Discuss the assigned short story.http://www.webdelsol.com/Other_Voices/Strogov.htm
Discussion questions:
- Are the characters in the story presented sympathetically/negatively/impartially? With which character do you identify? Use specific examples from the text.
- What is a one-sentence summary (log line) of this story?
- What is this story really about in terms of theme? How does the author show what the story is really about?
- Does the ending resonate? Why or why not? If not, give us a new ending.
- Brainstorm three new titles for this story and share them here.
- Choose one scene and write it from memory (without looking at the actual story). What did you omit or add, and why do you think that is?
- Write a letter from the protagonist to another character, or to the protagonist from another character, in which an important issue is addresse
respond to 3 of your peers’ writing exercises.
1. From Rog:
- Are the characters in the story presented sympathetically/negatively/impartially? With which character do you identify? Use specific examples from the text.
“I think the most easily-recognized character in the story is the pregnant lady, since the story is written in her perspective. The writer presents her sympathetically, letting the readers now entirely how she feels and thinks under two opposite outcomes. But one can also say the writer presents her impartially. Because the narration reflects the universal experience of a mother with child. (such as ‘And your belly grows’, ‘The first months are the most difficult because he can’t speak’)
The father, on the other hand, is presented negatively with the last two sentences of the story. What’s interesting is that in a way, the narration reflects a commonly shared view of a soon-to-be mother to a man who wants to take no responsibility.”
2. From Asinn:
- What is this story really about in terms of theme? How does the author show what the story is really about?
“The author of this story is used second-person perspective. From the beginning, the girl didn’t know she was pregnant, but even she doesn’t know, her body would still change because of pregnant. As she gradually moved from her body to her mind, she would worry about her being born. Whether to make her life become better or worse. From the time a child is born, relying on his parents, and when he grows up, he begins to have an independent way of thinking. It may be that start have argues with his mother or other situations, which make girls feel uneasy. From discussing a woman, she is not pregnant in her plan. Her inner anxiety is that she is afraid of whether the child will be abandoned by her father in the future, or living an unhappy life, or whether the child has developed bad habits because of rebellion. This girl is very worried for all these struggle and pain. Derived from today’s Asian society, in fact, in psychology, mothers are more likely to have the idea of “I gave birth of you, why can’t I decide what I want you to do!” and become “entangled” parents. This type of parents will cause Enmeshment, blur the boundaries between family members, care too much about each other’s lives, and finally may cause the children’s individualized development disorders. So I think the way she presents this story makes me feel very real, a state often seen in obstetrics and gynecology in real life. Whether or not to give birth to this child, why a pregnant woman is not happy but is worried, this is all reflects the conditions of the real society.”
3. From Jin
- What is a one-sentence summary (log line) of this story?
“A young pregnant girl envisions her future as a single mother, and comes to the decision of forsaking the pregnancy.
I liked this short story a lot. I was debating on how to shorten and summarize the story. I wanted to keep part of her vision in it but could not fit it. Summarizing an emotional piece like this with a log sentence would devalue a lot of the story. So much of her vision of the future meant so much to her personally, her inner monologue tells a great deal as to how she arrived to the decision of going through with the surgery.”
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