Discussion Questions

"Good Country People" Discussion Questions

There are several instances of conflict throughout the story, for example: Man vs. man by Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Hulga, and at the very end it was a physical conflict example between Hulga and Pointer. There were also instances of man vs. self with Hulga throughout the entire story, which starts of just by her changing her name and ending with her trusting Pointer even though she had never done such a thing before and she ends up regretting that she had done that. And there was also man vs. society because Mrs. Hopewell always says that everyone is "good country people", which in the end isn't true at all, but she wants everyone to fit into a mold that can't be.

The only name I feel that I can explain is the change from Joy to Hulga. It was an expression of herself and what she thought of herself. She didn't want to be happy and she wasn't happy since her leg was blown off, so she changed her name to something that represented how she really felt about herself. Hulga is not a normal name and usually when someone says Hulga, you don't think pretty, you think the opposite. So for her to change her name just shows some part of her character.

Group Work

A Worn Path

Our group chose "A Worn Path" because out of the two stories for the day, it was more simple to do our group project on. "A Worn Path" has a lot more of action going on in the story, while in the other short story, it was a lot of back and forth on dialogue and really confusing on what was going on. In "A Worn Path", there is a lot more room for different possibilities of what could be going on with the story and how people read it, leaves room for discussion on every ones viewpoint of certain parts of the story.

What appeals to me from this story was the fact that it was an easier story to read and understand, but it has several parts that can be interpreted differently by whoever is reading it.

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions for "Angel Levine" and "The Conversion of Jews"

Mr. Manischevitz is one of the characters that you can sympathize with because he is just trying to do what is best for him and his wife while trying to relate to what is really happening. Sometimes help comes in ways that not all of us can understand at the time, but when it is necessary, we believe and go to that source of help. With Mr. Manischevitz, it was Angel Levine that was his help that he didn't understand and wanted to know more about him before he was trusted. In the end, Mr. Manischevitz did what he thought was right for him and his wife before it was too late even though he didn't fully believe until he saw Levine leave with his wings.

In "The Conversion of Jews", Ozzie is a character anyone can sympathize with because he is simply a child looking for answers. Although they might not be the answers his religion believes in, it is something he believes in and wants everyone else to know. He does it in a very selfish way at the end, but all he wanted the whole time was for someone to agree with him and tell him he's right.

I don't think that in either story, either characters were out of line in asking the questions because they simply wanted to know the answers to something they didn't fully understand. And when someone doesn't understand, or completely believe, they want to know everything they can before they believe.

Author's Note and Discussion Questions

Author's Note

I am on my first draft of the paper, about to start the revisions and seeing what needs to be added or taken out for it to make sense to the reader. I like this piece because it has a different view on writing an essay, instead of just having to summarize a story, we have to make it our own and make it into something everyone would want to possibly talk about by making it into a film version. But I didn't really like this piece because it is hard in some to make references to who characters could be. Because I chose the lottery, there wasn't much background to all the characters that I wanted to portray, so it made the casting part of the essay a little harder and had to go on just what I thought would be best for the movie instead of putting people in who fit descriptions. I'm not feeling so well on the character part of my essay, or of my conclusion. I have never been one for writing the best papers but hopefully I did well on this paper.

The Conscience of the Court Discussion Questions

I believe that Laura Lee had a right to be loyal to Celestine for all the help she had done. It doesn't seem right that it almost looks like slavery, but had it not been the race difference, it would just be two friends looking out for one another. She could have taken the money and had her own place with her husband on the third chance, but she didn't feel it was right in her eyes because she was so loyal to Celestine. But I don't think that Laura Lee not leaving was a wrong decision, I just feel that Laura Lee thought it was what was the right thing to do at the moment.

Her side does clarify everything that happened, and does ring true to a court wanting to hear both sides even if she didn't have a lawyer to talk her through it. Her rambling through the testimony got a bit excessive and could have been stopped a long time before it did, but it just helps tell the story of how Laura Lee is true to everyone and how she got to be who she is. But if the story would have been told in someone elses eyes, it would not have been the same.

I think the verdict was hopeful because it shows that even though at that time, the nation was barely changing its views, it did bring hope to Laura Lee because she was allowed to tell her side of the story and because she ended up being innocent of her charges. At the time it might have been a bit unrealistic, especially if it took place in the south, but it could have been a possibility of showing how the tide was changing to view all sides instead of one side.

