[Dawood]

4)
a) The simile that describes Emily is “she looked bloated, like a body submerged in motionless water”.
b) You are fast as a cheetah, He bright as the sun.
c) The narrator is someone in the town.
d) This is criticism towards women because the women only care about what is inside of the house rather than attend Emily’s funeral.
e) The town thought she was going to kill herself.
f) People in town thought of him poorly because he was a northern day laborer.
g) People found out it was Homer Baron’s body that Emily had killed with the arsenic.
h) Homer was not into women and only liked men which lead to his death by Emily.
i) Yes and no because not much bad is said about Emily only that she didn’t make the correct choices in her life.
5)
a) The reason why women don’t have names is that they are not so important in the text.
e) The grandmother wanted the killer to rethink/change feeling about what he gonna do and have somewhat of a family feeling.
g) Yes the author is biased against men because everyone was killed at the end and no change of heart occurred.
6)
a) It explains the different points of view of the characters.
b) The characters give off different feelings making us see how is better than the others.
c) She has cheated on him more than once even though she is married to Francis.
d) Francis does care what Margot has done because she not great enough.
e) She couldn’t take it knowing that his faith is better than hers.

[Wei Ni]

5) A short story by Flannery O’Connor called “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html
(Flannery O’Connor was a female writer. I added this since her name is unusual.)

a) Notice that the women in this story often do not have actual names, but the men do. Do you think
there is a reason for this or is it just a quirk?
I’m not quite sure but I think it was because back then women were powerless and didn’t have authority to anything.

e) The ending is quite shocking since all the members of the family are slaughtered by a serial killer.
Just before she is killed, the grandmother says to the killer that he is like her son? Why was she
saying this?
I think she was saying this to try to convince the killer to not shoot and spare her life, but it didn’t work the moment she touched him he shot her.

g) Do you think that the author is biased against men?
I believe so, since the title is ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ and near the end the grandmother thought misfit was a good man but yet he still killed her entire family.

[Wei Ni]

6) A short story by Ernest Hemingway, called “The Short, Happy Life of Francis
Macomber”

a) Notice that the story is out of sequence. Rather than go in chronological order, it starts in the
middle, goes back to the beginning, and then ends at the end. Why do you think Hemingway
chose to do this?
Hemingway choose to do this to enrich the background, they wanted the reader to really experience and feel what was going around them.

b) Who are the three main characters?
Margot, Francis and Robert Wilson.

c) Whom do you think the author wants us to like or dislike?
I don’t know, at first I thought the author wanted us to like Francis because he was described as well built and such, but later on we know he is a coward.

d) Notice how many things are said about Margot / Margaret:
she is openly cheating on her husband and has no remorse.
He writes, “She was an extremely handsome and well kept woman of the beauty
and social position which had, five years before, commanded five thousand
dollars as the price of endorsing, with photographs, a beauty product which she
had never used. She had been married to Francis Macomber for eleven years.”
We would consider her a “trophy wife,” which wealthy men often have. Think of
all the music performers and athletes with model wives.
However, when we see an ad does it make a difference to us if we know (or
care) if the model actually uses the product?
I don’t think so, nobody really knows if the model uses the product or not, we just automatically assume that they do because they’re in the ad. If they don’t then they must seriously be desperate for the ad money.

e) Then, what does it say about her integrity to mention she got paid to endorse
something she did not use?
I guess it puts her in the wrong, as she should be at least trying out the product that has her face all over the advertisement.

f) This couple does not seem to love one another, yet they stay together. What is
the attraction, what “power” does each have over the other?
Francis stays with Margot because she is pretty, and Margot stays with Francis because he is rich,

g) At the end, Margot deliberately shoots Francis dead. Why does she shoot him
then, rather than any other time? What was happening to make his life short and
happy?
She shoots him because she had this gut feeling that he was going to leave her, since the story says he only married her cause she looks good, but she had already started to crack, and while Francis was a coward the entire story, he somehow finds a way at the end to be brave, and Margot had to put a stop to that or else she would be divorced.

[Eduard Khanukayev]

4: “A Rose For Emily”

A. Some of the similes used in the story were “she looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face.” These were also the terms that were used to describe her in the beginning of the story.

B. Whenever I argue with friends I always like to use the simile “My friend is stubborn as a mule.” However some that I hear often is “I’m as blind as a bat.”

C.The narrator is a random member of the townsfolk.

D.It seems to be criticism considering no one really cared enough about her, to go and mourn, but more to see the house and what’s in it.

E. The people of the town thought that she was going to kill herself, or that she would use it on the rats. Considering that’s what the one who sold it to her thought.

F. The people of the town thought ill of him because he was a “northern day laborer.”

G. What the town people find is the dead body of Homer, and they thought that she killed her because he wouldn’t marry her due to Homer being homosexual.

H. It personally sent me into confusion but it meant that he was a gay man, and she probably found out. Now she wants to kill him because of it.

I. I think that the author both shows and does not show a bias against women.

[Eduard Khanukayev]

5: “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”

A. Personally I believe that the women have basic names because they have had no power in the past and were treated like property.

