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Study Questions for Sevgi Soysal’s Hanife

Ali Nihat Eken — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:17:34 +0000

Turkish Short Fiction in the Classroom:
Study Questions for Sevgi Soysal’s “Hanife”

Sevgi Soysal (1936-1976)
Turkish short story writer and novelist

The questions below are based on the English translation of “Hanife” that first appeared in Southern Humanities Review, Vol. XXVI, no. 2 (Spring 1992), pp. 145-152.

The same version is also available in “Short Stories by Turkish Women Writers” (1988, 1994) Translated by Nilüfer Mizanoğlu Reddy.
Publisher: Indiana University Turkish Studies.

Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of setting in the first paragraph. How does it contribute to our understanding of the story?
What is the reason for the emphasis on Hanife’s fists in the first paragraph?
What link(s) can you establish between Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and Hanife as depicted in the first two paragraphs?
How does the first paragraph introduce the theme of gender roles? Find other examples of gender roles in the rest of the story.
Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of narrative voices in “Hanife”. How does the author’s technique affect our understanding of the story?
Comment on Sevgi Soysal’s use of “darkness” and “light” in the first two paragraphs.
Discuss the significance of guns as depicted in the second paragraph.
What is the significance of the old woman’s song?
How do women and children react to Hanife’s death? What makes them act in the way they do?
Identify how Sevgi Soysal depicts the passing of time in the first three paragraphs.
What is the function of the poplar tree in the story?
What does “Ahmet Aga” represent in the story?
At the end of the fifth paragraph, the narrator says that honor is “like the sky”? Why?
What is the significance of Esma’s old shack in the story?
Make a list of the adjectives, nouns and noun phrases used for describing Hanife. What do they reveal about the society in which Hanife lives?
What is the connection between “land” and “women” in the story?
What does the story tell you about women and economic (in)dependence?
Do you think that women are the only victims in the story? What about men? Would you call them victims as well?
Essay Topic: In “Who is who in contemporary women’s writing” (2001), Jane Eldridge Miller writes that Sevgi Soysal’s characters are “rebels, usually from provincial backgrounds, trying to find solutions to personal problems which are connected to larger social issues” (p. 306). In light of this quotation, discuss whether you would call Hanife a rebel.

Study Questions for “The Lottery” (Shirley Jackson, 1948)

Ali Nihat Eken — Mon, 11 May 2009 05:54:43 +0000

Study Questions for “The Lottery” (Shirley Jackson, 1948)

What is the significance of choosing a small town as the setting for “The Lottery”? How is it described in the opening paragraph of the story? Why is it unnamed?
What could be the significance of the summer season for the story? What is the significance of the date “June 27th”? [Suggested text: J. Yarmove's Jackson's "The lottery". Explicator (1994), 52, 242-245]
How does Shirley Jackson prepare the reader for the main theme of the story in the second and the third paragraphs? For example, what could be the reason for an emphasis on the name “Delacroix”? What could Bobby Martin’s surname signify? [Suggested reading: Helen E. Nebeker's "The Lottery": Symbolic Tour de Force in American Literature, Mar1974, Vol. 46 Issue 1]
What is the symbolic value of the stones?
What do Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves and Mr. Martin represent in the story?
Discuss the symbolic value of the three legged-stool and the black box?
What does Old Man Warner represent in the story?
What is the significance of the surname “Hutchinson”?
What does the lottery mean to the townspeople in the story? Do they all have the same reaction? Do they question their obedience? Why? Why not? Provide examples.
What could be the significance of the 3rd person narration in “The Lottery”? What could be the impact of this on the readers?
What does the story reveal about the place of men and women in this small town? Give specific examples from the story
What critique of capitalism does the story seem to be offering?
What does the story’s title reveal about our everyday lives?
What does the story reveal about human nature?
What makes the ending of the story so shocking?
Identify examples of irony in the story and discuss them.
Read Shirley Jackson’s husband Stanley Edgar Hyman’s comment on Jackson and discuss how “The Lottery” reflects the historical context of its times: “Her fierce visions of dissociation and madness, of alienation and withdrawal, of cruelty and terror, have been taken to be personal, even neurotic, fantasies. Quite the reverse: they are a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb.” [as cited in Joan Wylie Hall's Fallen Eden in Shirley Jackson's The Road Through The Wall, REN, 46.4, Summer 1994, p. 265]

