Following Questions
1. Describe Howard's relationship with his wife.
2. Does Howard love his wife? Use specific examples of Howard's words, thoughts, and actions to support your answer.
3. Can the property line between Howard and his neighbor be considered a symbol? Why, or why not?
4. If the property line is a symbol, what about the neighbor girl's window, the flickering candle in her room, her black cotton panties? How important to the story are these objects? Do they appear more than once? Are they described in detail? Do they appear at climactic moments?
5. What details make clear the neighbor girl's attitude toward older men? What is the reason for her attitude? When does her attitude change?
6. For what reason does Beverly keep asking Howard if he'd like to go to bed? Characterize the tone of his response.
7. Note the religious diction, especially words like "beguiled," "iniquity," and "crucify." What does this language reveal about Beverly? What does it reveal about her view of her husband?
8. Sketch out the story using Freytag's Pyramid. Identify each point within the story (exposition, rising action, complication, climax, etc.).
9. What values animate Beverly's behavior and feelings? What values underlie Howard's treatment of her?
10. We never really know the cause of Howard's death. What do you think happened? How does it relate to the overall theme of the story?
11. Why is Chastity, the neighbor girl, aptly named?
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Author's Note
What student of literature hasn't been haunted by textbook questions you're assigned to answer at the end of a story?
This is my first story accepted for publication. It was scheduled to appear in The Quarterly, but The Q died and this story along with it. 5_Trope resurrected the piece in its second issue, but that issue is no longer available online.
Fictionaut is the third-time charm.
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I love the way this evokes the absent story, evokes the kind of reader the questions are made for, and at the same time indicates through a kind of relentless but patient blow-by-blow how such questions kill the object in order to interrogate it. Fine. And funny!
Stephanie took all the good answers so I can only concur. But I do.
Love the form of this story. The progression is nice and the play on the textbook question form produces humor. The last question is a superb way to end.
You must have just ran to the keyboard the moment this concept arrived to you. I would have. I would have tied on some New Balance running shoes and just made a straight shot. Great work. Just wonderful.