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Discussion 1.2
The Blue Flower by Henry Van Dyke
The parents were abed and sleeping. The clock on the wall ticked loudly and lazily, as if it had time to spare. Outside the rattling windows there was a restless, whispering wind. The room grew light, and dark, and wondrous light again, as the moon played hide-and-seek through the clouds. The boy, wide-awake and quiet in his bed, was thinking of the Stranger and his stories.
"It was not what he told me about the treasures," he said to himself, "that was not the thing which filled me with so strange a longing. I am not greedy for riches. But the Blue Flower is what I long for. I can think of nothing else. Never have I felt so before. It seems as if I had been dreaming until now--or as if I had just slept over into a new world.
"Who cared for flowers in the old world where I used to live? I never heard of anyone whose whole heart was set upon finding a flower. But now I cannot even tell all that I feel--sometimes as happy as if I were enchanted. But when the flower fades from me, when I cannot see it in my mind, then it is like being very thirsty and all alone. That is what the other people could not understand.
"Once upon a time, they say, the animals and the trees and the flowers used to talk to people. It seems to me, every minute, as if they were just going to begin again. When I look at them I can see what they want to say. There must be a great many words that I do not know; if I knew more of them perhaps I could understand things better. I used to love to dance, but now I like better to think after the music."
Gradually the boy lost himself in sweet fancies, and suddenly he found himself again, in the charmed land of sleep. He wandered in far countries, rich and strange; he traversed wild waters with incredible swiftness; marvellous creatures appeared and vanished; he lived with all sorts of men, in battles, in whirling crowds, in lonely huts. He was cast into prison. He fell into dire distress and want. All experiences seemed to be sharpened to an edge. He felt them keenly, yet they did not harm him. He died and came alive again; he loved to the height of passion, and then was parted forever from his beloved. At last, toward morning, as the dawn was stealing near, his soul grew calm, and the pictures showed more clear and firm.
It seemed as if he were walking alone through the deep woods. Seldom the daylight shimmered through the green veil. Soon he came to a rocky gorge in the mountains. Under the mossy stones in the bed of the stream, he heard the water secretly tinkling downward, ever downward, as he climbed upward.
The forest grew thinner and lighter. He came to a fair meadow on the slope of the mountain. Beyond the meadow was a high cliff, and in the face of the cliff an opening like the entrance to a path. Dark was the way, but smooth, and he followed easily on till he came near to a vast cavern from which a flood of radiance streamed to meet him.
As he entered he beheld a mighty beam of light which sprang from the ground, shattering itself against the roof in countless sparks, falling and flowing all together into a great pool in the rock. Brighter was the light-beam than molten gold, but silent in its rise, and silent in its fall. The sacred stillness of a shrine, a never-broken hush of joy and wonder, filled the cavern. Cool was the dripping radiance that softly trickled down the walls, and the light that rippled from them was pale blue.
But the pool, as the boy drew near and watched it, quivered and glanced with the ever-changing colours of a liquid opal. He dipped his hands in it and wet his lips. It seemed as if a lively breeze passed through his heart.
He felt an irresistible desire to bathe in the pool. Slipping off his clothes he plunged in. It was as if he bathed in a cloud of sunset. A celestial rapture flowed through him. The waves of the stream were like a bevy of nymphs taking shape around him, clinging to him with tender breasts, as he floated onward, lost in delight, yet keenly sensitive to every impression. Swiftly the current bore him out of the pool, into a hollow in the cliff. Here a dimness of slumber shadowed his eyes, while he felt the pressure of the loveliest dreams.
When he awoke again, he was aware of a new fulness of light, purer and steadier than the first radiance. He found himself lying on the green turf, in the open air, beside a little fountain, which sparkled up and melted away in silver spray. Dark-blue were the rocks that rose at a little distance, veined with white as if strange words were written upon them. Dark-blue was the sky, and cloudless.
All passion had dissolved away from him; every sound was music; every breath was peace; the rocks were like sentinels protecting him; the sky was like a cup of blessing full of tranquil light.
But what charmed him most, and drew him with resistless power, was a tall, clear-blue flower, growing beside the spring, and almost touching him with its broad, glistening leaves. Round about were many other flowers, of all hues. Their odours mingled in a perfect chord of fragrance. He saw nothing but the Blue Flower.
