Discussion: Review for the Midterm Exam

As we think about the midterm exam, which will include both short-answer and long-answer responses, let’s start to put our readings from this semester in conversation with each other. To do this, let’s start to think about interesting points of comparison, and the ways in which each of our readings exemplify the elements of fiction we read about.

In the comments, write about a theme you see connecting two texts–either through a similarity or a difference, and what is significant about that connection. Consider what elements of fiction help make this connection more meaningful. I’ve added an example in a comment below.

In addition to writing your comment, reply to classmates’ comments with ideas about other texts that fit into the connection they’ve explored. This is a great way for us to work through all of the texts we’ve encountered this semester:

Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” 1992

Gary Parks, “Elements of Fiction”

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 1894

William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 1930

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Cottagette” 1910

— “The Yellow Wall-Paper” 1899

Susan Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers” 1917

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” 1835

Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” 1915

Thomas Wolfe, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” 1935 (optional)

21 thoughts on “Discussion: Review for the Midterm Exam”

  1. For example, we might want to think about how death is depicted differently within the plot of several of the stories we read this semester. In some, it is the climax of the story, whereas in another it could be part of the falling action. I’m thinking particularly of “The Story of an Hour,” which depicts death as the exciting moment in the plot that reveals Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict in her life or marriage. In “Young Goodman Brown,” however, Young Goodman Brown’s death is an afterthought. Although it tells us about how his community viewed him–he had largely become an outsider and his death passed with only the required amount of ritual–it comes after the climax of the story, in which the devilish character leads him through the woods and into a life of despair. Mrs. Mallard’s death, much more sudden than Young Goodman Brown’s, leaves us to wonder if “the joy that kills” is a straightforward or ironic idea, whereas Young Goodman Brown’s death only confirms how he let despair ruin his life. In each, though, we as readers are aware of more information than the protagonists’ families or communities, and we understand the emotions that led to circumstances they find themselves in at the moment of death in a way we know to be unknown to others in the stories.

  2. The theme that connects The Metamorphosis and A Rose for Emily is change and rejection from their peers/family in each story. In, The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa was once a lieutenant and a current working salesman but one day he wakes up as an enormous insect. He was not a human being anymore but he had transformed to having “many legs” (Page 13, p.2),“lacking any teeth” (Page 20, p.1), having an “antenna” (Page 23, p.2), “crawling up walls and ceilings” (Page 30, p.1), and eating “inedible, rotten cheese and vegetables” (Page 25, p.1). As Gregor change, his family changed and resented him. They were dependent on Gregor to take care of the family but when he changed they did not take care of him. The mother still cared that Gregor was fed but still could not cope with Gregor’s new body. The father resented Gregor all the more, as he threw apples at Gregor like a shotgun (Page 34, p.1). As for Gregor’s sister, Grete made the effort to clean his room and accommodate to Gregor’s situation by bringing food and making notes of what he liked. However, at the end of the story, she was calling Gregor a “monster” and that the family “should get rid of it,” the “it” meaning Gregor (Page 41, p.3). Overall, the family got fed up with Gregor and rejected him. When Gregor died, they were more glad than despondent of his death and they wanted to “forget about all the old stuff,” meaning Gregor (Page 45, p.2).

    In contrast to, A Rose for Emily, as the town was evolving with new officials being appointed to Jefferson’s office, Miss Emily was required to pay taxes. In the past generation, Colonel Sartoris had remitted Miss Emily’s family from paying taxes because her father was seen as a man of honor by “loaning money to the town” but this story was made up (Page I, p.2). Miss Emily’s family use to have aristocratic prestige, but it no longer had it anymore. When the new generation of Jefferson officials asked Miss Emily to pay taxes, she refused (Page I). Even when her home started to smell bad, the town officials never confronted Miss Emily openly so, four unknown men living in the town secretly sprinkled lime in her cellar door and in all the outbuildings of her home to deodorize the smell (Page II, p.11). Therefore, as the town of Jefferson was evolving they did not reject Miss Emily, but treated her as “a duty; a care, and a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Page I, p.3). Moreover, when Homer Barron disappeared, Miss Emily had quickly changed by “growing fat and her hair turning gray” (Page IV, p.6). I believe that she was stressed in hiding the fact that she had killed Homer Barron and that his dead body was hidden in her attic or she could have been getting ill from the many times she was cuddling with Homer Barron’s dead corpse.

    1. I think you’re onto an interesting comparison here, but there seems to be more information than there needs to be, and that confuses me. It sounds like you want to say that both Gregor and Emily undergo physical changes and that they are both rejected by their communities. But is there a causal relationship here? In the case of Gregor, the change to his body is definitely responsible for the way his family treats him. In the case of Emily, though, the town does not reject her because of her growing older or gaining weight. Instead, you might consider how each is rejected by the community without considering their physical changes. Or you might think about how each is tasked with certain responsibilities to their family but cannot fulfill that responsibility. Or, you might think about the grotesque in each story, with Gregor’s body in comparison with Homer Barron’s body, rather than Emily’s.

