JUSTICE
This week three short stories are assigned, two contemporary and one classic. Similar to last week, these stories have themes of revenge, murder, guilt, remorse, self-preservation, and justice.
The protagonists in all three stories are responsible for the death of another human being. Two of the protagonists are motivated by revenge and bury the bodies of their victims. Another two conceal their identities for reasons of self-preservation.
“The Briefcase” by Rebecca Makkai – pdf attached
“Clean” by Edward Delaney – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/clean/309149/
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe – pdf attached
Assignment 10 – 3 pages
Answer the following questions in complete sentences and/or short paragraphs. Support your responses with quotes from the stories and references to incidents and characters’ choices. No credit can be earned for undeveloped and unsupported responses Also, no credit will be allowed for answers that are not clearly numbered or that include AI sources.
- Assess the level of guilt the protagonists in “The Briefcase,” “Clean,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” display. What options were open to these protagonists to avoid committing their inhumane acts?
- What is the function of the briefcase in Makkai’s story? How does it drive the plot?
- Cite textual evidence in the story that the chef protagonist in “The Briefcase” begins to believe his own lie after he assumes the identity of the professor.
- Why is the story entitled “Clean.” Find and cite specific passages it connects to. Be sure to look at the ending as well.
- What are the effects of the murder on Clean’s narrator and his failure to confess? How has the incident changed his life? Explain the story’s ending–does he confess or will he confess?
- What motivates Edgar Allan Poe’s Montresor in his search for revenge? Provide specific evidence from the story.
- Poe’s first-person narrator, Montresor relates the story, “half a century” later. Is Montresor, a reliable character? Is he sane? Now that (as narrator) he is over ninety years of age, has his attitude changed toward his gruesome act?
Discussion 10 – 1 page
Discuss two or more of the following and respond to other students (but only to add substance to the discussion). Unless you have a new perspective on a question already explored, please move on to another. There is no need to refer to sources. These questions are asking for your personal response not for artificial intelligence.
1. Do you think the protagonist in “The Briefcase” was justified in allowing the professor to be taken prisoner to fill his place in the chain gang?
2. Is “Clean’s” protagonist a victim of circumstances or is he a master of his own fate?
3. What motivated Montresor to bury his friend Fortunato alive? Do you consider Montresor sane?
4. With the last words of the story “Clean”: “all of us with our own given histories,” the protagonist seems to imply that many people go through comparable experiences. How typical a person does the protagonist strike you to be? Is he unusually bad? Can you sympathize with him?