Discussion Questions

"The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" Discussion Questions



At the very end of the story, the author uses dramatic irony to show that he, Michael, does look at his wife and thinks about her as he does the other girls that he sees walking down the street.



Having this story set in NYC lets everyone imagine how New York is, and how busy the streets are and how they are filled with people just walking up and down the street. By having that visual you can imagine how Michael is just looking at different types of women and just checking them out as they walk by. If the author were to change cities to something not as busy or not known, it wouldn't really make sense to the reader, but having it in a major well known city makes it recognizable.



"The Chrysanthemums" Discussion Questions



I think that the fixer character can't really be trusted because the entire time when he was talking to Elisa I got the feeling that he wasn't really paying attention but just agreeing with her so that she would give him the pot of flowers and then some pots and pans to fix for money. Maybe he wasn't in need of the money but made it seem like he was, or maybe he really did need the money, but at times it just seemed like he was playing her to see what he could get out of her.



Elisa seems to see something different in him, not necessarily flirting with him, but just see's a different type of guy that she's not use to being around. She also see's a different type of lifestyle in him, instead of living on the ranch, he moves around from place to place all year. So its not that she's flirting, its just nice to see a different point of view of life.