ENH 110

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ENH 110 Tone and Style in Fiction or Fun with
Ernie and Bill
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Ernest Hemingway
1899-1960 Biography
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A Clean, Well Lighted Place
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Discussion Questions
The story presents a study in contrasts discuss
your view on the following

Youth and age
Belief and doubt
Light and darkness
Selfishness and Compassion
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In terms of tone and style, how would you
contrast A Clean, Well Lighted Place and Barn
Burning?
Faulkners tone excited fiery fervid emotional s
pirited
Hemingways tone unexcitable dispassionate impass
ive emotionless sober
Hemingways style laconic terse pithy concise mon
osyllabic
Faulkners style voluble / lofty pleonastic verbo
se abstract polysyllabic
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What is Hemingways purpose for repeating, so
many times, the word nada?
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Do you think the author, through the narrator,
thinks that one of the waiters has a more
acceptable philosophy?
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Possible Theme for A Clean, Well-lighted Place
Wth a focus on the Life vs.. Nada conflict old
man vs.. impending nothingness and old waiter
vs.. impending nothingness
While aging brings, to most, an eclectic array of
coping mechanisms for death, some people with
little religious faith may seek to approach the
impending void (death) by clinging to
environments that offer solace in times of
despair such comfort may effect in them a keener
sense of compassion, sensitivity to others, human
connectedness, ritual, honor, stoic endurance,
and dignity.
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William Faulkner
1897-1962 Biography
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Barn Burning
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Although, most critics would admit, Barn
Burning is primarily about the young Sarty
Snopes and our progressive recognition of the
intensity of his dichotomy, there are some who
see Abner Snopes not as a demonic villain but as
someone to be pitied because of his being chained
to such extreme poverty they see his indentured
servitude as the force driving his justified
rebellion against the Aristocracy, represented by
the DeSpains. What are your thoughts on
his character?
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(No Transcript)
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Discussion Questions
Like A P and Greasy Lake, Barn Burning
is an initiation story. What is it that young
Sarty has learned by the end of the story?
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Of what importance is the DeSpain house to Sarty?
Is it tied to his dilemma in any way?
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From what you remember of Faulkners style in A
Rose for Emily, contrast that technique with his
narrative structuring of Barn Burning. Does he
differ in diction? arrangement of
events? sentence structure?
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Faulkner uses many very long sentences in his
story, particularly in paragraphs 1, 15, 16, 27,
41, 42, 47, 82, 85, 91, 101,
and 107 What effect did they
have on you and your understanding of Sartys
dilemma?
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He could not hear either the galloping mare was
almost upon him before he heard her, and even
then he held his course, as if the very urgency
of his wild grief and need must in a moment more
find him wings, waiting until the ultimate
instant to hurl himself aside and into the
weed-choked roadside ditch as the horse thundered
past and on, for an instant in furious
silhouette against the stars, the tranquil early
summer night sky which, even before the shape of
the horse and rider vanished, stained abruptly
and violently upward a long, swirling roar
incredible and soundless, blotting the stars, and
he springing up and into the road again, running
again, knowing it was too late yet still running
even after he heard the shot and, an instant
later, two shots, pausing now without knowing he
had ceased to run, crying "Pap! Pap!," running
again before he knew he had begun to run,
stumbling, tripping over something and scrabbling
up again without ceasing to run, looking
backward over his shoulder at the glare as he
got up, running on among the invisible trees,
panting, sobbing, "Father! Father! (from
paragraph 107, about 215 words)
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Possible Theme for Barn Burning based on an
analysis of the primary conflicts protagonist
vs. self, protagonist vs. kin
For a young, uneducated, dilemma-stricken man who
is trapped in a life governed by an abusive and
intransigent patriarch--one who tyrannically
espouses a view that blood ties (kinship) must
supplant even truth and justice--the path to
maturation and self-actualization may begin with
his freeing himself from the chains of parental
dictates in an effort to cease inimical behavior.
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FIN