Short Stories for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories (Volume 11)

343 Pages·2001·0.4 MB·English

by  Jennifer Smith

Short
Stories
for Students
National Advisory Board
Dale Allender: Teacher, West High School, Iowa date in information science, Emporia State
City, Iowa. University, Kansas.
Dana Gioia: Poet and critic. His books include The Katherine Nyberg: English teacher. Director of
Gods of Winter and Can Poetry Matter? He the language arts program of Farmington Pub-
currently resides in Santa Rosa, CA. lic Schools, Farmington, Michigan.
Carol Jago: Teacher, Santa Monica High School, Nancy Rosenberger: Former English teacher and
Santa Monica, CA. Member of the California chair of English department at Conestoga
Reading and Literature Project at University High School, Berwyn, Pennsylvania.
of California, Los Angeles.
Dorothea M. Susag: English teacher, Simms High
Bonnie J. Newcomer: English Teacher, Beloit School, Simms, Montana. Former president
Junior-Senior High School, Beloit, Kansas. of the Montana Association of Teachers of
Editor of KATE UpDate, for the Kansas As- English Language Arts. Member of the Na-
sociation of Teachers of English. Ph.D. candi- tional Council of Teachers of English.
ii
Short
tories
for Smaents
Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on
Commonly Studied Short Stories
Volume 11
Jennifer Smith, Editor
GALE GROUP
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Short Stories for Students
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j v
Table of Contents
Guest Foreword
"Why Study Literature At All?"
Thomas E. Harden vn
Introduction .... ix
Literary Chronology xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Contributors xvii
And of Clay Are We Created
Isabel Allende 1
Battle Royal or The Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison 17
The Gilded Six-Bits
Zora Neale Hurston 39
A Good Scent from a
Strange Mountain
Robert Olen Butler 60
The Grave
Katherine Anne Porter 78
Hands
Sherwood Anderson 94
Marriage a la Mode
Katherine Mansfield 115
Mrs. Plum
Es'kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele 130
v
T a b le of C o n t e n ts
My Kinsman, Major Molineux Silver Water
Nathaniel Hawthorne 149 Amy Bloom 228
Roselily The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Alice Walker 169 Ernest Hemingway 243
Say Yes Storyteller
Tobias Wolff 188 Leslie Marmon Silko 256
The Sheriff's Children Women in Their Beds
Charles Waddell Chesnutt 205 Gina Berriault 284
Glossary of Literary Terms 301
Cumulative Author/Title Index 313
Nationality/Ethnicity Index 319
Sub ject/Theme Index 323
vi S h o rt S t o r i es f or S t u d e n ts
Why Study Literature At All?
Short Stories for Students is designed to pro- wonders what will happen to us after we die. Litera-
vide readers with information and discussion about ture admits that we get our hearts broken, that
a wide range of important contemporary and histori- people sometimes cheat and get away with it, that
cal works of short fiction, and it does that job very the world is a strange and probably incomprehensi-
well. However, I want to use this guest foreword to ble place. Literature, in other words, takes on all the
address a question that it does not take up. It is a big and small issues of what it means to be human.
fundamental question that is often ignored in high So my first answer is that of the humanist—we
school and college English classes as well as re- should read literature and study it and take it seri-
search texts, and one that causes frustration among
ously because it enriches us as human beings. We
students at all levels, namely—why study literature
develop our moral imagination, our capacity to
at all? Isn't it enough to read a story, enjoy it, and go
sympathize with other people, and our ability to
about one's business? My answer (to be expected
understand our existence through the experience
from a literary professional, I suppose) is no. It is
of fiction.
not enough. It is a start; but it is not enough.
Here's why. My second answer is more practical. By study-
ing literature we can learn how to explore and
First, literature is the only part of the educational
analyze texts. Fiction may be about die Lebenswelt,
curriculum that deals directly with the actual world
but it is a construct of words put together in a certain
of lived experience. The philosopher Edmund Husserl
order by an artist using the medium of language. By
used the apt German term die Lebenswelt, "the
examining and studying those constructions, we can
living world," to denote this realm. All the other
learn about language as a medium. We can become
content areas of the modern American educational
more sophisticated about word associations and
system avoid the subjective, present reality of eve-
ryday life. Science (both the natural and the social connotations, about the manipulation of symbols,
varieties) objectifies, the fine arts create and/or and about style and atmosphere. We can grasp how
perform, history reconstructs. Only literary study ambiguous language is and how important context
persists in posing those questions we all asked and texture is to meaning. In our first encounter with
before our schooling taught us to give up on them. a work of literature, of course, we are not supposed
Only literature gives credibility to personal percep- to catch all of these things. We are spellbound, just
tions, feelings, dreams, and the "stream of con- as the writer wanted us to be. It is as serious students
sciousness" that is our inner voice. Literature won- of the writer's art that we begin to see how the tricks
ders about infinity, wonders why God permits evil, are done.
V i /
Why S t u dy L i t e r a t u re At A l l?
Seeing the tricks, which is another way of Studying short stories, then, can help students
saying "developing analytical and close reading become better readers, better writers, and even
skills," is important above and beyond its intrinsic better human beings. But I want to close with a
literary educational value. These skills transfer to warning. If your study and exploration of the craft,
