Note: While I am providing you with questions to answer for the short story you will choose for your papers, the real work will be in the careful reading of the work from beginning to end. The Study Questions are not here to develop your paper; they are here for you to get to know the story, to determine if it is a good choice for you, and to do the valuable note taking that will be useful when you actually sit down to write. Remember, you need send me only the answers to the short stories you choose to write about!

Unit I:

Paper 1 Study Questions “The Bride”

1.

What is significant about the month of June in the short story, “The Bride?”

2. What are Rochelle’s plans for her wedding and how do these differ from the traditional Chicano wedding? 3. Is Lily a trustworthy narrator of her sister’s wedding plans? How would the story change if Rochelle were the narrator? 4. How important is the setting of the story in “dusty” El Paso? 5. What kind of a husband did Rochelle want? What kind of a husband did she get? 6. How many of Rochelle’s dream of the perfect wedding carry over to her actual wedding? “Two Kinds” 1. What is happening at the beginning of this story? 2. Who are the central characters? 3. What does the word, “prodigy” mean?

4. What do you think is Jing-Mei’s age when the story opens? Is she the same age when it ends? How important is this change to the central meaning of the story? 5. What does Jing-Mei’s mother want her daughter to become? 6. How does Jing-Mei react? 7. What “disaster” occurs in the story and why does it occur? 8. What is the mother’s response? 9. What cultural aspects of the Asian-American experience are presented in this story? 10. Is this a short story about a mother/daughter conflict? Is it a short story about a conflict in cultures? Is it a short story about the conflict between youth and age? What meanings emerge from the resolution of these conflicts? “Shiloh” 1. Where did the battle of Shiloh take place? 2.

How is this battle related to the events of the story?

3. When Leroy’s job as a truck driver ends what does he do to fill his time? 4. How much time during their marriage have Leroy and Norma Jean actually spent together? How significant is this in determining the main conflict(s)? 5. When and why do they marry? What do the two of them never discuss? 6. Explain in your own words how you think the short story ends. Are you surprised at the ending or has the author prepared you for the outcome? Explain. “The Use of Force” 1. Who is the main character in “The Use of Force?” Defend your answer.

2. What has your experience with doctors been like—from childhood to now? Is the doctor in this short story similar to your own doctor(s)? 3. Would you have wanted to be able to read your doctor’s mind when he was examining you? 4. Does the fact that we are able to read the doctor’s mind in this short story make you understand his actions and reactions to the little girl? Her parents? 5.

When and where does the doctor lose control? Does he blame himself, the little girl, circumstances, her parents? Is your view of the doctor altered because of his behavior? Is his view of himself altered? Explain. “The Red Convertible”

1. In the opening paragraph, Lyman says that he and Henry owned the red convertible “together until his boots filled with water on a windy night and he bought my share…” When does the meaning of this sentence become clear to you? What is the effect of putting this sentence in the first paragraph? 2. In which war does Henry participate? What do you know about this war? 3. In your own words summarize the plot of the story. 4. What is the function of the third section of the story? Why does the narrator tell us about their wandering, about meeting Susy? What associations does the red convertible carry? 5. Does the fact that the characters and setting are Native American play a role in this story? Explain.

6.

Can you list all the symbols present in the short story. Also, try to explain what these symbols mean.

7. What conclusions do you draw about war and its victims? Is Henry the only victim or are there others? Explain.

8. How does Lyman try to save his brother? Why do his efforts fail in the end? What conclusions do you draw about this failure? “Babylon Revisited” 1. Why does the main character, Charlie, lose custody of his daughter? 2. As Charlie rides through Paris on his way to see his daughter, he thinks, “I spoiled this city for myself.” What reason might Fitzgerald have for treating this subject so mildly and in such vague terms here? 3. What, in your opinion, does the title of the short story mean? Hint: find information on the city of Babylon as it appears in Christian lore. 4. Why does Fitzgerald introduce the arrival of Duncan and Lorraine precisely where he does, and in the way he does? 5. What is the effect of Charlie’s repeatedly taking “only one drink every afternoon?” Does the reader expect him to regress into alcohol abuse? 6. What, in your opinion, does the future hold for Charlie? “The Brown House” 1. Briefly summarize the plot of this short story. 2. What are the details you find realistic in the story? What are the unrealistic details? 3. This story is set in the 1930s in rural California. The family is Japanese. What impact does this have on the plight of the Japanese wife? The Japanese husband? 4. Why doesn’t Mrs. Hattori rejoice with her husband after he wins the lottery? 5. In your opinion, how should this story have ended? Why do you think the author ended it the way he did and what impact does this have on the meaning? 6. How would you describe the Hattori marriage?

Unit II:

Paper 2 Study Questions “An Act of Vengeance” 1.

Who is Dulce Rosa and what happens to her?

2. What colors dominate this story and why do you think they are there? 3. Is it realistic to you that Dulce falls in love with Tadeo Cespesdes thirty years after he has raped her? 4. Why does she kill herself on the eve of her marriage to him? What does this symbolize? 5. Over and over again the author stresses the beauty of Dulce Rosa and the beauty of the setting before Tadeo despoils both. When Tadeo returns to the town he notices the return of this beautiful setting. Is this an important contrast between the old and the new? 6. The short story is titled, “An Act of Vengeance.” Is this a short story about vengeance or love? About sacrifice or redemption? Defend your answer. “Homage” 1.

