Dear class,
Great work today.  This week, we’re leaving off Colonial America, and heading into a new period of American short fiction: the late 19th century.  Below is the homework for next Monday’s class.
HW: –Read “The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky” and “The Men In The Storm,” taking notes and using the reading questions as a guide (2 hrs).  There will be a closed book quiz on Monday!
-write a blog post (if you’re in group 4) or comment (if you’re not), and then spend the rest of your prep time reviewing your notes (1 hr)
-If you have time, please peruse the Essay 1 description: paper1assignment_f16 We will discuss this in detail in class on Monday.  Please print out a copy to bring to class.
Reading questions:
- We’ve talked about point of view as a term for thinking about who a narrator is, and what their relationship is to the story they’re telling.  In these stories, what is the narrator’s attitude toward his characters?  Are there characters that he’s amused by? Sympathetic to?  How can you tell?
2.  The stories we’ve read thus far have dealt with small towns and the wilderness.  This week, we’re incorporating the city into our discussion of setting in American fiction.  Do the men of “Out of the Storm” behave the way you expect city dwellers to behave?  What about characters in “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” – do they behave in accordance with, or in contrast with, common perceptions of “small town” behavior? Connect: compare the small town citizens of “The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky” with the small towners in “Young Goodman Brown” OR “Rip Van Winkle.”  Is there a difference in how each author depicts the social dynamics of a small town?
3.  Both of these stories involve depictions of trains, cars, and other kinds of transportation technology.  Pay attention to how Crane depicts these vehicles, and how different characters relate to them. What do you think these vehicles might represent or symbolize in these stories?   Create: Write a monologue from one of the “Men in the Storm.”  Who is he?  Where is he from?  Is there anything he enjoys about life in the city? As always, after the creative writing exercise, explain your monologue with reference to the text.
You’ll notice that I haven’t listed a Clue option for the blog groups.  That’s because, starting this week, I’m opening up the Clue option: if you’re doing Clue, you can write your post on any of the above questions, or you can address a different question.  As usual, though, Clue posts should explain how a quote or passage helps you better understand some aspect of the story as a whole.
best,
Professor Kwong