Study Questions for George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

Ali Nihat Eken — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:35:58 +0000

Study Questions for George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

Introduction to the novel

Before you read the novel, do some research about George Orwell and familiarize yourself with his life and his major work. Also find out what impact the historical, social and cultural settings of his times might have had on Orwell’s work. (Suggested links: BBC Historic Figures / The Orwell Prize: Biography / Voice of A Lon Generation / YouTube: A Life in Pictures / Britannica / )

Read George Orwell’s famous essay “Why I write” and familiarize yourself with Orwell’s motives for writing.

Examine the following concepts: “utopia” and “dystopia”, and find out in what way(s) they can be related to George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

Find different definitions of “totalitarianism” and examine what is common and what is not in these definitions. Identify characteristics of a totalitarian system of political rule.

According to Herbert Marcuse, the famous Frankfurt School philosopher, liberal democracies “exhibit totalitarian features” (Heywood, 2003, Political Ideologies, p. 227). Find out why he thinks so and discuss to what extent you agree with his view.

Coming Up….. Part I

Study Questions for Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008)

Ali Nihat Eken — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:51:05 +0000

Discussion Questions for “Milk”

Examine the images and the newspaper articles used in the film’s title sequence. What do they reveal about the issues depicted in the film?
Examine the banners and posters used in the demonstrations and comment on how these form a contrast to the newspapers articles shown in the title sequence. What does such a contrast reveal about how sexual orientation is perceived differently?
What is the significance of the Castro both for straight and gay people?
What does the protesting of Coors beer reveal about the gay community as depicted in the film?
In what ways is Milk’s politics different from that of the owner of the Advocate magazine?
Why does Milk ask his staff not to use the lift but the stairs instead in the City Hall?
What do you think Puccini’s Tosca signifies in the film?
Comment on the following quotes from the film: “I am not a candidate; I am part of a movement. The movement is the candidate.” /“A homosexual with power. That’s scary.” /“I know you’re angry! I’m angry!” / “Privacy is the enemy.”
Comment on Milk’s pinning the death threat letter on the fridge. Why is his act symbolic?
Chris Jones from Esquire states that Milk lived a theatrical life and therefore that his being killed alone in an office could be quite significant. What could be the reason(s) for Jones’s argument?
Why does Milk call the Democratic Party “the Machine”?
What does the film reveal about the relationship between politics, economic power and the gay movement?

Useful links: About Harvey Milk /

Study Guide for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922)

Ali Nihat Eken — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:37:31 +0000

Study Guide for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922)

How does Benjamin’s aging in reverse help you understand the story, the issues it deals with, and its characters?
What does the story reveal about the concept of beauty? You may like to study the portrayals of Hildegarde Button and Benjamin Button.
Identify and comment on how men and women are positioned in the story.
Find one example which shows how gender is socially constructed.
Comment on how “age” and “aging” are defined in the story. Do you think they are still defined in the same way in the contemporary world? Why? Why not?
What does the story reveal about class and race issues? Give examples.
Comment on the portrayal of journalism in the story? How similar is it to today’s journalism?
Why does the story always have an emphasis on “concealing” or “hiding”? What could this tell you about the societal norms?
In what ways would you call Benjamin’s being perceived as a source of shame or a threat symbolic? What would his otherness suggest about his society’s attitude toward him?
In what ways would you call the story a social satire?

Useful links: David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / A Brief Life of Fitzgerald /

Study Guide for My Oedipus Complex (Frank O’Connor, 1950)

Ali Nihat Eken — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:40:37 +0000

Discussion Questions for Frank O’Connor’s “My Oedipus Complex” (1950)