  3. “A Rose for Emily,” and “The Cottagette” has a connecting theme. This is in terms of the love story aspect that is intertwined into the plot the stories. In “The Cottagette,” Malda had fallen in love with Mr. Mathews and plotted with Lois to win Mr. Mathews love. On page 50 of the story Lois had a serious conversation with Malda, “do you love him enough to do something to win him – to really put yourself out somewhat for that purpose?” Of course Malda was interested she thought it would be a good marriage.

    In “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily had past the age for marriage because her father thought no one was good enough for her. When Homer Barron came to town and showed an interest in her like Malda she also wanted to marry. Even the towns people felt they would be married. On page 6 the narrator stated, “when she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said, she will marry him.” “She will persuade him yet.” Then Miss Emily purchased complete outfit of men’s clothing with nightshirt and matching silver men’s toilet set as if she anticipated they would be getting married.
    In “The Cottagette,” Malda’s love story had a happy ending because Mr. Mathews was also in love with her and asked her to marry him. Miss Emily was not so fortunate. After being rejected she purchased rat poison and killed Homer Barron. It was a happy ending for Malda and a tragic, pitiful ending for Miss Emily. This is because after she committed murder she became and total recluse and confined herself to her home.

    Because “The Cottagette” is told in first person narration and the point of view character Malda is also the narrator, the reader is given indebt insight into her emotions, settings where events occurred and her conversations with other characters. Although “A Rose foe Emily” is also first person narration the story is narrated by a member of the town who is a minor character not centrally involved in the plot. This limited the access the reader has to the emotions, settings and thoughts of the point of view character, Miss Emily.

    1. Do you see a connection between the happy vs tragic endings and the narration style? It would be interesting to think of the role the type of narration plays in the readers’ feelings of sympathy for the character.

      But you weren’t writing about our sympathy as readers–you were writing about love. Do you think there’s something about the love plots in each that makes the ending happy for Malda and pitiful–and criminal–for Emily?

      1. In the love plot of “The Cottagette,” the first person narrative style used was more effective than the first person narrative style in “A Rose for Emily.” Because Malda is the point of view character and also the narrator we all able to have more insight into her feelings and her thoughts. In a “Rose for Emily'” we are not privy to how Miss Emily and Homer Barron feels about each other. Readers feel more sympathy for Malda because we have a more emotional connection with her and the relationship she had with Mr. Mathews base on the feelings they expressed. For Miss Emily we can only assume the feelings of true love was not mutual. Because we lack insight into Miss Emily’s emotions and more in-depth information about her relationship with Homer Barron we lack sympathy for her. She is clearly a woman with psychological problems who needed help, like Jane from “The Yellow Wallpaper.”.

  4. The theme that connects a “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” is how both women felt trapped by their circumstances. It seems that both might have been during the same time period in which marriage felt more like a necessity rather than a natural inclination for women. Mrs. Mallard is described as “young , with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”. She wore the repression that she felt in her marriage on her face, and did so quietly like many unhappily married did back then. For “Jane” in “The Yellow Wallpaper”she is also restricted by her marriage in that she can’t truly confide in her husband in how unstable she feels, and that is spiraling out of control.
    Both characters lives seem to be dominated and dependent on the men in their lives and aren’t able to find their individuality or self assertion. Their entrapment led both to lose their lives. Mrs. Mallard dies at the news that her husband is in fact not dead, but alive. The devastation that she feels at the loss of her potential freedom devastates her enough to give her a heart attack. As for Jane, she loses her life due to the fact that she refuses to admit to her husband how out of control she feels, and John is unwilling to see it. Things finally reach a breaking point when she loses all sanity by ripping the wallpaper down.
    Also, interestingly enough, both authors, Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were both known as feminists and spoke out loud about the confines of children and domesticity which was very progressive in their era.
    Though” The Story of an Hour” was written in third person as opposed to “The Yellow Wallpaper” which was written in first person, they both give an intimate look into the characters.

    1. Another important aspect of this comparison is how “The Yellow Wall-Paper” demonstrates the way in which a husband can care but still stifle his wife, which is key to understanding Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s marriage. Because we don’t get the details of their marriage, many readers are quick to assume Mr. Mallard wasn’t a good husband, or was abusive in some way that would make his wife glad to think he was dead. Instead, we see in the way John treats his wife how a husband can care but still leave his wife feeling controlled, not free.

