jt%. W orld of Fiction Twenty Timeless Short Stories Second Edition A World of Fiction Twenty Timeless Short Stories Second Edition Sybil Marcus University of California, Berkeley C o n t e n t s Preface How to Use This Book Husbands, Wives, and Lovers i J CAN-CAN A r turo V ivante A husband arranges a secret meeting with a woman and is surprised by the outcome. Literary Elements: Irony, Symbol Language Elements: Gerunds and Present Participles, Short Expressions Using And, Definitions 2 | THE STORY OF AN HOUR K ate C h o pin A wife has a startling reaction to the news of her husband’s death. Literary Elements: Epiphany, Metaphor and Simile, Personification Language Elements: Suffixes, Prepositions U EPICAC K urt V o n n e g u t A young mathematician uses unorthodox methods to win a woman’s heart. Literary Elements: Personification, Colloquialism and Humor Language Elements: Lie/Lay, Two-Word Verbs, Idioms Containing Body Parts 4 | THE LEGACY V ir g in ia W oolf When a well-known politician’s wife dies, her husband finds that she has left him an unusual legacy. Literary Element: Point of View Language Element: Adjectives Describing Character ■ Contents THE KUGELMASS EPISODE W o o d y A ll en A New York professor has his deepest wish granted, after which his life takes an unexpected turn. Literary Elements: Dialogue, Characterization: Flat Characters, Anachronism and Humor Language Elements: Verbs that Introduce Dialogue, Idioms AN INTRUDER N a d in e G o r d im er A home is invaded under mysterious circumstances, an event which changes the lives of its occupants. Literary Elements: Imagery: Simile and Metaphor Language Elements: Adjective Clauses, Adjectives in Context Parent and Child 7 I POWDER T o b ia s W olff A boy and his father bond in an unexpected way. Literary Elements: Repetition and Alliteration Language Elements: Participial Phrases, Dangling Modifiers, Sentence Fragments, Alliteration, Prepositions 8j MOTHER G r a ce Pa le y Years after her death, a mother is remembered by her child. Literary Element: Flashback Language Elements: Past Tenses, Synonyms 9 1 A SHORT DIGEST OF A LONG NOVEL B u d d S c h u l b e r g A father watches helplessly as his young daughter learns about betrayal. Literary Elements: Imagery: Simile and Metaphor Language Elements: Prefixes, Similes and Metaphors, Word Sets lOj THE ROCKING-HORSE WINNER D. H. L a w r e n c e A young boy is determined to solve his mother’s financial problems. The method he chooses defies human logic and is ultimately dangerous. Literary Elements: Symbol, Fable Language Elements: Proverbs, Idioms Contents ljj THE BOARDING HOUSE Ja m e s Joyce *4 domineering mother watches her daughter flirt with a young man and plots their future. Literary Elements: Tone: Irony and Humor, Imagery. Adjectives, Oxymorons Language Elements: Oxymorons, Adjectives, Antonyms, Idioms 12] MY OEDIPUS COMPLEX F r a n k O ’C o n n o r A small boy’s world is turned upside down when his father returns home from the war. Literary Element: Humorous Effects Language Elements: Denotation and Connotation, Idioms Loneliness and Alienation 13j THE MODEL B e r n a r d M a l a m u d An old man asks an agency to send him a model so that he can revive his painting skills, but the sitting does not go as planned. Literary Element: Inference Language Elements: Euphemism, Using About in Different Ways, Expressions with Two Meanings I4j DISAPPEARING M o n ic a W o o d Her obsession with swimming radically changes the life of a severely overweight woman. Literary Elements: Ellipsis, Imagery Language Elements: Vocabulary, Definitions 15] MISS BRILL K a th er ine M a n sf ie l d A lonely woman enjoys her Sunday afternoon outings to the park until her encounter with a thoughtless young couple. Literary Elements: Synecdoche, Simile Language Elements: Verbs of Movement, Adjectives 16] TEENAGE WASTELAND A n n e T yler A teenage boy withdraws from his family and comes under the influence of an unconventional tutor whose methods have questionable results. Literary Elements: Point of View: Third-Person Narration, Inference Language Elements: Conditionals, Idioms viii ■ Contents Social Change and Injustice 1 7 l LIKE A WINDING SHEET A n n P e t r y The accumulated stress of living in a racist society takes a terrible toll on a factory worker. Literary Elements: Colloquialism and Dialect, Imagery Language Elements: Adverbial Clauses, Synonyms 1 8 f THE LILY-WHITE BOYS W illia m M a x w e l l A couple receives an unpleasant surprise when they return home after a party on Christmas Day Literary Elements: Allusion and Connotation, Setting and Atmosphere Language Elements: Appositives, Placement of the Subject, Irregular Verbs 1 9 1 THE CATBIRD SEAT Ja m e s T h u r b e r A head filing clerk whose job is threatened takes drastic and ingenious measures to protect himself Literary Elements: Understatement and Humor Language Elements: Noun Clauses, Two-Word Verbs, Expressions Using Color, Legal Expressions 2 0 f EVERYDAY USE A lice W alk er ■WffiSSWW*! Family tensions come to a head in a dispute over the ownership of some quilts. Literary Elements: Characterization: Round Characters, Point of View: First-Person Narration Language Elements: Prepositional Phrases, Verbs of Movement, Two-Word Verbs, Used To Explanation of Literary Terms P r e f a c e In the years that have passed since the initial publication of A World o f Fiction, the feedback from the many teachers and students who have used this book has been invaluable and encouraging. Teachers and students alike have frequently expressed appreciation for the variety of the stories’ themes and writing styles, and the opportunity to explore the texts in an in-depth and sophisticated fashion. Accordingly, it has been painfully difficult to decide which five beloved stories to jettison to make room for the new ones in this second edition. The guiding principle behind the new selection is the same as before: The stories should have sufficient complexity, stylistic variation, and intrinsic interest as to give themselves up to intensive literary analysis, as well as to wider discussion. In response to teachers’ requests, four of the five new stories have a lighter tone and/or more uplifting ending, while the fifth stor\', “An Intruder,” has an intriguing puzzle at its core, which should encourage animated classroom interchanges. Revisions in this second edition include updated author biographies, new language and literary' elements, and expanded language and vocabulary exercises where possible. As in the first edition, this book arises from the conviction that close scrutiny of a fine literary text is in itself a richly satisfying and fruitful endeavor as the stop ’s embedded meanings yield to an ever deeper probing by the reader. To facilitate the vigorous and sensitive discussion that flows from any profound stop7, I encourage my students to think of themselves as archaeologists, whose aim is to dig out the buried meanings in the text. In the process, I believe advanced students of language w ill also sharpen their critical-thinking, reading, oral, grammar, and writing skills in an integrated, nuanced, and enjoyable manner. Even the shyest and most tongue-tied students quickly grasp that since there are few absolute rights or wrongs when it comes to analyzing a layered stop7, they may speak out without embarrassment and share their interpretations with the class. In addition, the ensuing discussion can enhance intercultural sensitivity and awareness that there are universal truths and sentiments that bind us all. I am particularly enamored of the short story as a teaching tool since its form offers non-native students a complete work of literature with its imperative elements of character, time, setting, action, motive, and message intact, but with a nonthreatening brevity that is characteristic of this genre. In addition, since the stories are short, there is an opportunity to grapple with and reflect on a number of different subjects and styles during a limited course of study. A World o f Fiction presents twenty unabridged short stories, many of which are recognized masterpieces in the genre, and all of which were originally written ■ Preface in English. The stories embrace a variety of themes, life rap' and linguistic styles, and time frames. They are rich in vocabulary, idioms, and imagery, and their subjects stimulate student exchange and debate. Above all, they embody the essence of great short stories in which the authors, to quote Nobel Prize Laureate Nadine Gordimer, successfully manage to “express from a situation in the exterior and interior world the life-giving drop— sweat, tear, semen, saliva— that w ill spread intensity on the page.” The stories in this anthology are divided loosely into four thematic categories: Husbands, Wives, and Lovers; Parent and Child; Loneliness and Alienation; and Social Change and Injustice. These divisions are inevitably arbitrary since most of the stories easily straddle more than one category, and one story (“The Lily- White Boys”) doesn’t fit snugly into any of them. Each stop' is classified, therefore, according to its dominant theme. The stories are graded, with each section starting with an accessible piece by virtue of its length or content, and working up to stories of greater thematic and/or stylistic complexity. An underlying premise of my approach both in the classroom and in this book is that students must read each stop7 twice at home, making full use of the glossary as they familiarize themselves with the plot and theme(s).