Long and tenderly he gazed at it, with unspeakable love. At last he felt that he must go a little nearer to it, when suddenly it began to move and change. The leaves glistened more brightly, and drew themselves up closely around the swiftly growing stalk. The flower bent itself toward him, and the petals showed a blue, spreading necklace of sapphires, out of which the lovely face of a girl smiled softly into his eyes. His sweet astonishment grew with the wondrous transformation.
All at once he heard his mother's voice calling him, and awoke in his parents' room, already flooded with the gold of the morning sun.
NOW ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN AT LEAST ONE FULL SENTENCE EACH:
Questions on “The Blue Flower”
1.“The Blue Flower” is a composition of description. Write down a quote from the text to prove this is a composition of description.
2.“The Blue Flower” is also a composition of narration. Write down a quote from the text to prove this is a composition of narration.
3.This text begins in the real world. At what point is there a transition to the dream world? Quote the sentence where you think this transition occurs.
4. What kind of person does the dreamer seem to be? Note especially sentences which refer to his feelings and how he reacts based on his emotions.
5.This text might also well be called “Expectation.” How does the idea of “expectation” relate to the dream of the young man?
6.In his introduction to "The Blue Flower," the American writer Henry Van Dyke notes that "The Blue Flower . . . I have used here to signify happiness, the satisfaction of the heart." How does the blue flower represent happiness? Could it symbolize anything else?
Discussion 2.1
Narration The first two weeks we are focusing on description (what something looks like using adjectives) and narration (reporting an event or telling a story). Last week we looked at “The Blue Flower,” which contained a blend of description and narration. The text which follows is almost entirely narration. Read this short story and answer the prompt which follows:
The Queen of the Bees Brothers Grimm
Two kings’ sons once went into the world to seek their fortunes, but they soon fell into a wasteful foolish way of living, so that they could not return home again. Their third and youngest brother, who was called Witling, had remained behind and went out to seek for his brothers: but when he had found them, they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who were so much wiser, had been unsuccessful. However, they all three set out on their journey together, and came at last to an ant-hill. The two elder brothers would have pulled it down, in order to see how the poor ants in their fright would run about and carry off their eggs. Yet Witling said, “Let the poor things enjoy themselves, I will not suffer you to trouble them.
So on they went, and came to a lake where many, many ducks were swimming about. The two brothers wanted to catch two, and roast them. But Witling said, “Let the poor things enjoy themselves. You shall not kill them. “Next they came to a bees’-nest in a hollow tree, and there was so much honey in it that it ran down the trunk; and the two brothers wanted to light a fire under the tree and kill the bees, so as to get their honey. Yet Witling held them back, and said, “Let the pretty insects enjoy themselves, I cannot let you burn them.”
At length, the three brothers came to a castle: and as they passed by the stables they saw fine horses standing there, but all were of marble, and no man was to be seen. Then they went through all the rooms, until they came to a door on which were three locks: but in the middle of the door was a small opening, so that they could look into the next room. There they saw a little grey-haired old man sitting at a table; they called to him once or twice, but he did not hear: however, they called a third time, and then he rose and came out to them.
He said nothing, but took hold of them and led them to a beautiful table covered with all sorts of good things. When they had eaten and drunk, he showed each of them to a bed-chamber.
The next morning he came to the eldest brother and waved him over to a marble table, where there were three tablets, containing an account of the means by which the castle could be freed from its enchantment. The first tablet said: “In the wood, under the moss, lie the thousand pearls belonging to the princess; they must all be found: and if one is still missing by sunset, he who seeks them will be turned into marble.”
The eldest brother set out, and sought for the pearls the whole day: but the evening came, and he had not found the first hundred: so he was turned into stone as the tablet had foretold.
The next day the second brother undertook the task, but he succeeded no better than the first, for he could only find the second hundred pearls; therefore, he, too, was turned into stone.
At last came Witling’s turn, and he looked in the moss; but it was so hard to find the pearls, and the job was so tiresome! He sat down upon a stone and cried. As he sat there, the king of the ants (whose life he had saved) came to help him, with five thousand ants; and it was not long before they had found all the pearls and laid them in a heap.
