Short Stories and Setting Act# 8

Resources:

• The first resource provides you with some guidelines for reading any short story effectively.
• The first resource:  Short Story Reading-3.pptx
• The second resource supplies you with  information about all of the short stories included in the last  literary unit of the semester; this information can guide your reading  of them.
• The second resource:  Short Stories (Reading Guides)-2.pptx
• The third resource furnishes you with  information about MLA in-text citations, parenthetical references, and  works cited entries as they relate to short stories.
• The third resource:  Brief MLA Review (ENC 1102 Short Story Essay)-2.pptx
• The fourth resource presents information about standard quotation format:
• The fourth resource:  Quotation Format-4.pptx

Directions:

• Read "Hills like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway, on pages 122-126.  If you need an electronic copy of this story, click here (Links to an external site.).
• Read pages 164-171 for information about the element of fiction known as setting.  
• Answer the three response items in the next section.
• Include at least one quotation from  the short story for support of a claim, include an MLA in-text citation  or parenthetical reference in any sentence with a quotation, and include  an MLA works cited entry for the source from which you took the  quotation (the textbook or a PDF, for example).
• Type your answers, and then save them as a Word document.
• When you are ready to submit the  activity, click the blue "Submit Assignment" tab in the upper right-hand  corner of the page.  Next, click "Choose File" to select the file to  submit, and then, click the blue "Submit Assignment" tab below the  comment section.  Include a comment only if one is needed. 

Response Items:

• Examine the contents of paragraphs 1  and 70 for information about the story's spatial setting.  Using  complete sentences, describe the spatial setting based on the contents  of these paragraphs.
• Using complete sentences, explain the  connection between the spatial setting and the two choices with which  the couple is confronted regarding the unplanned pregnancy.
• Using complete sentences, identify  the temporal setting of the story.   Since the temporal setting relates  to when the actions within the story occur, look for clues within the  story that reveal such information.  Even a story's year of publication  is a type of temporal setting.

Rubric:

• Review the attached rubric for information about the grading of this activity.

A Concluding Thought:

• In "Hills like White Elephants," the  narrator of the story reveals how a couple addresses the subject of an  unplanned pregnancy in 1927.
• If you wish to read about a similar  subject, but with a younger couple in contemporary times (2007), then  read "Good People," by David Foster Wallace, on pages 156-162.  You can  probably locate a copy online.