Weekly Questions for American Social Fictions
*Please print out all questions and bring them to class.
“The Mourning Veil”
- What signs do you detect in reading Stowe’s story that she is dissatisfied with her role as a woman in society? How do men fit into the picture?
- What social role does Stowe construct for women in the story? How does that role compare (different/similar) to the one Mary Ryan outlines?
- What is the social function of pain as it is represented in the story? How do women figure in this?
“Roger Malvin’s Burial”
- If “The Mourning Veil” can be said to be a story written by a nineteenth-century American woman, how can we treat “Roger Malvin’s Burial” as a story written by a man of the same period.
- Should Rubin Bourne have stayed behind to bury Roger? What circumstances make his choice both very simple and very difficult?
- What is the nature of Rubin’s burden? What is he hiding beyond the simple lie he tells? How is this burden lifted by the death of Cyrus? (Consider Roger’s account of how he acted when he was in Rubin’s place, p. 3-4)
- Why does he lie about it when he returns? What roll does Dorcus play in his lie and in the later tragedy that occurs when their son is killed? (Consider carefully the scenes in which these things happen, beginning on page 6.)
Narrative of the Live of Frederick Douglass
- What were Douglass’s aims in writing his Narrative? What methods did he use in achieving his aims?
- What links can you detect between the values Douglass gives to gender (men and women) and those we find in the Stowe and Hawthorne stories we read? How do these values serve his rhetorical purposes?
- Given that slavery is not a state of being so much as a practice (i.e. whereby certain members of a society enslave other members), what reasons does Douglass give for it, and what methods are used to achieve it?
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- What were Jacobs’s aims in writing Incidents? How does she seek to accomplish these aims? How do her aims and methods compare to Douglass’s?
- How do their different approaches stem from their gender? How does gender pose special problems for Jacobs and Douglass in making their point? Hint: If Douglass is a victim of slavery, why does he have to be very careful about representing himself as a victim? If Jacobs is a victim of slavery, and she openly represents herself as a victim, why does she have to be very careful in representing herself as the particular kind of victim she is?
- Middle-class women like Olivia in “The Mourning Veil” had a special sympathy for slaves and the abolitionist cause was sustained for many years almost entirely by them and by a small number of Protestant clergy (like Father Payson). Why do you think this is so?
“The Monster”
- How are Blacks described in the story? How do they act and how are they treated by Whites? How does this compare with the treatment and behavior of Blacks in our other readings? How are Whites described in the story? How do they act and how are they treated by Blacks? How does this compare with the treatment and behavior of Whites in our other readings?
- How are we to understand Dr. Trescott’s behavior? How can we connect his behavior after the fire to his behavior before? How can we understand his treatment by others after the fire? What do you think the ending means? How does it relate to the beginning?
- How is Henry treated before and after the fire? How does he act? What is the relationship between how he acts and is treated before and after the fire? Can you explain this by interpreting the scene of the fire?
The Awakening
- The Awakening begins at the sea shore and ends at the sea—or more accurately, in it. There are also repeated references to the sea and ocean throughout the novel. How can we read the novel through this motif?
- Edna Pontellier is positioned between two very different female characters, Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. How do they help us understand Edna and her problems? Is her difficulty simply one of male oppression? Consider her relationship with her husband. Consider also, Mlle Reisz’s assessment of the two Lebrun brothers, Robert (who Edna loves) and Victor, in Chapter XVI (16).
- In Chapter XIX (19) Chopin uses the term “fictitious self.” What does she mean by this, and where do you think she stands on the value of such a self or the possibility of “casting it aside” like a “garment with which to appear before the world”?
“Flowering Judas”
- What happens in the story? How does the author’s use of present tense affect our understanding of events? How might tense as a formal feature figure into our reading of the story?
- Laura is yet another character we find trying to live outside the sphere traditionally assigned to American women. How does she compare to the others?
- What is Laura’s problem? How does Porter use her relationships with men to articulate this problem?
Hemingway Questions
- What do Laura and Nick have in common? What does Nick have in common with Harry? Harry with Laura? How does writing style reflect the characters that Porter and Hemingway write about?
- Why is Harry mean to Helen? In what way is it a result of the kind of lives they have lived?
- In what ways do the men in Hemingway’s stories struggle with the fictional “garment” that society requires them to wear?
Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston
- We have discussed African-American stereotypes at some length, especially as they appear in “The Monster.” How does Hurston treat such stereotypes in her account of her own identity? How do the various stereotypes she refers to relate to her color? How is Hurston’s attitude toward her black identity the same as and different from Henry Johnson’s? How do Henry and Bella Farragut compare to Joe and Missie May?
- How does Wright treat black identity, especially color and stereotype? What does it mean that Dave is “almost a man,” and how do color and stereotype figure in this? How does social setting play a part, and how is it different from social setting in “The Monster”? What does the ending suggest about Dave’s future? Why do you think Wright and other black writers disapproved of Hurston?
- Compare the relationship of Missie May and Joe with that of Dave’s parents. We know that something comes between Missie and Joe. What exactly is it? What does Slemmons represent, in other words? Can we locate a similar divide between Dave’s parents? Where? How does this effect Dave’s desires and finally his actions?
“The Enormous Radio” and Hannah and Her Sisters
- Is there anything in the story besides the radio that could be called an element of fantasy? What is the role of the radio as a fantasy device in transforming the real lives of the Westcott’s? What does the story (as a story) have in common with the radio for us?
- Is the story a tragedy? In other words, is the transformation of the Wescott’s life a negative thing, or is there a possibility of something good coming out of it?
- How does Woody Allen treat knowledge and innocence in the lives of his affluent New Yorkers? For example, Hannah never learns of Elliot’s infidelity with her sister. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Where do we stand in this as observers who know everything? –or do we?
“A&P”, “Lecture to Young Men”, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- What is Sammy’s problem? Why does he quit? Why will the world be “hard” for him after? Explain this in terms of what he finds when he walks out the door of A&P.
- How does Carnegie’s lecture help us understand the story? Remember there are two “young men” working. Where can we locate the social fiction? Is there only one?
- How does Carnegie’s lecture help us understand Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a film in which there are again two “young men,” and a “queen”? Will the world be “hard” for Ferris? If reading the story gives us pleasure, how is this different from the pleasure we get from watching the movie? How is it the same?
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”
- What role does music play in the story?
- Where does Connie go, why does she go, what does it have to do with sex, and what does it have to do with the title?
- There is a strange passage on page 3 just before Arnold arrives. Connie is outside the house, then she moves inside. A lot is made of inside/outside, home/public, family/other divides in the story. Can you explain?
“No Name Woman” and “Reading as Poaching”
- What is the relationship between the narrator of the story, her mother, and her aunt? Who is the “no name woman”?
- The narrator tells at least three different versions of her aunt’s story. Why? What purpose do they serve? How does the essay “Reading as Poaching” help us understand what she is doing?
- How do the terms “necessity” and “extravagance” explain the difficulty the narrator experiences as an American born Chinese woman?