The second tablet said: “The key of the princess’s bed-chamber must be fished up out of the lake.” When Witling came to the lake, he saw the two ducks whose lives he had saved swimming about; they dived down and soon brought up the key from the bottom.
The third task was the hardest. It was to choose the youngest and the best of the three princesses. Now they were all beautiful, and all exactly alike: but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of sugar, the next some sweet syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; so he had to guess which it was that had eaten the honey.
Then came the queen of the bees, whom Witling had protected from the fire, and she tried the lips of all three; at last she sat upon the lips of the one that had eaten the honey. In this way, Witling knew which was the youngest. Thus the spell which had been placed on the castle was broken, and all who had been turned into marble awoke, and took their proper forms. Then Witling married the youngest and the loveliest of the princesses and became king after her father’s death, but his two brothers had to put up with the other two sisters.
PARAGRAPH TOPIC:
Write a paragraph of at least six sentences addressing the following issues. In your response, you must use one quote from the story. Your quote must be different from all students who posted before you.
Like a folktale, the above story by the Brothers Grimm seems stark in its lack of detail and in the swiftness in the storytelling. Compared with the fully portrayed character of many modern stories, the characters of the brothers, the princesses, and the old man seem very undeveloped. Yet “The Queen of the Bees” is a compelling story. By what methods does it arouse and sustain the reader’s interest? Also, the title “The Queen of the Bees” seems a little misplaced. After all, the bees are a minor part of the story. Come up with an original title of the story. Your title must be different from titles of your fellow students.
Discussion 2.2
SPATIAL ORDER DESCRIPTION WRITING
Before writing this description paragraph, please be aware of an order of writing which will help the reader visualize the picture. If we list the items in the picture randomly (the the goblet, the sky, the ground, and the like), we are being accurate about what is in the picture. For the reader to visualize the picture, however, we need to describe the picture using some orderly direction. This is where spatial order comes in, for spatial order describes a picture or scene in a particular direction--going from left to right, right to left, top to bottom, or near to far. It usually does not matter how, but breaking down the spatial information into a particular direction will better enable he reader to imagine the picture much as you see it. Also remember to use adjectives in your description (colors, sizes, and shapes).
Description Writing: Spatial Order Paragraph
The above painting is called The Titan's Goblet. The painter is Thomas Cole.
Directions: In one paragraph of at least seven sentences, describe this picture using spatial order. Make sure your paragraph has a topic sentence as well as a concluding sentence. The supporting sentences in the paragraph must contain description and objective information. The concluding sentence can be your opinion about the picture (the picture is sad, the picture is happy, etc.)
Discussion 3.1
She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little clerk in the Ministry of Education. Her tastes were simple because she had never been able to afford any other, but she was as unhappy as though she had married beneath her; for women have no caste or class, their beauty, grace, and charm serving them for birth or family, their natural delicacy, their instinctive elegance, their nimbleness of wit, are their only mark of rank, and put the slum girl on a level with the highest lady in the land.
She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house, from its mean walls, worn chairs, and ugly curtains. All these things, of which other women of her class would not even have been aware, tormented and insulted her. The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind. She imagined silent antechambers, heavy with Oriental tapestries, lit by torches in lofty bronze sockets, with two tall footmen in knee-breeches sleeping in large arm-chairs, overcome by the heavy warmth of the stove. She imagined vast saloons hung with antique silks, exquisite pieces of furniture supporting priceless ornaments, and small, charming, perfumed rooms, created just for little parties of intimate friends, men who were famous and sought after, whose homage roused every other woman's envious longings.
When she sat down for dinner at the round table covered with a three-days-old cloth, opposite her husband, who took the cover off the soup-tureen, exclaiming delightedly: "Aha! Scotch broth! What could be better?" she imagined delicate meals, gleaming silver, tapestries peopling the walls with folk of a past age and strange birds in faery forests; she imagined delicate food served in marvellous dishes, murmured gallantries, listened to with an inscrutable smile as one trifled with the rosy flesh of trout or wings of asparagus chicken.
She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing. And these were the only things she loved; she felt that she was made for them. She had longed so eagerly to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after.
