Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• A lot of the story takes place with characters on the move, whether this is on the subway, in a taxi, world travel, or walking the streets. What could this constant motion symbolize?
• Do you think the narrator sees potential in the boys he teaches or only sees their potentially rough futures?
• After leaving work, the narrator runs into one of Sonny’s old friends. What do you think this interaction symbolizes?
• There are short references to music scattered throughout the story, what do these inclusions add to the meaning of the story?
• Do you think that the narrator truly cares for his brother’s well being or is only in his life because of a moral family obligation?

period 2
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• How does the narrator deal with his suffering?
• Will Sonny relapse and start using drugs again?
• If everyone suffers and deals with their suffering individually, then is all expression an expression of suffering?
• Why do those who grew up in darkness and suffer because of it raise their children in the same darkness?
• How does Sonny and the narrator’s fraternal relationship affect their interactions and issues?

period 3
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• What do you think caused Sonny to start using drugs?
• What does the music being played symbolize at the end of the story?
• How does Grace dying have an impact on Sonny and the rest of the story?
• Do you think the story would be different if told from a different perspective?
• What is the correlation between the drink Sonny receives at the end of the story and his life?

Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of William Faulkner’s short story “Barn Burning.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• What’s the significance of the final line in the story?
• Considering he liked setting fires, why did Abner Snopes build such small fires on regular nights?
• What was Abner Snopes’ real involvement in the war? What does this mean about him? About his son’s view of him?
• What does Abner Snopes ruining the de Spains’ rug symbolize?
• Why does Faulkner continuously compare Abner Snopes to tin?

period 2
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• Consider the father’s relationship with wealth. His approach to the war seemed to indicate greed and materialism, yet his treatment of de Spain’s carpet points to a resentment of wealth. Do you think the father desires wealth? Why or why not? What other priorities interact with his desire for wealth, or lack therefore?
• While the battle between “blood” and “law” is one that permeates the entire story, the narrator has a clear shift between taking a beating for his family’s honor in the beginning and betraying his father in the end. What might have caused this shift?
• Faulkner opens the story with a description of the first court’s smell of cheese, filling the rest of the paragraph and even page with vivid descriptions of food and other sensory images that may seem tangential to the story. What purpose do these sensory descriptions serve?
• When Colonel Sartoris and his father come across the de Spain’s house, the boy is awestruck and forgets about most everything else. What does this reveal about Colonel Sartoris’s views of the world? His relationship & similarities/differences with his father?

period 3
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• Why was the son named Colonel Sartoris?
• Why did Abner Snopes lie about his role in the Civil War?
• Why did the father believe Colonel Sartoris Snopes would have told the judge? Why does he lie about his intentions even though he was not going to tell the judge what his father did?
• Why does Colonel Sartoris Snopes decide to run?
• In the end of “ Barn Burning” does Colonel Sartoris regret his decision to run?

Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of Haruki Murakami’s short story “The Elephant Vanishes.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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period 2
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• Can we really trust the words of the narrator?
• What does the relationship between the Elephant and Zookeeper represent?
• What really happened to the elephant at the end of the story?
• What happened to the narrator’s “balance” since the elephant’s disappearance?
• What does the story say about the relationship between balance and unity?

period 3
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• How does the relationship between the zookeeper and the elephant contribute to the story? And how does their relationship contrast that of the zookeeper and other kids visiting the zoo?
• How does the narrator’s conversation with the magazine editor woman alienate himself from both her and society?
• What does the elephant symbolize?
• The ending is very abrupt and does not solve the problem. Why do you think the author ends the story like this? And how is this a reflection of the narrator’s perspective?
• What does the elephant represent to the narrator? What does the elephant represent in society?

Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of Colette’s short story “Secret Woman.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• What purpose does the continual usage of colors and descriptions of the costumes serve in the story other than just simply describing disguises?
• Why do you think they both lied to each other?
• Who do you think is more in the wrong in this situation? The husband or the wife?
• Do you think the husband’s “decision” on what she’s doing is accurate?
• Do you think he should’ve told her or continued the one sided secrecy?

period 2
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• Why do you think Irene said she did not want to go to the opera ball but still ended up going?
• What do you think Colette is trying to say about Irene when she calls her a “pierrot”?
• Why do you think that the husband never confronted his wife?
• Do you think the wife knows that her husband has been spying on her?
• What are some power relationships in this text?

