"All About Suicide," 5
"The Secret Lion" 165
"Gryphon" 238
Directions: You are required to answer the main question, which will appear in red. This question is due no later than Thursday, Sept. 4. Following that will be other questions, in black, which you should read and think about--they may help you answer the main question. However, you are not required to answer these questions in writing.
Please answer the question as thoughtfully as possible, after reading the lecture. Then post your answer to the English 102 Message Board by the deadline.
If you are registered in Section 7622, you'll use Message Board 1. Click on the button below to visit your Message Board:
If you are registered in Section 7623, you'll use Message Board 2. Click on the button below to visit your Message Board:
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Saturday, Sept. 6. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond thoughtfully to at least 3 or 4 other people's postings.
Remember: This discussion question is worth a possible 20 points. Late answers will receive 0 points. Points will be assigned according to the thoughtfulness of your answer, not by whether it is "right" or not, since sometimes there is no "right" answer. Just be sure your ideas are supported by the material in the story (see Lecture 1).
What happened in the story? Was it a suicide? A murder? Or is there yet another interpretation?
- Did Ishmael kill himself? What details of the story make you think he did or didn't?
- Did Ishmael kill the minister? What details of the story make you think he did or didn't?
- Are there other possibilities?
- How does the use of pronouns ("he," "him," "his") contribute to the ambiguity of the story? ("Ambiguous" means "susceptible to more than one interpretation.")
- If Ishmael didn't kill the minister, why is the story called "All About Suicide"?
- Why doesn't Valenzuela tell the story in chronological order (that is, in the order in which the events happened)?
- Do you think Valenzuela is deliberately confusing the reader? What point might she be making about the political situation in her country by doing that?
The narrator says, "Things get taken away." Is this the theme of the story? Give examples and/or quotes from the story to support your answer.
- What things are different for the narrator and his friend, Sergio, in junior high? How do they deal with their feelings?
- What do they find in the arroyo? What do they do with it? Why?
- The narrator and Sergio used to go to the arroyo when they were younger; why did they stop going then?
- Why did Sergio and the narrator want to go to the mountains? What do they find there? What lesson do they learn?
- Why do you think Rios chose not to tell the story in chronological order? That is, why begin with junior high and then go back to early childhood? Why not tell about the events in the order that the narrator lived them?
- Is the narrator a flat or a round character? Why? If you think he is round, how has he changed during the course of the story?
- Why do you think Rios never gives the narrator a name?
- What, in your opinion, are the themes of the story? What examples and/or quotes from the story can you give to support your interpretation?
How is Miss Fernczi "different"? How do her differences relate to the themes of the story?
- What ideas are introduced in the first two paragraphs?
- Why does the narrator mention Pinocchio and say that Miss Ferenczi has "marionette lines" on her face?
- Why doesn't Miss Ferenczi have the class begin with the Pledge of Alliegance?
- What point is Miss Ferenczi making when she talks about "substitute facts"?
- Why are some kids upset when she talks about "substitute facts"? How does the narrator feel? What does this reveal about him?
- Why doesn't Miss Ferenczi want to eat lunch with the other teachers?
- How is Miss Ferenczi's lesson on Egypt different from the typical lesson on Egypt? How are her other lessons different? Why do some student get upset about the things she says?
- In paragraph 80, what is the mother's reaction when the narrator tells her about the substitute? Why put this in the story?
- What are the meanings of "fabulous"?
- In paragraph 95, what does the narrator mean when he says, "...I wanted to see shapes there, approaching me"?
- Why doesn't the narrator want to tell his mother about Miss Ferenczi after the second day?
- Why is the narrator so angry at Wayne for reporting Miss Ferenczi to the principal?
- Why is the last word of the story "knowledge"?
- Why is the story called "Gryphon"?