She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home. She would weep whole days, with grief, regret, despair, and misery.
*
One evening her husband came home with an exultant air, holding a large envelope in his hand.
"Here's something for you," he said.
Swiftly she tore the paper and drew out a printed card on which were these words:
The Minister of Education and Madame Ramponneau request the pleasure of the company of Monsieur and Madame Loisel at the Ministry on the evening of Monday, the 18th of January.
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she flung the invitation petulantly across the table, murmuring:
"What do you want me to do with this?"
"Why, darling, I thought you'd be pleased. You never go out, and this is a great occasion. I had tremendous trouble to get it. Every one wants one; it's very select, and very few go to the clerks. You'll see all the really big people there."
She looked at him out of furious eyes, and said impatiently: "And what do you suppose I am to wear at such an affair?"
He had not thought about it; he stammered:
"Why, the dress you go to the theatre in. It looks very nice, to me . . ."
He stopped, stupefied and utterly at a loss when he saw that his wife was beginning to cry. Two large tears ran slowly down from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her mouth.
"What's the matter with you? What's the matter with you?" he faltered.
But with a violent effort she overcame her grief and replied in a calm voice, wiping her wet cheeks:
"Nothing. Only I haven't a dress and so I can't go to this party. Give your invitation to some friend of yours whose wife will be turned out better than I shall."
He was heart-broken.
"Look here, Mathilde," he persisted. "What would be the cost of a suitable dress, which you could use on other occasions as well, something very simple?"
She thought for several seconds, reckoning up prices and also wondering for how large a sum she could ask without bringing upon herself an immediate refusal and an exclamation of horror from the careful-minded clerk.
At last she replied with some hesitation:
"I don't know exactly, but I think I could do it on four hundred francs."
He grew slightly pale, for this was exactly the amount he had been saving for a gun, intending to get a little shooting next summer on the plain of Nanterre with some friends who went lark-shooting there on Sundays.
Nevertheless he said: "Very well. I'll give you four hundred francs. But try and get a really nice dress with the money."
The day of the party drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy and anxious. Her dress was ready, however. One evening her husband said to her:
"What's the matter with you? You've been very odd for the last three days."
"I'm utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear," she replied. "I shall look absolutely no one. I would almost rather not go to the party."
"Wear flowers," he said. "They're very smart at this time of the year. For ten francs you could get two or three gorgeous roses."
She was not convinced.
"No . . . there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women."
"How stupid you are!" exclaimed her husband. "Go and see Madame Forestier and ask her to lend you some jewels. You know her quite well enough for that."
She uttered a cry of delight.
"That's true. I never thought of it."
Next day she went to see her friend and told her her trouble.
Madame Forestier went to her dressing-table, took up a large box, brought it to Madame Loisel, opened it, and said:
"Choose, my dear."
First she saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian cross in gold and gems, of exquisite workmanship. She tried the effect of the jewels before the mirror, hesitating, unable to make up her mind to leave them, to give them up. She kept on asking:
"Haven't you anything else?"
"Yes. Look for yourself. I don't know what you would like best."
Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously. Her hands trembled as she lifted it. She fastened it round her neck, upon her high dress, and remained in ecstasy at sight of herself.
Then, with hesitation, she asked in anguish:
"Could you lend me this, just this alone?"
"Yes, of course."
She flung herself on her friend's breast, embraced her frenziedly, and went away with her treasure. The day of the party arrived. Madame Loisel was a success. She was the prettiest woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling, and quite above herself with happiness. All the men stared at her, inquired her name, and asked to be introduced to her. All the Under-Secretaries of State were eager to waltz with her. The Minister noticed her.
She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a cloud of happiness made up of this universal homage and admiration, of the desires she had aroused, of the completeness of a victory so dear to her feminine heart.
She left about four o'clock in the morning. Since midnight her husband had been dozing in a deserted little room, in company with three other men whose wives were having a good time. He threw over her shoulders the garments he had brought for them to go home in, modest everyday clothes, whose poverty clashed with the beauty of the ball-dress. She was conscious of this and was anxious to hurry away, so that she should not be noticed by the other women putting on their costly furs.
Loisel restrained her.
"Wait a little. You'll catch cold in the open. I'm going to fetch a cab."
