Short+Stories

Short Stories

"The Demon Lover" 1. The most important element of any plot is usually conflict. Describe the conflict in the story; is it //internal// or //external//? 2. What information about the relationship between Mrs. Drover and her former fiancé do you learn from the flashback? 3. Mrs. Drover cannot remember her fiancé’s face, but she does remember being with him. What are her memories? 4. Mrs. Drover thinks of a way she can get all her things safely. What is her plan? 5. Describe the climax. 6. What details help create suspense in the story?
 * internal
 * fighting against her own fear
 * He left for the war
 * He wasn't kind to her
 * He went missing
 * Her family didn't like him
 * feeling his button which cut her hand
 * saying "goodbye"
 * Call a taxi, however, there's no phone
 * Goes to square and get a taxi and taxi driver would help her with her stuff
 * When she is in the taxi and the driver slams on the breaks and her head goes through the window and she is face to face with the "demon"
 * She's paranoid
 * The rain
 * She was alone
 * WWII
 * London's empty (no-one can hear her)

"The Masque of the Red Death" By Edgar Allen Poe

FOCUS- Setting &Atmosphere -The general mood or feeling established in a work of literature

hwall- safety/protection
 * 1) What is the Red Death? Describe the symptoms.
 * symbol for the Black Death
 * sharp pains, sudden dizziness, pores filled with blood, dissolution
 * 1) Why did Prince Prospero gather his friends to court? How many did he invite?
 * 1,000 friends to his court
 * His castle would provide protection from the Red Death
 * 1) How many rooms were in the castle? What was the color of each?
 * 7 rooms (Blue, Purple, Green, Orange, White, Violet, & Black/Red)
 * 7th room had ebony clock
 * 1) Is the seventh room significant? Why/why not? Explain
 * Everything was black and had red windows
 * 1) Describe what happened in the seventh room during the masquerade ball.
 * Clock struck 12-Midnight, stranger shows up in black room
 * Masked figure disappears
 * Red Death was personified
 * 1) What symbols are prevalent in the story? Explain each.

h“7”- luck, deadly sins, years of man (God’s plan for a person’s life)

hColor- Sunrise-Sunset, course of a day, course of life, birth to death

hRed- Blood (death), evil, hate

hBlack- Midnight

hMidnight- turning point, good to bad, mischief, beginning/end

hFlames- (going out) life to death

hClock- time in life

hEbony- Precious (precious time in life)
 * 1) How did Poe use setting and atmosphere to his advantage in this story?
 * Colors
 * Time
 * Ebony

"Harrison Bergeron" Kurt Vonnegut FOCUS~Irony/Satire

harison wears scrap metal, ear buds, spectacles w/ wavy lenses, rubber ball on nose black caps on teeth
 * 1) Describe who the Bergeron family is and what their life is like?
 * harrison-14yrs 7ft smart and strong
 * george-smart and wears gov. handicaps.
 * hazel- Dumb has no handicaps
 * 1) What handicaps have been given to those of superior intelligence?
 * If you are smart you have ear buds
 * harison wears scrap metal, ear buds, spectacles w/ wavy lenses, rubber ball on nose black caps on teeth
 * 1) How are superior strength and athletic ability reduced to “average” level?
 * they wear sand bags and weights
 * 1) What handicaps does Harrison wear?
 * 1) What occurs on the television program the Bergerons are watching?
 * watching ballerinas
 * emergency broadcast and harison is in it
 * 1) What suggests that the ballerina is a fitting mate for Harrison?
 * very handicapped
 * steps up to the plate
 * graceful and strong
 * graceful and strong


 * 1) What happens to the new Emperor and Empress?
 * 1st danced then got shot by the handicapped general
 * 1) What makes the climax so surprising?
 * because the climax failed
 * 1) What is ironic about Harrison’s heroism?
 * the hero usually overcomes but does not in this story

1. What's ironic about the term "finally equal"?
 * they are not equal. you can tell their inequalities by their handicaps

"The Bet"

Sentences:
 * 1) Sometimes at night he would sit down to write, he would spend hours writing and in the morning, tear up all that he had written.
 * 2) The death sentence and the life sentence are equally immoral and if I had to choose between death penalty and sentence for life I would choose the second one. //
 * 3) The state is not God, it does not have the right to take away what it cannot return when it wants to.
 * 4) Capital punishment kills a man at once but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. /
 * 5) Which executioner is more humane, the one who kills you in a few minutes or the one who drags it out for years? /
 * 6) You have taken lies for truth and hideousness for beauty.
 * 7) In the opinion of some of them the death penalty must be replaced everywhere with imprisonment for life.
 * 8) You stake your millions and I stake my freedom.
 * 9) If I do pay him, it should be all over with me, I will be utterly ruined.
 * 10) I'll bet you two million you wouldn't stay in solitary confinement for five years. //
 * 11) If you name that in earnest, I would take the bet but stay not five but fifteen years.
 * 12) To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million that I once dreamed of as paradise and which now I despise. ///
 * 13) I have not tried the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priority, the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life.
 * 14) To life anyhow is better than to live not at all.

Phrases:
 * 1) Capital punishment kills a man
 * 2) I'll bet you /
 * 3) I despise freedom and life
 * 4) You won't stay longer
 * 5) The state is not god
 * 6) Both are equally immoral //
 * 7) Your books have given me wisdom
 * 8) Drags the life out of you
 * 9) If you mean that in earnest
 * 10) It is all worthless
 * 11) Desires are the worst of foes
 * 12) I despise your books
 * 13) You've lost your reason
 * 14) Lifelong imprisonment kills you slowly
 * 15) It's not true
 * 16) Tomorrow at 12 o'clock
 * 17) I shall be utterly ruined
 * 18) Which now I despise
 * 19) Unearthly happiness my soul feels

Words:
 * 1) Imprisonment
 * 2) Despise
 * 3) Wisdom /
 * 4) Life //
 * 5) Pay
 * 6) Emotionless
 * 7) Happiness
 * 8) Freedom /
 * 9) Punishment /
 * 10) Prisoner /
 * 11) Paradise
 * 12) Death
 * 13) Confinement
 * 14) Suffered
 * 15) Books
 * 16) Money
 * 17) Cursed