25 Jan What examples of foreshadowing do you note in Updike’s story “A & P”?
For this discussion, please read “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “Girl.” Please respond to “one” of the following questions
1. What examples of foreshadowing do you note in Updike’s story “A & P”? How do these moments hint at the decision Sammy makes at the end of the story?
2. What is the central conflict of “A&P”? To what extent is the conflict external and to what extent is it internal?
3. What do we learn about Sammy in the next to last paragraph? What does Sammy seem to realize in the last two paragraphs? Do we realize anything in these last two paragraphs that changes our understanding of the story?
4. What are some conflicts evident in “Girl”? What is the effect of the way these conflicts are revealed? What is the relationship between the form of the story and the conflicts of it?
5. Does “Girl” have a plot? Explain your answer.
6. What is the central conflict of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” To what extent is it external (between Connie and other characters) and to what extent is it internal (within Connie)? Through what details is it revealed?
7. What is the significance of Connie’s getting into the car with Arnold at the end of the story? What details from the story support your reading?
8. Identify moments of recognition or reversal in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and explain how they work. Consider what the reader realizes, what Connie realizes, and how the two relate to each other.
9. Short stories typically have little exposition; that is, they don’t spend a lot of time providing background information on their characters, settings, or situations. Sammy in “A & P,” for example, doesn’t tell us anything directly about his history, character, family background, etc., though we can infer some of these things. Pick one of the stories read for Week One, and discuss how the absence of such exposition–the things we are not told–help shape our experience of reading the story. In reading this story, do you wish you knew more, or is the lack of exposition important to the story’s effect?