But she did not listen to him and rapidly descended the staircase. When they were out in the street they could not find a cab; they began to look for one, shouting at the drivers whom they saw passing in the distance.
They walked down towards the Seine, desperate and shivering. At last they found on the quay one of those old nightprowling carriages which are only to be seen in Paris after dark, as though they were ashamed of their shabbiness in the daylight.
It brought them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and sadly they walked up to their own apartment. It was the end, for her. As for him, he was thinking that he must be at the office at ten.
She took off the garments in which she had wrapped her shoulders, so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror. But suddenly she uttered a cry. The necklace was no longer round her neck!
"What's the matter with you?" asked her husband, already half undressed.
She turned towards him in the utmost distress.
"I . . . I . . . I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace. . . ."
He started with astonishment.
"What! . . . Impossible!"
They searched in the folds of her dress, in the folds of the coat, in the pockets, everywhere. They could not find it.
"Are you sure that you still had it on when you came away from the ball?" he asked.
"Yes, I touched it in the hall at the Ministry."
"But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall."
"Yes. Probably we should. Did you take the number of the cab?"
"No. You didn't notice it, did you?"
"No."
They stared at one another, dumbfounded. At last Loisel put on his clothes again.
"I'll go over all the ground we walked," he said, "and see if I can't find it."
And he went out. She remained in her evening clothes, lacking strength to get into bed, huddled on a chair, without volition or power of thought.
Her husband returned about seven. He had found nothing.
He went to the police station, to the newspapers, to offer a reward, to the cab companies, everywhere that a ray of hope impelled him.
She waited all day long, in the same state of bewilderment at this fearful catastrophe.
Loisel came home at night, his face lined and pale; he had discovered nothing.
"You must write to your friend," he said, "and tell her that you've broken the clasp of her necklace and are getting it mended. That will give us time to look about us."
She wrote at his dictation.
*
By the end of a week they had lost all hope.
Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
"We must see about replacing the diamonds."
Next day they took the box which had held the necklace and went to the jewellers whose name was inside. He consulted his books.
"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp."
Then they went from jeweller to jeweller, searching for another necklace like the first, consulting their memories, both ill with remorse and anguish of mind.
In a shop at the Palais-Royal they found a string of diamonds which seemed to them exactly like the one they were looking for. It was worth forty thousand francs. They were allowed to have it for thirty-six thousand.
They begged the jeweller not to sell it for three days. And they arranged matters on the understanding that it would be taken back for thirty-four thousand francs, if the first one were found before the end of February.
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs left to him by his father. He intended to borrow the rest.
He did borrow it, getting a thousand from one man, five hundred from another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes of hand, entered into ruinous agreements, did business with usurers and the whole tribe of money-lenders. He mortgaged the whole remaining years of his existence, risked his signature without even knowing if he could honour it, and, appalled at the agonising face of the future, at the black misery about to fall upon him, at the prospect of every possible physical privation and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace and put down upon the jeweller's counter thirty-six thousand francs.
When Madame Loisel took back the necklace to Madame Forestier, the latter said to her in a chilly voice:
"You ought to have brought it back sooner; I might have needed it."
She did not, as her friend had feared, open the case. If she had noticed the substitution, what would she have thought? What would she have said? Would she not have taken her for a thief?
*
Madame Loisel came to know the ghastly life of abject poverty. From the very first she played her part heroically. This fearful debt must be paid off. She would pay it. The servant was dismissed. They changed their flat; they took a garret under the roof.
She came to know the heavy work of the house, the hateful duties of the kitchen. She washed the plates, wearing out her pink nails on the coarse pottery and the bottoms of pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts and dish-cloths, and hung them out to dry on a string; every morning she took the dustbin down into the street and carried up the water, stopping on each landing to get her breath. And, clad like a poor woman, she went to the fruiterer, to the grocer, to the butcher, a basket on her arm, haggling, insulted, fighting for every wretched halfpenny of her money.
Every month notes had to be paid off, others renewed, time gained.
Her husband worked in the evenings at putting straight a merchant's accounts, and often at night he did copying at twopence-halfpenny a page.
And this life lasted ten years.
