of Maras individual
impulses and instincts which might conflict with those cultural dictates.
Scene Five, which recreates downtown Los Angeles, calls for police and firetruck sirens, abrasive vendors, and other jarring voices. Lopz is emphasizing the
contrast between the quiet Mexican existence of Carmen and Mara with the
threatening, organized chaos of Los Angeles. Carmen is intimidated and feels out
of place. The American Dream for Carmen is a surrealistic nightmare, one from
which she never really escapes. Sound, here, primarily establishes the surrealistic
effect.
In Scene Eight, Maras dream, Mara sees Myth dance with Prince to a sweet
melody, but as the couple are about to kiss, Mara hears the crack of a whip and a
horse running off. Mary, the American image of contemporary womanhood, enters to
spoil the fairy tale. The sounds of the sweet melody and horse recall Carmens
vision of her elopement in Scene One. For Carmen the myth proves to be just that, a
cultural myth not fulfilled in actuality. As Maras dream suggests, Mara seems to be
aware that the myth will be unfulfilled in her life as well. Her life in America and her
observation of her parents marriage lead her to embrace Marys vision. The cracking
of the whip stops the music and drives the horse off, and indicates the abrupt
extraction of the myth from Maras concept of her future.
8. Scene Eight represents Maras internal struggle: should she please her parents and
follow the traditional path for women in her culture, or should she attend college and
follow the voice of America that she has adopted? In her dream, cultural tradition and
roots overpower her American sensibilities, and she marries Jos. The marriage vows
are more direct and honest in contrast to the euphemistic vows of Scene Two. To
Mara, the vows in her dream reflect the reality of her parents marriage and that of
other Mexican marriages, including her dream marriage with Jos.
The names are significant: Myth and Prince reflect the unreality of the fairy-tale
Mexican wedding and marriage, to which Mexican girls look forward, but few, if any,

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achieve. Mary represents the part of Maras sensibility that has been Americanized,
while Mara 2 represents the strong, traditional voice lodged deep within her. The
Referee is Maras voice of reason who wants a clean fight, i.e., an honest and fair
evaluation of both options so that the more fitting one will emerge to direct Mara.
The Priest personifies the chauvinistic quality of Mexican culture sustained, in part,
by institutions like the Catholic Church.
9. The titles focus the audiences attention on the important theme of a particular scene.
Consider the following:
THE MAKING OF A MEXICAN GIRL emphasizes the force of cultural
traditions and dictates.
LOS ANGELITOS DEL NORTE not just a setting, but the Mexican myth of
success that is rarely achieved.
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE GHETTO mocks the immigrant and frontier
success as sustained in television series like Little House on the Prairie.
WHITE WEDDING mocks the traditional Mexican wedding with its show of
purity and promise of happiness. The irony is especially forceful when Jos leads
Mara from the church like a master walking his dog, complete with leash and Mara
on her hands and knees.
THE REPRODUCING MACHINE OR TO BE FRUITFUL reduces the
Mexican wife to commodity, one that is valued according to her ability to produce
children, especially males.
10. Scene Eight serves as a statement for the conflicting values of American and Mexican
cultures. Mary represents American values of womanhood, which include the
possibility of self independence, economic independence, sexual independence.
Maria 2 and the Priest speak for Mexican standards of womanhood, which demand
unconditional loyalty and servitude to husband. The Priest has the scenes closing
and very telling line: You may pet the bride.
11. The play suggests that the traditional Mexican marriage has sharply defined roles for
husband and wife. The woman is in charge of household chores (cooking, cleaning,
etc.) and rearing children, and keeping her husband sexually satisfied although the
wifes sexual satisfaction is irrelevant. In fact, she has been taught to suppress her
sexual pleasure, presumably so as not to demand fulfillment from her husband and
not to seek fulfillment outside the home. Her place is in the kitchen, as Ricardo
demonstrates when, in Scene Six, he changes his tone after speaking to his daughter:
[To Mara:] You can be anything you want to be! (Pause.) Carmen, let me show
you the kitchen.

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However, his encouraging words to Mara are hollow, as Ricardo proves later in
Scene Seven when Mara informs him of her intention to be an actress:
You want to go to college, to study to be an actress? Ests loca? I didnt know
you had to study to be a whore Why dont you just get married like most
decent women and be a housewife?
While the wife is confined to the home, husbands have freer reign. Husbands dictate
where the home is to be, although they spend much of their lives outside the home
and outside the marriage, as Ricardo explains when he justifies his extramarital
affairs: Look, every man sooner or later does it. Similarly, Joss abuse of Mara
and the support he receives from her parents and the Judge indicate that the husband
controls the marital agenda. As the prosecutor affirms, A mans home is his castle.
Where he has his foundation. It is the place where he comes home to his family, and
he becomes king of his castle. Failure of a wife to live up to her husbands demands
and expectations is tantamount to a crime see THE TRIAL in Scene Eleven.
12. See response # 4 above and the discussion in this manual of Woman Hollering
Creek.
Other Topics for Assignment and Discussion
1. In Scene Ten, Jos names his daughters Sacrifice, Abnegation, Obligation, and then
Frustration, Regret, and Disappointment. What do these names suggest? How do
they support the plays theme of woman in the Mexican cultural tradition?
2. In Scene Eleven, Mara is on trial for rebelling against her husband and marital duties.
The Judge asks for her plea, to which she responds, Innocent! Guilty! I dont know!
How is Maras plea an accurate statement of her intellectual and emotional
confusion?
3. In Scene Eleven, when the Prosecutor addresses the audience about the traditional
home and Maras crime, he uses clichs. Is this a weakness of writing on Lpezs
part? Or, is his use of clichs, just by being clichs, revealing and even satirical.
4. Discuss the ending of the play. Does the happy ending seem forced? Does it weaken
the portrayal of Maras internal struggle, as she appears well on the path to a more
independent life than her culture generally allows for women? Or is the ending
entirely happy? Is Mara moving on to another level of struggle? Consider her career
choice and her fathers response to that choice in Scene Seven. You might also
consider the roles that will be available to a young Mexican actress.
5. Compare Scene Three with August Wilsons opening stage directions about European
immigration in Fences. How are the visions of Lpez and Wilson similar, but
unique?

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6. Play a recording of Woody Guthries Deportee. (The rock band The Byrds also
recorded the song for The Ballad of Easy Rider, but perhaps it is more readily
available on The Byrds, their CD box set, released in 1990.) The song, based on a
historical incident, tells of Mexican immigrants, some illegal, who when they finish
harvesting the crops are forced to return to Mexico, like rustlers, like outlaws, like
thieves. The plane carrying them over the border crashes over Los Gatos. But
Americans need not grieve:
Who are all these friends who are scattered like dry leaves?
The radio said they were just deportees.
The song will help illumine and generate discussion about the Mexican immigrant
experience. What does the play say about the Mexican immigrant experience, legal
or illegal? How is Lpezs perspective similar to Guthries? Are the illegal
immigrants necessary to the United States economy? Are illegal immigrants
exploited? Should their children be permitted to attend U.S. public schools while
their parents work? These questions could develop into a research assignment.
7. Write about the difficulties Mara might experience as an immigrant in America.
Compare her situation with immigrants from other backgrounds. Draw on your own
observations and experiences, or those of your parents, friends, and fellow students.
8. Josefina Lpez wrote Simply Mara when she was seventeen years old. How does
this information affect your reading of the play?

Andres Mother Terrence McNally (p. 1916)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1918
1. Responses will vary.
2. The title directs our attention to the mother as the significant role and the most hurtful
and tragic relationship in Andres life. Andre could not be himself with his mother.
He kept his homosexuality from her and died knowing of her implicit rejection. Her
silence conveys her emotional turmoil and confusion. She no doubt feels some
complex combination of grief, guilt, and anger. There are no words to express her
utter pain and confusion. One of the plays secondary themes is the inadequacy of
words to express feeling, as Cal and Penny recognize: I-know-what-Cal-meansabout-words (1917). Her silence also serves a symbolic purpose. She can be
considered representative of all mothers of homosexuals and AIDS victims who
refuse to accept their childrens lifestyle and condition. Thus her silence in the play
reflects her response to her son when he was alive. She ignored him.

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3. Cal compares Lulus mother to Andres mother. In his bitterness, he tells her of the
similarity: She was so remote, so formidable to all her children. She was just Lulus
mother She was almost anonymous in her remoteness. You remind me of her
(1917). This statement reveals as much about Cal as Andres mother. Cal is angry
and resentful over Andres mothers neglect of her son.
4. The relationship of Andre and his mother recalls that of Hamlet and his mother
Gertrude. Although both mothers obviously love their sons, their actions fail to
consider their sons feelings. Andres mother does not consider the pain her neglect
causes Andre, and Gertrude fails to consider Hamlets grief when she remarries so
soon after her husbands death. Both mothers are selfish, placing their own interests
and public posture over concern for their sons. The absolute neglect of Andres
mother for Andre is indicated by her unwillingness to see his performance as Hamlet,
a role that defined his greatest dream (1916). When Cal quotes Horatio at plays
end (Good night, sweet prince ), he delivers a tender eulogy that increases
audience sympathy for Andre, adds nobility to Andres character, and brings tragic
awareness to the audience for AIDS victims.
5. Cal reveals the significance of the helium balloons on the top of page 1917. Penny
lets loose of her balloon first. She is the first to come to terms with her grief. Her
humor and lack of bitterness towards Andres mother reveal that she accepts the loss
of her friend and is ready to move forward. Arthur is the second. He delivers his
eulogy on page 1916-1917. Cal is next to release his balloon. He is still working
through the grief process, but this meeting with Andres mother marks a significant
step forward. A similar statement can be made about Andres mother, who is the last
to set her balloon free. She is alone on stage, emblematic of her having to work out
her grief by herself. But her presence in the park indicates forward progress, and
when she kisses the balloon before releasing it, she reveals an acceptance of her son
in death which she refused him in life. Her staring at the balloon suggests contrition,
love, and regret as she looks at the image of her son for as long as possible.
6. See response #4.
7. Andres Mothers primary theme is sympathy and acceptance. The play suggests that
life is too brief, too full of tragic twists and turns to ostracize loved ones and each
other because of insignificant issues, which in the scheme of life, illness and death,
sexual preference may be. When we concern ourselves with issues that are private
and victimless, like homosexuality to McNally, we miss opportunities to share in
someones life and experience a meaningful relationship. This can be especially tragic
when a parent cuts off a child. The play is also about the grieving process, the
inadequacy of language, and discrimination.
8. Andre and Cal had a loving relationship and reached out to others to share their love.
Andres mother, however, is shortsighted and judgmental. She rejects her son
because of his sexuality and decides to remove herself from her sons life.