E. The grandmother said that the Misfit is like her son, and this was to try and have him spare her life.

G. Yes the author is biased towards men because of the main antagonist being male, and the actions of men in the story.

[Eduard Khanukayev]

6: “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

A. E. Hemingway probably wanted to display the characters in different appearances, so that we readers would interpret it differently than if it went chronologically.

B. Francis Macomber, Margot Macomber (His wife), and Robert Wilson.

C. The author wants us to like Robert, and dislike the Macomber pair.

D. People tend to go on a basis of loyalty when it comes to celebrities and influencers, and if those people are seen advertising something. The fans would eat it up, and buy it whole even if the celebrity doesn’t use the product.

E. It basically says how she has no integrity and did it only for the money.

F. Well basically she stays with him because he has wealth, and he stays with her for her beauty.

G. Margot shot him because it was most likely the only way out of their relationship.

[Prof. Masiello]

Jaida,

These are not metaphors and similes because they must make a comparison like tall as a giraffe to qualify:
x (not) A) Two similes “A sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,” and “The gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores.”

x (not) B) Some metaphors “You’re speaking gibberish,” “Life is a journey,” and “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

You are right about Miss Emily but maybe in an era when homosexuality was so forbidden and hidden, she killed him not because of that but because he did not love her back.

[Prof. Masiello]

Makai,

I do not like Robert Wilson and wonder if others do. Sure, he is a master hunter, but he seems cold (his eyes) and he is an adulterer.

As for Margot and the beauty product, I doubt it is a sign of her power, rather it is of her lack of sincerity, i. e. she does things for money.

The reason she killed Francis then — at that point in the story–was that his confidence had come back during the hunt and she probably saw their dynamic about to change and thought he might stand up for himself against her and not put up with her cheating.

(PS When you are Machine Gun Kelly, I suppose you can wear whatever you want!)

[Prof. Masiello]

Yes, Wei,

Your answers are good, but the narrator seems to be more than one towns-person, a plural.

[Jakia W]

4) a Rose for Emily
a simile there was “her hair cut short, making her look like a girl”. someone who knows the town and the history is narrating the story. I do think it’s a criticism of women but not the portrayal of Emily. the townspeople thought Emily was going to kill herself. people think poorly of homer because he originated from that country. people find a bridal setup. homer died of a broken heart. I didn’t find the meaning to the line about homer but in retrospect, it has me thinking. I do think the author is showing bias against women.

5) a good man is hard to find
I do think there’s a reason for the women not having actual names. the grandmother was saying the killer is like her son because they seem off as a mean person but inside they a good person. the author is against men.

6) the short happy life of Francis Macomber
I think Hemingway chose to do the story out of sequence because the middle of the story is known to have the plot of the story. the 3 main characters are Macomber, Wilson, and Margot. the author wants us to dislike Margot. It doesn’t make a difference to us if we know a model used a product. Margot has great integrity to mention she got paid to endorse she didn’t use. The power Macomber has over Margot is money and the power Margot has over Macomber is looks. Margot shoots Macomber then because she knows he changed. He was fighting a bull and knew anything could go wrong.

[Melina Tlatelpa]

4) A short story by William Faulkner called “A Rose for Emily”: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html
a) Notice the descriptions of Emily at the beginning, when she is elderly. Can you find a metaphor or a simile there? (You need to know the difference between those two “figures of speech” meant to be taken figuratively, not literally.) When you say someone is a pig, you do not mean it literally. The same is when you say to someone you eat like a bird. It is not meant literally. The description of her hair color is literal, real, and it also becomes a significant detail at the very end.

One that I found was “The men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument”.

b) Think of metaphors and similes you use in your own conversation. List a few. It is a good thing for writers to use metaphors and similes!

He/she eats like a pig. That was a piece of cake.
c) Who is narrating this story (that is not the same as saying who wrote it)?
The people from the town are narrating the story.

d) Notice that the narrator says in the first sentence, “WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house […]. Is this a criticism of women? Is the portrayal of Emily a criticism?

I think that it is a criticism of women because it shows that women only care about the interior of their houses. This can be interpreted as a woman being a housewife due to them having to clean for the house to be tidy. I think that the portrayal of Emily is criticism.

e) When she bought arsenic, what did the townspeople think?
When she bought arsenic everyone thought she was going to commit suicide.

f) Homer was the one man that Emily seemed to care about. Why did people think poorly of him? (It may have to do with geography…)
People thought poorly of Homer because of where he was from. They thought they were better than him.

g) At the end, what do people find in the locked room? What exactly happened?
At the end of people find Homer’s body in the locker room. Emily might’ve killed Homer.

h) Did you notice the line: “When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, ‘She will marry him.’ Then we said, “She will persuade him yet,’ because Homer himself had remarked–he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club–that he was not a marrying man”? Did it mean anything to you at first? Does it mean anything in retrospect?
It meant that he was homosexual and interested in men.

i) Considering all that the author writes about Emily, do you think he, William Faulkner, is showing bias against women?
Considering all that the author writes about Emily, I do believe that he is showing bias against women because, in the beginning, she portrays women as housewives when he talks about how their house interiors.

