English 226: World Lit II
Discussion Questions
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Below are the discussion questions
you are to answer for each of the works assigned in the course. (Check the Course Schedule for due dates.) Note that the
purpose of these questions is to help focus your discussion of the readings.
Feel free to go beyond them or to add your own questions, comments, etc.
Note, too, that you will all read everyone's answers and then post another
message responding to them. In that response, quote from at least two
other students and discuss what you agree with, what you learned from,
and what you see differently. Verga: "The She Wolf" 1. Nanni's mother-in-law Pina - the "she-wolf" of the title - seems at times to have almost supernatural powers. How do you explain her power to evoke such a "devilish passion" in Nanni? 2. In his introduction to Verga, Giovanni Cecchetti speaks of "a primitive moral code by which Verga's people live." (If you haven't yet read it, read Cecchetti's description now.) In a related observation, an earlier commentator Lander McClintock wrote that Verga "shows men ignorant, superstitious, violent. Life is in his world a pitiless struggle for existence; survival is achieved only by the knife." How does the "primitive moral code" Cecchetti describes manifest itself in "The She-Wolf"? How do love, jealousy, and fidelity come into play here? 3. Verga's story-telling technique, called "verismo" or realism, came to represent a new literary movement. What makes "The She-Wolf" so realistic and gripping? Give some specific examples. 4.
In his article on Verga, James Wood writes "Since these stories are
narrated as if by a member of the community, they themselves at first glance
seem to be without much mercy." Illustrate this point with a
specific example from the story. Does it also help explain what makes
the story so realistic? Tolstoy:
"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" 2. In what ways is the unpleasant behavior of Ivan's wife, Praskovya Fedorovna, a reflection of his own? 3. Why does Ivan Ilyich struggle so much before facing the truth? What is holding him back? 4. What about Gerasim? What is his role in the symbolism of the story? 5. What happens at the end of the story to redeem Ivan? Is he finally content to die? Explain. 6. What does the conclusion of the novella reveal about Tolstoy's moral & religious views? If you consider the story as a kind of moral exemplum, what views is he implicitly teaching here? Franz Kafka: "The Metamorphosis" 1. Consider Gregor as a person. What was life like for him before his metamorphosis, at home and on the job? Consider his own attitude and his reaction to his new predicament. In what ways do you think Gregor was like a "bug" even before his metamorphosis? 2. What aspects of this strange, nightmare-like story to you find confusing or surprising? Give a specific example of this aspect. Do you find any of it amusing or entertainingly absurdist? Explain. 3. What do you make of the end of The Metamorphosis? Specifically, toward the end of the story, what are Gregor's attitudes toward himself and toward his family? What changes have his family members gone through? How do you make sense of both Gregor's attitudes and his family's response to his death? Franz Kafka: "The Judgement" 1. What parallels do you see between "The Judgement" and The Metamorphosis? Specifically, what similarities and differences do you see in the father in each story? In Gregor's and Georg's responses and self images? What family dynamics do you see in each story? 2. Does it make sense to read this story as if it were a realistic drama, a kind of psychological soap opera? If not, how are we meant to read it? What kinds of symbolic, allegorical, or metaphorical implications do you sense here? 3. Do any of the statements about Kafka's work that you've read in the links on the Kafka page help give you a way of talking about these stories and their meanings? Quote verbatim at least one or two such statements and explain how each one helps you. Garcia Marquez: "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" 1. Was Santiago Nasar guilty of any crime? Why was he killed? Did Pedro and Pablo Vicario want to kill him? Why did they feel compelled to do so? 2. Who is the narrator? What is his connection with the story? 3. Choose one character in the novella who really fascinates you, perhaps because you feel teased by some mystery about that character. Tell us who the character is and what interests you about him or her. 4. Perhaps because there is a great deal of irony in this story, many critics have read it as a satire. If we read it as a satire, who or what is the target of the satire--the Catholic church, the "honor code" of machismo, something else? Explain. 