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9. Responses will vary.

Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. How would you cast the mother? Would she be tall, thin, and rigid in appearance, or
shorter, perhaps overweight, and matronly? What would her dress be like? (Stage
directions state that the characters are nicely dressed.) Explain your choices. You
might consider this same question for each of the other characters.
2. By the end of the play, we actually come to know quite a bit about Andre. Describe
him.
3. Describe Cals attitude toward Andres mother. Do you think he sees her as
representative of a type? Does that explain his bitterness towards her? Are his bitter
comments to her fair? Or does he go too far at times?
4. Divide the class into groups of three or four. Ask each group to devise a case study
for Andres mother. One student in each group could be responsible for telling of her
life from birth to marriage; another from marriage and child-rearing to Andres first
apartment; another from Andres leaving home to the action of the play, and still
another tracing her development over the next five years after leaving the park. Of
course, the groups can be larger and topics more limited.

The Cuban Swimmer Milcha Sanchez-Scott (p. 1919)

I present The Cuban Swimmer as an allegory of the immigrant experience. Margarita, the
daughter in a first-generation immigrant family, seeks success and the attainment of the
American dream, but she must endure a series of obstacles and setbacks. The swim
serves as a metaphor for the uncertainties and sufferings of the immigrant experience and
the gains and losses of that struggle.
Possible Responses to Questions page 1931
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary. This question could develop into a personal essay.
3. Margarita competes in the race from a sense of responsibility to her family, especially
her father. In fact, she is driven more by a desire to please her father than by personal
ambition or glory. She sees her success in the swim, a metaphor for participation in
the American dream, as her responsibility to her family. Margarita demonstrates
characteristics that many immigrants must have for even modest success: she is hard
working, courageous, persevering, intense, committed, strong, energetic, and hopeful.
Yet although she wins the race, the reward of $2,000.00, is literally and figuratively,

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not that great. It does not cover expenses (1921). Ask students if the expenses here
are more than monetary. What might immigrants lose in their process of settling in
America?
4. Certainly, all the characters express love for Margarita. However, different facets of
their character are revealed. The father Eduardo and son Simon are the most
desperate. Eduardo expresses guilt about having driven his daughter so hard while
Simon panics and considers diving in after her which would no doubt lead to his
death. Simon and father, but more so Simon, reveal too their dependency on their
daughter, of course to win the race, but perhaps also metaphorically to take the family
a bit farther along the path to the American dream. The father seems a modestly
successful businessman, but he rests his hope for his familys future and increased
success on his daughter, his older child. He seems to understand that the first
generation of immigrants can only go so far.
The women are calmer during the crisis. The mother, Ada, takes command of the
radio call for help and gives a clear, detailed description of her daughter. She like her
husband expresses some guilt (it was my sin I left my home, 1930), suggesting
that the immigrant experience, more than the treacherous waters, is responsible for
what might be Margaritas death. Abuela searches for her granddaughter through the
binoculars and never gives up hope. She listens to her heart: I dont feel the knife in
my heart (1930). The calm response of the women implies that they have
experienced many difficulties and crises as a result of immigration. Compare Adas
behavior during this crisis with her behavior on board the boat coming to America
(see 1926).
5. Even if the audience does not literally comprehend them, the sense and implications
of the untranslated Spanish words are always clear. By leaving the words
untranslated, Sanchez-Scott reminds us that this is a story concerning immigrants and
their struggle, specifically, the Cuban immigrant struggle a point emphasized by the
title.
6. As the reporter says, Margaritas success is a miracle a resurrection (1931). The
story suggests the difficulty of the immigrant experience, how survival and the quest
for participation in the American dream is fraught with dangers, risks, and sometimes
the death of family members before success, which cannot be assured.
7. The play endorses the values represented by Margarita see her characteristics in
response # 3. The play also endorses family unity and selflessness and sacrifice on
behalf of ones family despite Eduardos comic exclamation: Goddamn Cubans,
why, God, why do you make us go everywhere with our families? (1928).
On the other hand, the play condemns the prejudice immigrants encounter.
Consider the smug, insensitive broadcasters and their condescending remarks
concerning how the whole family has turned out to cheer little Margarita on to
victory! I hope they wont be too disappointed. What are the implications of these
lines if we read the play as a metaphor for the immigrant experience? What does it
say about the broadcasters sense of family unity and his own individualism (perhaps

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selfishness) that he notes the whole family, which includes only four other
members? Also, consider use of words like simple people, ragtag La Havana,
long-shot chance to victory (1922).
8. Responses will vary.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Compare the immigrant experience of the families in The Cuban Swimmer and
Lpezs Simply Mara.
2. Compare the implications concerning the immigrant experience in The Cuban
Swimmer with August Wilsons opening stage directions about European immigration
in Fences.
3. The Cuban Swimmer presents challenges to the director and others involved in the
production. Considering that you do not have unlimited resources, how would you
present the play on stage? How would you make the water scenes plausible?

Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth Drew Hayden Taylor
(p. 1932)
Possible Responses to Questions page 1969
1. Responses will vary.
2. Responses will vary.
3. The plays title suggests that few people live the truth, i.e., few people are true to
themselves. Adults like Janice-Grace find the truth difficult to accommodate so they
avoid it, and wear a mask that insulates them from themselves and others. Note how
frequently Janice-Grace defines herself as a lawyer. She would rather play the role of
a prosperous, well-respected professional than discover who she is. This play marks
the continuance of her journey to self-discovery, a journey she has considered and
abandoned throughout her life, but one she could no longer avoid after meeting her
birth mother. She exposes her feelings and her identity crisis while drinking with
Barb (see 1963).
4. In the Toronto apartment setting, Janice-Grace can repress her Indian roots. However,
the few Indian artifacts (gifts from friends) suggest she can never completely escape
her Indianness. But for the most part her apartment is, as Tonto says white: The
walls look so white my eyes hurt (1944), referring to the culture rather than the
color. Similarly, when her sister complains that Janice-Grace never shares her
feelings, Barb says, Youve always got those walls around you (1941). The

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apartment in Toronto shields her from confronting her heritage and realizing that
perhaps her adoption has cost her more than she gained.
In the Otter Lake home, Janice-Grace is forced to confront her heritage. She ran
away from the Reserve during her first adult visit, but now she begins to accept her
heritage, and embrace it rather than fear it. She begins to learn the language, she
visits her mothers grave, and by the end of the play she learns to think more like an
Indian, which is to say, she begins to think with her heart and accept the help of
others or an extended family. Previously, she was more of a loner (see 1943-44). She
is starting to accept that, as Barb says, Family, friends we stick together (1944), a
point Tonto reinforces at the conclusion (1968). There seems to be a spirit of place
that was too powerful for her six months ago, but now she is able and willing to yield
to it.
5. The dual names suggest her sense of uncertainty about self as she feels trapped
between two cultures. She does not seem fully comfortable in either world. Thus in
Toronto she spends much time alone or working. By denying Grace so vigorously,
she is actually denying her Indian identity, something she cannot do and still feel
whole. She avoids confronting her nature and tries to be content to live with a
manufactured identity, an attempt which proves hopeless. There are many
implications throughout the story to suggest that she avoids her Indianness: for
instance, she never goes to the Native Centre, though it is near her home (1939), and
she storms out of her birth mothers home an hour into their first meeting, afraid of
the feelings of love and loss being aroused. It should be noted that Janice-Grace
denies her heritage mostly because of the emotional torment it causes her. When she
considers her Indianness, she is reminded of the parental and family love that she has
missed and her sense of incompleteness. She sounds envious of Tonto when she tells
him that You got to stay on the Reserve, and I was sent away And you got to see
your father (1948).
6. The play is primarily about Indians and draws much of its power from this specificity:
the references to the Reserve with its subculture (which protects the privacy of its
own, including Amelia Earhart), the language, the tribal sense of community and the
importance of family, and the distrust of whites and the government, a government
and a system that does not understand the Indians, will take their children away, and
exclude Indians from full participation. However, in broader terms, the play is about
any marginalized peoples discriminated against by government, while also being
about individuals who experience an identity crisis because of adoption or separation
from their cultural roots.
7. At first, in Toronto, Tonto feels sexually attracted to her, although it seems as if he
makes a pass at her because it might be expected of him. He seems more playful than
aggressive. Janice wards him off and indicates no attraction for him, sexual or
otherwise. However, as the two begin to talk the next morning Janice becomes
increasingly interested in him, especially when he reveals that he too was adopted.
See pages 1947-48. She is first fascinated by Tonto, then recognizes his unorthodox
intelligence, and by the end of the play, she is ready to learn from him. Refer to

