A Room With A View 16-17

1.  It could be said that E.M. Forster is, at least in this novel, preachy--that he spends time telling the reader the right way to behave in life.  Assuming that it is true that he is preachy, can you explain how being preachy does not ruin this novel?


2.  Why do you suppose Lucy tells Cecil that she is not in love with anyone else (418), if she is really in love with George Emerson?


3.  The narrator says that Lucy joins the ranks of people who like Charlotte Bartlett into the army of those who have sinned against the gods of love (Eros) and wisdom (Athene) and that they will be avenged.  Explain.


4.  A the end of chapter 16, the narrator announces that Lucy broke off her engagement with Cecil, and then in chapter 17 presents the scene in which she does.   A more conventional approach would have been to right to the break-up scene, without mentioning the end of the scene first.  Why this order?


5.  In what sense is Geerge Emerson responsible for Lucy's breaking up with Cecil?

A Room With A View ch.. 14-15

1. Miss Lavish has written a novel set in Florence, and the scene Cecil reads aloud is a description of the scene in which George kissed Lucy (407-408). How do you suppose did Miss Lavish know about this?


2.  Earlier, it brought Lucy inward joy to know that George did not tell her father what happened on that hillside near Florence.  (She can tell because of the way Mr. Emerson senior treats Charlotte Lucas after her col hello, I think--I'm not sure.)  Why is the ability not to tell a secret such a good quality? (402)


3.  George thinks a person should "Choose a place where you won't do harm--yes choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine." (401) Comment.


4.  Probably Forster is making fun of Miss Lavish's prose style: is there anything Cecil reads from her novel that strikes you as laughable, as writing? (408)


5.  George kisses Lucy again (408). Is this wrong of him? Right of him?

A Room With A View chapters 12-13

1.  What might account for Freddy’s inviting George to go bathing after just meeting him? (380)

2.  George votes for fate, Mr. Beebe for our having choices (i.e. having free will).  Where do you think the book, as a whole, comes out as to which rules, fate or our making choices? (381-382)

3.  Any thoughts as to why the twelfth chapter is called “Twelfth Chapter,” when most of the other titles have more elaborate titles?

4.  Why might Lucy have brought up Charlotte’s letter to her mother (387)? True, she’s changing the subject, but she could have changed it some other way.

5. Can you see a connection between Mrs. Honeychurch’s speech, “You are young, dears , and . . . young people will never guess what it feels likes to grow old” (391) and the speech earlier passage about “the thousand little civilities that create a tenderness in time” (368)?

6. What’s wrong with talking about eggs, boilers, hydrangeas, and maids? Why doesn’t Cecil like it? (392)

A Room With A View chapters 10 and 11

1.  Attempt to describe/summarize what is happening with the rental of Cissie Villa, and how it ends up that the Emersons are now renting it. Note Cecil's role.  If a previous classmate has written something you consider an error, respectfully suggest a correction.

2.  What was Cecil's motivation in suggesting the Emersons as tenants to Sir Harry Otway?

3.  "He did not realize that Lucy had consecrated her environment by the thousand little civilities that create a tenderness in time . . ." (368): paraphrase, i.e., put this into your own words. If someone else takes this question and you don't disagree but still want to paraphrase it in your own way, please do.

4.  Try to explain how Lucy's naming the Emerson's the Harris's continues to matter, if only in s small way.

5.  Cecil says, "Anything is fair that punishes a snob" (373) Yet there is evidence to suggest that Cecil himself is a snob.  Comment.

6. What what Lucy have been dreaming about on p. 378, and what makes you say so?

7.  If none of the above works for you, comment however you like, or ask a question!

A Room With A View, Chapter 9

Change of plan: no blog comment due tonight. Thank you anyway!

A Room With A View Chapter 8

1.  Would you say that the Honeychurch family is a happy one, given what we learn in this chapter?

2.  Lucy agrees to marry Cecil Vyse. What do you think of him?

3.  In working out the meanings of this particular text--this novel--why might it be imporetant to decide how we like a given character, such as Cecil Vyse?

4.  Has Lucy's kite string broken (cf. Mr. Beebe's description of Lucy as the kite, Charlotte Barlett as the person holding the kite). Mr. Beebe says that the string had not broken while Lucy was in Florence. Has it now?

5.  Knowing Lucy as we do, why would she accept Cecil as a suitor?

A Room With A View chapter 7

1.  George decides to walk all the way home from the outing on the Fiesole. How might we interpret his doing so? What might it say about George, or tell us about him?

2.  On p. 339, Miss Bartlett asks what Lucy would have done (after George kisses her) if Miss Bartlett hadn't appeared on the scene.  Lucy answers "I can't think" twice, and then, further pressed by Miss Bartlett, decides "not to think what she would have done." Comment.

