Incoming Pre-AP English II: Discussion Boards for "The Bet" and "The Yellow Pill"

9/26 Update: At this point all responses need to be made on paper. Please submit your COMPLETE (not partial) responses when all 12 questions have been answered.

This is the final set of discussion questions, but if there are any questions from previous weeks you haven't yet completed, please take care of them this week. I look forward to meeting you a week from Monday.

The Bet by Anton Chekhov (listen here)

• Character: Discuss how Chekhov uses the words, actions, and appearances of the banker and the lawyer to give his readers clues about his characters' states of mind? Identify specific examples from the story.


• Conflict:
  1. Identify the original argument from the beginning of the story.
  
  
  2. How does the conflict change throughout the story?
  
  
  3. What is the conflict at the end of the story?
  
  
  4. Is there a resolution to this conflict? If so, what is it? If not, why not?
  
  Discuss.


• Irony: Irony is defined as the gap between what is expected and what actually occurs. Discuss the irony in this story.


• Theme: What does the lawyer learn from his experience being locked up for so long? What are we supposed to learn from this story? Discuss.


• Resolution: Who won the bet? Is it possible for both to lose the bet? Is it possible for both to win? Discuss.

Alternate Project: Substitute this assignment for "The Bet" for answering the above (or below) questions.


The Yellow Pill by Rog Phillips

• Personification: At one point in the story Jerry tells Gar/Cedric "'You know as well as I do, Gar, how space madness causes you to personify everything.'" Discuss what he means by this and how it differs from what we usually think of personification. Use examples.


• Simile: At another point in the story Jerry tells Gar/Cedric that "'one of us has to be nuttier than a fruitcake." What does that expression literally mean? What connotations and/or secondary definitions do the words "nuttier" and "fruitcake" carry? Why is this appropriate? Discuss.


• Allusion: Discuss the significance that Helena's allusion to Napoleon ("'Napoleon was obviously insane because he thought he was Napoleon.'") carries in the overall scheme of the story?


• Alliteration: Just like James Joyce's story "Araby," Phillips ends this story with significant alliteration. What alliteration exists in the final paragraph? What connotations do those words carry? (Don't just explain what they literally mean.) What, if anything, does the repetition of sound suggest or reinforce about Gar's character? Discuss.


• Irony: In the middle of the story "Dr. Elton" says "'"I remember [telling Helena that she couldn't date him]…. A nice pat rationalization in any man's reality to make the rejection be my own before you could have time to reject me yourself. Preserving the ego is the first principle of madness.'" Discuss the way(s) this is ironic. What other ironies exist in the story?