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pages 1955 and 1968 for scenes demonstrating her respect and appreciation for him.
Tonto begins to change her consciousness. He teaches her about accepting herself
and the world as it is (1932), and to look not for the child within but the Inner Elder
(1949-50). Janice-Grace listens carefully to these words and we can assume that after
the play ends, she will become more comfortable with herself and the world and live
a more contented life. She accepts him not only as a new friend, but also someone
who will help her. At the beginning of the play, Janice-Grace almost knocks Tonto
out with a solid punch (1935), but by the end she is willing to listen and embrace his
words. These two images are emblematic of her at first resistance and later
acceptance of her Indianness.
As the play opens Barb and Janice-Grace need one another. Barb has come to
seek Janice-Grace out, her only surviving family member. Barb wants to be her
sister, and therefore she rejects Janice-Graces offer of friendship, which Barb
recognizes as hollow. Janice-Grace avoids her sister because she is afraid to get too
close, afraid of the pain self-discovery involves with its recognitions of lost love,
particularly parental love. The pair bond when they get drunk and Janice-Grace lets
her protective walls down (1940, 1943). They truly become sisters. Janice-Grace is
anxious to learn the tribal language, meets and accepts Amelia Earhart (a kind of rite
of passage), and visits her mothers grave all images of acceptance of sister, self,
and heritage. A vital part of Janice-Graces ability to feel whole will be a relationship
with her sister.
8. Responses will vary.
9. The play raises issues concerning the dilemmas and problems that arise when the
values of a minority culture conflict with those of a dominant culture. Consider the
effects on individual lives, specifically Janice-Graces life: How come Janice-Grace
was taken from her mother? Would she have been put up for adoption if she were
white? Why does Janice-Grace resist her Indian past? What does it suggest about the
Indian and white culture that Janice-Grace asks if Tonto went to college? Why does
she say it is a waste of money to pay for a course that does not provide credit toward
a degree? Although she has the same parents, why does Barb say that Janice-Grace is
white? What is the difference between thinking white and thinking Indian?
10. Responses will vary.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. What does it mean to think like an Indian? According to Tonto and the others, how
do Indians think differently from whites? See passages on pages 1938, 1948-49, top
1954, and 1968.
2. What is the significance of Tonto and his many jobs?
3. What is the significance of the cowbird story that Tonto tells Janice-Grace?

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4. Read Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth with other Indian fiction and poems in
the text. Consider, for instance, short stories and poems by Alexie, Silko, Erdrich,
and Harjo. Even though the authors represent several tribes, does a depiction of
Indian culture or what it is to be an Indian emerge? What do the works have in
common? Are their differences that can be attributed to authorial vision, tribe, time?

Tender Offer Wendy Wasserstein (p. 1970)

Possible Responses to Questions page 1976
1. Responses will vary.
2. In our contemporary world, Lisa and Paul, as their common names suggest, have a
typical father-daughter relationship. Paul is overworked and frequently tired, which
causes him to miss important events in his daughters life and limits meaningful
interaction with her. At times, he responds to her with a quick temper, denying her
his patience, which she deserves. At the beginning of the play, his apologetic mood
shifts rather quickly as Lisa seems unwilling to look for her leg warmers: Well, try
to remember, Lisa. We dont have all night (1971). Lisa was disappointed that her
father failed to show up for her recital. She wants to be close to him; she longs for his
affection. She asks her father to scratch her leg (1972), and responds much more
enthusiastically to his tender offer than to his previous bid (1974, 1974). This is
not to say that Paul is a bad person or an unloving father. He is, however, like many
contemporary fathers, consumed by his work. After the workday, which ends at a not
always predictable hour, he goes home, reads the paper and falls asleep in front of the
television, as both he and his daughter inform us (1973, 1975). He is beset, like many
contemporary fathers, by all kinds of worries and pressures: job performance, job
security, the environment, his childrens future, college tuition, and, yes, trying to
reach his children (1975).
3. The answer could very well depend on ones reading or a directors staging of the
script. One possible breakdown follows, which I have limited to five major shifts:
First Shift (middle 1971) Paul tells Lisa that we dont have all night. Paul
missed an important moment for Lisa. He enters the studio lovingly apologetic
and tolerant, but here he can no longer be lenient of her procrastinating. With this
line he drops his mask and reveals his real frame of mind: he is tired, stressed
(think of how he felt while driving to meet Lisa), and angry at his work, himself,
and probably at Lisa for being in a recital, and the dance studio for having
scheduled the recital at that time. His anger at Lisa and the studio is unjust, as he
would surely admit, but consider his comments about the studio and her teacher.
Second Shift (near top 1973) Lisa asks her father why he does not want to talk
to her. She seems to give up hope of a conversation until he notices that she finds
her leg warmers suspiciously fast and sees the trophy, which she shrugs off. Paul

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realizes they need to talk: What did you want to talk about? (Yes, this might
mark two shifts, but I see Lisas stern comments and action leading to her fathers
realization.)
Third Shift (near top 1974) This hope for a meaningful dialogue seems futile to
Lisa who is willing to let her father off the hook and head home. But Paul keeps
trying, as Lisa had tried earlier. His bid is an offensive effort, to which Lisa
responds that she might become a prostitute. This is her way of telling her father
that he is a failure as a parent. Her frustration climaxes here when she declares
that she hates her father and throws her trophy in the trash bin.
Fourth Shift (middle 1974) Paul understands his daughters angst, and so
doesnt overreact. Instead, he surprises her when he announces he wanted to
place the trophy alongside other memorabilia from her past. The father is
gradually opening up to his daughter, to which she responds encouragingly. They
begin to speak honestly of their feelings, expressing their concerns. His tender
offer is accepted, and her desire for an intimate conversation is in the process of
being fulfilled.
Fifth Shift (1975-76) When they agree on what they see in the clouds and Lisa
gives Paul her trophy, their moment of intimacy moves to its deepest point; words
are becoming inadequate, so they speak in images (the clouds) and through
gestures (trophy). The scene and play climax as they dance together in a
maudlin but joyous skit.
Note: The ending may seem sentimental, but both father and daughter struggled
intensely to get to that point. The struggle undercuts any sentimentality. Also,
doesnt any display of affection between a father and his nine-year-old daughter seem
maudlin to an outsider?
4. Paul, whether consciously or subconsciously, uses both maudlin and
procrastinates to assert his control over his daughter. He is reminding her of his
parental authority, and that she should stop the nonsense so they can proceed home.
His definitions, hardly objective, are directed at her (1972). Lisa tells her father he is
procrastinating when she gains more control of the conversation (1974). She is
right. At that point, Paul is procrastinating, hoping a superficial conversation will
satisfy her so they can head home. Lisa uses maudlin at the end of the play to
describe her fathers desire for Aladdins lamp. He agrees, marking a coming
together of father and daughter.
5. In earnest, Paul substitutes Raincoat for Dreamcoat, which he had written in his
appointment book. Lisa is offended. No doubt she had looked forward to that private
moment with her father, which to him seems to be no more than another business
appointment, another obligation. Raincoat dampens her enthusiasm for the
occasion, and suggests Pauls lack of genuine interest from the onset. However, when
he intentionally mistitles the play with Minkcoat, a luxurious image, he is revealing

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a newly found wealth in his relationship with Lisa, one that has turned an obligation
into an eagerly anticipated occasion.
6. Paul tells us the literal definition of tender offer, which marks a progression from
the bid he proposed a few minutes earlier. The White and Black Knight imagery is
especially appealing to the sentimental nature of a nine-year old girl. Business
connotations aside, Lisa has been looking for a tender offer from her father for some
time. She has been longing for his affection and she has been hoping that he would
make an offer of tenderness to her.
7. Responses will vary. But the father could appear clumsy; he is not used to dancing or
to expressing his love. Certainly, the dance should be joyous and celebratory. The
sentimentality will be difficult if not impossible to avoid. See note above, response
#2.
8. The theme concerns parent-children relationships. The plays seems directed
primarily at parents, directing them to slow down and consider the emotional needs of
their children. According to Tender Offer, parents need to be sensitive to their
childrens signals for the need to talk. Paul almost missed Lisas. Traditional-age
college students might have a different perspective. Perhaps they will feel the play is
directed more towards children, who must assume the responsibility to instigate
meaningful dialogue with already overburdened parents.
9. Responses will vary, depending upon the students experiences.
10. This could be a topic for a writing assignment or group work.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Ask students to write an essay advising parents of specific ways to establish and
maintain meaningful dialogue with their children.
2. How would this play be different if the sexes of the characters were changed?
Consider from one perspective: mother-son, mother-daughter, or father-son.
3. Ask students to compare the relationship between Paul and Lisa with another fatherdaughter relationship. They may write about their own relationship, a friends, one
from fiction (A Rose for Emily), drama (Othello), or film.

