Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" (1955)
- How does Mr. Shiftlet's physical deformity represent a spiritual problem?
- In what way is this story like a parable from the New Testament?
- This story might seem to end without a resolution, but does it end without a purpose?
- What does Hulga's wooden leg symbolize early in the story? How about at the end?
- Why does O'Connor use an epiphany as the climactic moment of this story?
- What is the role of the "bible salesman"? Does he have a religious purpose in the story?
- What reason does O'Connor give to explain why "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" is a complete story? What keeps a short story from being short?
- How does O'Connor describe the process by which she wrote "Good Country People"?
- What does O'Connor mean when she says, "The fiction writer states as little as possible"?
Grace Paley (1922-2007)
"A Conversation with My Father" (1974)
- What does the narrator mean by "Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life"?
- What effect does the narrator's story have on her father? What does she have to look "in the face"?
Denise Levertov (1923-1997)
"To the Snake" (1960)
- How is this poem a different version of the temptation story in the Garden of Eden?
- What is the speaker's attitude toward having no certainty or hope. What is the benefit of desire?
- Why is the staircase in this poem made of stone, "solidly built," instead of "radiant evanescence"?
- Why does the poem ascend instead of descend? What is the speaker's attitude toward human endeavour?
- Who are the two women "in mind"? Is one more favored than the other by the speaker?
- How is this poem, along with the previous two, ABOUT the writing of poetry?
John Updike (1932-2009)
"Separating" (1975)
- Why is this story in third-person, though almost all the details give us Richard's point of view?
- Why is the question "Why?" left unanswered at the end of the story? Is this ending optimistic?
Ann Beattie (1947- )
"Weekend" (1978)
- Why is the tone of the narrator so detached in this story? Why is there no judgment?
- Why is Lenore able to accept what George says over and over as the truth?
- With what final impression of Lenore and George does the end of the story leave us?
Raymond Carver (1938-1988)
"Cathedral" (1983)
- Why would this story be narrated by a man who is not good enough with words to describe a cathedral to a blind man?
- What other kinds of blindness are revealed to the husband by the end of the story?
- How does this story employ a minimalist style? Why is a minimalist style useful?
Tim O'Brien (1946- )
"Speaking of Courage" (1991)
- Why does Norman struggle so much to tell his story? How does his struggle affect your experience being audience to the story you are reading?
- What is the metaphoric unity between the lake and the shit field? Why is it important that Norman is driving around and around the lake?
- What is O'Brien's view of his purpose in writing stories about the Vietnam War and the experiences he had there with his platoon?
- What is the connection between Norman's inability to save Kiowa (which is made up by O'Brien, by the way) and O'Brien's failure to tell Norman's story the way he needed it to be told?
- In what way can telling a story be an act of uncommon valor?
Sharon Olds (1942- )
"I Go Back to May 1937" (1987)
"Little Things" (1987)
"Adolescence" (1996)
"First Weeks" (2002)
- How do these poems challenge the expectation that private, intimate thoughts about sex and the body are not suitable for public consumption? Do these poems have a limited audience, or are they designed to transform (seduce?) the unwilling reader into a willing participant?
- What do these poems say about the purpose of writing poetry? Is there a reliable reference point for defining the "best reason" to write at all?
- Like Whitman, Sharon Olds seems to value candor, but she also resists the idea that her poetry is personal . . . how can we reconcile these apparently contradictory positions?
Literary Terms
speaker | persona | negative capability | narrator | narrative | story | plot | setting | ellipsis | flashback | character | point of view | parable | allegory | epiphany | catharsis | climax | dramatic irony | situational irony | verbal irony | ethical significance | representation | ambiguity | juxtaposition | style | image | symbol | metaphor | motif | hyperbole | allusion | Iceberg Principle | Romanticism | Realism | Post-Modernism | Minimalism
Themes
confusion | anxiety | forgiveness | imagination | consciousness | truth | fantasy | freedom | bondage | dissipation | communication | transformation | confrontation | satisfaction | fragmentation | regret | character | liberation | writing | storytelling | artistic vision | death | desire | surrender | fidelity | loyalty | humility | isolation | paralysis | decay | memory | blindness | illusion | denial | violence | grace | conversion
