The following questions and excerpts can be used as essay prompts or a combination could be used in an exam format.
- From a Marxist approach (class struggle), how does the following excerpt from "The Secret Lion" by Alberto Alvaro Rios relate to the theme "Things get taken away"?
Something got taken away from us that moment. Heaven. We grew up a little bit, and couldn't go backward. We learned. No one ever told us about golf. They had told us about heaven. And it went away. We got golf in exchange.
- From a feminist perspective, how does the following excerpt from "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carol Oates relate to Connie's sense of herself?
She was fifteen and she had a quick nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors, or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right. Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn't much reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it. "Stop gawking at yourself; who are you? You think you're so pretty?" she would say.
- Explain how this excerpt from "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is ironic?
I couldn't find a position in which my mind would let go of my body--release me to sleep again. So I began to tell myself a story; a bedtime story.
- Explain the symbolism of the "freedom bird" referred to in the following excerpt from "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien as it relates to the theme of the story and the things the soldiers carried.
At night, on guard, staring into the dark, they were carried away by jumbo jets. They felt the rush of takeoff. Gone! they yelled. And then velocity, wings and engines, a smiling stewardess– . . . They were flying. The weights fell off, there was nothing to bear. They laughed and held on tight, feeling the cold slap of wind and altitude, soaring, thinking It's over, I'm gone!–they were naked, they were light and free–it was all lightness, bright and fast and buoyant, light as light . . .
- How does this excerpt from "Doe Season" by David Michael Kaplan illustrate magic realism as it relates to the theme of the story?
The doe stood still. Hesitantly, Andy felt the edge of the wound. The torn flesh was stick and warm. The wound parted under her touch. And then, almost without her knowing it, her fingers were within, probing, yet still the doe didn't move.
- How do these two allusions in this excerpt from "Love is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman illuminate the story?
I ground my teeth. I was not Pygmalion; I was Frankenstein, and my monster had me by the throat. Frantically I fought back the tide of panic surging through me. At all costs I had to keep cool.
- Explain the symbolism of the trash bag in the following excerpt as it relates to the theme of "How to Write to Your Mother (Notes)" by Lorrie Moore. (Connect this image to images with related symbolism within the story and explain their significance to the story using the image of the trash bag as the central defining image)
Think about the situation, for instance, when you take the last trash bag from its box: you must throw out the box by putting it in that very trash bag. What was once contained, now must contain. The container, then, becomes the contained, the enveloped, the held.
- Using the following excerpt from "Boys and Girls," explain the epiphany the narrator has as it relates to the climax of the story.
"Never mind," my father said. He spoke with resignation, even good humour, the words which absolved and dismissed me for good. "She's only a girl," he said. I didn't protest that, even in my heart. Maybe it was true.
- Using the following excerpt from "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, explain the epiphany the narrator experiences as it relates to the climax of the story.
His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was like nothing else in my life up to now.
Then he said, "I think that's it. I think you got it," he said. "Take a look. What do you think?"
But I had my eyes closed. I thought I'd keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do.
"Well?" he said. "Are you looking?"
My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything.
"It's really something," I said.
- Discuss the following excerpt from "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" by Joyce Carpl Oates in terms of sexual symbolism, connecting your comments to a mythological and religious interpretation of the scene.
They went up through the maze of parked and cruising cars to the bright-lit, fly-infested restaurant, their faces pleased and expectant as if they were entering a sacred building that loomed out of the night to give them what haven and what blessing they yearned for. They sat at the counter and crossed their legs at the ankles, their thin shoulders rigid with excitement, and listened to the music that made everything so good: the music was always in the background like music at a church service, it was something to depend upon.
- Briefly discuss this excerpt from "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie as it relates to the differences between Victor and Thomas-Builds-the-Fire with regard to their shared culture.
"The only thing alive in this whole state and we just killed it."
"I don't know," Thomas said. "I think it was suicide."
Victor looked around the desert, sniffed the air, felt the emptiness and loneliness, and nodded his head.
"Yeah," Victor said. "It had to be suicide."
"I can't believe this," Thomas said. "You drive for a thousand miles and there ain't even any bugs smashed on the windshield. I drive for ten seconds and kill the only living thing in Nevada."
- In "Fleur" by Louise Erdrich everything that happens is interpreted by Pauline as mythological. Using this passage, explain how Pauline, because of her use of myth, is an unreliable narrator.
Then I heard a cry building in the wind, faint at first, a whistle and then a shrill scream that tore through the walls and gathered around me, spoke plain so I understood that I should move, put my arms out, and slam down the great iron bar that fit across the hasp and lock.
- Using this excerpt from "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner explain the townspeople's role in the story, relating their role to Southern culture.
So the next day we all said, "She will kill herself"; and we said it would be the best thing.
- Briefly explain why Young Goodman Brown responds as he does in this excerpt from "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. You may use Freudian or Jungian terms to explain his behavior or you may explain it in terms of Puritan theology.
When the minister spoke from the pulpit, with power and fervid eloquence, and with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers.
- "Big Black Good Man" is written in limited omniscient point of view. How does this passage illustrate Wright's use of this point of view to manipulate the reader's reaction to what happens (and to the meaning of the story)?
They stood an inch apart. Olaf's pasty white features were glued to the giant's swollen black face. The ebony ensemble of eyes and nose and mouth and cheeks looked down at Olaf, silently; then, with a slow and deliberate movement of his gorillalike arms, he lifted his mammoth hands to Olaf's throat.