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Fences August Wilson (p. 1977)

Possible Responses to Questions page 2030
1. Responses will vary.
2. The stage directions that introduce the play are very specific, more so than usual for a
contemporary play. The home is strong, but in need of repair and maintenance.
Students may focus on words and phrases like ancient, badly in need of paint,
lacks congruence, sturdy porch, dubious value. It is significant to note that the
house is located off a small alley in a big-city neighborhood. These details suggest
weariness, exclusion, frustration, and disappointment. This reading can be confirmed
by Wilsons subsequent paragraphs which contrast the European immigrant
experience with that of the descendants of African slaves, who were not welcomed
into the American experience. The play, we are informed, is set in 1957. By then,
those early twentieth-century European immigrants were full participants in the
American Dream. They had contributed to making the 1950s a decade during which
life seemed rich, full, and flourishing. On the surface, 1957 seemed so placid that
the World Series might have been the most remarkable event of course, Wilsons
mention of the Series also introduces the importance of baseball to the play. But as
Wilson suggests, there was a strong undercurrent beneath those seemingly placid
waters, one that would not remain submerged in the sixties. Instead, this
undercurrent, which flows through Troy Maxson, would make the next decade
turbulent, racing, dangerous, and provocative. In short, Wilson uses his elaborate
stage directions to set the tone of his main characters lives and the tone of the play.
The setting is a landscape filled with the weariness and frustration that follows broken
dreams.
3. There are several references to the Bible and Roses church, but the most important
religious symbol is Gabriel, especially his actions that close the play.
Troy refers to the Bible in his self-mythologizing story about wrestling with
Death, which recalls Jacobs wrestling with an angel. Troy fights off Death for three
days and three nights; as a result, he has learned to be ever vigilant (1984). Troy
draws on the Bible to recreate himself as a man of mythical or Biblical proportions.
He wants to give himself grandeur, power, and a sense of immortality; he wants those
around him to admire him the way fans once admired him.
Troy is critical of Roses church and ministers. Rose is active in her church and
when she bakes for the cake sale, Troy comments, All them preachers looking for
somebody to fatten their pockets (2020). Troy is obsessed with economics, so much
so that he cuts himself off from the possibility of spiritual fulfillment as offered by the
church.
There are other references to church, Jesus, and the Bible, all of which point out
the strong role of Christianity in the African-American community. But the ending of
Fences suggests that Wilson might not be completely pleased with those Christian
churches who rely too completely on the white Christian tradition. Gabriel, who
thinks himself the Archangel Gabriel, blows on his trumpet, but he is unable to open

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the gates of heaven for Troy. His failure leads him to a frightful realization, and he
begins a dance of atavistic signature and ritual that opens heavens gate. Wilson
might be suggesting that black churches, for spiritual wholeness, must consider their
African roots in their rituals and spiritual experiences.
4. Wilsons characters are believable because we hear so much of their pasts, i.e., we
hear what shaped them. All characters have endured tremendous pain, and all have
struggled forward with dignity. Wilson also recreates a social setting with which
many in his audience are familiar and may have experienced themselves, particularly
the racism.
It is interesting to hear what characters students understand best. We instructors
often assume it will be the protagonist. After all, we know more about Troy than any
other character. Students, however, will often read more instinctively. They might
understand Cory more, depending upon their experiences with their father, or Rose,
depending upon their mothers experiences or their own with boyfriends.
5. Troy uses baseball as a metaphor throughout the play. Baseball not only gives his life
direction, but it also gives him a vocabulary for self-expression. Although Troy may
be illiterate, his use of baseball imagery is at time poetic and always expressive. He
began life, he says, with two strikes against him (2013), defines death as nothing but
a fastball on the outside corner (2002), and explains his affair as trying to steal
second base after the frustration of standing on first base for so long (2013). At that
point, Rose is understandably frustrated by his baseball metaphors: Were not
talking about baseball! Were talking about you going off to lay in bed with another
woman. Troy responses, Rose, youre not listening to me. Im trying the best I can
to explain it to you (2014). But Rose is insensitive to her husbands only means of
articulation.
Rose expresses the failure of her marriage in gardening terms of stunted plants
and ungerminated seeds:
Troy, I took all my feelings, my wants and needs, my dreams and I
buried them inside you. I planted a seed and watched and prayed over it.
I planted myself inside you and waited to bloom. And it didnt take me no
eighteen years to find out the soil was hard and rocky and it wasnt never
gonna bloom. (2014)
Rose does not rely on the gardening imagery to anywhere near the same extent as
Troy does baseball imagery. Roses language is often unmetaphoric and direct.
6. There are several fences to which the title can be said to allude:
Fence Troy constructs in yard slowly he builds a fence that he finishes after
Albertas death. This fence symbolizes Troys gradual alienation from his family,
friends (Bono), and co-workers (as a driver he misses the camaraderie of those
hauling the trash cans). His treatment of his sons, for instance, has led in time to
his alienation from them.

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Baseball fences over which Troy hit so many home runs, suggests the color
barrier in baseball that made it impossible for Troy to fulfill his athletic and
financial potential.
Institutional restrictions August Wilson said in an interview with David Savran
in In Their Own Voices: At the end of Fences every person, with the exception
of Raynell, is institutionalized. Rose is in a church. Lyons is in a penitentiary.
Gabriels in a mental hospital and Corys in the marines. The only free person is
the girl, Troys daughter, the hope for the future. Rose finds refuge from the
worlds bleakness behind the fence of her faith: Jesus, be a fence around me
every day (1988).
Fences constructed by white America in a general sense, all the barriers and
hardships imposed on black Americans are fences constructed by white
Americans to keep blacks marginalized.
7.8 . There are many possibilities from which students may choose: Troys story about
fighting death (Act I, scene 1), Troys discussing his sense of responsibility with Cory
(I, 3), Troys describing his youth (I, 4), Troy and Roses discussing his affair (II, 1),
Roses talking to Cory about his attending his fathers funeral (II, 5), Gabriels final
speech and action.
9. Troys values are rooted in his sense of responsibility. He carries out his
responsibilities and he expects others to fulfill their responsibilities to him. As he
tells Cory, Mr. Rand dont give me my money come payday cause he likes me. He
gives me cause he owe me (1997). This emphasis on responsibility may work well
for Troy in the workplace, but it fails him at home. Responsibility displaces love as
the most important family value for Troy. Troy explains to Cory why he provides for
him: cause you my son. You my flesh and blood. Not cause I like you! Cause
its my duty to take care of you. I owe a responsibility to you! ... I aint got to like
you (1997). Troys hardness here costs him an opportunity to get close to his son, an
opportunity to close a still repairable rift at this point.
Troys emphasis on responsibility, which he defines in financial terms, encourages
an extramarital affair. Although he loves his wife, he seems to feel little guilt over the
affair. He never apologizes to Rose. He might feel justified because he turns over his
paycheck to her and because Alberta offers him more laughter, joy, and veneration: I
can sit up in her house and laugh she firmed up my backbone 2013), and I take
my pay and give it to you. I dont have no money but what you give me back. I just
want to have a little time to myself a little time to enjoy life (2015). Troy may be
fiscally responsible, but as a husband and father he is otherwise selfish, selfindulgent, and emotionally irresponsible.
Rose is committed to family and church. She tries to be an intermediary between
father and son, explaining Cory to Troy in an effort to soften the father. She tries also
to get Troy to see life more realistically. When he mythologizes his past, she corrects
him or tells him to hush that talk (1983). She is understandably disappointed and

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hurt by Troys affair, but her bitter response is destructive of not just Troy and their
marriage, but herself as well: From right now this child got a mother. But you a
womanless man (2018). Rose does not practice the Christian precept of forgiveness,
and, as a result, she lives a lonely life. However, she passes on her understanding of
her mistake and convinces Cory to be forgiving of Troy. See her lengthy speech on
pages 2027-28. Key lines: but I do know he meant to do more good than he
meant to do harm. That was my first mistake. Im gonna do [Raynell] just like
your daddy did you Im gonna give her the best of whats in me.
Note: Rose takes in Raynell not just out of sympathy and selflessness, but also
because Raynell is the daughter that she always wanted but never had: but I took
on to Raynell like she was all them babies I had wanted and never had (2028).
By the end of the play, Cory seems ready to embrace the higher values of his
father and mother. He has demonstrated responsibility in the Marines; after six years
he has risen in rank to corporal, and, after his discussion with Rose, he has learned to
forgive his father. The way for Cory to escape his fathers shadow, as Rose told him,
is through forgiveness, not stubbornness, which staying away from the funeral would
have indicated. Cory can now move forward without the ghost of his father to haunt
him.
10. This could be an essay topic.
Additional Topics for Discussion and Assignment
1. Sometimes the following inscription is printed with Fences:
When the sins of our fathers visit us
We do not have to play host.
We can banish them with forgiveness
As God, in His Largeness and Laws.
How does this poem, written by August Wilson, affect your reading of the play? How
is Fences a play largely about forgiveness? What sons in the play had to forgive
fathers? Why? Who else needed to forgive? How does the ending reflect this
theme?
2. Troy says he was born with two strikes against him (2013). What do you think
those two strikes could be?
3. Fences is about the black experience in America. What does this play say about that
experience? Cite details in the play to support your answer. Consider Roses
statement to Troy, The worlds changing around you and you cant even see it.

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4. Discuss Troys relationship with Bono. Why does Bono seek out Troy for his friend?
Why does he stop being close to Troy?
5. We see three generations of Maxson men in the play. How is each generation similar
and different? Can we say that from Troys father to Cory the Maxson man has
progressed morally? Consider Troys fathers physical abuse and Troys standing
above Cory with a baseball bat stopping himself from striking (2023).
6. What is the significance of Troys song about Old Blue? Is it in anyway about the
failure of human love? Consider the theme of loyalty in the song and that Blue woke
Troy after his fathers brutal beating. What can we infer from Cory and Raynells
singing it together?
7. Although Fences is a serious play, there is much humor (some sexual and some
political). What did you find funny? Was any of the humor for satirical purposes?
What does the humor tell us about the characters?
8. The descriptions of the homes in Fences, Death of a Salesman, and Raisin in the Sun
are revealing. How do they reflect the state of the characters and families who live in
them? Compare these homes and families.
9. Compare Willy Loman and Troy Maxson. Discuss their fathers influence on them,
their careers, their actions as fathers and husbands, their sense of pride, their
alienation of family, their deaths and funerals.
10. Discuss Troys refusal to allow Cory to accept a football scholarship to college. In his
interview with Savran, Wilson said that athletic scholarships are often exploitative.
Athletes were not getting educated, he said, were taking courses in basketweaving.
Some could barely read. Universities, he continued, made a lot of money off of
athletes. Do you agree or disagree with Wilson? With Troy? Is the situation better
today than in 1957?

