A Clean Wel Lighted Place

1)
Q: Describe the setting. Why is the idea of a well lighted place so significant to the short story?


A: The setting is 3 men (1 old man, one young waiter and one old waited) in a cleas well lighted cafe very lateat night. the old man is drunk and the young waiter wants togo home. A clean well lighted place is significant in this story because as the old waiter says there are many bars and bodegas that are open all night but a clean well lighted cafe has a way of improving the quality of life as opposed to al of the darkness that we encounter in our everyday lives. "each night i am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe." (a clean well lighted place, 5)


2)
Q: why are the characters nameless?


A: I beleive that the characters are nameless because the author felt that it wasn't an important enough detail to add a distraction away from the lesson he was trying to express.


3)
Q: What is the connection with the old man and the old waiter? What is the purpose of the young waiter in the story?


A: the old waiter has been arround long enough to appriciate a "clean well lighted place" as more than just a cafe. The old man is sad and spends his time in the bar (just like the waiter) and the old waiter respects that the cafe may be the old mans only place of comfort. The young waiter was in this story to provoke the activity of the old waiter so that the lesson was effective.


4)
Q: What is the plot?



A: Two waiters having a series of conversations about an old man who frequents their elegant cafe. The young waiter is very rude and pushy with the old man while the older waiter is patient and understands the mans lonliness and his need for a clean well lighted place.As the place closes for the night , the old man is sent home, and the older waiter begins to face a crisis of his own. Making it through the long, dark, lonly hours of the night, he finds a sense of purpose to his life in a world that is seems to be 'full of nothing'.



5)
Q: What is the theme?


A: The rising action in this story is when the old man orders his first brandy, and signals for a little more. The conflict in this story is between the young waiter and the old man, the young waiter doesnt respect the old mans wish to stay because he is tired and impatient, and he kicks the old man out. The complication was that the old man was drunk and the young waiter wanted to go home. the climax is when the young waiter kicks the old man out. The falling action is when the old waiter has a glass of water and tries to have a conversation with the barman.

6)
Q:some info on hemingway


A:
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman's journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat.Hemingway - himself a great sportsman - liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories, some of which are collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938). Hemingway died in Idaho in 1961.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901-1967, Editor Horst Frenz, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1969 -----

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingway-bio.html

"Everyday Use"

1) Q: What does the term “everyday use” mean in this story? Why did Walker choose this as the title?

A: Everyday use in the story is used as a way to describe something you dont cherish properly, e.g. "Maggie can't appriciate these quilts! she'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." (Walker,7)

I beleive that Everyday Use was chosen to be the title because the conflict over the quilts is what brings the whole story together. It becomes apparent that the reason dee has returned home is to retrieve the quilts as well as other items which were her mothers inheritance, as well as her future gift to maggie.

2) Q: How do Dee, Maggie, and Mama define heritage? Which view does Walker want us to agree with?

A: Mama defines heritage as the respect and caring you share with the people you care the most about, family.

Dee defines heritage as where you come from and how you were brought up.

Maggie defines heritage as being the things in your family that make you hurt the most when you lose them.

3) Q: Describe the setting – how does it affect the characters and story?

A: The setting is a daughter returning home to the countryside for the first time since she left for college, to visit her sister and her neice.

4) Q: What is ironic about Dee’s name change to Wangero?

A: She changed her name to get closer to her heritage, but in reality she offended her family because her name was passed down for many generations.

5) Q: What is the significance of certain items in the story – the butter churn, dasher, bench and quilt?

A: butter churn has dents in the bottom because it was always being used, signifying hard work.

the dasher was crafted by maggies father and symbolizes love for family.

the quilt was made by "big dee" and is very important to mama. dee feels she deserves these but big dee taught maggie how to quilt and mama plans on giving them to her one day.

6) Q: How would the story have changed if Mama was not the narrator?

A: If the story was told by dee I beleive she would be discussing her plans for coming to retrieve the items and not as set on seeing her family.

if the story was told by maggie I beleive that it would start off as a very sad tale and then in the end she would go through a big change after receiving the quilts.

7) Q: Explore the final scenes in the story and discuss how the narrator changes at the end.

A: Mama has a new view on family and heritage at the end of the story after seeing how her sister reacted to not receiving the quilts. She sees her daughter happy for the first time since the fire and it makes her very happy as well.

Sonny's Blues

#1 1 - Research the setting of “Sonny’s Blues” – Harlem, NYC.

Q: How does the setting affect/shape Sonny’s character and create
conflict/complications in the story?

A: The setting in Harlem in the late 1950's was a time of struggle. Sonny was surrounded by poverty, and everyone who he knew (including himself) wasbrought up to beleive that they were not going anywhere or doing anything with their lives. "these boys were now living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rushand their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities."--Sonny's Blues


#2 1 – Research the history of African-American men in the military – Pre-Civil
Rights movement.

Q:Why is it ironic that Sonny wants to enlist?

A: African-American men in the military were not treated as equals in the military for a very long time. They were discriminated against on and off base, and mentally and physically beat down. For Sonny to join the army was a very brave and challenging thing to do for any African-American in his era.

"The true fulfillment of the entire scope of Executive Order 9981—equality of treatment and opportunity—actually required an additional change in Defense Department policy. This occurred with the publication of Department of Defense Directive 5120.36 on 26 July 1963, 15 years to the day after Truman signed the original order. This major about-face in policy issued by Secretary of Defense Robert J. McNamara expanded the military’s responsibility to include the elimination of off-base discrimination detrimental to the military effectiveness of black servicemen."--http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/welcome.html


#3 1- Research song lyrics by Billie Holiday.

Q:Find a song or verse that you feel best represents the suffering of Sonny – his blues. Include song title and lyrics here.

A:

Billie HolidayCompact Jazz - Billie Holiday- I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues

I gotta right to sing the blues
I gotta right to moan inside
I gotta right to sit and cry
Down around the river

A certain man in this little town
Keeps draggin' my poor heart around
All i see for me is misery

I gotta right to sing the blues
I gotta right to moan inside
I gotta right to sit and cry
Down around the river
A certain man in this little town
Soon that deep blue sea
Will be callin' me
It must be love say what you choose
I gotta right to sing the blues
I gotta right to sing the blues
I gotta right to moan and cry
I gotta sit and sigh
Down around the river

Soon that deep blue sea
Will be callin' me
It must be love say what you choose
I gotta right to sing the blues
There's nothing left for me
I'm full of misery
I gotta right to sing the blues

http://www.songlyrics.com/billie-holiday/i-gotta-right-to-sing-the-blues-lyrics/

Q: Explain why.

A: The song is talking about how Billie felt like there was nothing left for her, and how she is full of misery. Very much like how Sonny says he is in the "darkness" and trying to get "outside". Also the words "i gotta right to sing the blues" may be related to the struggle that Sonny faced growing up in Harlem.



#4 1 – Research Bebop.

Q:Bebop is the music that Sonny favors. What does the music represent
politically and socially to Sonny? What does the music represent to Sonny’s
brother?

A: To Sonny Bebop represents empowerment, unconventional excitement, and freedom. He finally has something he is really passionate about and he doesnt care if the world is against him. To Sonny's brother bebop represents disorganization, and drug abuse. He doesn't want to see his brother get hooked back up with heroin and throw away his life.