Index of Americans Abroad blog assignments
08 Blog: Going After Cacciato
GAC has three distinct settings: Vietnam battle scenes, adventures on the road to Paris, and one very long night at an observation post.
In what interesting way does one of these settings comment on another setting?
To answer this question, identify an image, a phrase, an activity, or an idea
that reoccurs in some way across two of the settings, and consider how it
is recontextualized.
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07 Blog: The Sheltering Sky
“You know what?” [Port] said with great earnestness. “I think we’re both afraid of the same thing. And for the same reason. We’ve never managed, either one of us, to get all the way into life. We’re hanging on to the outside for all we’re worth, convinced we’re going to fall off at the next bump. Is that true?” -- The Sheltering Sky, p. 101
Does Kit really manage to "get all the way into life" in a significant
way? Why or why not? Be specific; back up your answer by comparing her behavior
before and after Port's death.
Extra glory goes to those who manage, in the course of this answer, a quick
comparison with K.A. Porter’s Laura.
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06 Blog: The Sheltering Sky
What makes the Lyles so creepy? Is something about them particularly threatening to Port and/or Kit? In your answer, pay close attention to details associated with the Lyles that are especially ominous.
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05 Blog: "Babylon Revisited"
“All the catering and vice was on an utterly childish scale, and [Charlie]
suddenly learned the meaning of the word ‘dissipate’...” (p.
389).
What is it, specifically, about Paris that seems to have lured Charlie into
dissipation? In your answer, compare a description of Paris in “Babylon
Revisited” to a description of the same city in The Autobiography
of
Alice B. Toklas or The Sun Also Rises .
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04 Blog: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
In the Autobiography of ABT, Stein comes across as stunningly confident as
an American living abroad. Is she really?
Whatever your answer, defend it by emphasizing a way ABT and Heminway’s
SAR are surprising similar or an crucially different.
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03 Blog: The Sun Also Rises
“Maybe a story is better without any hero.”
Hemingway crossed this line out of The Sun Also Rises, but it still haunts
his novel. Does this novel have a hero? If so, zero in on a scene that demonstrates
this heroism. If not, who comes closest to heroism – and why, exactly,
does he or she fail?
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02 Blog: "Roman Fever"
Does “Roman Fever” unexpectedly echo or pointedly refute the novel
Daisy Miller’s portrayal of American behavior in Italy?
Defend your answer through comparison of specific details or gestures that
appear in both texts.
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01 Blog: Daisy Miller
Daisy Miller was written around ten years after The Innocents Abroad, by an
American who would choose to make his home overseas. How does James significantly
differ from Twain in his depiction of Americans abroad?
Answer by identifying details from each book that vividly exemplify a point
of contrast between James and Twain.
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