  5. The ways each individual story is told (POV), main idea/themes (examples: Love, Rejection, Fear, Death, Utopia, Dystopia etc.), the settings and more are what connects/differentiates each story to one another.
    “A Rose for Emily”, “Story of an Hour”, “The Metamorphosis”, and “Young Goodman Brown” all have a similarity which is death however the way death is carried out in each story is different. Young Goodman Brown’s death was in a way, gloomy or depressing because he carried the questionable thoughts he had resulting from the forest with him until his death. For “Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard’s death was more of a literal shocker because she died on the instant sight of her husband. She was happy he was “gone” but died of the shock of his return. “A Rose for Emily” had several deaths we knew about however, 1 was questionable. Death was a big theme in this story. Emily’s father’s death was one that started how her life took place. She refused to acknowledge his death and carried that thought. Similarly, Homer Barron’s death was something she couldn’t acknowledge so she stayed with his rotting body, with the thought of him being alive. Emily died of old age but was found “fused” with Homer (She literally died next to him).
    “The Cottagette”, “A Jury of Her Peers”, and “A Story of Her Hour” all have the similarity of the “Love” theme. However, love has a different meaning in each story. “A Jury of Her Peers” and “A Story of Her Hour” both have the same concept of “love”. In both stories however “love” wasn’t the most ideal image of love. Both Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Wright had marriages that were “prison-like” and their love was something they didn’t enjoy. “The Cottagette” on the other hand had a more ideal love story and it looked like a romance series/movie.

    1. Could we think about death in “A Jury of Her Peers” in this grouping as well? What do we understand about death in this story, and how would we compare it to the other depictions of death? We might think about whether death prevents characters from achieving their goals or enables it.

    2. I felt that “A Rose for Emily”, “Story of an Hour”, “The Metamorphosis”, and “Young Goodman Brown” all have a similar theme of death as well. Although the similarity was death, I didn’t feel like death was a tragedy in any of the stories. They seem more like escapes or solutions from something they couldn’t solve when they were alive. Emily didn’t want to be lonely. Mrs. Mallard didn’t really love her husband all that much. Young Goodman Brown lost his Faith. Gregor Samsa lived as a vermin and his family wanted him gone.

      I feel that their deaths were all good turning points for the characters in the story.

  6. Two stories that share a common theme are “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The theme shared by the two is confinement. In “a Jury of Her Peers,” Mrs. Wright was confined by her husband. He prevented her from living the life that she wanted to live. “Time and time again it had been in her mind, “I ought to go over and see Minnie Foster” — she still thought of her as Minnie Foster, though for twenty years she had been Mrs. Wright.” Mrs. Hale refers to Mrs. Wright as Minnie Foster, which is who she was before she was married. When she got married, she lost that person that she used to be, and became Mrs. Wright. In being Mrs. Wright, she had to obey her husband and wasn’t given free will. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” John’s wife was also confined by him in the room with the yellow wallpaper. “Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through.” From being trapped in this room, John’s wife became obsessed with the wallpaper, claiming she sees a woman behind bars trying to escape. In being locked in the room, John’s wife felt like the woman she sees in the wallpaper, trapped behind bars finding a way to escape. These two stories show relationships where the husbands limit their wives on how they should live.

    1. Confinement, particularly of the wife at the hand of the husband, is a great way to approach these two stories. It would be interesting to think about how setting is a factor in this comparison.

    2. I thought most of the characters in the short stories we read are “trapped” whether it is trapping themselves in thoughts (mentally) or being trapped in the house because of responsibilities (physically) but definitely confinement is a better word to describe it!

      Other confinements may be of Malda who is confined to her Cottagette as a soon to be wife. – The Cottagette

  7. The two text that I would like to bring together based on Theme is the metamorphosis and A rose for Emily. These two stories depict something very dark. After reading the metamorphosis, I understood how devious and mean it is to treat someone with a disability; especially your family member. Gregor was treated with the utmost disrespect. Just imagine waking up as a vermin after a bad dreams. The character Gregor went from straight happiness into total despair and hate for his transformation because he became dependent. In the Rose for Emily, Emily clearly disregard anything bad anyone say about her; it just was not important. Emily never gave anyone a chance to see her true emotions. This was the first sign that she was living a very dark life; filled with hate for the death of her dad. To add, her home was unkempt and she house rooms that were kept locked at all times.

    1. I wonder if your ideas here connect with Stephanie’s further up, and with my comments on her comment. There’s definitely something about the dark, macabre, grotesque aspects of these stories that would be important to compare. Are there particular passages that you would use in your comparison?

