Category Archives: Discussion

Discussion, Week 2

A Rose for Emily

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A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner tells the story of Miss Emily, before and after her death. At first I was confused how the story was being told because 1) I was reading in a noisy environment and 2) It sounded to me that they were going straight into her past life without a clear transition. But that’s just me. Anyways, this story is divided into 5 sections in which the first takes place in Miss Emily’s funeral. I liked the imagery of the house because it makes us feel as  readers, like we’re in there. Moving on forward, Miss Emily was known as the person who never went outside. She was pretty much a hermit. The reason being is that her father died and she probably doesn’t have anything to look up to anymore thus making her lock herself at home. However, Miss Emily didn’t want to accept that and went on with life with the thought of her father still being alive. Although she knew he was dead, she didn’t want to accept it which makes us think that she is “coo-coo” . This idea foreshadows later on because it was said that she suffered from an illness. Further in the story, she meets the soon to be popular, Homer Barron in which is the start of some form of love. However, she is later seen buying arsenic. Now this part showed some interest to me because it had a mystery feel to it. “Why is she buying poison?” ” What is she thinking?” “Who or what is she planning to use it on?” And the big question, “Is she going to kill herself?” Eventually, Homer and Miss Emily go off without word and it was assumed that they got hitched. Skipping the aging section of Miss Emily, after her death, Homer was found decayed on the bed of Miss Emily’s home with a lock of her gray hair thus ending the story.

To me, the story was pretty interesting. It kept me thinking even with background noise. As I mentioned earlier, questions came up especially during the poison purchase. “Why is she buying poison?” ” What is she thinking?” “Who or what is she planning to use it on?” I think now my questions have been answered and I think that she used the poison to kill Homer Barron. I can relate this story to “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell because the outcomes of each story were very similar or assumingly very similar (If she really did kill Homer). One thing I forgot to mention was that Homer brought nothing but trouble to Miss Emily because he was a reason why people looked down on her. So like “Jury of Her Peers”, the Homer/Emily relationship wasn’t too healthy leading to one spouse killing another.

 

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Discussion, Week 2

Discussion “A Story of a Hour” and “A Jury of her Peers”

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The two stories  many similarites and differences. Similarites are main characters are women. Women that live in the shadows of their husbands and are liberated by their deaths. Differences are one husband died in an accident the other died at the hands of his wife. We read each story from two point of views and get invloved in the chararcters lives differently.

in “A Jury of her Peers” we know Mrs. Wright from Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. No one really knew Mrs. Wright’s current life just what she once was and where she is at the moment. From Mrs. Hale’s knowledge of Mrs. Wright we know she was a vibrant young women who was polite and cared how she looked. From Mrs. Peter’s knowledge Mrs.Wright is in a cold jail cell only asking for her apron, as if its a secruity blanket. We don’t get any facts just what others recall regarding Mrs. Wrights life. It would’ve been nice to get inside her head to know what happened and why. We only know he’s gone.

In “A Story of a Hour” we personally get to know Louise. We were inside her mind, we felt her emotions and saw what she saw. We as the readers felt distraught with her regarding her husbands death, the we were happy with the world outside her window and her current freedom. She was ready to go outside and breathe the fresh air until her husband opened the door and she died. The story says she died of joy, but we know the facts and she died because her hunsband didn’t.

Both stories “A Jury of her Peers” and “A Story of a Hour” are set inside the homes of the wives. Mrs Wright’s life just by the visual of her home was disorganized and in an eerie part of town. Unlike Mrs. Wright’s house Louise’s house was full of life and possibility. I symathize with both ladies. Mrs.Wright probably had a difficult life from being with someone who no one cared for, she made sure she would be free. Louise was free by a tragic accident yet she saw potential in her new life long years became a life full of joy she was free of having the same everyday life, she died in order to contunue to live free.

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Discussion

Discussion: “A Rose for Emily”

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In addition to reading William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” this week, please also read David Streitfeld’s New York Times blog post, “As I Lay Dying: The Web Fixes Faulkner” and think about the life of the text after the author writes it. In Streitfeld’s discussion of Faulkner’s story, he notices how the Genius.com incarnation of “A Rose for Emily” mistakenly switched a controversial word for a similar-looking word with an entirely different meaning. Commenters on that blog post engaged with what they thought should have been done differently, or critiqued Streitfeld’s argument.

One way to engage in our discussion this week would be to add an annotation about “A Rose for Emily”–some detail that you think elucidates readers’ understanding of the story–on Genius.com, and then link us there in your discussion comment and explain why you think this is important to add to the understanding of the short story.

Another way might be to write a comment on Streitfeld’s blog post in response to his argument.

Those are both very high-stakes! Lower-stakes versions could be to draft those comments on our site in this discussion and get feedback from your classmates before (or instead of?) posting them in those higher-stakes places. Or to react via a comment in our discussion to someone else’s comment on Streitfeld’s post, or to someone’s annotation on Genius.com.

But what does discussing the substitution of an r for an n in that word do to help us engage with the story? It shows that it’s relevant–Streitfeld’s  blog post was recent, from last month–and introduces us to the world of online annotations, in the form of Genius.com. To move our discussion deeper into the story, I ask you to engage in a discussion here with a second comment, about some other aspect of the story. Maybe you want to think about the effect of this different style of narration,  how it’s told, or who the characters are, or what genre you think it belongs to (if “The Story of an Hour” had certain leanings into horror, would you say “A Rose for Emily does, too?), or again, thinking of the significance of a detail in our understanding of a story.

Feel free to respond directly to any of these questions by writing in the reply box below, or reply directly to a classmate by clicking Reply below their comment.

And as always, feel free to also ask questions below.

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Discussion

Discussing “The Story of an Hour” and “A Jury of Her Peers”

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“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a great story to discuss for many reasons. It’s especially convenient because it packs so much into just two pages. After you read “The Elements of Fiction” and “The Story of an Hour,” re-read “The Story of an Hour” with pen or pencil in hand. Mark it up by identifying different elements of fiction you find in it, as well as anything else that stands out to you. When you take notes on a reading, what techniques do you use? Underlining, circling, bracketing, writing summaries, questions, observations, drawing arrows connecting similar ideas, defining words you didn’t know, among other techniques are great ways to get into a text. Try a combination of these techniques.

For our discussion, consider how we as readers think about Mrs. Mallard and the death of Mr. Mallard in comparison to how we think about Mrs. Wright and the death of Mr. Wright. Use the elements of fiction to support your ideas, and be specific with examples from the readings (including quotations is a great way to support your claims).

Since comments should be roughly 150-250 words, you might find that you can’t say everything you want to say. There are many of us to contribute ideas, so no one commenter needs to say everything. That said, come back to contribute more by engaging in a discussion with your classmates. You can either respond to my post by adding a comment, or you can reply to someone who has left a comment. Reading other classmates’ ideas can help shape your ideas, so be sure to read carefully to best engage in the discussion. We might not have the same ideas, but we can learn from each other and expand our understanding of these texts through our discussion.

If you have questions about the texts, feel free to ask those, too. When I stated that comments need to be 150-250 words, that doesn’t mean you can’t also write additional shorter comments, especially if they are questions. And everyone should feel free to answer questions as well–that will contribute to our discussion as well.

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