Short Stories Readings & Questions Week 9
Ellison A Party at the Square Discussion Questions
What is the meaning of this quote? How does it apply to society today? “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.”
What is the theme, setting, and plot in “A Party Down at the Square” by Ralph Ellison?
What is the conflict, moment of crisis, and peripety in Ralph Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square”?
Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
Discussion Questions
Discuss the mother (the narrator) in this story. What kind of person is she? How does she seem to feel about Dee? About Maggie?
Do the narrator’s language and grammatical usage match the picture she paints of herself?
What elements prepare the reader for Dee before she arrives on the scene?
How did Dee relate to her family before she left home? What role did she assume for herself? Does this change after she leaves home?
How do you feel about Dee? Do you sympathize with her desire to “improve” herself and her family? Where do you think she goes wrong?
Discuss the relationship between Maggie and Dee.
What is suggested by Dee’s prolonged picture-taking with her Polaroid? Her kissing her mother on the forehead?
Why has Dee assumed African dress, hairstyle, and name? How would you characterize the attitudes of her and her new husband/boyfriend toward their race? Positive or negative? Honest or simply “politically correct”?
Discuss Dee’s mother’s and sister’s reactions to her new persona, “Wangero.” Do you sympathize with them?
How would you describe the way that Dee reacts to the food and objects in her mother’s house?
Why does Mrs. Johnson decide to stand up to Dee and not allow her to take the quilts at the end of the story?
Why do you think Maggie is so content at the end?
Could this story just as well have been about a white mother and her daughters? Aside from the African or Muslim names, does anything distinguish Dee’s relations with her mother and Maggie as especially black? If not, is that a strength of the story, or a weakness?
