Rattled Individuals, Embattled Relationships

1. Compare the depiction of manhood in the characterization of Leroy in Shiloh and Arnold Friend in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? to our discussion of Wright's depiction of manhood in The Man Who Was Almost A Man. (Toomer's depiction of Bob and Tom would be of interest here as well).

2. Is Connie easily conned by Arnold at the end of Oates' story? Examine the final two pages closely. Using the evidence of the story, and not speculation, assess the reasons Connie leaves the safety of her own home. Provide specific evidence. Is she sacrificing herself for her family like a hero? If so, prove it. Is she a victim of trauma and terror? If so, prove that. Is she seduced by the adventure of the unknown? Has she been brainwashed or hypnotized? What has happened? Why is it significant?

3. Dylan's songs were all very idealistic. How does this story work as a celebration of Dylan? Why is it dedicated to him? How does the spirit of the story celebrate the spirit of Dylan? Explain.

4. Oates is a master at her craft and keeps the reader in great suspense in her story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? What do you believe Oates is trying to convey through this story? What is her central insight? Please provide some evidence for your viewpoint.

5. In her essay, On Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," Bobbie Ann Mason writes,

So this effort to detach and control becomes both the drama and the
technique of the story. For it is our impulse to deal with unspeakable
horror and sadness by fashioning some kind of order, a story, to
clarify and contain our emotions. As the writer, Tim O'Brien stands
back far enough to be seen but not so far that he isn't in charge.
(1497)

Apply these words to the characters in Shiloh.

6. Explain the relevance of Mabel's introducing the conversation about "the datsun dog that killed the baby" (832) by chewing its legs off. What similar tidbits does Mable introduce at other times and for what purpose? What is Mabel's role in the story and in the relationship between Leroy and Norma Jean?

7. Discuss the dust ruffle and its importance. It is mentioned in the story and is reiterated in the final line of the story (emphasizing its significance). Explain.

8. Explain Norma Jean's words to Leroy after she tells him she wishes to leave, "In some ways, a woman prefers a man who wanders," says Norma Jean. "That sounds crazy, I know" (835).

Richard Wright and What is a man?

Select any one of the questions below or any topic of your choice, but I would like everyone to tell me one thing please (quite literally) --- Who is Bill (1376)? You may write one sentence to answer this literal question at the beginning or end of your blog. Thank you.

1. Why isn't the story called The Boy Who Was Almost A Man? Explain.

2. According to The Man Who Was Almost a Man, what kept Dave from being or becoming a man? Why was he "almost a man"? Was something lacking or missing? Can you specify what is might be?

3. What is Dave's relationship to Jenny? Does he have compassion for her, or is he self-centered? Use lines from the text with analysis to prove your viewpoint please.

4. Who is Bill (1376)? Interpret the last six or seven lines of the story. What do they mean? Will another place allow Dave to be a man?

5. Make a brief list of significant comparisons among this story and previous stories we studied this semester (in terms of issues this story raises that other stories also raise; the perspectives on these issues may be and most likely are very different).

6. Dicuss either the role of family or the role of community in the events and outcome of this story. Do they play a positive, negative, or neutral role? What evidence do you have to support your view? Why is this question important?

"The Lottery" & "The Hunger Artist"

1. Connect The Lottery to Blood-Burning Moon.

2. What would you say is today's version of The Lottery?

What evils do we continue to practice in our culture without knowing why we continue to perpetrate them?

3. In what ways is Kafka's Hunger Artist an artist? Is he an artist at all? How is Kafka using the term artist?

4. "The Hunger Artist," "The Lottery," and other stories we've studied say a great deal about the community around which the stories are based. What do these two stories (for this week) say about their communities, and how does that insight connect to the subject matter of the semester, the subject of enslavement?

Example of Analysis and Explication

Many readers believe that description is the least important part of any story and can be skipped without much consequence; however, the description at the opening of Jean Toomer’s “Blood-Burning Moon” not only is significant because it conveys the story’s setting but is also important because it foreshadows events sets the tone of the entire story. Skipping the description causes the reader to miss the setting of the story, to fail to gather hints of the inhumane events about to happen, and to neglect to perceive the ominous feelings the story conveys. Missing these important clues makes for a historically inaccurate and an emotionally absent reader who, most likely, will not fully understand or enjoy the story.

Most notable, in the very first sentence of the story “Blood-Burning Moon,” the narrator repeats the word “up,” three times and a fourth time at the beginning of the second one. The walls, the floor, the moon – all are rising, but the hour is “dusk,” a time when dark and light are mixed and things should be dying down and setting. Normally, rising is considered to be a positive movement; however, this bloody moon “Glowing like a fired pine-knot” and the movement of Louisa’s mind “vaguely upon [Bob and Tom] as she walks over the crest of the hill coming from white folks’ kitchen” (1274) while the “The moon was rising” (1275) increasingly are not positive omens. Everything portends something that is about to happen, and although no one knows exactly what it is, the sensations are threatening. After all, images of destruction abound from the start. The walls are “skeleton stone walls” reminiscent of bones without flesh or a corpse; the walls are almost human since they are described as “skeleton,” and the new economy that the emancipated slaves are taking part in which is reflected in the description of the "rotting" floor boards lets the reader know that it is not allowing the African American people to lead better lives; finally, the factory is described as a “pre-war cotton factory,” informing the reader that the freed men are currently working in the same building they worked in while they were slaves. The ghosts of the pasts haunt the black people in their new lives. Furthermore, “pre-war cotton” immediately brings pictures of slaves working the fields to mind. The reader can picture the slaves bending in the heat and picking the crops. Then the reader sees “shanties aligned along the single street of factory town” – a ghettoized slum. Clearly the moon’s “pine-knot” glow ”illumined the [factory’s] great door,” and the black begin to sing “against its spell.” Nothing promising is about to happen here. Fear, doom, death, and blood mark the beginning of Jean Toomer’s story. Though the story is taking place during the early years of reconstruction, the remnants of slavery still abound within the culture. The landscape and nature carry the bloodshed and the spirit of all the evil that has transpired here over the years and all that is yet to come in this story.