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Part Four

Critical
Perspectives
and Research

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374

Chapter Twenty-three

Writing with Sources

If your course requires writing a research paper, you will find coverage of Writing with
Sources to be indispensable, as it provides extensive treatment of the research process.
The chapter introduces students to research writing, explaining such basics as the purpose
of researching literary works, methods for selecting topics, and the process of finding and
using sources. I review all this material closely in class, but I especially emphasize the
importance of developing a thesis (2042-43). Beginning literature students will need help
in developing narrow, but workable theses. They are surprised at how much discussion
one character or even one image can provoke.
But you will probably need time also to review the conventions of presentation,
including the use of quotations, verb tenses, documentation, and manuscript form all of
which reinforce the importance of presentation as well as the importance of the research
project itself. The chapter includes three student papers: one responds to a single critical
article; another consults multiple sources in developing a thesis about a single character,
and the third uses multiple sources in discussing an image in multiple works by one
author. These essays accommodate my students and me with excellent models and
realistic expectations of what they can achieve and I can expect.
I like to review this material approximately three or four weeks into the class, and
then give students about four or five weeks to fulfill the assignment. Such scheduling
provides me enough time to look over papers, return for revision, and then review and
grade, limiting some end-of-the-semester strain.

Note: Using the Internet for Research (p. 2038)

DiYanni gives some excellent advice and guidance to using the Internet for research. I
think it is especially worthwhile reviewing this section in class. Most students will be
able to find sources, but will have a difficult time evaluating them see page 2050. In
addition, students also need to be warned about plagiarizing off the Internet. In talking
with professors around the country, I have found that students have resorted more
frequently to buying or lifting papers from the Internet. We need to remind students that
we will be vigilant in checking the Internet for suspicious papers.

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In addition to the search engines DiYanni mentions on page 2038, I also

recommend two on my favorite comprehensive search tools:
<http://www.google.com> and <http://www.hotbot.com/>. There are
also sites that house several search engines. Try <http://www.37.com> or
<http://www.eagle.ca/~matink/library.html#SEA>.

376

Chapter Twenty-four

Critical Theory:
Approaches to the
Analysis and
Interpretation of
Literature
This chapter was originally published as a supplemental handbook to accompany the
third edition of Literature. However, instructors found it so useful that the handbook has
been included as part of the fourth and now fifth editions. The chapter serves well as a
succinct and accessible introduction to literary theory. William Carlos Williamss The
Use of Force and Emily Dickinsons Im wife Ive finished that open the chapter.
After a discussion entitled The Canon and the Curriculum, ten literary approaches are
outlined and applied to Williamss short story and Dickinsons poem. A bibliography on
each type of criticism closes each section. The different literary perspectives provide the
instructor with an opportunity not only to discuss literary theory, but also to promote our
discipline and the kinds of intellectual possibilities that a study of literature can involve.
You might consider the following approach to this chapter. Since there are ten
critical perspectives to study, you might break your class into groups of two or three. Ask
each group to present one of the literary approaches to the class. The group could
summarize and clarify the overview in the text, and then, using the questions in the
checklist after each section, discuss The Use of Force and Im wife from the point
of view of the specific approach. You might assign deconstruction to your more
advanced students, and you may need to revise the assignment for certain groups, like
those working on new historicism. Perhaps you can ask them to find newspapers or
magazine articles on doctor-patient relationships or marriage. You will need to be
flexible. The assignment will not only teach students about literary theory, but, more
importantly, it will also get them to experience its relation to literature and life.

The Canon and the Curriculum (p. 2071)

377

This section serves as an introduction to the chapter, explaining that critical perspectives
provide ideas about how literature can be analyzed and interpreted. In addition, the
section discusses the concept and controversy of a literary canon, issues that beginning
literature students are usually unaware of. You might be surprised to learn that students
assume the canon to be fixed and inflexible, as if dictated by some monolithic
bureaucracy that uses literature to preserve the established cultural order. Students do not
immediately perceive that literature often challenges cultural conventions and institutions
as well as established ways of behaving and thinking. You might close your introductory
comments by reviewing the questions on page 2075. Students will have a difficult time
responding, as, most likely, these are questions they have never heard, and questions they
would not have thought were ever asked. The questions alone, therefore, will prove
enlightening.
The text explains the following critical approaches: formalist, biographical,
historical, psychological, sociological, reader-response, mythological, structuralist,
deconstructive, and cultural studies. Perhaps before any assignments, you should
review the closing section, Using Critical Perspectives as Heuristics, which discusses
the possibility of combining critical approaches and warns against over zealousness in
proving any particular ideology.
The following questions are intended to supplement your discussion and the
questions in the text, and may be used as assignment questions for papers or in-class
presentations.
1. How is the approach of a formalist critic different from and yet similar to that of
structuralist or deconstructive critics?
2. Consider Tennessee Williamss The Glass Menagerie from a biographical
perspective. Find a brief biography of Williams or read about the first twenty-five
years of his life. How does a biographical perspective both illuminate and limit a
reading of the play? Is another approach with the biographical one necessary for a
fuller understanding of the play?
3. How do new historicists draw from the approaches of the biographical and formalist
critic? How do new historicists differ from other critics?
4. How would a new historicist approach Ellisons Battle Royal?
5. Marxist critics and feminist critics both take a sociological perspective. Explain the
differences between a Marxist and feminist.
6. Consider Hansberrys Raisin in the Sun or Lpezs Simply Mara from both Marxist
and feminist perspectives. How are the conclusions both similar and different?
7. How might a feminist interpret Othello?

378

8. How is the emphasis on the reader in reader-response criticism different from other
critical approaches?
9. Ask students to offer a reader-response interpretation of one of the following poems:
Frosts Mending Wall, Oldss Size and Sheer Will, Cullens Incident, Roethkes
Elegy for Jane, or Shakespeares My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun.
10. The new historicist and the mythological critic both make links between the literary
work under discussion and other materials. Explain the different links each looks for.
11. Consider Araby from a mythological perspective. How does the narrator
demonstrate the familiar pattern of crossing the threshold into adulthood? Discuss
his journey and his infatuation with Mangans sister. What does the narrators
experience tell us about his cultures religious beliefs, social customs, and attitudes?
12. How does a structuralists emphasis on text differ from that of the sociological and
mythological critic? What especially in a text does the structuralist find most
revealing?
13. Consider Poes The Black Cat from a structuralist perspective. What binary
oppositions can you detect? What do they reveal about the values of the cultural
setting?
14. How can deconstructionists, Marxists, and feminists be considered philosophically
similar in approach? Do they always try to subvert the authors or the texts intended
meaning?
15. How is deconstruction different from other critical approaches discussed in the text?
16. Consider The Wolf and the Mastiff from a deconstructionist point of view. How
does a deconstructionist approach subvert the moral of the fable?
17. How can a cultural studies perspective be similar and yet different from a
mythological perspective?
18. Consider one of the following works from a cultural or gender perspective:
Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown, Walkers Everyday Use, Safirs Matisses
Dance, Corsos Marriage, Sanchez-Scotts The Cuban Swimmer, or McNallys
Andres Mother. Consider issues of cultural dominance, cultural struggle, cultural
definition, cultural values, and/or sexuality.

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380

Chapter Twenty-five

Critical Comments
about Literature
This chapter collects various comments about literature. Many of the authors here are
represented by other works in the text as well. As indicated previously in this manual, I
find it useful to compare an authors statements about literature with his or her other
writings in the text.

Plato, Poetry and Inspiration (p. 2113)

This commentary can be used effectively any time during your study of poetry. It could
inspire students if read at the very beginning of your survey of poetry, or it could pull
together your discussion if read in the middle (especially if you cover the English
Romantics as a unit) or at the conclusion of your survey. Try the following questions:
1. What is Platos description of the poet?
2. Which poets and poems seem to reflect best Platos description of the poet?
Coleridge? Shelley? What about Pope? Cummings?
3. Identify painters or composers/musicians for whom Platos description seems fitting.

Aristotle, On Tragedy (p. 2114)

Of course, reference to this essay is almost essential when discussing Greek tragedy,
particularly Oedipus Rex.
1. How does Aristotle define tragedy in the first paragraph?
2. What does Aristotle mean when he says that a tragedy cannot exist without a plot,
but it can without characters?

381

3. Aristotle believes peripety and recognition (the turning about of fortune and the tragic
heros recognition of the truth) to be the heart of tragic plot. He also says that in the
best tragedies these two occur simultaneously. He then provides an analysis of
Oedipus to demonstrate his point. Choose any other tragic play in the text and write
an analysis of the peripety and recognition, using the pattern Aristotle provides here.

Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry (p. 2116)

What does Sidney mean by calling the poet a maker? How do the references in
paragraph two clarify Sidneys definition and elevate the poets stature?

Samuel Johnson, The Metaphysical Poets (p. 2117)

Johnson criticizes the metaphysical poets for being pedantic and deficient in wit. How
so? To Johnson, the metaphysics may use dissimilar images to instruct and surprise,
but the readers instruction and pleasure are too dearly bought, not worth the strenuous
interpretive effort. Ask students to read several poems by Donne and prepare a defense
against Johnsons charges.

William Blake, Art and Imagination (p. 2118)

How does Blake support his opening statement: I know that This World Is a World of
imagination & Vision? Look at his watercolor The Sick Rose and his poems. How
could his subjects be interpreted differently?

