Discussion Question Choices, Week 3, Unit 2: Family

1. Consider the plot of "A Good Man is Hard to Find".  Readers often find the plot confusing and/or inaccessible, questioning the likelihood of the story and the "point" of the story. You must keep in mind that an author is certainly making a point . . . what you're often looking for is a linear narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end along with resolution of a recognizable conflict. Of course, there's a main conflict in this story, but there are also several others. Considering this, what is the major conflict here? Yes, it's the showdown  between the grandmother and the Misfit, but what is at stake here? What do you think O'Connor is trying to explore in this face off between a selfish old woman and a sociopath? You will need to consider the Misfit's motivations as well as the grandmother's. 

2.  Consider the imagery Hemphill uses in "Commitments". What do these images highlight or establish about the narrator? (Consider that the images are largely of other people).

3.  The speaker begins with the announcement "I will always be there", and yet later he says "I am the invisible son" (line 32). How can these two statements be reconciled? (554)

4. Consider the details the author provides in "A Chinese Banquet". What do these (largely image-driven) details establish in the poem? For example, we are told that the grandson is a dentist and drives a particular kind of car, specific dishes, etc.  Consider that these details are offered primarily in the first half of the poem but are largely absent from the second.

5. Consider the final stanza of  "A Chinese Banquet", which is highly symbolic (unlike most of the rest of the poem). Interpret these statements: "my back is healing" and "i dream of dragons and water". How do these elements help you understand the more literal aspects of the poem?

6. Focus on the final two lines of the poem "Heritage": "From my family I have learned the secrets/ of never having a home" (44-45). Use the information she offers throughout the poem to interpret this statement. Consider what her relatives have given to/left her and how these admissions adds up to her conclusion: "the secrets of never having a home".  What do you think she means by "secrets" here? Do you think she's speaking of a literal home, or do you see this as symbolic?

7. Ortiz Cofer packs a powerful punch in a very short poem.  Again, consider the last few lines: "Once she had made a pact with man and nature and kept it. Now like the sea/she is claiming back her territory" (15-17).  What is this "pact", and why is made with only men? Which territory is she claiming back? Lastly, how does the image/understanding of the sea reconcile with the notion of claiming territory? What does/will the sea claim as its own?

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A rather long but very informative lecture on O'Connor as a writer, her themes, etc. The lecturer quotes O'Connor on writing, on teachers, on English teachers, on the world, etc. Definitely worth a watch.

Short lecture on "Good Country People" (considers how O'Connor incorporates Christian themes in her work (he discusses  and focuses on how her works, read together, are far more revealing than a single reading of one story).