Grace is seen brushing and singing to a doll in a wooden hut. The Widower is writing a letter to Grace's mother explaining she has Grace and the conditions for her return. Grace becomes frustrated while singing and breaks her doll. She then draws pictures of her family. The Widower delivers the letter and leaves it for Grace's mother, who reacts with anxiety upon reading it. The Widower and Grace then leave the hut together.
Its a short story telling about two generation relationship ....shared with Bloomsbury Publication ,UK for short story competition 2018,NCERT,Delhi,Oxford University Press,UK,
Penguin Publishers,India,Cambridge Press,India,Macmillan Publishers,India
You can contact Gina to commission a sculpture or purchase an original piece.
Gina Bruce
321 E. Liberty St.
York, S.C. 29745
803-628-1019
mcgummie@gmail.com
96 CHARACTERSourdis husband had to go. We followed him .docxransayo
96 CHARACTER
Sourdi's husband had to go. We followed him
to the driveway. My
sister kissed him before he climbed into his Buick. He
rolled down the Win
dow, and she leaned in and kissed him again.
I turned away. I watched Duke standing in the
doorway, holding the
baby in his arms, cooing at its face. In his tough wannabe clothes, the super.
wide jeans and his fancy sneakers and the chain from his wallet to his belt
loops, he looked surprisingly young.
Sourdi lent us some blankets and matching his-and-hers Donald and Daisy
Duck sweatshirts for the trip back, since our coats were still wet and worthless.
"Don't tell Ma I was here, O.K.?" I begged Sourdi. "We'll be home by
afternoon. She'll just think I'm with friends or something. She doesn't have
to know, O.K.
Sourdi pressed her full lips together into a thin line and nodded in a way
that seemed as though she were answering a different question. And I knew
that I couldn't trust my sister to take my side anymore.
As we pulled away from Sourdi's house, the first icy snowflakes began to
fall across the windshield.
Sourdi stood in the driveway with the baby on her hip. She waved to us
as the snow swirled around her like ashes.
She had made her choice, and she hadn't chosen me.
Sourdi told me a story once about a magic serpent, the Naga, with a mouth
so large, it could swallow people whole. Our ancestors carved Naga into the
stones of Angkor Wat to scare away demons. Sourdi said people used to
believe they could come alive in times of great evil and protect the temples.
They could eat armies.
I wished I was a Naga. I would have swallowed the whole world in one gulp. 230
But I have no magic powers. None whatsoever.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING
1. FIRST RESPONSE. How does your response to Nea develop over thecourse of the story? Is she a dynamic or a static character?
2. Explain how Nea and Sourdi serve as character foils to one another.3. Discuss whether you think Duke is a flat or a round character.4. What is the effect of the story's being told from Nea's perspective? Howmight the story be different ifit were told from the mother's point ofview?5. Do you think Mr. Chhay is a good or bad husband?6. How does the information about Nea and Sourdi's trip through theminefield affect your understanding of Nea's relationship with her sister?7. Comment on the title. Why wouldn't an alternative like "Nea theTroublemaker" be appropriate?
8. CONNECTION To ANOTHER SELECTION. Compare the characterization ofNea in "saving Sourdi" and ofSammy in John Updike's "A & P" (p. 149).
In what sense do both characters see themselves as rescuers?
98 CHARACTER
business, the business of
curating, the business of public responsibility, the
business in general. I was
hoping to get him on his arch tirade about
the average intelligence in his
department couldn't make a picture by
necting the dots, a routine which
Cody could dial up like a phone
But I wasn't going to get it t.
Its a short story telling about two generation relationship ....shared with Bloomsbury Publication ,UK for short story competition 2018,NCERT,Delhi,Oxford University Press,UK,
Penguin Publishers,India,Cambridge Press,India,Macmillan Publishers,India
You can contact Gina to commission a sculpture or purchase an original piece.
Gina Bruce
321 E. Liberty St.
York, S.C. 29745
803-628-1019
mcgummie@gmail.com
96 CHARACTERSourdis husband had to go. We followed him .docxransayo
96 CHARACTER
Sourdi's husband had to go. We followed him
to the driveway. My
sister kissed him before he climbed into his Buick. He
rolled down the Win
dow, and she leaned in and kissed him again.
I turned away. I watched Duke standing in the
doorway, holding the
baby in his arms, cooing at its face. In his tough wannabe clothes, the super.
wide jeans and his fancy sneakers and the chain from his wallet to his belt
loops, he looked surprisingly young.
Sourdi lent us some blankets and matching his-and-hers Donald and Daisy
Duck sweatshirts for the trip back, since our coats were still wet and worthless.
"Don't tell Ma I was here, O.K.?" I begged Sourdi. "We'll be home by
afternoon. She'll just think I'm with friends or something. She doesn't have
to know, O.K.
Sourdi pressed her full lips together into a thin line and nodded in a way
that seemed as though she were answering a different question. And I knew
that I couldn't trust my sister to take my side anymore.
As we pulled away from Sourdi's house, the first icy snowflakes began to
fall across the windshield.
Sourdi stood in the driveway with the baby on her hip. She waved to us
as the snow swirled around her like ashes.
She had made her choice, and she hadn't chosen me.
Sourdi told me a story once about a magic serpent, the Naga, with a mouth
so large, it could swallow people whole. Our ancestors carved Naga into the
stones of Angkor Wat to scare away demons. Sourdi said people used to
believe they could come alive in times of great evil and protect the temples.
They could eat armies.
I wished I was a Naga. I would have swallowed the whole world in one gulp. 230
But I have no magic powers. None whatsoever.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING
1. FIRST RESPONSE. How does your response to Nea develop over thecourse of the story? Is she a dynamic or a static character?
2. Explain how Nea and Sourdi serve as character foils to one another.3. Discuss whether you think Duke is a flat or a round character.4. What is the effect of the story's being told from Nea's perspective? Howmight the story be different ifit were told from the mother's point ofview?5. Do you think Mr. Chhay is a good or bad husband?6. How does the information about Nea and Sourdi's trip through theminefield affect your understanding of Nea's relationship with her sister?7. Comment on the title. Why wouldn't an alternative like "Nea theTroublemaker" be appropriate?
8. CONNECTION To ANOTHER SELECTION. Compare the characterization ofNea in "saving Sourdi" and ofSammy in John Updike's "A & P" (p. 149).
In what sense do both characters see themselves as rescuers?
98 CHARACTER
business, the business of
curating, the business of public responsibility, the
business in general. I was
hoping to get him on his arch tirade about
the average intelligence in his
department couldn't make a picture by
necting the dots, a routine which
Cody could dial up like a phone
But I wasn't going to get it t.
6Lu Xun (1881 - 1936)Diary of a MadmanChineseModernismDrhetttrevannion
6
Lu Xun (1881 - 1936)
Diary of a MadmanChineseModernism
"Diary of a Madman" is a famous short story by Lu Xun, who is regarded as a great writer of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun (surname: Lu, and the pen name of Zhou Shuren) was a short story writer, translator, essayist, and literary scholar. Although Lu was educated in the Confucian tradition when he was young, he later received a modern western education; he studied modern medicine in Japan and was exposed to western literature (including English, German, and Russian literatures). In 1918, "Diary of a Madman" was published in New Youth, a magazine of the New Culture Movement that promoted democracy, egalitarianism, vernacular literature, individual freedom, and women's rights. Inspired by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol's story of the same title, Lu wrote this story, which is the first western-style story in vernacular Chinese. The cannibalistic society that the madman narrator sees is generally interpreted as a satirical allegory of traditional Chinese society based on Confucianism. Although Lu and his works were associated with leftist ideas (and Mao Zedong favored Lu's works), Lu never joined the Communist Party of China. The English translations of this short story include a version by William A. Lyell, a former professor of Chinese at Stanford University.Consider while reading:What elements of detective fiction does Borges include in "The Garden of Forking Paths"?How does having multiple possible outcomes influence the resolution of the text?How does Borges use the symbolism of the labyrinth?Borges is known for his use of magical realism and his work in the science fiction genre. How does Borges incorporate magical realism into "The Garden of the Forking Paths?" What effect does it create?