  8. I feel there is a common theme uniting ” A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “The Metamorphosis” by Frank Kafka. In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor’s family put so much effort into caring (or not caring) for him, and the situation kept getting worse. He went from being the breadwinner to a helpless vermin that couldn’t be looked at. After all the time he spent as a bug, his family saw he wasn’t going to get any better. In addition to finally being free from the strain he put on their lives, they probably also felt he himself would rather be dead. When he finally went, they couldn’t help but feel relieved.
    In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Mrs. Wright’s husband had taken all the happiness out of her life. She no longer sang, and her house was a gloomy, quiet place, very unlike her personality as described by Mrs. Hale. He finally went too far and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back (/bird’s neck.) Taking matters into her own hands, she killed her husband, and ends his reign of tyranny over her.
    In both stories the death of a once loved (we can assume) family member, is a relief, and life can go on easier without them.

    1. Could you connect these ideas to those that AldayA1211 wrote about further up, and my comments on his comments? We could certainly connect the texts we’ve read by thinking about what death means in them, and looking particularly at those that use death to create possibilities. “The Story of an Hour” could work within this theme, both in considering Mr. Mallard’s rumored death and Mrs. Mallard’s actual death.

  9. While reading some of the classmate’s comments, I found a new connection that may link most of the stories together. This connection if the theme of being trapped whether emotionally or physically.

    In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard was trapped in her own sorrow and grief that it cause her to die from her heart disease. She couldn’t bear the thought of a long life without her husband. It reads in paragraph 12, “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will–as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.”

    In A Rose for Emily, Emily was trapped inside her home because of her stubbornness to let go of Homer. She possibly poisoned Homer to ensure that he would be with her forever. In Section IV paragraph 5, we understand that when Homer disappeared it was also when Emily became trapped from her stubbornness. “And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time.” It could also be seen in the last paragraph of section V, where they saw “the second pillow was the indentation of a head”. Even after Homer wilted and his flesh is all gone, Emily still slept by his side.

    In The Jury of Her Peers, we get an insight to how Minnie Foster was trapped inside her own house with her husband. This can be seen on page 257, paragraph 3, ” It looked very lonesome this cold March morning. It had always been a lonesome-looking place. It was down in a hollow, and the poplar trees around it were lonesome-looking trees”. It was a lonesome house that has trapped Minnie since she’s been married.

    In the Yellow Wallpaper, the wife of John was trapped inside the room with the yellow wallpaper. John did not listen to her when she said she wanted to leave the room. He just left her inside and let her imaginations go wild. When she sees the woman inside the yellow wallpaper behind bars on page 67 paragraph 6, “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and the worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.” This may reflect how the wife feels in the room, like being trapped behind bars.

    In the Cottagette, Malda is also trapped in her Cottagette playing housewife and cooking for Mr. Matthews. She shows her unhappiness on page 51 paragraph 7 when she complains about the household chores. “I always work best in the morning; but of course housework has to be done in the morning too; and it is astonishing how much work there is in the littlest kitchen.

    Finally, in the Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa is trapped inside his own room physically, and perhaps inside a vermin’s body metaphorically. In the first sentence of the short story, “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke up from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.” Also, he was physically trapped inside his room throughout most of the story because he was an eyesore to his family, and must even hide when his sister Grete came in to feed him.

  10. Two stories i found to be similar yet different are “A Jury of her Peers” and “the Yellow Wall-Paper”. Both stories are based on the lives of women, women that have lost themselves and find other ways to find their way back.
    In “A jury of her peers” Winnie is controlled by her husband, a husband who no one seems to like so she lost of most the people that loved her. She was stuck at home waiting hand and foot on a man who obviously didnt care for her from the way her killed her animal. She was furious and that was one of the last things he would be able to take from her. She wanted the old happy Winnie back so she killed him.
    In “the yellow wall paper” Jane was controlled by the wallpaper. The wallpaper took up so much of her time that her mental health didnt improve she saw things in that wallpaper that wasnt there. She was left alone one night and knew in order to be free she had to destroy the wallpaper.
    In order for the women from “A Jury of Her Peers” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” to continue on with life they had to destroy the things holding them back. For Winnie and Jane they could no longer live with the things that controlled their lives

  11. In the “Yellow Wall Paper” and in “The Story of an Hour” there’s a connection with the husband and the relationship they have with their wives. This relationship play a major part with Mr. and Mrs. Mallard’s marriage. In the short story “Story of an Hour” we discover that Ms.Mallard wasn’t happy in her marriage ,but we as reader didn’t have any proof that she was abuse mental or physical to the point where she would be relief that her husband was dead. We really don’t know what kind of husband Mr. Mallard was but the way her feeling were hot and cold he marriage wasn’t totally bad and then on another hand she had heart problem that probably affected her emotionally. In “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (pg 58) you can tell that John cared for his wife. She stated “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir with without special direction. She goes on to say that she schedule to take medication each hour of the day and he takes “all care of me and I so feel basely ungrateful not to value it more”. You can see the care but yet, controlling.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *