ap literature summer assignment

Matheny, Brent1st Period

AP Literature Summer Assignment Short Story Assessments

"Everyday Use": Paragraphs 7-16

For this section of the story, as for the rest of it, the speaker is the unnamed mother of

Dee (Wangero) and Maggie. These paragraphs in particular are not chronologically part of the

story, but in them, Walker provides the reader with vital context and insight into the personalities

and backgrounds of the three main characters, (Dee, Maggie, and their mother). From this

selection one sees Maggie's timidness and the general tragedy that is her life, the resolute nature

of Dee, along with her flight from poverty through education (which her mother was barely able

to fund), and perhaps most importantly the mother's modus operandi of giving everything to Dee

while Maggie mostly watches from the shadows. With the characterization shown in these

paragraphs, the event at the end of the story, Maggie receiving the quilts (even for "everyday

use"), becomes much more significant, as the mother giving preference towards Maggie is

unheard of.


“The Child by Tiger”: Paragraphs 103- 129 (End)

These final four or so pages have the same speaker as the rest of the story, an unnamed

boy who the reader can assume to a close friend of Randy Shepperton. These pages differ from

the others because the events in them take place after the climax, the killing of Dick Prosser;

during the denouement. By not ending the story at its height, Wolfe gives the protagonist a

chance to muse on the events that have occurred, providing him time to show to the reader the

significance of the Dick Prosser incident. By quoting William Blake’s poem, “The Tyger”,

Wolfe asks the reader to look deeper into his prose, beyond the shallowness of an escapist work,

which pushes this story into the realm of interpretive literature. In the final paragraphs, the

speaker ponders where Dick Prosser came from, wondering how such evil could come from him,

running home the point that Dick was a personification of “the other side of man’s dark soul”

that is latent in all of mankind.


“There Are a Lot of Ways to Die”: Paragraph 132

This speaker in this short story is Joseph Heaven, a carpet and rug merchant living in

what is presumably Trinidad and acting as a self-insert for the author, Neil Bissoondath. The

section I chose was the final paragraph, in which Joseph draws a set of ominous shapes and the

short message, “I am going back.” The shapes represent three different “deaths” in his life that

have shaped his decision to go back to Toronto. The circle symbolizes the island, a dead place,

from “which nothing important ever emerged.” The triangle represents the Holy Trinity. Earlier

in the story Joseph claims he “lost his sense of religion early on.” The “last disappointment”, the

square, Pacheco House, was Joseph’s breaking point. By exploring the house, Joseph’s count of

enchanted objects on the island was entirely eliminated. There would be nothing left from him

there. The only death left to be fulfilled is now his own, which he hopes to postpone by leaving.


“A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles”

“A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles”, both written by Susan Glaspell, cover what is essentially the

same story, that in which two women solve a murder case that men would not be able to, due to their

insensitivities to women’s psychology. These two works differ most starkly in their medium, the first is a

short story, and the other is a play. Other differences stem from this bifurcation of media.

Both selections are examples of feminist literature. “Trifles” debuted in 1916 and “A Jury of Her

Peers” was published a year later. The works are clearly a product of their time. In the early 20th century,

women’s rights were a very important issue, and were inspiring many works, in both the preforming arts

and literature that expressed the views that women’s rights advocates held. The works in this case

demonstrate the subtle differences in the men’s and women’s psychology that cause what men to see

as “trifles” to be serious issues (the murder of the canary), serious enough to lead to homicide.

The biggest disparity between these two pieces comes from limits imposed upon them by their

media. “A Jury of Her Peers” is written in third person limited, focused on Martha Hale. By being written

this way, the reader in given the chance to get as into the character’s head as they can without the story

being in first person, which would limit what Glaspell would have been able to do with the other

characters. This way, the author is able to add much more nuanced characterization and imagery that

are simply not possible to do on stage. On stage, one would not be able to comprehend the wealth of

information the two women share with each in their weighted pauses and silent stares. On stage, one

would not receive the prose describing the heavy atmosphere of the house and everything. All mood

and tone would have to be transmitted through use of actors and props.


In the original production of “Trifles”, Susan Glaspell herself played Mrs. Hale. Being the

playwright, Glaspell would have had the most insight into how the character of Mrs. Hale should be

portrayed. This would have put on an additional level of fidelity to the original stage production;

allowing the audience’s experience of the work to be closer to that of the playwright’s intention. An

analogy to this in the realm of books would be an author preforming a reading of their work. This

quality, of course, would cease to be after Glaspell stopped playing the part, but is entirely absent in “A

Jury of Her Peers.”

ap literature summer assignment

Documents