Why is the story told from a child-narrator’s point of view? What is the impact of narrative voice on the story and on your response to the story?
Why do you think Frank O’Connor prefers to integrate humor into the story?
Make a comparison between Larry’s image of himself, his father and his mother at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story.
Discuss the symbolic significance of the war imagery in the story.
Discuss the symbolic significance of the enemy imagery in the story.
What is your understanding of the adult world in “My Oedipus Complex” in relation to Larry’s world?
In his depiction of Larry’s relationship with his mother and father, discuss how Frank O’Connor manages to demonstrate the shifts in mood in his story.
In relation to the following quotation from the story, discuss Larry’s perception of God: “I began to think that God wasn’t quite what he was cracked up to be.” (You can find other references to God in the story to justify your view)
According to Kate Murphy (1990), there are two types of world in Frank O’Connor’s stories: “the natural or normal worlds through which every person successively progresses in the process of growing up, and a number of ‘unnatural’ worlds which the individual elects or in which he arbitrarily finds himself” (p. 313). Discuss Murphy’s argument in relation to Frank O’Connor’s “My Oedipus Complex”. [Suggested reading: “Grappling with the world” By: Murphy, K.. Twentieth Century Literature, Fall90, Vol. 36 Issue 3, pp. 310-343]
Comment on the following quotation: “I could not help feeling sorry for Father. I had been through it all myself, and even at that age I was magnanimous.”
What is the significance of the model railway at the end of the story?
According to Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, personality develops in childhood through a number of stages, which can be called “Freud’s Stages of Personality Development.” Do some research to find out what these stages are, at what age each stage occurs, what the characteristics of each stage of personality development are, and how fixation or lack of resolution in one stage will affect the child and lead to behavioral disorders in his/her adult life.
Discuss to what extent Frank O’Connor’s story fits Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex.

Useful links: About Frank O’Connor / Frank O’Connor- Audio-Visual /

Buy the book here /

Study Guide for “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter” (D. H. Lawrence, 1922)

Ali Nihat Eken — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:11:35 +0000

Discussion Questions for D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter” (1922)

What does the title of the story reveal about the portrayal of Mabel?
On reading the 1st paragraph, what sense do you get of the relationship between Mabel and her brothers? Do the following opening paragraphs reinforce this view? Why? Why not? Please provide examples from the other paragraphs to justify your opinion.
Identify the animal imagery used in the description of each of the brothers and comment on what such imagery signifies about the characters and the social values of their time.
Comment on the following quotation: “His [Joe’s life] was over, he would be a subject animal now.”
In relation to the following quotation, comment on the reason(s) for Mabel’s silence: “They had talked at her and round her for so many years, that she hardly heard them at all.”
How do you think the way Jack Ferguson is dressed up in earlier parts of the story helps you understand his personality?
Comment on the significance of the following quotation: “At this point Mabel rose from the table, and they [Mabel’s brothers and Jack Ferguson] all seemed to become aware of her existence.”
The narrator seems to emphasize the eye contact between Mabel and Jack. Identify in which sections of the story these eye contacts are emphasized and discuss how they contribute to the story’s thematic concerns and development. (Suggested reading: “D. H. Lawrence and Tradition”, by Jeffrey Meyers, Studies in Short Fiction, Summer 1989, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p. 346)
Identify the paragraphs in which the narrator tells us about Mabel’s father, her mother and her mother’s grave. How does this information in these paragraphs help you understand Mabel?
Why does the narrator describe Jack Ferguson as “slave to the country-side”?
Comment on the significance of the following quotation: “It was grey, deadened, and wintry, with a slow, moist, heavy coldness sinking in and deadening all the faculties.”
What does Jack Ferguson think about working class people? What makes him think so?
The pond is a major symbol in the story. Examine its symbolic value by providing quotations from the story. Discuss whether it always symbolizes the same thing whenever used or whether it is polysemic. What really happens in the pond?
Think about what the following can symbolize in the story: the kitchen fire, the whisky, the blanket, the hand, the flame.
How does D. H. Lawrence portray Mabel and Jack after Mabel regains consciousness in the kitchen? For example, why is Jack Ferguson described as “amazed, bewildered, and afraid”? Why does he kiss her “half in anger”?
Towards the end of the story, after Mabel and Jack change their clothes, we can see a change in their behaviors. How? Why? For example, why does Mabel tell Jack that she does not like him “in those clothes”?
What does the story tell you about the nature of love in general? What does the story reveal about social class and love? What do you think will happen to Mabel and Jack in the future?