Kwon, Kyounghye. (n.d.). Compact Anthology of World Literature: The 17th and 18th Centuries (Part 6). Dahlonega, GA: University of North Georgia Press.
CC-BY-SA.
5
10
THE GARDEN PARTY
License: Public Domain
Katherine Mansfield
And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect
day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a
cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in
early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and
sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants
had been seemed to shine. As for the roses, you could not help feeling they
understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties;
the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally
hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as
though they had been visited by archangels.
Breakfast was not yet over before the men came to put up the marquee.
"Where do you want the marquee put, mother?"
"My dear child, it's no use asking me. I'm determined to leave everything to
you children this year. Forget I ...
1. FADE IN
1. INT. THE WOODEN HUT- DAY
GRACE is sitting cross legged in the wooden room with an
expressionless look on her face. She is brushing the hair of
a doll gently to begin with; she then begins to whisper the
old lullaby 'Rockabye baby'
GRACE
rockabye baby, on a tree top, when
the wind blows the cradle will rock
FIRST OPENING CREDIT
2. INT. THE WOODEN HUT- DAY
THE WIDOWER is writing a letter to
the MRS MCDONLAD (GRACE'S mother)
explaining how she has GRACE and it
details the conditions of getting
her daughter back within 24 hours
as long as these rules are
followed.
GRACE
As the bow breaks, the cradle will
fall, and down will come baby
cradle and all.
SECOND OPENING CREDIT
3. INT. WOODEN HUT- DAY
GRACE is getting very rough in her brushing her doll's hair
and also begins the poem again with becoming much louder and
frustrated as she continues.
GRACE
Rockabye baby on a tree top, when
the wind blows the cradle will
rock, when the bow brakes the
cradle will rock.
4. INT. WOODEN HUT- DAY
THE WIDOWER is signing the letter
with 'W' and closes the envelope
putting the addressors name on the
front 'GRACE'S MOTHER' she begins
to hum the rockabye baby tune along
with GRACE'S whispering.
5. INT. WOODEN HUT- DAY
GRACE ends the whispering aggressively
GRACE
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall (GRACE stands up
with the doll.) and down will come baby cradle and all.
GRACE drops the doll leaving it smashed on the floor,
2. continuing her same expression. She walks over to the paper
and pen in the corner of the room and sits back in the same
position with the paper and begins to draw a family.
6. EXT. WOODLAND- DAY
THE WIDOWER walks slowly along the pathway, clutching the
letter in her hand while continuing to hum the tune.
7. INT. WOODEN HUT- DAY
GRACE is drawing the picture of her family in a hurry , when
she finishes, she stands up and stares at the picture and
smiles a sinister smile and walks over to the wall, placing
it on the wall in the middle of the 20 other identical
pictures.
8. EXT. PATH WALK-DAY
THE WIDOWER walks along the pathway in the same manner as
before continuing to hum the tune. THE WIDOWER walks up to
the house and places the letter on the floor by the door and
gives three knocks at the door, walking away.
INT. MRS MCDONLAD'S HOUSE-DAY
MRS MCDONLAD walks towards the door in a hesitant fashion,
then opens the door, looks around to find the letter on the
floor which she then picks up and slowly opens. She reads
the letter with a very anxious look on her face, when she
finishes she gasps, crunches the paper, looks around and
slams the door.
9. INT. WOODEN HUT- DAY
THE WIDOWER enters the hut while GRACE admires the picture
she has just put on the wall. She put up her hand slowly
gesturing to GRACE. GRACE stops smiling, returning to the
same expression as before and obeys THE WIDOWER and hold her
hand. They walk out of the hut together.
FADE OUT