5. In his New York Times review, "Murder Most Foul and Comic," Leonard Michaels sees the story as "mixing the uncanny and the banal." He also speaks of the inconsistencies and absurd elements in it. He writes: "As more and more is revealed about the murder, less and less is known, yet the style of the novel is always natural and unselfconscious, as if innocent of any paradoxical implication." Does this help describe the unique quality of Garcia Marquez's narrative? What effects or meanings do you see in such a narrative? Achebe: Things Fall Apart (Part 1) 1. How does Okonkwo work to achieve greatness as defined by his culture? What are Okonkwo's strengths and weaknesses? What role does the example of his father play in shaping Okonkwo's character and actions? How does he differ from Western heroes? 2. Notice that Achebe introduces various Ibo customs, rituals, and ceremonies in the novel by simply depicting them in action without explaining them. Why do you think Achebe chooses to do this, considering that he wrote in English for a world audience? Explain two or three specific customs--such as the kola nut ceremony, bridal customs, the practice of "throwing away" twins, the way they deal with "ogbanje" children, the "egwugwu" used to resolve disputes, exile from the clan for 7 years, etc. 3. What is the role of Ibo proverbs in Achebe's novel? That is, how does he use them and why? Explain any two such proverbs used in the novel. 4. Consider the episode involving Ikemefuna. What is his relationship with Okonkwo? With Nwoye? What happens to Ikemefuna? Why? Why does Okonkwo participate despite advice not to? How does this later affect the relationship between Okonkwo and his son Nwoye? 5. Discuss the roles of and treatment of women in Umuofia. What is the significance of Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, and the episode in which she takes Ezinma on a nightly voyage? Achebe: Things Fall Apart (Part 2) 1. Why does Achebe choose to bring in the white men and Christianity only in the last third of the novel? What is the result of the founding of the Christian church in Mbanta? What sources of misunderstanding seem to make the conflicts between the Europeans and the Africans inevitable? 2. Achebe said that he wrote Things Fall Apart in response to insulting stereotypes of Africans presented in such European classics as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Joyce Carey's Mister Johnson. Achebe even wrote a famous attack on this aspect of Heart of Darkness in his essay "Images of Africa." He said he wrote the novel "to help my society regain belief in itself and to put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement." How does Achebe's novel "correct" such European depictions of Africa and Africans, and offer you an Afrocentric perspective? 3. Although Achebe works to combat demeaning stereotypes of African culture, he doesn't always present Ibo society as flawless. The image we see of this culture just before the arrival of the white colonizers is sometimes troubled and far from perfect. What parts of pre-colonial Ibo culture does Achebe seem to question? How does he use characters like Obierika, Okonkwo, and Nwoye to offer such social criticism of Ibo society? 4. In what senses is Okonkwo a tragic hero? 5. What ironies do you see in the title of the book that, at the end of the novel, the District Commissioner intends to write: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger? Emecheta: The Joys of Motherhood (Part 1) 1. What is the effect of beginning the novel with Nnu Ego "on the run" and then backtracking until the novel catches up with itself several chapters later? Did this confuse you? Did it seem dramatic? What is its effect? 2. What do you learn about the assumptions and values of this culture from the tragic love story of Agbadi and his Ona? For example, consider the qualities in both Agbadi and Ona that seem to make them attractive to one another. Why does Ona refuse to marry Agbadi? What is the last wish Ona makes for her daughter? 3. Consider the failed marriage between Nnu Ego and Amatokwu. Why did it fail? What does this tell you about the values of this society and especially its view of the role of women? Does Nnu Ego challenge these assumptions? What reasons does Nnu Ego give for needing to have children? 4. In what ways does Nnu Ego feel differently about Nnaife than she had about Amatokwu? Why does she agree to marry him? How does her becoming pregnant affect her view of him? 5. What are the differences between life in Ibuza and life in Lagos? How do both work and social arrangements differ? Is being a senior wife in Lagos different from having this status in Ibuza? Emecheta: The Joys of Motherhood (Part 2) 1. In Chapter 11, Nnu Ego and Adaku try to stage a mini-rebellion against Nnaife, but it backfires on them. What prompted Nnu Ego to try? What goes wrong? What is revealed here about the plight of wives like Nnu Ego in Lagos? 