1)”A Rose for Emily”
One of the aspects of “A Rose for Emily” that makes a first read of it difficult for some is that Faulkner doesn’t create a chronological telling of the story. In order to follow the sequence of events, the reader must recreate that sequence. (In general, Faulkner likes to play with the telling of the tale a bit; his novels often offer a similar challenge.) I’d be interested, as a starting place, hearing about the challenge of the text. I’d also like you to think some about the narrator; (here we have a first person plural narrator–a bit unusual because it’s a plural we). (You should refer to the glossary for more information about narrators—and I’ve included it below.) Consider, though, who is telling us the story. In what ways does that control what we know? In what ways does this narrator reveal things that another type of narrator wouldn’t reveal?
2)“The Story of an Hour”
We’re going to start off this discussion by looking at Mrs. Mallard’s character. We know, from the information at the start (exposition) that she has a heart condition, and we expect she’ll die when she hears about her husband. However, she doesn’t. Share your reactions about what happens to her instead.
