Reference no: EM133306452

Assignment:

1. "Battle Royal" by Ellison

• Discuss how the protagonist's expectations are similar to what has come to be known as the American Dream - the assumption that ambition, hard work, perseverance, intelligence, and virtue always lead to success. Do you believe in the American Dream?
• How does the first paragraph of the story sum up the conflict that the narrator confronts? In what sense is he "invisible?"
• How does the battle in the boxing ring and the scramble over money afterward suggest the
• kind of control whites have over blacks in the story?
• Given the grandfather's advice, explain how "meekness" can be a "dangerous activity" and a weapon against oppression.

2. Louise Erdrich "The Red Convertible"

• In the opening paragraph, Lyman says that he and Henry owned the red convertible "together until his boots filled with water on a windy night and he bought out my share." When does the meaning of this sentence become clear to you? What is the effect of putting this sentence in the first paragraph?
• Watching Henry watching television, Lyman says, "He sat in his chair gripping the armrests with all his might, as if the chair itself was moving at a high speed and if he let go at all he would rocket forward and maybe crash right through the set." How would you describe the diction in this sentence? What effect does the sentence's length - and its syntax - create? What is the tone? What does this line, and the paragraphs around it, tell you about Lyman's reaction to Henry's change?
• Consider the tone of the final paragraph, in which Lyman is describing how he felt when he gave his car to his dead brother. Look at the diction surrounding the red convertible here: It plows into the water; the headlights "reach in . . . go down, searching"; they are "still lighted. . . ." What attribute does the diction give the car? How is the car different now from the way it's been in the rest of the story? Does this transformation of the car invoke a sense of closure in the story?

3. "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

• Although the setting and the events described in "The Things They Carried" are dramatic and moving, the story's tone is often flat and emotionless. Give some examples. Why do you think the narrator adopts this kind of tone?
• Consider the different meanings of the word carry, which can refer to burdens abstract or concrete as well as to things carried physically or emotionally, actively or passively. Give one or two examples of each of the different sense in which O'Brien uses the word. How does his repeated use of the word enrich the story?
• A striking characteristic of the story's style is its thorough catalogs of the concrete, tangible "things" the soldiers carry. Why do you suppose such detailed lists are included? What does what each man carries tell you about him? In a less literal, more abstract sense, what else do these men "carry?"
• Stories about men at war usually emphasize heroism and heroic acts; these are completely absent in this story. What has caused this change in attitude?