My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor

Click on the following link and print the story
http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0201-oconnor.html

Then print the following guide:

MY OEDIPUS COMPLEX

1. Pre-reading tasks
a. What is the Oedipus Complex?
b. Who developed it?
c. Where did it get its name from?
d. What can this story be about if it is called My Oedipus Complex?

2. While-reading tasks
Read the story and do the tasks:
a. Comment about the setting. (time and place).Provide quotations for your description.
b. Describe each of the characters. Provide evidence for your description.
c. Point of view

Answer these questions
a. What does the boy’s father have in common with Santa Claus?
b. Why was the war a peaceful period of this boy’s life?
c. Who were Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right? What did the boy do through them? Where they
important to him? Why? Could we say they placed the role of imaginary friends?
Yes/No. Why? Account for your answers.
d. What did Larry mean when he said” Little did I know what I was praying for?
e. What makes us think the boy is jealous?


· Larry understands what his mother or father do according to his own feelings.
Write the different facts or situations and the boy’s interpretation of them
FACTS BOY´S INTERPRETATION

· The author uses the verbs say speak, reply, answer, etc. followed by different adverbs
to indicate the speaker’s mood . Look for them. Account for their use.

· Look for verbs expressing different ways of looking at something or somebody.
Write the quotations. Explain when, why, who they are used by. Look up their meaning.

· Look for all the verbs that refer to ways of speaking or making sounds.
Match these verbs to the given meanings. For example:

GRUNT: to make a short, deep, rouge sound in the throat as if the nose were
closed especially when dissatisfied or unwilling to talk
“I gave him several kicks that made him grunt and stretch”

a.____________: to make a continuous low sound
………………………………………………………………….
b._____________: to let out a deep breath slowly and with a sound, usually expressing
sadness, tiredness or satisfaction.
………………………………………………………………………………..
c._____________: to make a noise which sounds like “ssss”.
…………………………………………………………………………………
d.______________: to say or speak very quietly so that only people close by can hear.
………………………………………………………………………………
e.______________: to say something in a loud, sad and complaining way.
……………………………………………………………………………….
f.______________: to shout in a low rough voice.
………………………………………………………………………………..
g._____________: to say or speak in an angry bad tempered way.
…………………………………………………………………………………
h._____________: to make a very high, loud sound because you are frightened
excited, angry.
……………………………………………………………………………………
i._____________: to say something in a low angry voice
………………………………………………………………………………..

Then read the story and complete the while reading tasks.

Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes

Play the video and watch one of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes




Read the following Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl and then create your own revolting rhyme based on any famous fairy tale.

The Three Little Pigs

The animal I really dig,
Above all others is the pig.
Pigs are noble. Pigs are clever,
Pigs are courteous. However,
Now and then, to break this rule,
One meets a pig who is a fool.
What, for example, would you say,
If strolling through the woods one day,
Right there in front of you you saw
A pig who'd built his house of STRAW?
The Wolf who saw it licked his lips,
And said, "That pig has had his chips."
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!"
"No, no, by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin!"
"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!

"The little pig began to pray,
But Wolfie blew his house away.
He shouted, "Bacon, pork and ham!
Oh, what a lucky Wolf I am!"
And though he ate the pig quite fast,
He carefully kept the tail till last.
Wolf wandered on, a trifle bloated.
Surprise, surprise, for soon he noted
Another little house for pigs,
And this one had been built of TWIGS!

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!"
"No, no, by the hairs on my chinny-chin-chin!"
"Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!"

The Wolf said, "Okay, here we go!"
He then began to blow and blow.
The little pig began to squeal.
He cried, "Oh Wolf, you've had one meal!
Why can't we talk and make a deal?
The Wolf replied, "Not on your nelly!"
And soon the pig was in his belly."

Two juicy little pigs!" Wolf cried,
"But still I'm not quite satisfied!
I know how full my tummy's bulging,
But oh, how I adore indulging."
So creeping quietly as a mouse,
The Wolf approached another house,
A house which also had inside
A little piggy trying to hide.
"You'll not get me!" the Piggy cried.
"I'll blow you down!" the Wolf replied.
"You'll need," Pig said, "a lot of puff,
And I don't think you've got enough.
"Wolf huffed and puffed and blew and blew.
The house stayed up as good as new.
"If I can't blow it down," Wolf said,
I'll have to blow it up instead.
I'll come back in the dead of night
And blow it up with dynamite!"
Pig cried, "You brute! I might have known!"
Then, picking up the telephone,
He dialed as quickly as he could
The number of red Riding Hood.