3.  Does Miss Bartlett become a more sympathetic character at the bottom of p. 340 ("Dearest Lucy, how will you ever forgive me?")

4.  P. 342: "Lucy was suffering from the most grievous wrong which this world has yet discovered: diplomatic advantage had been taken of her sincerity, of her craving for sympathy and love."  Can you explain what the narrator is saying here?

5.  What happens at the end of chapter seven, from the time George shows up at the pension?

6.  If none of the above works for you, make your own comment, or ask a question.

A Room with a View chapter 5

Change of plan: no blog comment required tonight. Just do the reading, please.

A Room With a View chapter 4

1.  Someone please state briefly the plot of this chapter as you understand it. If anyone has any corrections to suggest, please suggest them in your comment.

2. Why doesn't Lucy want George to help her in the square after she faints, and why does she want to walk home alone? (No reason is given in the text; speculate, or recall what has happened earlier that might explain her actions and words in this regard.)

3. Note the reason that George throws Lucy's photographs (of works of art) into the river.  What do you think of his doing so, given the reason he gives?

4. The narrator says, "And she could not carry her request any further" (314)--can you make any sense of this statement?

5.  The third paragraph on p. 310 is possibly mysterious. Can anyone help with it?


6.  "A pity in art signified the nude" (311).  Can anyone explain this statement?

7. If none of the above works for you as a prompt, please raise a question about the reading instead.

A Room with a View ch. 3

1.  Comment on the description of Lucy as a piano player.

2. At the bottom of 303, Mr. Beebe comments to himself that Lucy the piano player is quite different from Lucy the person. In your own words, what is the difference between the two Lucy's?  And is it possible for someone to be a more profound and sophisticated musician than than person?

3.  Why does Mr. Beebe not want his sermons to be remembered?

4.  "It was one of Mr. Beebe's chief pleasures to provide people with happy memories." What do you think of this?

5.  Mr. Beebe is "somewhat chilly in his attitude toward the other sex, and preferred to be interested rather than enthralled." Comment.

A Room With A View chap. 2

The church of St. Croce in Florence, Italy

a painting of St Francis being mourned; the painting is in the church of St. Croce Note: Giotto is a famous pre-Renaissance Italian painter; Ruskin is a famous writer and art historian from just before Lucy's time; Baedeker is a guidebook (written in English, for English people) that well to do English tourists were known to rely on.

1. What do you make of Miss Lavish?

2. What do you make of the names of people in this book? Emerson, George Emerson, Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Lavish?

3. Is Mr. Emerson inappropriate? Inappropriate to the point of being unsympathetic, too awkward?

4. In what way is Miss Bartlett annoying in this chapter?

5. Miss Lavish is against Baedeker; Mr. Emerson is in favor of Baedeker. Comment.

A Room With a View chapter one

1. Delicacy v. beauty: Miss Bartlett is for delicacy, Lucy is for beauty. Explain.

2. What indications are there that social class is a big issue for Miss Bartlett?

3. For whom is social class not a big issue?

4. Where might Mr. Beebe--is social class a big issue or not?

5. In what ways is Lucy a sympathetic (likable) character?

6. In what ways is Miss Bartlett not as sympathetic/likable?

7. What do you make of George, the son of Mr. Emerson?

Dead Man's Cell Phone 51-63 (II.4-6)

1. From time to time a stage directions says "film noir" music. What is film noire music like? Look up film noire on wikipedia if you don't know what it refers to.

2. Why might "film noir music" be given as a stage direction from time to time?

3. Surprises occur in these last scenes. Please cite them.

4. "Money and organs and trade--up here--it's just road kill of the mind." Discuss.

5. "Life is essentially a very large brillo pad." Discuss.

6. What in this reading was funny?

Dead Man's Cell Phone I.5-6; II.1-3

1. Can you put into your own words what Jean might mean when she says, "It's like we're all disappearing the more we're there"? (scene 6; p 35)

2. From what we can tell, is Dwight nicer than his brother Gordon was?

3. In Gordon's monologue, some of our curiosity is satisfied. Do his words and actions accomplish something else? Like what?

4. Can you connect Gordon's way of making a living to what has gone on in the play so far?

5. In II.2, Jeans apparently makes Gordon more of a priority that she does Dwight. Comment.

Dead Man's Cell Phone Scenes 1-4 (pp 11-25)

Respond to one of the following questions, or comment on or ask about some other aspect of the play:

1. What are three adjectives that would describe Jean? Explain.

2. What possible evidence is there in these scenes that this play is a comedy?

3. Any thoughts as to why Jean makes things up that aren't true?

4. Periodically a character, not Jean, stops and doesn't say a word--instead she just thinks it (grief, p 16; lovers, p 19; dead?, p 23. Comment.