William Wordsworth, Poetry and Feeling (p. 2119)

If we consider this commentary a statement of Wordsworths writing process, how does
he go about creating a poem? What is the function of harmonious metrical language?
Does metrical language explain an artistic paradox, i.e., that a sad or tragic work can
produce a feeling of delight?

John Keats, The Authenticity of the Imagination (p. 2119)

1. Compare Keatss observation on truth and beauty in this letter with his exploration of
the same theme in Ode on a Grecian Urn.
2. According to Keats, how is the imagination authentic?
3. What does the letter reveal about Keatss vision of the afterlife?

382

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poets and Language (p. 2121)

1. In what way does Shelley believe poets to be prophets? Why would this belief lead
him to see poets as suitable legislators?
2. Explain Shelleys following statement: Poets are the hierophants of an
unapproached inspiration. A hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries. How
does that term further elevate the poet?
3. Compare Shelleys definition of the poet with Platos and Sidneys.

Anton Chekhov, Techniques in Writing the Short Story (p. 2122)

1. In the first letter, Chekhov says, God preserve us from commonplaces, and he
advises authors to avoid depicting the heros state of mind. What does he mean? Is
he calling for superficial characters? Does he follow his own advice in The Lady
with the Dog?
2. In the second letter, what to Chekhov is the job of the writer? Why does he prefer
to leave out moralistic statements?

Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Modern Tragedy (p. 2123)

1. Ibsen discusses two kinds of conscience, one in men and another in women. Define
these two kinds of laws. Is the distinction still relevant today?
2. Consider this commentary with Ibsens A Doll House and Glaspells Trifles. How do
these plays illustrate Ibsens spiritual laws?

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Sprung Rhythm (p. 2123)

Define Hopkinss sprung rhythm and refer to examples in his poems. What effect
does the rhythm create?

August Strindberg, The Scene (p. 2124)

1. Compare Strindbergs view of the scene with Poes explanation of single effect
see page 169 in the text.
2. Strindberg seems excited that, with the one-act play, all the discoveries of modern
psychology could be applied to a popular form for the first time. Is Strindberg
assuming that psychological theorists know more about human behavior than
383

playwrights? Did modern psychology not draw from the theater? Consider Freud
and the works of Sophocles or Shakespeare. As Strindbergs editor, would you have
advised him to revise or clarify his statement?

Bernard Shaw, The Interpreter of Life (p. 2125)

1. Shaw says that the playwright must interpret life. What does Shaw mean by this
statement? Compare a play in this text that you believe interprets life with a play,
film, or television show that you believe merely amuses its audience.
2. Choose a scene from a play in the text and discuss the interpretation of life it offers.

Wallace Stevens, Observations on Poetry (p. 2126)

The twelve observations here will be challenging for students. Assign students one
comment and ask them to interpret it with reference to a poem in the text. I challenge my
more experienced students with the more difficult observations. This exercise allows me
to cover this enlightening commentary at a quicker pace with at least a somewhat lively
discussion. I have had the students read the comments cold in class, but participation was
tentative and limited. They waited for my explication. When the observations are
assigned, their responses might be similarly limited, but at least we had a starting point
and a poetic reference to which other students might respond.

T. S. Eliot, The Poet and the Tradition (p. 2127)

This is a complex commentary for beginning students of literature. Many students who
write poetry do not read poetry, claiming in one way or another that poetry is a
spontaneous outburst of feeling, or that reading poetry influences them too much. Eliots
argument that the work of serious poets must stand in relation to dead poets and artists
is difficult for these and other students to accept especially since Eliot is a dead poet
himself. The heart of Eliots thesis is that the past should be altered by the present as
much as the present is directed by the past. One way to convey this to students is to
focus on a group of works. How, for instance, is Safirs Matisses Dance directed by
Matisses Dance? How is Matisses Dance altered by Safirs poem? Instead, you
might prefer to use examples from a single genre, like the sonnet.

Bertolt Brecht, Theatre Notes (p. 2128)

384

1. Compare Brechts commentary with Shaws The Interpreter of Life.

2. Is Brecht deceptively simple when he says that theatre should above all entertain and
give pleasure? Is this all theatre should do? Does Brechts reference to Aristotle
and catharsis suggest otherwise?
3. Consider your favorite plays. Do they do more than entertain? Why are they your
favorite plays?
4. Read a play or some scenes from Brecht, perhaps Mother Courage or The
Threepenny Opera. Do these plays do more than entertain?

George Seferis, Poetry and Human Living (p. 2129)

1. Seferis states that poems are often interpreted differently in different eras. Consider
one or more of the older poems or ballads in the text. How do you think your
interpretation differs from that of the original readers or listeners?
2. Seferis also believes that poems are about more than the petty, everyday details of
the poets life. Consider this statement with regard to such poems as Wordsworths I
wandered lonely as a cloud, Dickinsons Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,
Bishops Sestina, Heaneys Digging, or Oldss Size and Sheer Will. What do
you consider petty, everyday details?

Frank OConnor, Lyric Poetry and the Short Story (p. 2130)
1. OConnor writes that a short story can have the sort of detachment from
circumstances that lyric poetry has. Consider this statement with reference to
OConnors Guests of the Nation and lyric poems in the text. Do you think of
detachment when you consider lyric poetry. (Lyric poetry is defined in Chapter
Eight.)
2. I like to review OConnors writing process and refer to freewriting, brainstorming,
and writing rough drafts. It offers me the opportunity to reinforce the importance of
getting ideas out before working on writing mechanics.

Pablo Neruda, The Word (p. 2130)

385

1. Is this work a critical commentary or something else? How is it different from most
of the other criticism in the text? Do you read it differently? What critical statement
is Neruda making?
2. Explain the paradox of the last line: They carried everything off and left us
everything.

Eudora Welty, The Origin of a Story (p. 2131)

1. This commentary provides insight into Weltys creative process. She says that the
idea for A Worn Path came from a single image a solitary old woman that
Welty saw one day. How does this affect your response to the story?
2. Welty also says that the subject of A Worn Path is the deep-grained habit of love.
How does this affect your response to questions concerning her grandchild
specifically whether he is alive or not?
3. Compare Weltys creative process with OConnors.

Ralph Ellison, Folklore and Fiction (p. 2132)

1. Read the first two paragraphs of this comment. Identify specific details and images in
Battle Royal that suggest Ellisons conscious use of myth, folklore, and ritual.
2. Consider the final paragraph of the passage. How is Ellison examining his own work
from a mythological perspective?

Octavio Paz, The Power of Poetry (p. 2133)

1. Paz writes, Each poem, whatever its subject and form and the ideas that shape it, is
first and foremost a miniature animated cosmos. What does he mean? Explain with
reference to a favorite poem.
2. Paz continues to say that as long as there are people there will be poetry. All
cultures have created some form of poetry. Why? What is it about poetry or art that
makes it so necessary?

Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man (p. 2134)

386

1. Miller believes that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest
sense as kings were. For Miller, the tragic hero struggles for his sense of personal
dignity his rightful position in his society. How does this and other of Millers
statements contrast with Aristotles concept of the tragic hero? See this manual under
Oedipus. Do you agree with Miller or is something lost by the averageness of a Willy
Loman or Troy Maxson?
2. Miller also says that tragedy is misallied with pessimism. Consider the tragedies you
have read, both modern and traditional. How do these tragedies imply optimism as
Miller asserts?
3. Using Millers criteria, consider one of the following plays as modern tragedies:
Death of a Salesman, Riders to the Sea, A Doll House, A Raisin in the Sun, and
Fences.

Tennessee Williams, Production Notes on The Glass Menagerie

(p. 2136)
1. Williams writes that his remarks have to do with a new, plastic theatre which must
take the place of the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions if the theatre is to
resume vitality as a part of our culture. How does The Glass Menagerie reflect
Williamss conception of a new, plastic theatre?
2. How did success change Williams?
3. What does he mean by the bitch goddess? Why does he say security is a kind of
death (2141)?

Eric Bentley, On Drama as Literature and Performance (p. 2141)

1. Bentley begins with a question, Is a play complete without performance? What
seems to be his answer?
2. Most plays were written with performance in mind. Would this affect your response
to Bentleys question?
3. Consider a play that you read and saw either in performance or on film. How did
both activities complement your understanding and appreciation of the play?

Wendell Berry, Poetry and Song (p. 2142)

387

1. Does Berry distinguish between poetry and song? Why does he consider poetry and
song as one? What essential element do they share?
2. Berry says that song is a force opposed to specialty and to isolation. What does he
mean by his statement? Refer to a favorite song or poem when answering.
3. Compare Berrys closing statement with Eliots contention in The Poet and the
Tradition that no poet or artist has his complete meaning alone.
4. Compare Berrys commentary with Pazs statement in The Power of Poetry that
each poem is an animated cosmos.

Audre Lorde, Poems Are Not Luxuries (p. 2143)

Why does Lorde think that poetry is more of a vital necessity for women than men?
Consider her comment with regard to poems by Dickinson, Bishop, Boland, Brooks,
Lorde, and others, or short stories such as Boyles Astronomers Wife, Gilmans The
Yellow Wallpaper, Silkos Yellow Woman, or others. Such comparisons will illumine
Lordes comments, which some students might be too quick to dismiss as feminist
extremism.

Mark Strand, Poetry, Language, and Meaning (p. 2143)

1. What does Atwood mean when she says that in poetry the power of language is most
palpably felt?
2. Compare Strands emphasis on words with that of Nerudas The Word.