"Hello," she said. "Who's speaking? Who?
Oh, hello, Piggy, how d'you do?"
Pig cried, "I need your help, Miss Hood!
Oh help me, please! D'you think you could?"
"I'll try of course," Miss Hood replied.
"What's on your mind...?" "A Wolf!" Pig cried.
"I know you've dealt with wolves before,
And now I've got one at my door!"

"My darling Pig," she said, "my sweet,
That's something really up my street.
I've just begun to wash my hair.
But when it's dry, I'll be right there."

A short while later, through the wood,
Came striding brave Miss Riding Hood.
The Wolf stood there, his eyes ablaze,
And yellowish, like mayonnaise.
His teeth were sharp, his gums were raw,
And spit was dripping from his jaw.
Once more the maiden's eyelid flickers.
She draws the pistol from her knickers.
Once more she hits the vital spot,
And kills him with a single shot.
Pig, peeping through the window, stood
And yelled, "Well done, Miss Riding Hood!"

Ah, Piglet, you must never trust
Young ladies from the upper crust.
For now, Miss Riding Hood, one notes,
Not only has two wolfskin coats,
But when she goes from place to place,
She has a PIGSKIN TRAVELING CASE.

Cinderella

I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phoney one, the one you know,
Was cooked up years and years ago,
And made to sound all soft and sappy
just to keep the children happy.
Mind you, they got the first bit right,
The bit where, in the dead of night,
The Ugly Sisters, jewels and all,
Departed for the Palace Ball,
While darling little Cinderella
Was locked up in a slimy cellar,
Where rats who wanted things to eat,
Began to nibble at her feet.

She bellowed 'Help!' and 'Let me out!
The Magic Fairy heard her shout.
Appearing in a blaze of light,
She said: 'My dear, are you all right?'
'All right?' cried Cindy .'Can't you see
'I feel as rotten as can be!'
She beat her fist against the wall,
And shouted, 'Get me to the Ball!
'There is a Disco at the Palace!
'The rest have gone and 1 am jalous!
'I want a dress! I want a coach!
'And earrings and a diamond brooch!
'And silver slippers, two of those!
'And lovely nylon panty hose!
'Done up like that I'll guarantee
'The handsome Prince will fall for me!'
The Fairy said, 'Hang on a tick.'
She gave her wand a mighty flick
And quickly, in no time at all,
Cindy was at the Palace Ball!

It made the Ugly Sisters wince
To see her dancing with the Prince.
She held him very tight and pressed
herself against his manly chest.
The Prince himself was turned to pulp,
All he could do was gasp and gulp.
Then midnight struck. She shouted,'Heck!
Ive got to run to save my neck!'
The Prince cried, 'No! Alas! Alack!'
He grabbed her dress to hold her back.
As Cindy shouted, 'Let me go!'
The dress was ripped from head to toe.

She ran out in her underwear,
And lost one slipper on the stair.
The Prince was on it like a dart,
He pressed it to his pounding heart,
'The girl this slipper fits,' he cried,
'Tomorrow morn shall be my bride!
I'll visit every house in town
'Until I've tracked the maiden down!'
Then rather carelessly, I fear,
He placed it on a crate of beer.

At once, one of the Ugly Sisters,
(The one whose face was blotched with blisters)
Sneaked up and grabbed the dainty shoe,
And quickly flushed it down the loo.
Then in its place she calmly put
The slipper from her own left foot.
Ah ha, you see, the plot grows thicker,
And Cindy's luck starts looking sicker.

Next day, the Prince went charging down
To knock on all the doors in town.
In every house, the tension grew.
Who was the owner of the shoe?
The shoe was long and very wide.
(A normal foot got lost inside.)
Also it smelled a wee bit icky.
(The owner's feet were hot and sticky.)
Thousands of eager people came
To try it on, but all in vain.
Now came the Ugly Sisters' go.
One tried it on. The Prince screamed, 'No!'
But she screamed, 'Yes! It fits! Whoopee!
'So now you've got to marry me!'
The Prince went white from ear to ear.
He muttered, 'Let me out of here.'
'Oh no you don't! You made a vow!
'There's no way you can back out now!'
'Off with her head!'The Prince roared back.
They chopped it off with one big whack.
This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said,
'She's prettier without her head.'
Then up came Sister Number Two,
Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!'
'Try this instead!' the Prince yelled back.
He swung his trusty sword and smack
Her head went crashing to the ground.
It bounced a bit and rolled around.
In the kitchen, peeling spuds,
Cinderella heard the thuds
Of bouncing heads upon the floor,
And poked her own head round the door.
'What's all the racket? 'Cindy cried.
'Mind your own bizz,' the Prince replied.
Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds.
My Prince! she thought. He chops off heads!
How could I marry anyone
Who does that sort of thing for fun?