Useful links: D. H. Lawrence: Biography – Penguin Books / The Life of Lawrence: BBC World Service /
Buy the book here /

Study Guide for Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993)

Ali Nihat Eken — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:34:28 +0000

Study Guide for Jane Campion’s “The Piano” (1993)

Jane Campion’s “The Piano” takes place in mid-19th century New Zealand. Do some research about the colonial history in New Zealand and see how it helps you understand film.
Do some research about Jane Campion’s filmography to identify the common themes in her work.
How does the opening sequence help you understand Ada?
Why is Ada described as a “mail-order bride”?
What does Ada’s muteness signify in the film?
How do you think the New Zealand landscape with its forests, thick mud, sea and beach helps us understand the film?
What does a comparison between Stewart’s house and Baines’ house reveal about these two characters?
Analyze the characters of Stewart and Baines in relation to their relations to Ada and to the Maori.
Examine Stewart’s and Baines’s clothes and discuss what they reveal about these two men.
What does “land” mean to Stewart? What does it mean to the Maori?
Examine the piano metaphor in the film. What meaning(s) does it carry for different people in the film? Why does Ada need to claim it back?
What does Ada’s physical appearance (e.g. her clothes, her hair style) reveal about her and the society in which she lives?
Why do you think there is so much emphasis on buying and selling in the film? (Suggested reading: Ann Hardy’s “The Last Patriarch” in “Cambridge Film Handbooks: Jane Campion’s The Piano”, Harriet Margolis (Ed.), page. 72, 1st Edition, 2000)
What is the function of the Bluebeard play show in the film?
Identify the imagery of whiteness and blackness in the film and discuss what such imagery reveals.
What does Flora stand for in the film? How would you explain the change in Flora’s attitude towards her mother?
Identify some phallic symbols in the film and discuss their significance.
What is the symbolic value of Stewart’s cruel punishment of Ada? In this part of the film how does Jane Campion encourage the viewers to identify with Ada?
Do you find Campion’s portrayal of the Maori stereotypical? Why? Why not? Give your reasons.
Examine Laura Mulvey’s argument of “male gaze” in her famous article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) and discuss to what extent and in what ways patriarchal conventions in filmmaking are challenged in Jane Campion’s “The Piano”.
Examine the relationship between Ada and the men around her in the light of French anthropologist Levi-Strauss’s theory of exchange.
What helps you identify the narrative voice in the film?
What is your interpretation of the film’s double ending?
Explore the theme of power struggle in the film.
Do you think the film makes a successful critique of phallocentrism? Give your reasons.
What link does the film establish between colonialism and patriarchy?
Jane Campion quoted in Judith Lewis’s “Wholly Jane”, L.A. Weekly, January 27, 2000:”The laws of men and women in Western society are carefully unwritten,… And feeling them, facing up to them, is like the pain of having a baby — no one will ever tell you about it, really, because it’s just beyond communicating. It’s so bad, so big, so enormous, that you can’t describe it or even believe it. In a way it’s the same for women feeling the world, facing the world. I don’t even talk about it, because it sounds like whingeing. But I’m not whingeing. I’m screaming.”
“I like to be able to project myself into the parts,…. and being a woman I like to therefore have heroines. We don’t have many, you know? So I feel like it’s my job. Not a crusade – just a natural thing to want to do.”
In light of the quotations above, discuss Jane Campion’s rationale in film making in relation to “The Piano”.

Study Guide for Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)

Ali Nihat Eken — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:07:10 +0000

Study Guide for Nicholas Ray’s “Bigger Than Life” (1956)

Contextualizing “Bigger Than Life”:

According to David Buckingham (2003), “media texts do not simply appear from nowhere.” (p. 75) In light of Buckingham’s quote and in light of the fact that Bigger Than Life was a film made in 1956, do some research to find out information about economic, social, and cultural contexts in post-war America. Discuss to what extent this information can be used to understand the context of the film.

