Discussion:
Please respond to one of the eight questions listed below on: Your response should be approximately 250 words long, and will be graded on content, organization, grammar, and style. You are required to consider the given topics carefully and discuss your ideas concisely.
I Stand Here Ironing: PAGE 27
1. How does the opening question about Emily establish the basic conflicts in the story? Why does Emily’s mother think it is impossible to answer the question?
2. How does the mother’s inability to account for “all that life that has happened outside of me, beyond me” explain her point of view toward the story of her daughter? To what extent does the summary paragraph retell her story? Why won’t she be able to “total it all”?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: PAGE 33
1.At what point in the story do you get the first hint that the escape is a hallucination? At what point are you sure?
2.What occurs at Owl Creek Bridge beyond the exterior action of the execution? How does facing death give a richer meaning to Farquhar’s past life as well as present existence?
A Rose for Emily: PAGE 39
1.Account for the use of the pronoun “we” by the narrator.
2.What is the relation between the comic elements and the melancholy or shocking ingredients of the story?
A Worn Path: PAGE 17
1.What is the significance of the title? Of Phoenix’ name?
2.What does the story say about human dignity and what is required to maintain it? Does it in any way protest against the conditions in which Phoenix lives?