Paul's Case

Paul's Case Discussion Questions

He feels at Carnegie Hall like he belongs there, he feels as if it is a great escape for him. Instead of being stuck in a classroom where he doesn't want to learn anything because he feels like he doesn't need it, he feels safe and alive at Carnegie Hall. When he is there, it makes him feel important and like people care about him, he isn't just another student, he feels as though he really is someone important there. As it says in the story, when he is there listening to a symphony or looking at a sculpture/painting, he tends to lose himself in whatever he is listening to or looking at. It also says in a passage that he feels alive when he is there and that he just feels connected to everything there unlike when he is in a classroom having to pretend to learn and to grasp everything that is happening at school.

After his interview, the teachers feel like there is something wrong with him. Something about his smile and the way he presents himself makes the teachers think that he is not normal and that something is just wrong with him, especially knowing that his mother died shortly after he was born. As for Paul, he couldn't care what happened at the interview because he knew that later that day he would be at Carnegie Hall working and doing what he loved most.

Intervention

Intervention Discussion Questions

Instead of having the complications of two generations having fights with each other and not seeing eye to eye on everything, we have one generation trying to figure out what is going on in their lives and fighting about that. In "Intervention", there isn't much of a fight going on between Marilyn and Sid except for the fact that she hides that she doesn't like his drinking habit anymore. Sid keeps calm the entire time when he is confronted by his children and wife about his problem, but he never has a problem with his wife. Instead of fighting about differences of two different generations, we have in this story the different views of the two people in the same generation. Marilyn use to drink when she was younger but stopped after she realized she had a problem, Sid doesn't stop drinking because he seems to think he doesn't have a problem and although Marilyn thinks he does, she never says anything because of how he has treated her their whole lives.

In "Intervention", we also have the problem of the same generation problems within the children when at first Tom disagreed with his sister Sally about Sid having a drinking problem. Tom soon realizes that his dad does have a problem and agrees with Sally and her husband Rusty to try to take care of it and fix it. They don't see the problem the same way their mom sees it and so they try to fix it in a way that they know how to instead of a way of how their parents might go about fixing it. This problem then clashes with what Marilyn wants and causes a problem of what she should have done instead of what she did do.

The word enabler is used in this story in a negative aspect because Rusty believes that Marilyn is only helping Sid keep his problem of drinking instead of trying to do something about it. Marilyn never tries to help Sid with his problem and keeps letting him drink no matter how drunk he gets or how bad of a driver he is, she will always let him drive, and she won't fix the matter because she wants to think that there isn't a problem with him.

Film Adaptation Proposal

So for "The Lottery", I haven't made a lot of changes but have put some thought into how it could be made into a longer film.

Title:

I'm going to keep the original title because it gives the illusion of having a happy moment sooner or later in the movie instead of the true spin at the end. The title also doesn't give away any clues as to the story or to the end of it. The title is very ominous of the story.

Characters:

Although I don't know exactly who is going to play who yet, I do know who needs to be a major character and who needs to just be a minor character from the story. The major characters will have a short story of how their day of the lottery happens.

The major roles, I believe, are -

• Joe Summers
• Old Man Warner
• Tessie Hutchinson
• Mrs. Delacroix
• Bill Hutchinson
• Bill Jr., Nancy, and Davie Hutchinson

Setting:

The setting isn't mentioned in the story so that choice is up to me but it will still be placed in a small village where everyone knows everyone and isn't in a big city or around big cities. It will be set in the earlier 1900's simply because this wouldn't happen in the end half of the century. I don't want to specify a specific year but do want to end up choosing a specific decade or time period that will be identifiable through the clothes worn.

Plot/Conflict:

I want to set up the movie to be similar to the movie Crash where there are lots of several little stories and plots that lead up to the big picture in the end. As I said before, most of the major characters will have their own preview of the day and their daily activities of what happens on June 27. Could also include a flashback to the very first lottery and how exactly it came to be instead of just jumping into it. And instead of abruptly ending with Tessie getting stoned, we could add a little at the end of how the village goes on the next day and what happens then but just as a little recap and nothing big.

Irony:

Points of the story that portray irony which I want to include and hopefully convey very well are:

• Tessie Hutchinson being late to the lottery
• Old Man Warner bragging about making it through 77 lotteries
• And in general of how the people communicate with each other and how they look at one another with a kind of fear in their eyes.

Symbolism:

Some points of symbolism I hope to convey are:

• The little boys picking up tiny rocks/pebbles at the beginning of the short story.
• The description and vision of the black box where the names are pulled from every year since the very first lottery.
• The way the date is the same every year for the lottery.
• And how the rituals have changed in the past couple of years from when the lottery first started and how it seems to be more lenient from the past.