Questions:

Examine the portrayal of children in the credit sequence and comment on how it sets the context for the film.
Discuss the symbolic value of the Averys’ suburban house.
Examine the décor of the kitchen and comment on what it reveals about the social context in which the Avery family lives.
There are many posters on the walls in the Avery’s house. Identify as many of them as possible, make a list of them and examine their symbolic value.
In what way(s) could the director’s use of the lines of the Cinemascope frame contribute to our understanding of the film and its characters?
What could the Averys’ house having two floors signify? How does the imagery of banisters contribute to the story?
In the film, colors have symbolic value. For example, Richie’s red jacket, Lou’s orange dress, Lou’s clothes in plain colors, the colors in the classroom, yellow cabs, Ed’s green jacket, Ed’s white shirt… Discuss what all these colors might reveal about the issues and the characters depicted in the film.
What is the significance of Ed’s slippers?
Comment on the following dialogue between Ed and Lou: Ed: “…I felt ten feet tall.” Lou: “You have always been ten feet tall to me”
Examine the boutique sequence carefully: the décor, the boutique, the colors, the clothes, the disembodied hand, the red gloves, the chair Ed sits on, the mirrors… how do they help you understand the story and the characters?
How does the boutique sequence position men and women as far as gender roles are concerned?
Discuss the importance of the following quote in the film: (Ed to his students) “In your own words, why did Cassius refer to Julius Caesar as a Colossus?”
Watch the bathroom scene in which Ed orders his wife to fill his bath with hot water. Nicholas Ray’s use of the bathroom mirror is very significant. Discuss the function of the mirror here. Identify other uses of mirrors in the film and comment on how they help us understand the characters and the themes.
What is the religous connotation of Rome and how does it help us understand Ed?
What does the PTA meeting sequence reveal about the concept of education? How are parents and Ed portrayed in this sequence?
Discuss what football means to Ed in relation to the following quote: (Ed to Richie) “You want to be a man, don’t you?”
While Ed shows Richie how to play football, what is heard in the background? Discuss why.
Watch the scene in which Ed “helps” Richie to study mathematics. Here, Nicholas Ray’s use of shadows is very significant. Discuss in what ways Ray’s treatment is important. Identify other scenes in which the shadow imagery is used and comment on its significance.
Identify when Ed starts calling his son Richard instead of Richie. Why?
What is the symbolic value of the milk in the film?
What does the church sequence reveal about Ed’s transformation?
Comment on the significance of Lou’s orange dress in the church sequence.
How does the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac help us understand the relationship between Ed and Richie? Why does Ed try to kill his own son?
Explain Ray’s use of colors in the final hospital sequence of the film.
At the end of the film, there is a reference to Abraham Lincoln. What could this reference signify?
The misuse of cortisone literally causes Ed to have dreams of grandeur. What do these dreams reveal about the society in which Ed lives?
In her examination of male brutality towards women in Nicholas Ray’s films, Susan White (2005) quotes V. F. Perkins and writes that violence among Ray’s heroes is “the index of weakness rather than strength” (as cited in J. David Slocum’s Rebel without a cause: Approaches to a maverick masterwork, p. 64) Explain how this quotation helps us understand Ed’s character.
What does the film reveal about race issues in postwar America?
Discuss the title of the film.
Discuss the following quote by Jeanine Basinger in relation to Lou’s portrayal in the film: “As [Ed] grows “bigger than life”, [Lou] becomes smaller than reality.” (The Bigger Than Life DVD Booklet, 2007, p. 7)
Writing Task 1: In what ways can “Bigger Than Life” be taken as a critique of postwar American suburban life?
Writing Task 2: Discuss the following quote by Jeanine Basinger: “Ray’s triumph as a director is that, although Lou is not his main character, he puts her own story onto the screen through subtext.” (The Bigger Than Life DVD Booklet, 2007, p. 7)

Study Guide for Nicholas Ray’s “Rebel without a cause” (1955)
Click here to buy the DVD.

Study Guide for Three Monkeys (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2008)

Ali Nihat Eken — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Discussion Questions for Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Three Monkeys