The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty slut?
'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!'
Just then, all in a blaze of light,
The Magic Fairy hove in sight,
Her Magic Wand went swoosh and swish!
'Cindy! 'she cried, 'come make a wish!
'Wish anything and have no doubt
'That I will make it come about!'
Cindy answered, 'Oh kind Fairy,
'This time I shall be more wary.
'No more Princes, no more money.
'I have had my taste of honey.
I'm wishing for a decent man.
'They're hard to find. D'you think you can?'
Within a minute, Cinderella
Was married to a lovely feller,
A simple jam maker by trade,
Who sold good home-made marmalade.
Their house was filled with smiles and laughter
And they were happy ever after.


Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

As soon as Wolf began to feel
That he would like a decent meal,
He went and knocked on Grandma's door.
When Grandma opened it, she saw
The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin,
And Wolfie said, "May I come in?"
Poor Grandmamma was terrified,
"He's going to eat me up!" she cried.
And she was absolutely right.
He ate her up in one big bite.
But Grandmamma was small and tough,
And Wolfie wailed, "That's not enough!
I haven't yet begun to feel
That I have had a decent meal!"
He ran around the kitchen yelping,
"I've got to have a second helping!"

Then added with a frightful leer,
"I'm therefore going to wait right here
Till Little Miss Red Riding Hood
Comes home from walking in the wood.

"He quickly put on Grandma's clothes,
(Of course he hadn't eaten those).
He dressed himself in coat and hat.
He put on shoes, and after that,
He even brushed and curled his hair,
Then sat himself in Grandma's chair.

In came the little girl in red.
She stopped. She stared. And then she said,
"What great big ears you have, Grandma."
"All the better to hear you with,"
the Wolf replied.
"What great big eyes you have, Grandma."
said Little Red Riding Hood.
"All the better to see you with,"
the Wolf replied.
He sat there watching her and smiled.
He thought, I'm going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma,
She's going to taste like caviar.

Then Little Red Riding Hood said,
"But Grandma, what a lovely great big
furry coat you have on."

"That's wrong!" cried Wolf.
"Have you forgot
To tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?
Ah well, no matter what you say,
I'm going to eat you anyway."

The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head,
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.

A few weeks later, in the wood,
I came across Miss Riding Hood.
But what a change! No cloak of red,
No silly hood upon her head.
She said, "Hello, and do please note
My lovely furry wolfskin coat."

The Storyteller by Saki

Click on the following linkto read the full version of the story by Munro Saki.
http://www.zine5.com/archive/css08.htm


The Story teller Guide for home reading.

To be handed in on March 26th.

Pre-reading tasks
Answer the following questions before reading the story:

1-What characteristics should a good story teller have?
2-How would you entertain children if you were to travel with them on a train?
3-What is the general reaction children have to stories?

4-Look at these proverbs:
a) A good tale is better for being told twice
b) Well began is half done
c) Boys will be boys
d) Easier said than done
e) Necessity is the mother of invention
F) Variety is the spice of life

Choose the right explanation for each one:

1. Children, in part, love to hear a good story again, no matter how many times they have heard it before.
2. It is simpler to talk about doing a thing than it is to do it. It is easier to give advice than to put it to practice.
3. Life becomes very monotonous without some break in the daily routine.
4. If you make a good start, everything follows naturally and easily. The bad start seriously affects what comes after.
5. Boys are normally noisy, destructive, dangerous. It is their nature.
6. When the need for something becomes the reason for creating something

After reading the whole story come back to these proverbs and explain how they apply to the story.

While-reading tasks:
Read the story and do the tasks:

1- Describe the aunt’s personality. Provide concrete evidence for your description
2- Is the aunt’s attitude typical? What about the children? Provide examples to show why.
3- The writer uses a comparison in the first paragraph. Evaluate its effectiveness.
4- What impression did the aunt get of the bachelor? How do you know?
5- What did the bachelor find annoying about the girl?
6- How could the bachelor tell that the aunt was not a good story teller even before she started it?
7- What was wrong with the story? Why did the children question its content?
8- After the aunt finishes her story, what is the bachelor’s attitude? What is the aunt’s reaction?
9- Choose from this list the adjectives that may apply to the aunt and the bachelor:

Intolerant - rude -arrogant -defiant –aggressive- vindictive- polite -ironic -sneering

Aunt: ______________________________________________
Bachelor:___________________________________________

10- What was the children’s first impression of the story told by the bachelor?
11- How was the story teller different from the aunt in the way he told the story?
12- The bachelor uses an oxymoron. Can you find it? What effect does it have on the listeners?
13- In what way is the story effective?
14- What would be the moral in the story told by the bachelor?
15- What is the aunt’s objection to it?
16- What does the bachelor predict about the children? Do you agree with him?
17- In what way would you change the end of the story? Could the aunt do anything?



