Raymond Carver, “Cathedral
- Choose 2 of the following questions and answer using short paragraphs. Think carefully before you begin writing, making sure your responses are thoughtful, focused, well-organized, grammatically and mechanically correct. (10 points each)
Choose a character each from 2 of the works listed and use evidence from these to show why these characters are static: Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”; Walker, “Everyday Use,” and Updike, “A & P”; Susan Glaspell, “Trifles.”
- Identify and define the point of view used in the following stories. What does each author achieve through the use of this point of view? Tan, “A Pair of Tickets,” Walker, “Everyday Use,” Raymond Carver, “Cathedral.”
- How is the setting in the stories listed below essential to our understanding of the events in these works? Select only one story: Amy Tan, “A Pair of Tickets”; Jackson, “The Lottery”; Maupassant, “The Necklace.”
- Select one of the following texts and explain the major symbol used in the work and its relevance to the work: Jackson, “The Lottery,” Wilson, Fences, Cisneros, “The House on Mango Street,” Glaspell, “Trifles.”
- Choose 3 of the following questions and respond in a paragraph or two to these. Do not respond to all questions, for I will grade only 3. Make sure your paragraphs have a topic sentence, support & a closing sentence. Write using complete sentences and leave some time to correct grammatical errors. Do not summarize or paraphrase the passage. (10 points each—30 total).
- Troy: It’s just . . . She gives me a different idea . . . a different understanding of myself. I can step out of this house and get away from the pressures and problems . . . be a different man. I ain’t got to wonder how I’m gonna pay the bills or get the roof fixed. I can just be a part of myself that ain’t never been. What does this excerpt from August Wilson’s Fences reveal about Troy?
- Hale: I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up in the choir and sang. [A look around the room.] Oh, I wish I’d come over here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s going to punish that? What does the speaker call “a crime”? How does this passage from Susan Glaspell, “Trifles” contribute to the play’s theme?
- The narrator in Sandra Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street” writes: “I knew then I hav to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. But this isn’t it. The house on Mango Street isn’t it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.” Using this excerpt, analyze the tone of the story. Explain the last sentence and what the narrator means? How does it contribute to the tone?
- “She had become the sort of woman often found in poor households: tough grasping, and coarse. With her hair uncombed, her skirts askew, with red hands, talking in a loud voice, she would wash and scrub the floor” (Maupassant 178). What do you find ironic about the conclusion of “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant?
Discuss at least one other irony in the story.
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. Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”; Robert is the most static guy in the story ,Robert is a blind guy who is a friend of the narrators wife .The story starts with the narrator saying that the blind man Robert was going to visit them….
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