2. Consider Nnu Ego's relationships with other women--with Cordelia and later with Adaku, for example. What are these woman-to-woman relationships like? Do they provide any power or at least consolation to these women? 3. Consider Nnu Ego's despairing yet articulate speech on pages 186-7. Should it be taken at face value? How believable is it that Nnu Ego would speak this way? What does this speech reveal about the themes of the novel? 4. What do you make of the ending of the novel? How does it reflect on the central messages of the novel? What are those messages? What is Emecheta's implied analysis of women's roles and of the impact of urbanization? 5. Emecheta's portrait of Ibo culture is very different from Chinua Achebe's portrait. Of course, this is hardly surprising since Emecheta's novel takes place a generation later and her concerns are different. Nonetheless, as you see them, what are the main differences? Lavanya Sankaran: The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories (Part 1) - “The Red Carpet” and “Bombay This”
You are expected to read all 8 of the stories in
Sankaran's collection. But we will start with only two,
"The Red Carpet" and "Bombay This." Begin the
discussion of these two by answering the 4 questions
below. By Wednesday evening, post here again, quoting from at
least two different classmates. 1. 2. Is the ending of “The Red Carpet” satisfying to you, or does it seem a bit disappointing? Explain. 3. Sankaran is credited with a remarkably wry, witty style. One commentator finds “the dry humour of the title [“The Red Carpet”] rather appealing.” Do you see this dry humor in the title? Can you explain it? 4. Answer either Version #1 or Version #2 below. (I think each one ultimately leads to a similar set of ideas.) Version #1. In “Bombay This,” Ramu struggles over whether to marry Ashwini or not. Like T.S. Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock, who endures “a hundred indecisions and a hundred visions and revisions,” Ramu changes his mind over this question. a. What are some of the reasons he hesitates? What finally convinces him that he definitely does wish to marry her? b. What do you make of Ramu’s character that leads to all these changes. How do you view how he thinks both about Ashwini and about this decision? Version #2. “Bombay This” is told from Ramu’s point of view. Yet at times it seems pretty clear that Sankaran is gently satirizing Ramu, quietly poking fun at him. a. What specific events would you point to in arguing that she is indeed subtly critiquing him? (Quote parts of actual passages. Include at least two, perhaps more.) b. Explain
what is being implied about Ramu. Lavanya
Sankaran: The Red Carpet: Bangalore
Stories (Part 2) 1.
At the center of “Two Four Six Eight” is the contest of wills between the
young woman narrator (let’s call her “Missy,” as Mary does) and her
“baby-ayah” or nanny, Mary. Discuss
how this power issue unfolds in the story and what meanings are implied. In doing so, try to include your answers to
the following questions: (a) What power (influence, control) does Mary have
over “Missy,” and how does she use this power? (b) What power does “Missy”
have over Mary, and how does she use her power? (c) Who gains what and who loses what from
this ongoing battle, this vying for control?
Who wins the battle? 2.
Missy’s teacher, Mrs. Rafter, is “Anglo-Indian” though “she pretended to be
English” (56). This common bit of
hypocrisy, a consequence of the two centuries of British rule that preceded
Indian independence in 1947, reveals the cultural conflict that defines the
society in which “Missy” grows up.
Hence the appeal to her and her friends of Enid Blyton’s books that
portrayed the “nineteen forties English childhood that we aspired to and were
perpetually excluded from” (56). How
does this underlying cultural and personal identity conflict affect
“Missy”? In particular, explain the
ironies it leads to, such as the girls’ wish “to have romantic, outlandish
names like Jane” (55) and the disastrous result of finally being able to
“order steak and kidney pie” (67)? 3. Apart from the three stories we’ve already discussed – “The Red Carpet,” “Bombay This” & “Two Four Six Eight” – choose one other story. Try to find one that you especially liked. a) Write a brief synopsis of the story. (b) Explain the theme of the story. That is, first describe the underlying idea or the implied message the story conveys, as you interpret it. Then explain specifically how the story projects this theme. (Note: By “specifically,” I mean by using direct quotes, pointing to key story details and how they contribute to it, etc.) 4.
What cultural distinctions do you see illustrated in these stories — i.e.
distinctions between traditional Click
here for: World
Lit 2 Main Page q Course Schedule q Dr. Roth’s
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