General analysis of characters

1. What kind of person is the aunt?

a) In what way is the aunt’s handling of the children negative?
b) Why is she unsuccessful in interesting the children in what is going on outside the train window?
c) We are given the aunt’s reactions whilst the bachelor is telling his story. What do they tell us about the kind of person the aunt is?
d) Judging from her story and her reactions after the bachelor has finished his, what does the aunt think the purpose of a story should be?


2. What are the children like?

e) Cyril smacks the cushions and the smaller girl repeats one line of poetry over and over again. Why?
f) Where and why do the children first become interested in the bachelor’s story?
g) What aspects of the bachelor’s story are the children particularly interested in? What does that tell us about them?
h) After both the aunt and the bachelor have finished their stories the children give their opinions. What do they tell us about the children?


General analysis of the plot


1-In what ways is the bachelor’s story similar to traditional fairy tales?

i) Are the opening words of the bachelor’s story a typical fairy tale beginning?
j) Consider the animals and the people in the bachelor’s story. Which of them would you say are often found in fairy tales and which are not?
k) Are there any similarities between such tales as Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf and The three Little Pigs and the bachelor’s story?


2-What are the surprising aspects of the bachelor’s story?

l) Where is the first sign that the bachelor’s story will be different from a typical children’s story?
m) The bachelor explains why there are no sheep in the park. What is surprising about his explanation?
n) How does the bachelor make fun of Bertha in the paragraph beginning “Bertha was rather sorry to find that there were no flowers in the park”?
o) In what ways is Bertha punished for her goodness?


Now finish task 4 of the pre-reading tasks

Desiree's Baby

Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin


Pre-reading Activities

Find information about the Deep South around 1850. Focus specially on the most relevant historical facts and the social and economic context.
Why do you think that the story is called Desiree’s Baby? What does the title suggest? Does the name Desiree remind you of any word you know?

Click on the following link and read the short story: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/857/

While- reading activities

Decide if these statements are TRUE or FALSE. Give reasons for your answers.

a) Monsieur Valmondé found Desiree when she was a month old.
b) Desiree, who was learning to walk, had lost her way unintentionally.
c) Armand was worried about Desiree’s obscure origin and the fact that she was nameless.
d) Madame Valmondé was happy to see that her daughter lived in such a welcoming atmosphere.
e) Young Aubigny was as kind and indulgent with negroes as his father had been.

Role Play:
You are Desiree. You feel miserable because your husband has changed his attitude towards you and your baby. Besides you suspect that your baby might have some black ancestor. Talk to Armand and try to find out what he thinks and why he is so angry.

You are Armand. You are very angry and disappointed. Lately you’ve avoided seeing Desiree and the baby. Say what the matter with you is.


Follow-up activities

In the light of what you have read, what can you say about the title of the story? Is it a good title? Why/ why not? Does it reflect various aspects of the story? If so which?

Why did Desiree ask her husband if he wanted her to go and then act on his
decision? Do you think this merely reflected her character or society at the time
of the story?

Before the last few lines of the story, are there any clues given by the author
which hint at the true cause of the baby’s appearance? If so, which are they?

Why was it assumed that Desiree was the reason her child was not white?

In which way is the ending of the story ironic? Explain.
Why do you think Mr. and Mrs Aubigny had not told Armand about his origin?

Go back to the story and complete the following crossword puzzle.

1. _ _ _ D _ _ _ _
2. _ _ _ _ E _ _ _ _
3. _ _ _ S _
4. _ _ _ _ _ I _ _
5. _ _ _ _ _ _ R
6. _ E _ _ _ _ _ _
7. _ _ _ _ _ E

8. _ S _ _ _ _ _ _

9. B _ _ _ _
10. _ _ A _ _
11. B _ _ _ _
12. _ Y _ _

1. Of one- fourth African ancestry.
2. Wedding presents given by the groom to the bride.
3. Desiree was the child of their affection as they could not have a child of the ___.
4. When Desiree was found she was learning to walk. She was of the _______ age.
5. Tremble
6. Dressing-gown.
7. Cot where the baby sleeps.
8. Marriage ceremony.
9. Mark of slavery.
10.Trouble making playful child.
11. Marshy arm of a river.
12. Pile of wood for burning a dead body in India and other countries with similar customs. Bonfire.


Writing: Choose one of the following options.
· Tell the story from Armand’s point of view. Describe his feelings and his reactions throughout the story and the moment he learns the truth. How does hid life go on?
· Write a new story set in any part of the world at present in which there is a conflict that involves discrimination of some type and in which one of the characters is humiliated because of this.