Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Short Fiction


We read Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl - following the reading, please respond to the following prompts:

Why does Mary kill her husband?  Explore the possibilities of what Patrick told Mary.  Describe their relationship before the murder.  Is Mary a victim or a villain?
How does the author create suspense?  What literary devices are used to help with this?
Explain the dramatic irony at the conclusion of the story.  What effect does this create?  Give an example of verbal irony from the story.  Considering the idiomatic expression "leading the lamb to the slaughter"  theorize about the irony in the title.

We read A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger - following the reading, please respond to the following prompts:
  • How would the second half of the story be different, had we not first witnessed the conversation between Muriel and her mother? How does this first scene inform the second one?
  • Consider the use of numbers in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." (Room 507, six bananas, six tigers, the 7.65 automatic.) Is there any coincidence here?
  • The Big Question: Why does Seymour kill himself? Is there supposed to be a clear answer to this question, or not?
We read Luck by Mark Twain  following the reading, please wr ite a response to the story in your journal.  In your journal entry, please start by writing about whether it is better to be lucky or to be good.  Following that, please explain how the following terms apply to the story:  Tone, Topic and Theme and Point of View.
Antag onist
Archetype
Climax
Conflict
Dialect
Dialogue
Dramatic irony
Dynamic Character
Exposition
Fable
Falling Action
Farce
Figurative language
First person narrator
Verbal Irony
Point of View

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