Watch the opening sequence of “Three Monkeys” closely and discuss how it helps to set the tone of the film and how it helps you identify the theme(s) of the film.
Examine the location of the flat in which Eyup, Hacer and Ismail live. It overlooks the sea and the railroad. How does this contribute to your understanding of the family?
How does the size of the house contribute to your understanding of the film?
Why do you think the camera often emphasize the partitions in the flat?
What is the significance of the terrace in the film?
What could Ismail’s climbing up the fence to reach the station connote?
What is the symbolic value of Ismail’s train rides?
What is the significance of the cityscapes and the clouds? Why is there an emphasis on rain and lightning?
Examine the shots that show Hacer in her workplace. How do these shots help you understand Hacer’s psychology?
In your view, what is the symbolic value of the politican’s office in the film?
Comment on the use of mirrors and windows in the film.
Discuss what the following names connote in the film: Hacer, Ismail, Eyup and Servet.
What is the function of the ringtone of Hacer’s cellphone? What does the song signify? Why do you think the director has chosen a Yıldız Tilbe song?
Why do you think Ceylan’s camera chooses to concentrate on Eyup’s face while the audience is made to feel that Hacer is about to commit suicide?
Why does the director keep his camera at a distance when Hacer and Servet meet secretly and when Hacer begs him not to leave her? What effect does this have on you?
What do you think about Ceylan’s portrayal of Hacer in the film?
What is the reason for the emphasis on “sweat” in the film?
How is “sound” used in the film? How does it contribute to Ceylan’s story? Identify some specific scenes where sound is important and discuss how and why it is used.
What is the significance of the dead child in the film? Why do we see him appearing only to Eyup and Ismail?
What message(s) do you think the last shot of the film conveys?
To what extent would you call the family in the film a microcosm of contemporary Turkish society?
Examine the metaphor of “monkey” in the film? Who are the “monkeys” in the film? Why? Does the title contain a social allegory?
“I’m not interested in events that are by far too special that they cannot happen to anyone”, said Nuri Bilge Ceylan in an interview on television. Discuss Ceylan’s statement in relation to “Three Monkeys”.
Extension Activity:
Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory”: Hemingway views his writing style as “fashioned on the “principle of the iceberg,” for “seven eights of it [is] under water for every part that shows” (cited in Thomas Strychacz, 1999, in The Cambridge Companion to Hemingway, Scott Donaldson (Ed.), p. 59). In other words, as Hemingway said, “You could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood” (cited in Elizabeth Dewberry, 1999, in The Cambridge Companion to Hemingway, Scott Donaldson, Ed., p. 23)
Discuss whether or not and/or how Hemingway’s metaphor of “iceberg” can be applied to Bilge Ceylan’s style as far as “Three Monkeys” is concerned.

Study Guide for The Man Who Killed A Shadow (Richard Wright)

Ali Nihat Eken — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:37:19 +0000

Richard Wright (1908-1960)

“The Man Who Killed A Shadow” can be found in Eight Men, a collection of short stories, first published in 1961.

About the author /
Watch: Prophets and Poets, a film by Ross Spears /

Discussion Questions for Richard Wright’s The Man Who Killed A Shadow

Do some research about Richard Wright’s life to identify some biographical elements in “The Man Who Killed A Shadow”. [Suggested reading: Robert Bone, 1969, “Richard Wright-American Writers 74: University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers]

Do some research about Richard Wright’s literary work such as “Native Son” and “Black Boy” and identify some common themes in his work that can help you understand “The Man Who Killed A Shadow”. [Suggested reading: Robert Bone, 1969, “Richard Wright-American Writers 74: University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers]

Identify some references in the story that concentrate on Saul’s fear of shadows. Why does Saul always have a fear of shadows? What do shadows mean to him? Why does he feel that “shadows would some day claim him”? Why is Maybelle a shadow to him?

Saul describes her family as a “shadow” as well. What does this mean? How can both his own people and Maybelle be shadows?

What is Saul’s perception of Maybelle? How does he form such a perception? Identify quotations from the story to justify your view.

What is the significance of the name “Saul”?

Both Saul and Maybelle can be called victims of their society. Explain how they are victimized by their own society.

Explain Maybelle’s perception of Saul Sanders in relation to Earle B. Bryant’s critique of the sexualization of racism in “The Man Who Killed A Shadow”. Identify quotations from the story to justify your view. [Bryant’s article "The Sexualization of Racism in Richard Wright's 'The Man Who Killed a Shadow'" is available in Black American Literature Forum, 16, Fall 1982, pp. 119-21]

Why is Saul’s world separated from the white one “by a million psychological miles”?

Identify quotations from the story which demonstrate the social stratification in Saul’s world.

Why does Saul drink whiskey so much?

To what extent does the story offer a critique of American-Americans?

Why does Saul kill Maybelle?

What is the symbolic value of Maybelle’s ring?

