Guidelines for reflection on some aspects of the short story

A. Read the passage once more and focus your attention on the children

• Underline the parts that describe the children’s reaction to what they see.
• Is their role in the scene active or passive? Explain why.
• In what way/s are their reactions similar and in what way/s different?
• Which child do you sympathise more with?
• How does the adult world seem to son and Moon?

B. Say if you agree or disagree with the following statement about the children’s personality and their relationship with the adult world.

Explain why you agree or disagree with the following statements about the children’s personality and their relationship with the adult world.

1. The children are neglected by the adults.

2. Moon enjoys being involved in the adults’ activities.

3. The children are regarded as a nuisance by the adults.

4. Sun is more sociable than Moon.

5. Moon has a cheerful character while Sun is more reserved

6. Sun is more sensitive than Moon.

Focus on the language

a) let’s examine the children’s names.

1. Do you think sun and Moon are their real names or nicknames.
2. The word son (a male child) is pronounced in the same way as sun. Does this provide an explanation as to the choice of the boy’s name?
3. Think of what the two words , sun and moon, refer to in the world of nature. Can you also find an explanation for the choice of the girl’s name.

B) Below are listed the main features of the language used to describe the scene. Give at least one example for each.

1. Objects are described as if they had a life of their own.
2. e.g. “the chairs came”
3. Sentences are mostly short and simple.
4. Objects are described with unusual images.
5. Adults’actions and behaviour are described as though they were incomprehensible.

Focus on the narrator

1. Is the narrator who describes the scene a character in the story or a voice outside it?
2. Is the point of view in the scene a neutral one or does it coincide with that of one or more characters? Substantiate your answer with evidence from the text.
3. What effect does the choice of a limited point of view create for the reader?
4. It leaves the reader more free to judge the events of the story.
5. It creates a double perspective for the reader from which to judge events,
6. It shows the reader events from a child’s perspective.
7. It allows the narrator to make her point by compelling the reader to see events from her point of view.
8. Other (specify)

from B. De Luca – U. Grillo – P. Pace – S. Ranzoli, Views of Literature. Text, Context and Film, , Loescher, 1993, p. 81