Margaret Atwood, Our First Stories (p. 2144)

1. What does Atwood mean when she says that our first stories come to us through the
air? Do you remember any such stories? Why do you think the story still remains in
your memory?
2. Comment on Atwoods observation that most peoples family stories come from the
mother or other female relative. Does this concur with your experiences? Can you
recall a story told to you by your father or a male member of your family? Were there
differences in the types of stories told to you by the female and male members of your
family?

Seamus Heaney, Feeling into Words (p. 2145)

388

1. What does Heaney mean when he says that at the time of writing Digging he was
unaware of the proverbial structure at the back of my mind?
2. Digging has several possibilities as a metaphor. What explanations does Heaney
suggest? What others can you think of?

Robert Pinsky, The Sounds of Poetry (p. 2146)

1. Explain Pinskys statement that the medium of poetry is a human body. How did
the body evolve as poetrys medium?
2. Compare Pinskys ideas on sound with Wendell Berrys discussion of poetry and song
(2142) and Alice Fultons discussion of free verse (2150).

John Edgar Wideman, Stories Are Letters (p. 2147)

1. Compare Widemans observations about the watermelon to Ralph Ellisons
observations about the interconnection of folklore and fiction. What does the
watermelon suggest to Wideman?
2. Wideman says that certain stories, like letters, seem intended for somebody specific,
and when he reads such stories, he feels like an eavesdropper. Does Wideman try to
illustrate this concept with the anecdote on the watermelon? Who is the you in the
third paragraph? Have you ever read a story during which you felt like an
eavesdropper?
3. Consider the metaphor of letters. What does such a metaphor suggest about the
nature of fiction? Are letters often revealing, more so than conversation?

Diane Ackerman, What a Poem Knows (p. 2148)

1. Choose one or more of Ackermans explanations for what a poem can do. Then
illustrate her meaning by referring to one of the poems in the text.
2. Compare Ackermans commentary with Wallace Stevens Observations on Poetry.
Compare observations and the structure of the commentary.

Tim OBrien, On the Importance of Mystery in Plot (p. 2148)

389

1. OBrien says that he is arguing in defense of old-fashioned plot. Summarize his

argument. What does he mean when he says that plot represents the human craving
to know, a craving to push into the mystery of tomorrow?
2. In the commentarys final paragraph OBrien writes that a good plot does not tie up
the loose ends of the future in a tidy little knot. Why not? What stories in the text
reflect OBriens theory and which ones contradict it? Which endings do you prefer?
Why?

Alice Fulton, On the Validity of Free Verse (p. 2150)

1. Fulton contends that the free in free verse does not mean free from all constraints of
form. What structural devices can a free verse poem use?
2. In the closing sentences, Fulton states that she appreciates poems that create their own
structure, and she likes the idea that free verse allows the poet to vary the meter from
line to line so that nuances of tone can find their rhythmic correlative (or
antithesis). Analyze the structure and tone of a free verse poem in the text to support
Fultons commentary.

David Henry Hwang, Afterword (p. 2151)

1. How did Hwang become interested in the story of Bernard Bouriscot and then
inspired to write M. Butterfly?
2. Why does Hwang believe that it seemed inevitable that a mistake [Bouriscot
believing his lover to be a woman] of this magnitude would one day take place
(2135)?
3. With reference to this essay, what do you think Hwang considers as the central theme
of M. Butterfly?

390

Appendix
VIDEO RESOURCES
The following list is intended to serve as a reference when considering the use of videos
in your presentations. I have found videos to be an effective tool in motivating students
to read portions of texts closely, and in enlivening class discussion. However, I rarely
show complete tapes. Instead, I like to present scenes from plays or stories, or clips of
interviews or discussions, and then ask students to comment. For students interested in
seeing the video in its entirety, I place the cassette on reserve in our media reference
library. I have been pleasantly surprised by students who have taken advantage of this
option.
My list is hardly exhaustive, and some films I have not seen. However, based on
either summaries or recommendations, I think each is at least worth a trial run. For each
tape, I have included information available to me, as well as the distributor. A
distributors address, website, and phone number appear with its first listing. For
commercial releases, I have simply indicated commercial release; your local video
outlet should be of help to you with those films. However, I have found The Internet
Movie Database very helpful and informative: <http://us.imdb.com>

FICTION
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood: An Interview
(28 min., 1975), distributed by Women in Focus, 849 Beatty Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 2M6, (604) 682-5848
Margaret Atwood: Once in August
(58 nub, 1989), Distributed by Wombat Productions, Altschul Group
1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 100, Evanston, IL 60201, (800) 323-9084
James Baldwin
James Baldwin: The Price of a Ticket
(87 min., 1990), biography with several writers discussing Baldwins influence on their
work. Distributed by California Newsreel, 149 Ninth Street/ 420
San Francisco, CA 94103, (415) 621-6196. <http://www.newsreel.org./>
Raymond Carver

391

Short Cuts
(189 min., 1993), based on several Carver short stories, directed by Robert Altman.
Commercial release.
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov: A Writers Life.
(37 min., 1974), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences, P.O. Box 2053,
Princeton, NJ 08543-2053, (800) 257-5126. <http://www.films.com/>
The Lady with a Dog
(89 min., 1960), Russian with English subtitles. Commercial release.
Kate Chopin
The Story of an Hour
(24 min., 1982), distributed by Teachers Discovery, 2741 Paldan Drive
Auburn Hills, MI 48326, (800) 832-2437. <http://www.teachersdiscovery.com/>
Five Stories of an Hour
(20 min.) dramatizations of five short versions of The Story of an Hour.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
William Faulkner
A Rose for Emily
(27 min., 1982), with Angelica Huston, narrated by John Houseman
Distributed by Filmic Archives, The Cinema Center, Botsford CT 06404
(800) 366-1920. <http://www.filmicarchives.com/>
William Faulkner
(45 min.), biography, distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
(55 min.), documents Hemingways life and work, uses newsreels, photographs, and clips
from films. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Soldiers Home (in the American Story Collection)

392

(41 min., 1975), distributed by Teachers Discovery.

James Joyce
The Dead
(82 min., 1987), directed by John Huston, with Angelica Huston.
Commercial release.
The World of James Joyce
(80 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Joyce, Yeats, and Wilde
(39 min.), features Seamus Heaney and Richard Ellmann.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Franz Kafka
Metamorphosis: Nabokov on Kafka
(60 min., 1989), Christopher Plummer portrays Nabokov who comments on
Metamorphosis. Distributed by Filmic Archives.
D. H. Lawrence
The Rocking Horse Winner
(90 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
D. H. Lawrence as Son and Lover
(52 min.), biography, distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
(90 min., 1988), Spanish with English subtitles, distributed by Filmic Archives.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Magical Realism
(60 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Flannery OConnor

393

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

(30 min. 1957), starring Gene Kelly, Agnes Moorehead, Janice Rule,
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Movies Unlimited, Philadelphia, PA.
(800) 523-0802
Frank OConnor
The Crying Game
(112 min., 1992), based on Guests of the Nation. Commercial release.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
(1981, 20 min.), in Classic Literary Series, vol. II.
Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
Edgar Allan Poe: Architect of Dreams
(30 min., 1991), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Edgar Allan Poe
(52 min.), biography narrated by Professor Elliot Engel.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul
(60 min., 1995), biography with dramatic recreations of The Tell-Tale Heart and The
Cask of Amontillado, produced by Film Odyssey, distributed by PBS Video,
P.O. Box 751089, Charlotte, NC 28275-1089, (800) 645-4PBS, (877) PBS-SHOP.
The Fall of the House of Usher
(1960, 85 min.), starring Vincent Price.
Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
The Fall of the House of Usher
(1977, 30 min.), distributed by Filmic Archives.
The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe
(50 min., 1994), an A&E production hosted by Peter Graves.
Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
The Raven and The Black Cat
(1935), two films featuring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Katherine Anne Porter

394

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (in the American Story Collection)

(57 min., 1980), introduction by Henry Fonda, with Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
Katherine Anne Porter
(56 min.), with commentaries by several authors.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Katherine Anne Porter: The Eye of Memory
(60 min., 1988), hosted by Joanne Woodward.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Leslie M. Silko
Leslie M. Silko
(45 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Isaac in America
(60 min.), distributed by Filmic Archives.
John Updike
John Updike: In His Own Words
(60 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Alice Walker
Alice Walker
(35 min., 1994), Walker discusses the influence of the Civil Rights Movement, womens
recovery of wholeness through resistance to sexism, and more.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Alice Walker (Part Four of In Black and White)
(31 min., 1992), distributed by California Newsreel.

John Edgar Wideman

395

A Conversation with John Wideman (Part 6 of In Black and White)

(26 min., 1992), distributed by California Newsreel.

POETRY
Many of the twentieth-century poets included in the text have been recorded reading their
poems. Rather than provide an audio listing, I suggest you contact Caedmon (division of
HarperCollins), 10 East 53 Street, New York, NY 10022, (800) 242-7737, (212) 2077000.
Elizabeth Bishop
Elizabeth Bishop (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), includes scenes from her poems and commentaries by several writers.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience
(20 min.), this film discusses The Chimney Sweeper poems, The Sick Rose, and
others. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
William Blake
(52 min.), life and times of Blake presented by Peter Ackroyd.
Distributed by Films for the Sciences & Humanities.
Gwendolyn Brooks
A Conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks
(28 min., 1986), distributed by Teachers Discovery.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(26 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Robert Browning

396

The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Two

(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Byron: Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
(26 min.), draws on Byrons letters to his publisher.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Glorious Romantics
(93 min, 1993), actor portrays Leigh Hunt who discusses the lives and reads the works of
Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(27 min.), discussion led by Professor Michael Moore.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Fountain and the Cave
(57 min., 1974), a biography of Coleridge, distributed by Pyramid Media, Box 1048,
Santa Monica, CA 90406, (800) 421-2304. <http://www.pyramidmedia.com>
E. E. Cummings
e. e. cummings: The Making of a Poet
(24 min., 1978), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Emily Dickinson
The Belle of Amherst
(90 min., 1988), several writers comment on her life and work.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Emily Dickinson (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), several writers comment on her life an work.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.