In relation to the following quotation, discuss why Saul feels no fear or regret after killing Maybelle. You may like to identify other quotations as well. “When at last the conviction of what he had done was real in him, it came only in terms of flat memory, devoid of all emotion, as though he were looking when very tired and sleepy at a scene being flashed upon the screen of a movie house”

What is the significance of the name “Maybelle Eva Houseman”? When does Saul learn her name and how does this affect him?

What does the last paragraph reveal about white America’s perception of African-Americans?

Examine Saul and Maybelle’s actions in relation to Freud’s belief that “people repress their most unsettling desires because of fear of social disapproval” (Felgar, 2000, p. 111). [Suggested reading: Robert Felgar’s “Student Companion to Richard Wright, 2000]

Essay topic: According to Robert Staple (as cited in R. W. Connell’s “Masculinities”, 1995), “the level of violence among black men in the United States can only be understood through the changing place of the black labour force in American capitalism and the violent means used to control it” (p. 81). Examine Saul Sander’s brutal murder of Maybelle Eva Houseman in relation to Staple’s argument.

Extension activity: Choose a men’s magazine or a sports magazine, and then examine how African-American men are portrayed in the magazine (either in the articles or in the pictures) you have chosen. How do these magazines depict African-American men and their bodies? Can you identify any patterns in their construction? What do these patterns reveal about cultural values? Discuss your finding with your friends in the classroom.

Useful link: Richard Wright’s The Man Who Was Almost A Man /

Study Guide for Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour

Ali Nihat Eken — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:54:04 +0000

Discussion Questions for Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” (1894)

In the first paragraph of the story, Mrs Mallard is represented as a woman “afflicted with a heart trouble”. Comment on the dual meaning of her “heart trouble”.

What is the significance of the protagonist’s being addressed as “Mrs. Mallard” and mostly as “she”? When is her name revealed in the story? Why?

What does the story reveal about Mrs. Ballard’s social class? How?

What does the setting of the story signify?

What is the symbolic value of the storm image in the third paragraph?

Comment on the significance of “the open window” in the fourth paragraph.

Identify the imagery Chopin uses in the fifth and sixth paragraphs and discuss its symbolic value.

What is the reason for Mrs. Ballard’s “physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul”?

Why does Chopin describe her as someone who “sank, pressed down”? (paragraph 4)

How is Mrs. Mallard’s marriage to Brently Mallard portrayed in the story? What does Mr. Mallard’s death mean to Mrs. Mallard?

Study the description of Mrs. Mallard’s face in paragraph 8. How does it contribute to your understanding of the themes in the story?

Read the following quotation from the story: “There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle; and elusive to name…” (paragraph 9). And discuss what “it” refers to, why Mrs. Mallard “was waiting for it, fearfully” and why it is “elusive to name”.

Read the following quotation from the story: “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. 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.” (paragraph 10). And discuss what “this thing” refers to and why Mrs. Mallard is represented as “powerless” in the paragraph.

“She said it over and over under her breath: free! free! free!” Comment on the quotation.

What is the overall impact of the narrative voice on your perception of Mrs. Mallard?

Towards the end of the story, Mrs. Mallard walks like “a goddess of Victory”. Why?

What is the symbolic value of Mrs. Mallard’s (Louise’s) descending the stairs?

In the last paragraph of the story, the doctors say that the cause of Mrs Mallard’s death is “joy that kills”. What does this mean?

How would you explain the irony in the concluding paragraph of the story? Can you identify any other ironies in the story?

What do you think about the ending of the story? How would you conclude the story and why? Why do you think Kate

Chopin chooses to conclude her story through the doctor’s declaration of Mrs. Mallard’s death?

What is the significance of the title of the story? Why is Chopin’s story limited to what happens within an hour?
Would you call Chopin’s story a challenge against its time? Why? Why not?

Essay topic:
To what extent and in what ways can Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” be regarded as a critique of phallocentrism.

Essay topic:
Write an essay demonstrating how Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” (1894) can be connected to Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” (1859) and “The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex” (1871). [Useful sources: 1) Introduction: The Origin of Species / 2) "Darwin Said to Influence 19th-Century Writer's Fiction" by Ellen K. Coughlin in The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 1991 / 3) "Kate Chopin's Quarrel with Darwin Before The Awakening." by Bert Bender, Journal of American Studies 26 (Aug 1992): 185-204 ] [Useful links: BBC: Darwin / PBS: Darwin / PBS Video: Who was Charles Darwin?]