At the end of ten years everything was paid off, everything, the usurer's charges and the accumulation of superimposed interest.
Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households. Her hair was badly done, her skirts were awry, her hands were red. She spoke in a shrill voice, and the water slopped all over the floor when she scrubbed it. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down by the window and thought of that evening long ago, of the ball at which she had been so beautiful and so much admired.
What would have happened if she had never lost those jewels. Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!
One Sunday, as she had gone for a walk along the Champs-Elysees to freshen herself after the labours of the week, she caught sight suddenly of a woman who was taking a child out for a walk. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still attractive.
Madame Loisel was conscious of some emotion. Should she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she had paid, she would tell her all. Why not?
She went up to her.
"Good morning, Jeanne."
The other did not recognise her, and was surprised at being thus familiarly addressed by a poor woman.
"But . . . Madame . . ." she stammered. "I don't know . . . you must be making a mistake."
"No . . . I am Mathilde Loisel."
Her friend uttered a cry.
"Oh! . . . my poor Mathilde, how you have changed! . . ."
"Yes, I've had some hard times since I saw you last; and many sorrows . . . and all on your account."
"On my account! . . . How was that?"
"You remember the diamond necklace you lent me for the ball at the Ministry?"
"Yes. Well?"
"Well, I lost it."
"How could you? Why, you brought it back."
"I brought you another one just like it. And for the last ten years we have been paying for it. You realise it wasn't easy for us; we had no money. . . . Well, it's paid for at last, and I'm glad indeed."
Madame Forestier had halted.
"You say you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?"
"Yes. You hadn't noticed it? They were very much alike."
And she smiled in proud and innocent happiness.
Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her two hands.
"Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs! . . . "
Discussion Question: To what extent does Mathilde’s character develop throughout the story? Compare and Contrast her character at the beginning and at the end of the story. Write a paragraph of at least seven sentences. Your paragraph must have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a conclusion. You must quote twice from the story.
Discussion 3.2
POINT OF VIEW WRITING
Point of view means narrative perspective or who is telling the story. Many stories we are reading are written in third person—in “The Necklace,” for instance, we are told the events from an omniscient point of view. The narrator is not a character in the story. For this discussion, I would like you to reread “The Necklace” (see Discussion 3.1) and rewrite the story or an important scene thereof from the point of view of one of the characters, just like we did in class with "Under the Pear Tree." I have written an example below:
I own an exclusive jewelry shop in the Palais-Royal. A couple came in this morning looking to purchase one of my exquisite diamond necklaces. I did not know they were serious about the purchase at first—the man did not seem to be able to afford a diamond necklace costing forty-thousand francs. He looked like a minor government worker, at best! The couple also mentioned having gone from jeweler to jeweler, so I thought they were just window shopping. Yet there was something about the nervousness of the couple and their eagerness to buy the necklace which touched me. I finally agreed to lowering the price to thirty-six thousand francs and to hold it for three days—something I have never done before. I really do not know why they are in such earnest to spend all their savings on a diamond necklace when even rich people are wearing costume jewelry all over Paris , and you can barely tell the difference. Who am I?
____________________________________________ This is, of course, the proprietor of the jewellery store visited by Mathilde and Monsieur Loisel. Please choose another character from the story, and tell the story from that character's point of view, using the first person ("I"). Remember, you can only write about what this character would know in the story! Please write a paragraph of at least eight sentences, and you can choose any character in the story -- except the proprietor of the jewellery store, as I did that as a sample above!
MATH106 CLASS
Discussion 1.1
This is where you will post your biography on the first day of class. Take this opportunity to tell your classmates about yourself; your career goals, your likes, dislikes, your reason for taking the course, your favorite things, etc.
Discussion 1.2
What exactly are whole numbers? Why do you think it is important to understand the concept of whole numbers? How can it be helpful in your life and career?
Discussion 2.1
What is the difference between denominator and numerator? Why do you need to know the difference between the two?
Discussion 2.2
A friend has asked you to explain to them how to find the factors of a number. How would you describe it to them? What examples would you use?
Discussion 3.1
What is the difference between a least common denominator and a least common multiple? How important is it important to know and understand them?
Discussion 3.2
What is a mixed numeral? How can you apply it to regular life?