period 3
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Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• In the short story, there are characters who believe that the man with wings is an angel and characters who do not. Do you think the man is an angel?
• How is this magical world Marques has created reflective of modern society? Is she trying to highlight how people would treat a holy figure if it were present in our world today?
• When the angel gets the chicken pox, the doctor listens to his heart. What do you think the whistling in his heart and sounds in his kidneys is? Also, chicken pox is usually a sickness kids get, and the angel is a very old man. What does this say about the angel?
• The man is finally able to fly away at the end of the story. Do you think the family whom he stayed with was more helpful or hurtful? Did they help him recover, or make his recovery time longer?
• In the story, it is stated that a woman who disobeyed her parents was turned into a spider as punishment. In many cultures, spiders symbolize an increase of awareness. Do you think that Marquez kept this in mind when she decided to turn the woman into a spider? If not, why do you think she chose that specific insect?

period 2
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• How would the story be different if the Very Old Man had been a Very Little Baby?
• What impact does the combination of magical and ordinary details have on the reader?
• In the story why do they choose to include another supernatural creature in a spider person?
• How did the old man with enormous wings gain enough strength to fly out of the coup?

period 3
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• What do you think the crabs may symbolize?
• Do you think that religion had a major influence over the story and the belief among the people in the story?
• Why do you think that the couple mistreated the angel and had much antipathy towards him?
• Do you think that the old man with wings was an angel, a literal man who had wings, or something else?
• Why do you think that the old man with wings leaves at the end of the story? How was he able to flourish after being really run down?

Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of Octavia Butler’s short story “Bloodchild.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• What binaries are created through the dependence of the Terrans on T’Gatoi? How are they created?
• What are some parallels you can find between the Preserve and the role of T’Gatoi in their home? What rhetoric does Octavia Butler use to portray these parallels?
• To what extension is this a story about self-sacrifice and familial bonds?
• One of the main themes of the story is the interdependence of two very different species. What is an example of a similar interdependence in your own life?
• On page 28 and 29, Gan responds to T’Gatoi’s statement about protecting terrans by saying,“‘ Not protected,’ I said. ‘Shown. Shown when we’re young kids, and shown more than once.’” To what extent do you agree with Gan’s statement? Can this same sentiment be applied to our education system and how we expose kids to the evils of the world?

period 2
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• What type of planet do you think they live on? What do you think the land/environment looks like?
• What would you do if put in the same position as Gan? Would you fufill your “duty” even if you personally did not want to?
• Would you trust someone who took care of you like Qui, his brother or a someone like T’Gatoi?
• Have you had a person in your life that is as selfless as Gan and Gan’s mother?
• How important is family to you?

period 3
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• How could humans come to be dominated by this species?
• Why do the aliens have such human personalities and why do some have so much empathy for the humans?
• Does the mother refusing the eggs imply that she wants to die?
• Is the preserve the only place where humans are living or do they exist in other parts of this world?

Use the comment section for this post to engage in a discussion of Jennifer Egan’s short story “Black Box.”

To see your requirements and parameters for our discussion, see our Reading/Discussing Short Stories guidelines. Strive for a vigorous exchange, including debating differing interpretations, but always strive for mutual recognition of each other, working toward enhancing our collective understanding of the story.

Watch your period’s group presentation on the story and see the DQs below, if you are looking for inspiration.

period 1
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• Do you think her life went back to normal after she returned?
• What do you think would have happened if she used one of her devices wrong and her designated mate found out?
• Do you think she went on this voluntary mission to feel successful like her husband and father?
• Why do you think she chose now in her life to go be a spy?
• Do you think there is a secret society of spy beauties?

period 2
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• What does the author do in the story to ‘defamiliarize’ or create a sense of detachment? What does this potentially say about humanity in relation to either patriarchal society, traumatic experiences, or sacrificing for the greater good?
• Why do you think the author decided to publish this story in a series of tweets? What influence does this have on her writing and overall comprehension in readers? What about the various illustrations included throughout the story?
• Do you support the notion that this story is about feminism/female empowerment? Why or why not?
• This story does not align exactly with the stereotypical ‘sci-fi’ genre. Meaning, while it does feature advanced technology and alternative life situations, it still seems plausible in today’s society. This being said, what do you think the story could be an allegory or symbol of other than patriarchy?
• What difference does it make that the story is written in second-person narrative? How do you think this contributes to the paradox of the main character being a ‘black box’ and us readers seemingly reading her black box itself?

period 3
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• How does having the story in second-person perspective affect the theme?
• Before handing over the recording of her mission she can edit and delete personal thoughts, does she include these personal thoughts intentionally?
• How far is too far when it comes to patriotism?