other fields and enhance critical thinking of any history, context, symbolism, or anything else about
kind. Understanding how language is used to con- a story starts to rob it of the magic you felt when you
struct texts is powerful knowledge. It makes engi- first read it, it is time to stop. Take a break, study
neers better problem solvers, lawyers better advo- another subject, shoot some hoops, or go for a run.
cates and courtroom practitioners, politicians better Love of reading is too important to be ruined by
rhetoricians, marketing and advertising agents bet- school. The early twentieth century writer Willa
ter sellers, and citizens more aware consumers as Gather, in her novel My Antonia, has her narrator
well as better participants in democracy. This last Jack Burden tell a story that he and Antonia heard
point is especially important, because rhetorical from two old Russian immigrants when they were
skill works both ways—when we learn how lan- teenagers. These immigrants, Pavel and Peter, told
guage is manipulated in the making of texts the about an incident from their youth back in Russia
result is that we become less susceptible when that the narrator could recall in vivid detail thirty
language is used to manipulate us. years later. It was a harrowing story of a wedding
party starting home in sleds and being chased by
My third reason is related to the second. When starving wolves. Hundreds of wolves attacked the
we begin to see literature as created artifacts of group's sleds one by one as they sped across the
language, we become more sensitive to good writ- snow trying to reach their village. In a horrible
ing in general. We get a stronger sense of the revelation, the old Russians revealed that the groom
importance of individual words, even the sounds of eventually threw his own bride to the wolves to save
words and word combinations. We begin to under- himself. There was even a hint that one of the old
stand Mark Twain's delicious proverb—"The dif- immigrants might have been the groom mentioned
ference between the right word and the almost right in the story. Gather has her narrator conclude with
word is the difference between lightning and a his feelings about the story. "We did not tell Pavel's
lightning bug." Getting beyond the "enjoyment secret to anyone, but guarded it jealously—as if the
only" stage of literature gets us closer to becoming wolves of the Ukraine had gathered that night long
makers of word art ourselves. I am not saying that ago, and the wedding party had been sacrificed, just
studying fiction will turn every student into a Faulkner to give us a painful and peculiar pleasure." That
or a Shakespeare. But it will make us more adapt- feeling, that painful and peculiar pleasure, is the
able and effective writers, even if our art form ends most important thing about literature. Study and
up being the office memo or the corporate annual research should enhance that feeling and never be
report. allowed to overwhelm it.
Thomas E. Harden
Professor of English and
Director of Graduate English Studies
The University of Toledo
v i i i S h o rt S t o r i es f or S t u d e n ts
Introduction
Purpose of the Book This includes a historical context essay, a box
The purpose of Short Stories for Students (SSfS) comparing the time or place the story was written to
is to provide readers with a guide to understanding, modern Western culture, a critical overview essay,
enjoying, and studying short stories by giving them and excerpts from critical essays on the story or
easy access to information about the work. Part of author (if available). A unique feature of SSfS is a
Gale's "For Students" Literature line, SSfS is spe- specially commissioned overview essay on each
cifically designed to meet the curricular needs of story, targeted toward the student reader.
high school and undergraduate college students and
To further aid the student in studying and
their teachers, as well as the interests of general
enjoying each story, information on media adapta-
readers and researchers considering specific short
tions is provided, as well as reading suggestions for
fiction. While each volume contains entries on
works of fiction and nonfiction on similar themes
"classic" stories frequently studied in classrooms, and topics. Classroom aids include ideas for re-
there are also entries containing hard-to-find infor- search papers and lists of critical sources that pro-
mation on contemporary stories, including works vide additional material on the work.
by multicultural, international, and women writers.
The information covered in each entry includes Selection Criteria
an introduction to the story and the story's author; a The titles for each volume of SSfS were select-
plot summary, to help readers unravel and under- ed by surveying numerous sources on teaching
stand the events in the work; descriptions of impor- literature and analyzing course curricula for various
tant characters, including explanation of a given school districts. Some of the sources surveyed in-
character's role in the narrative as well as discussion clude: literature anthologies, Reading Lists for Col-
about that character's relationship to other charac- lege-Bound Students: The Books Most Recommend-
ters in the story; analysis of important themes in the ed by America's Top Colleges; Teaching the Short
story; and an explanation of important literary tech- Story: A Guide to Using Stories from Around the
niques and movements as they are demonstrated in World, by the National Council of Teachers of
English (NCTE); and "A Study of High School
the work.
Literature Anthologies," conducted by Arthur
In addition to this material, which helps the Applebee at the Center for the Learning and Teach-
readers analyze the story itself, students are also ing of Literature and sponsored by the National
provided with important information on the literary Endowment for the Arts and the Office of Educa-
and historical background informing each work. tional Research and Improvement.
ix