Emily Dickinson: An Interpretation with Music

397

(18 min.), a presentation of Because I could not stop for Death.

Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Emily Dickinson: A Certain Slant of Light
(30 min., 1978), narrated by Julie Harris, distributed by Teachers Discovery.
John Donne
The Metaphysical and Devotional Poets
(28 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), distributed by Filmic Archives.
The Mysterious Mr. Eliot
(62 min., 1973), distributed by Insight Media, 2162 Broadway, New York, NY 10024
(212) 721-6316. <http://www.insight-media.com/IMPage_Main.ASP>
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Four
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Tom and Viv
(115 min., 1994), Eliots relationship with his first wife. Commercial release.
Robert Frost
Afterglow: A Tribute to Robert Frost
(35 min., 1989), with Burgess Meredith, distributed by Pyramid Media.
Robert Frost (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), includes readings and interviews with Frost.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Robert Frost: A First Acquaintance
(16 min., 1974), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Frost and Whitman
(30 min., 1963), distributed by New York State Education Department, Center for
Learning Technologies, Media Distribution Network, Room C-7, Concourse Level,
Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230, (518) 474-1265.
Nikki Giovanni

398

Nikki Giovanni: Chester Himes Reflections

(30 min.), distributed by New York State Education Department.
Thomas Hardy
Poetic Voices of Thomas Hardy
(20 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Four
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
(60 min., 1992), distributed by Lannan Foundation, 5401 McConnell Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90066-7027, (310) 306-1006. <http://www.lannan.org/>
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
(58 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), distributed by Filmic Archives.
John Keats
John Keats: Poet
(31 min., 1973), written by Archibald MacLeish. Distributed by Britannica Films,
310 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60604, (800) 621-3900.
The Glorious Romantics
See listing under Byron.

Galway Kinnell

399

Galway Kinnell
(60 min., 1989), interview and reading, distributed by Lannan Foundation.
John Milton
Milton and 17th-Century Poets
(35 min., 1989), discusses Donne, Herbert, and Marvell with Milton.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Milton by Himself
(27 min., 1989), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Marianne Moore
Marianne Moore (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), other poets, critics, and friends discuss Moores work.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds
(60 min, 1991), interview and reading, distributed by Lannan Foundation.
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen: The Pity of War
(58 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz: An Uncommon Poet
(28 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich
(60 min., 1992), interview and reading, including Diving into the Wreck.
Distributed by Lannan Foundation.
Percy Bysshe Shelley

400

The Glorious Romantics

See listing under Byron.
William Shakespeare (biographies listed under Drama)
Shakespeares Heritage
(29 min., 1988), distributed by Britannica Films.
Shakespeares Sonnets
(150 min., 1984), several Shakespearean sonnets are read and analyzed.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
William Shakespeare: Poetry and Hidden Poetry
(53 min., 1984), produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume One
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), other poets discuss Stevenss work.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas: A Portrait
(26 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Wales of Dylan Thomas
(15 min., 1989), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Four
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.

Walt Whitman

401

Walt Whitman: The American Singer

(20 min., 1992), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Walt Whitman
(15 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Walt Whitman (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), other poets and critics discuss Whitman.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Walt Whitman: Poet of Humanity
(27 min., 1992), distributed by Filmic Archives.
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume One
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (part of Modern American Poets: Voices and Visions)
(60 min., 1988), distributed by Filmic Archives.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
(28 min., 1989), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
William and Dorothy
(52 min., 1989), directed by Ken Russell.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Three
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
William Butler Yeats
Yeats Remembered
(30 min.), distributed by Insight Media.
The Poetry Hall of Fame: Volume Four
(60 min., 1993), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Joyce, Yeats and Wilde

402

(39 min.), features Seamus Heaney and Richard Ellman.

Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Drama
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
(117 min., 1961), starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, distributed by Filmic Archives.
Also commercial release.
A Raisin in the Sun
(171 min., 1989), starring Danny Glover and Esther Rolle.
Distributed by Teachers Discovery.
Lorraine Hansberry: The Black Experience in the Creation of Drama
(35 min.), distributed by Films in the Humanities & Sciences.
Lorraine Hansberry: To Be Young , Gifted and Black
(90 min.), distributed by Teachers Discovery.
David Henry Hwang
M. Butterfly
(101 min., 1993), directed by David Cronenberg, starring Jeremy Irons.
Commercial release.
Henrik Ibsen
A Doll House
(89 min.), with Julie Harris, Christopher Plummer, and Jason Robards, made-for-tv
production. Distributed by Insight Media, also commercial release.
A Dolls House
(90 min., 1973), with Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins.
Distributed by Insight Media.
A Dolls House
(99 min., 1973), with Jane Fonda and Trevor Howard. Commercial release.
A Dolls House

403

(140 min.), distributed by Filmic Archives.

Henrik Ibsen
(58 min.), biography, distributed by Filmic Archives.
Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman
(135 min., 1985), made-for-tv adaptation based on the Broadway production with Dustin
Hoffman, John Malkovitch, and Charles Durning.
Distributed by Filmic Archives. Also, commercial release.
Death of a Salesman
(175 min., 2000), made-for-tv adaptation based on the Broadway production starring
Brian Dennehy. Commercial release.
Private Conversations on the Set of Death of a Salesman.
(82 min., 1986), PBS documentary on discussions between actors, directors, and Miller,
distributed by Insight Media.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
(30 min.), biography, distributed by Filmic Archives.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare: Life of Drama
(50 min.), distributed by PBS Video.
William Shakespeare
(45 min.), tells of Shakespeares life and times, and includes scenes from plays.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Shakespearean Tragedy
(40 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Shakespeare and the Globe
(31 min., 1985), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Hamlet
(260 min., 1997), directed by Kenneth Branagh. Commercial release.

404

Hamlet
(135 min., 1990), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, with Mel Gibson, Glenn Close.
Distributed by Filmic Archives. Also, commercial release.
Hamlet
(222 min., 1979), BBC Shakespeare series, with Derek Jacobi.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Hamlet
(113 min., 1969), with Nicol Williamson and Anthony Hopkins.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Hamlet
(152 min., 1948), with Laurence Olivier.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Shakespeare and His Stage: Approaches to Hamlet
(45 min.), discussion of four famous Hamlets (Barrymore, Olivier, Gielgud, Williamson).
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
The Green Hamlets: Program 1 and Program 2
(55 min., and 56 min.), Trevor Nunn conducts interviews and discusses the approaches of
actors who portrayed Hamlet. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Othello
(125 min., 1996), starring Laurence Fishburne, Kenneth Branagh, and Irene Jacob.
Distributed by Filmic Archives. Also, commercial release.
Othello
(198 min.), directed by Janet Suzman, starring John Kani.
Distributed by Films for the Sciences & Humanities.
Othello
(208 min., 1992), BBC Shakespeare series, with Anthony Hopkins and Bob Hoskins.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Othello
(210 min.), directed by Trevor Nunn, with Ian McKellen and the Royal Shakespeare
Company. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Othello: The Lost Masterpiece
(93 min., 1952), directed by and starring Orson Welles. Commercial release.
Othello
(81 min., 1922), silent film. Commercial release.

405

Sophocles
The Rise of Greek Tragedy Sophocles: Oedipus the King
(45 min., 1975), filmed in the theatre of Amphiaraion with the Athens Classical Theatre
Company; English soundtrack with James Mason, Claire Bloom, and Ian Richardson.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Oedipus the King
(97 min., 1967), with Donald Sutherland, Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles.
Distributed by Crossroads Video, 15 Buckminster Lane, Manhasset, NY 11030,
(516) 365-3715.
Oedipus the King
(120 min.), with Michael Pennington, John Gielgud, and Clare Bloom.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Antigon
(85 min., 1990), fuses modern dance, new wave music, and poetry of Sophocles.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
Antigon
(120 min.), with Juliet Stevenson and John Gielgud.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Antigon
(88 min., 1962), with Irene Pappas, in Greek with English subtitles.
Distributed by Filmic Archives.
The Role of Ancient Greece
(23 min.), distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
Tennessee Williams
The Glass Menagerie
(134 min., 1987), distributed by Filmic Archives.
Tennessee Williams
(50 min., 1998), distributed by Insight Media.

Tennessee Williams: The Humane Dramatist

406

(54 min., 1994), uses scenes from The Glass Menagerie to introduce Williamss life and
discusses the play. Distributed by Insight Media.
Tennessee Williams: An Introduction
(15 min., 1995), distributed by Insight Media.
August Wilson
August Wilson: Writing and the Blues
(30 min.), interview by Bill Moyers. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences.
August Wilson (Part Five of In Black and White)
(22 min., 1992), distributed by California Newsreel.

407

About the Author

Thomas M. Kitts is Chair of the Division of English and Speech (CPS) and Associate
Professor of English at St. Johns University, NY. He received his B.A. from St. Johns
and his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. He is the author of a critical study,
The Theatrical Life of George Henry Boker, a play Gypsies, the instructors manual to
accompany McGraw-Hills American Tradition in Literature, and has recently co-edited a
collection of essays, Living on a Thin Line: Crossing Aesthetic Borders with The Kinks.
His articles and book reviews have appeared in journals such as American Drama,
Popular Culture Review, Nineteenth Century The Victorian Magazine of America, and
other journals and essay collections.

408