A Drowning Essay

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English 122 Short Stories Text: “A Drowning” p. 160- 162 Read “A Drowning” by Mark Ferguson 1. What is the impact of the opening line of the story? 2. What inferences about the narrator did you draw based on the information you were given? 3. Why do you think that the author gives so few details about the story’s main character? 4. What does the conclusion of the story suggest about the community in which the story takes place? 5. “A Drowning” explores the so-called “big questions”: the question of morality. What message does it convey? 6. What is your personal reaction to the message it conveys? 7. Would you agree that the suggestion that the climax of “A Drowning” seems to occur at the very beginning of the story? To answer the question, analyze the story’s plot structure using a plot diagram. Do you think the way that the plot of this story unfolds is effective? Read the poem, “Out, Out” by Robert Frost The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside him in her apron To tell them “Supper.” At the word, the saw, As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap— He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! Half in appeal, but half

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