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Short Story Unit Quiz – Study Guide

PLOT / Soto: Seventh Grade / Bradbury: A Sound of Thunder / Vonnegut: Harrison Bergeron / Dahl: Lamb to the Slaughter / Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart
Exposition / First day of seventh grade; Fresno, CA; Victor is friends with Michael and likes Teresa. / 2055 A.D.; Eckels, Travis, and Lesperance are travelling back in time to hunt a T-Rex. / 2081 A.D.; handicaps are used to make everyone in America “equal”; George and Hazel Bergeron watch ballet on TV / Mary Maloney happily prepares for her husband, Patrick, to come home; she is blindsided when he tells her he is leaving her. / The narrator tells us he’s not insane, but his words and actions suggest otherwise.
Conflict / Victor wants to impress Teresa. / Travis emphasizes how careful they must be, but Eckels is arrogant and careless. / Harrison versus society / Mary kills her husband and, for the sake of her unborn baby, decides to cover up her crime. / Narrator versus himself
Rising Action / He signs up for French; he tries to talk to her after homeroom; he looks for her at lunch; he pretends to know French. / Travis explains why they must be so careful; the T-Rex begins to approach; Eckels becomes extremely scared. / Harrison breaks into the TV studio, declares himself Emperor, removes all of his handicaps, and dances with a ballerina. / She puts the leg of lamb in the oven; rehearses in front of a mirror; buys groceries; calls the police; plays the role of a grieving wife. / Kills the old man he works for because of his “vulture eye”; hides the body under the floorboards; encourages the police to stay longer.
Climax / Teresa tells Victor she is impressed with his French. / Eckels steps off of the path. / Diana Moon Glampers shoots and kills Harrison and the ballerina. / She asks Jack Noonan and the other officers to eat the lamb. / The narrator thinks he hears the beating of the old man’s heart.
Falling Action / Teresa asks Victor to tutor her in French; Mr. Bueller lets Victor have his moment. / Travis threatens to leave Eckels behind; they return to the present and find out that America is now run by a dictator. / The TV burns out in the Bergeron household; Hazel can’t remember what she just saw. / They eat the lamb, thus destroying the murder weapon. / The sound increases and the narrator begins to panic.
Resolution / Victor borrows French textbooks from the library and thinks he’s going to like seventh grade. / After finding a dead butterfly on the bottom of Eckels’s boot, Travis shoots Eckels. / George, who was in the kitchen, tells her to forget sad things…society wins. / Mary laughs, suggesting she will get away with the crime. / The narrator confesses that the old man’s body is beneath them.

THEME: Review your definition of theme and then read over the examples below…

·  Think before you act. Careful decision making is a key part of life.

·  Believing in someone can make all the difference.

·  Arrogance can lead to poor decisions.

·  One cannot escape one’s own conscience.

Write down at least ONE major theme from each short story.

Gary Soto

Seventh Grade – Persistence pays off. People will do foolish things for love.

Ray Bradbury

A Sound of Thunder – Think before you act. Even small actions can have major consequences.

Kurt Vonnegut

Harrison Bergeron – Individual differences should be celebrated, not punished.

Roald Dahl

Lamb to the Slaughter – Appearances can be deceiving. You never know what people are capable of.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart – One cannot escape one’s own conscience.