Useful links: Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain / Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening (PBS) / A chronology of key events in Kate Chopin’s life /

Study Guide for “Popular Mechanics” (Raymond Carver, 1981)

Ali Nihat Eken — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:37:47 +0000

Discussion Questions Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” (1981)

What is the importance of the story’s title? Why do you think the author chose the title of a magazine for his short story?
What is the importance of the narrator’s emphasis on the snow’s melting into dirty water?
Identify all the settings in the story and discuss what they signify.
Identify all the imagery about light and dark in the story and discuss how such imagery contributes to your understanding of the story.
Identify all the references to windows and doorways in the story and discuss how they contribute to your understanding of the story.
In what ways would you call Carver’s writing style “minimalist”? Please explain by giving examples from the story.
What is the symbolic value of the flowerpot?
Identify all the references to the baby in the story and then in relation to these references, discuss what the baby means to his parents.
What do you think “the issue” refers to in the last sentence of the story: “In this manner, the issue was decided.”
The last sentence of Carver’s story is: “In this manner, the issue was decided.”
In his “Technique and Stability in the Fiction and Poetry of Raymond Carver” (1998), Arthur F. Bethea highlights the Latin root of the verb “decide” used in the last sentence of the story. Find out how Bethea’s argument can help you understand the story.
The last sentence of the story is a passive sentence (“In this manner, the issue was decided.”) Do you think this could be significant? Why? Why not?
According to Norman German and Jack Bedell (1998), Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” can be compared to the story of Solomon and the two mothers. Discuss to what extent you think German and Bedell’s argument can be considered valid.
Make a list of the major themes of the story.

Relevant links: Raymond Carver’s Cathedral / Listen to “Wired for Books: Raymond Carver“

Study Guide for “This is England” (Shane Meadows, 2006)

Ali Nihat Eken — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:33:55 +0000

Study Guide for Shane Meadows’s “This is England” (2006)

Before watching the film, do some research about the concept of youth subcultures: how are youth subcultures defined? When and why do they emerge? What are the defining features of youth cultures? How are they perceived by society and by mass media? What impact might things like ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation have on the emergence of youth cultures? (You might like to refer to some key names such as Albert K. Cohen, Tim O’Sullivan, Sarah Thornton, Dick Hebdige, Angela McRobbie. Suggested source: The sixth chapter in Children’s Cultural Worlds (2003) by Kehily and Swann).
Before watching the film, do some research to find out about the “skinhead” culture: When, where and in which social, political and economic contexts did it start? Did they have a distinctive style? Why did young people associate themselves with this youth culture? How did they define themselves? What was the role of young men and young women in the emergence of this subculture? Did this youth culture change over the years? How were they perceived by society and by mass media? What images do you associate with the word “skinhead”? Does this subculture still exist?
Many film critics describe “This is England” as “semiautobiographical”. Do some research to find out about the director’s background and discuss how this information can be related to the film.
What is the function of the iconography used in the title sequence of the film? How might it help you understand the film?
Who is the story narrated by? What impact does the narrative voice have on you? Why?
How is Shaun represented at the very beginning of the film? How does his representation contribute to your understanding of him as the protagonist of the film?
What do you think about Shane Meadow’s depiction of the skinhead gang? What are their defining features? Does Meadows glamorize the gang? Does he demonize it? Give your reasons.
What is the function of Milky in the story? What does his name suggest?
What do you think about Shane Meadows’s depiction of Combo? Is it positive or negative? Discuss.
What does the gang mean to Shaun? What does Shaun mean to the gang? What is the function of Woody and Combo in relation to Shaun?
Examine the characters Woody and Combo as leaders. What does each represent in the film?
How do you interpret the last sequence of the film where Shaun throws the Union Jack flag into the sea?
The title of the film is drawn from a “Clash” song. In what way(s) could this be significant?
What does the film reveal about the concept of masculinity? Does the film represent masculinity in only one specific way? What is your view of how masculinity is defined in the film?
Explore the theme of loss-of-innocence/coming-of-age in the film.