The short story is based on a true incident, the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme late in the evening of February 28, 1986. The story is told from the 1st person point—of-view, the voice of the assassin. What impact does having him tell his story have on the reader?

2. Gordimer has her assassin use George Bush’s lines “Read my lips.” Is there an implied political connection? 3. To pay homage to someone means to revere and give respect. What is accomplished when Gordimer has the assassin participate in this? 4. Does the omission of a reason for the assassination add to or take away from the plot? “Who’s Irish”

1.

Who is the first person narrator in this short story? What is her age? Her nationality?

2.

What does she tell the reader about herself? About her daughter? About her son-inlaw, John?

3. When and where do conflicts surface in this short story? What are they? 4. Are you surprised at the ending or were there clues along the way? 5. Is there a positive outcome in this story? What is it and how does it relate to a theme? 6. What is the relationship between our narrator and John’s mother? What do they have in common with each other? 7. How much of this story is about generational conflicts and how much of it is about cultural conflicts? “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl or Halfie” 1. Diaz has selected the second person point-of-view (the “you” point-of-view) as a means of focusing on the advice being given. As you read the short story, do you really feel as if the speaker is talking about something he knows? 2. Is it important that our speaker is youthful, male and a member of a minority? 3. What are the cultural differences in the expectations of a “Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”? What other female racial groups are not addressed?Why? 4. To whom is the narrator talking in the story? Who is his ideal reader? 5. Who would not be his ideal reader? Explain. 6. What does the title of this short story suggest to you, the reader? How many different races are implied? 7. Does the speaker believe his advice will work? Do you?

“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” 1.

Do a bit of research. Who was the Lone Ranger? Tonto? What was their relationship?

2. With this background information what do you think of the title of the short story? 3. Why does the main character fight with his girlfriend? Why does he deliberately try to frighten the clerk in the 7-Eleven? 4. In what ways are Native American stereotypes brought out in the story? 5. Why does the main character decide to find a job after he loses in basketball to the BIA’s son? What does this loss symbolize? Unit III: Paper 3 Study Questions “Interpreter of Maladies” 1. Although the couple in the short story are of Indian background, like the author, they have adopted many of the mannerisms of typical American tourists. What are some of these mannerisms? 2. The driver has had experience with foreigners, but is he upset by some of the family manners he observes? What upsets him, in particular? 3. There are references in the story to things about the United States that they have all learned about through television. How much could a foreigner learn about the country by watching television programs? What gives us the impression that Indian viewers have only a tentative understanding of what they are watching? 4. What do the monkeys represent? 5. How do you account for the guide’s tailored clothes? Do you really understand him by the story’s end? 6. What is your interpretation of the story’s end?

“The Lesson” 1.

Who is the narrator of this short story and what do you learn about her?

2. Describe the neighborhood where the narrator lives? 3. What is the effect of the inner city ghetto language in the story? 4. What role does FAO Schwarz play? 5. Who is Miss Moore? Why does she personify the hostile force of “education” to the ghetto children? 6. In your own words, how does this story end? What lesson has been learned and have all the children learned it? 7. What makes Sylvia the focal point of the story? As narrator, is she reliable or unreliable? “Greasy Lake” 1. Describe the three teenagers in the short story. 2. “Greasy Lake” is an initiation story gone bad in the mid-1980s. Could the events in the story still happen today? 3. What do you think of the opening paragraph of this short story? Does it set the tone for what later happens in the story? 4. Setting refers to the time and place in which the events in a story occur. Describe the different settings of this short story—from the small town they live in to their eventual destination of Greasy Lake. Is time a significant factor? How so? 5. Why does the narrator of the short story refer to Tony Lovett as a “bad, greasy character?”

6. A short story writer uses imagery as a language device to appeal to the readers’ senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell). What type of imagery do we have in the story and what images stand out? 7. Are the images pleasant or unpleasant? 8. What is symbolic about the ending of this story? “Sonny’s Blues” 1.

Fully describe what happens to Sonny.

2. Who tells us Sonny’s story? 3. Would the short story have been different if Sonny had been the narrator? What would have been different? 4. Where do the events in “Sonny’s Blues” occur? Describe the setting and then explain how significant is this to the meaning of the story. 5. Why does the mother tell the older brother about the death of his father’s brother? 6. Find sections of the story where Baldwin uses the image of light and darkness. What does this imagery symbolize? 7. In what sense are both brothers “saved” at the end of the story? What saves them? 8. In what sections of the story do we find Biblical references (allusions)? What do these accomplish? “The Drover’s Wife” 1. Where do the events in the short story occur? Fully describe the setting. 2. Against what forces does the woman in the short story battle? Fully list all of them. 3. Which battles does she win and which does she lose?

4. What does the use of the present tense in the narration add to the story? 5. How would you describe the drover’s wife? Is she someone the writer wants us to admire? What qualities does he dramatize most about her? 6. At the end of the short story Tommy hugs his mother and promises her “I won’t never go drovin’, blarst me if I do!” How significant is this to the meaning of the story.