What You Learned from Re-reading the Story

First re-read what you have written for this essay so far:

a) your common ground interpretation paragraph

b) your two complicating rows

Then re-read the story you're writing about, keeping in mind what you've written.

If all goes well, you will have some new thoughts that bear on what you've been writing.

Write a paragraph describing what you learned and include it here as a comment.

The Chrysanthemums

Possible prompts:

1. Why do you suppose Elisa dresses up in a special way to go into town?

2. Why do you suppose Elisa expresses interest in "the fights" (boxing matches)?

3. How well does Elisa's husband understand him?

4. Why do you suppose Elisa avoids looking at the caravan driven by the tinker (pot mender) while she and her husband are driving to town?

5. Why do you suppose Elisa cries at the end of the story?

Ivy Day in the Committee Room

Note: Charles Stewart Parnell was a great nineteenth century leader in Ireland, and fought in Parliament, with great but incomplete effectiveness, for Irish people to allowed to rule themselves. He withstood different attacks that left him looking all the more heroic. However, he had an affair with a married woman, and this led to the Catholic Church in Ireland attacking him; this attack led to great division in Ireland between the pro-Church faction and the pro-Parnell faction. At the time of the story, Parnell has been dead for some time. "Ivy Day" was an annual day of remembrance, on October 6, for Parnell by his supporters. In the story, the day occurs on the same day as a parliamentary election, and the characters are people working for a political party in Dublin, Ireland. Some of them may be full-time; some have been hired for the day.

1. How would you describe the atmosphere in this story?

2. If you had to identify a climax in this story, where would you locate it?

3. Would you describe this story as more objective, or more pro-Parnell?

4. Is there any aspect of the story that could be interpreted as symbolic? Discuss.

5.Or comment on an apect of the story of your own choosing.

An Upheaval

by Anton Chekhov

1. Given what we know about Mashenka, what would be so bad for her about having her room searched. She herself says that it's insulting; she worries that she might end up in prison. But why, psychologically, do you suppose she has such a strong reaction to her having had her room searched?

2. When she learns who really stole the brooch, she feels "she really could not stay another minute." Why do you suppose she has this reaction?

3. Can you come up with an explanation for Nikolay Sergeitch confessing his crive to Mashenka?

4. Is Nikolay Sergeitch a good person (a sympathetic character) or not, or somewhere in between?

The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield

The story is at http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/GardPart.shtml. Prompts to respond to (but feel free to come at the reading from some other angle):

1. How does the author build up our sympathy for the character of Laura (the main character)?

2. Can you find indications that Laura is a potential artist?

3. As the story goes along, she gets news of the death of one of the neighbors. Does she, as her mother thinks, over-react? Not in terms of the story; if the story were a real event, and you were a member of the household, would you side with Laura or with her mother? Why?

4. When Laura goes to bring food to the mourning family, why does she have such a difficult time?

5. At the end of the story, Laura's brother Laurie rescues her. Comment.

Paul's Case

1. What in the text would support the idea that Paul is a sympathetic character? Is there anything in the text that suggests he is not a sympathetic character?


2. How would you describe the author's style, compared to Jewett's in "A White Heron"? Compared to the stories of Garcia Marquez?


3. In different ways, Sylvia and Paul are confronted with challenges that require each to grow. Why doesn't music and art do for Paul what the heron does for Sylvia?

A White Heron

Remember, you may answer one of these prompts, or not, as long as you address some aspect of the story; you may respond to something someone has already said, but try not to repeat what someone else has said; read over what your classmates have written, and check back in later to see what people write after you.

1. Are there ways in which Sylvia's life is difficult or challenging?--before the arrival of the hunter, I mean

2. Are there ways in which Sylvia's life is a good one?

3. Sylvia feels love for certain non-human creatures. Can you get specific about what that love is like?

4. What in the story creates its dramatic tension?

Blacaman the Good

Same instructions as last time. Respond to one of the prompts, or say what you find it helpful to say about the story.

1. What connection(s) do you find between this story and either or both of the other two we have re-read so far ("The Handsomest Drowned Man . . ." and ". . .Enormous Wings")? Or is there a way in which this story seems significantly different?

2. Verbal irony could be defined as the use of words that mean what they say they mean while also meaning something else in a way both the speaker and audience agree on in an unspoken way. Can you find an example of irony in this story, and can you explain how the irony works?

3. What is a key moment in the story, and why?

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Please write a paragraph responding to "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" before tomorrow's class. Please read the entries of your classmates that come before and after yours. Feel free to, but don't feel obliged to, respond to one of the following prompts:

1. What similarities do you find between this story and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World"? Be as specific as you can.

2. What differences do you find? Be as specific as you can.

3. The author sub-titled each of these stories "A Tale for Children." Comment.

4. Find what to you is the most intriguing, surprising, or best moment in the story and write about it.