Notes

“Spunk” by Zora Neale Hurston
Double meaning of title
Dialect
Gender roles
Gothic elements (ghosts can fight)
Bobcat = dead guy
Spunk died “too wicket-died cussin’ “
Traditions
Lamentations over the dead
Funeral feast
Gender Issues
Spunk and Lena
Woman as property and prize
“Spunk’s crazy ‘bout Lena..don’t want folks to keep on talkin’ ‘bout her”
Women wonder who would be Lena’s next man
Interpretation
Story can be interpreted as a cautionary tale against sins of a man like Spunk:
Lust, greed, pride, blasphemy, deceit, adultery, lying

Notice that as a ghost, Joe Kanty has “spunk” – feistiness, nerve
Story seems pretty realistic at first, but becomes a ghost story

“Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway
Story seems to be mostly pointless dialogue
Understatement – underneath the chatter is the unnamed male speaker trying to get Jig, a woman, to get an abortion that she does not want.
Man manipulates the woman to get the procedure
“Hills”
Man – literal minded, irritable, unthinking of her feelings
Woman-sensitive, emotional, distances herself from him .
Woman’s choices are like the landscape – she can face a dry, sterile landscape or a peaceful fertile place.
Suggestiveness of symbolic images
Setting of a railroad junction reinforces the crossroads that the woman is facing
Paper Two
Remember to select one story from the ones that are on the syllabus.
Discuss how setting and point of view contribute to the theme of the story.
Remember that point of view can be tricky.
Be sure you are prepared to argue your interpretation and the details that you selected to explain it.