[Melina Tlatelpa]

5) A short story by Flannery O’Connor called “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html (Flannery O’Connor was a female writer. I added this since her name is unusual.)
a) Notice that the women in this story often do not have actual names, but the men do. Do you think there is a reason for this or is it just a quirk?
I think that the women don’t have names maybe because they thought less than men.

e) The ending is quite shocking since all the members of the family are slaughtered by a serial killer. Just before she is killed, the grandmother says to the killer that he is like her son? Why was she saying this?
I think that the grandmother said that so the guy can change his mind.

g) Do you think that the author is biased against men?
I think that the author is being biased against men because he is portraying men as violent and cruel.

[Melina Tlatelpa]

6) A short story by Ernest Hemingway, called “The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” http://www.standardsinstitutes.org/sites/default/files/material/winter16_ela_9-12_day_2_session_1- macomber.pdf

a) Notice that the story is out of sequence. Rather than go in chronological order, it starts in the middle, goes back to the beginning, and then ends at the end. Why do you think Hemingway chose to do this?
I think that Hemingway chose to do it in that order because he wanted to show why everything happened and the reason it happened.

b) Who are the three main characters?
The three main characters are Robert Wilson, Francis Macomber, and Margot Macomber.

c) Who do you think the author wants us to like or dislike?
I think he wants us to like Francis and Robert and dislike Margot.

d) Notice how many things are said about Margot / Margaret: she is openly cheating on her husband and has no remorse. He writes, “She was an extremely handsome and well kept woman of the beauty and social position which had, five years before, commanded five thousand dollars as the price of endorsing, with photographs, a beauty product which she had never used. She had been married to Francis Macomber for eleven years.” We would consider her a “trophy wife,” which wealthy men often have. Think of all the music performers and athletes with model wives. However, when we see an ad does it make a difference to us if we know (or care) if the model actually uses the product?
It depends because it’s always that the model is paid good to advertise the product even if the product is bad.

e) Then, what does it say about her integrity to mention she got paid to endorse something she did not use?
It just shows that she cares more about getting paid rather then advertising actual facts and a good product.

f) This couple does not seem to love one anothr, yet they stay together. What is the attraction, what “power” does each have over the other?

The attraction is Francis’ wealth and Margot’s beauty.

g) At the end, Margot deliberately shoots Francis dead. Why does she shoot him then, rather than any other time? What was happening to make his life short and happy? If you look carefully, there are two scenes in which we get the POV of the lion. This is a remarkable point of view example: we see up close how the lion is breathing and thinking. It uses limited vocabulary – because it is a lion. Here is one of the scenes: “The lion still stood looking majestically and coolly toward this object [the lion is seeing the Jeep and doesn’t know the word for it] that his eyes only showed in silhouette, bulking like some superrhino. There was no man smell carried toward his and he watched the object, moving his great head a little from side to side. Then watching the object, not afraid, but hesitating before going down the bank to drink with such a thing opposite him, he saw a man figure detach itself from it and he turned his heavy head and swung away toward the cover for the trees.”
I think she shot him because she noticed that she didn’t have power over him anymore.

[Saba Chaudhry]

4. A Rose for Emily

A) – “A sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument,”
-“The gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores.”

B) “You’re speaking gibberish,” “That was a piece of cake,” “Life is a journey,” and “Don’t shoot the messenger.” ”

C) The people of the town

D) The first sentence criticizes women because it states to care about the inside of the house instead of being a certain way at the funeral.

E) Emily bought arsenic, which worried people that she might kill herself.

F) He was a laborer.

G) We find out that Miss Emily killed Homer because he was a homosexual. we find his body in the locked room.

H)Since he was homosexual this was Emily’s motive for killing him. The lines highlighted the fact that he liked men.

I) This shows that women can be so spiteful that they would murder over something they didn’t like.

5) “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”

A) The women don’t appear to have actual names but the men do. Showing men are of more importance than women.

E). The grandmother says that the misfit is like her son, she realizes they are both humans, people, she sympathizes

G) I don’t think the author is biased against men, but he shows that a man can have good qualities and still turn out horrible.

“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

A. He wanted to highlight each event and how it came to be.

B. Francis Macomber, his wife Margot Macomber, and Robert Wilson.

C. The author wants us to like Robert Wilson and dislike Margot Macomber and Francis Macomber.

D. It doesn’t matter at all. The models are hired to sell the product based on their appearance and fame. If it actually mattered if they used it no company would make any money.

E. It shows that Margot is very powerful. She is seen with high regard.

F. . They went hand in hand together, They have power over each other which is why they work. Francis needs the beautiful woman by his side, and he was secure because he had money to make her stay. While Margot knew how to keep Francis in check because he had low self-esteem

G She wanted to be with Robert Wilson. she couldn’t if she was married so she had to shoot Francis, it was the only way out of the marriage.