POINT OF VIEW: In-Class Exercise
LIT 201-200
Sarah L. Dye
DIRECTIONS: Read carefully and follow exactly, please!
Follow the directions below and, use the blue box provided in class, and then turn it in at the
end of the class meeting TONIGHT. You may use your textbooks, handouts, class notes,
reader response forms, and/or dictionary/thesaurus.
Choose ONE of the following stories which we have read already in the course.
Anderson, “Hands,” p. 28
Atwood, “Happy Endings,” p. 33
Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues,” p. 37
Banks, “Black Man and White Woman in Dark
Green Rowboat,” p. 68
Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,”
p. 75
Cather, “Paul’s Case,” p. 117
Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” p. 158
Cisneros, “The House on Mango Street,” p. 162
Erdrich, “The Red Convertible,” p. 277
Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” p. 286
Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” p. 313
Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants,” p. 350
Hurston, “Sweat,” p. 355
Jewett, “A White Herron,” p. 382
Joyce, “Araby,” p. 400
Kincaid, “Girl,” p. 477
Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” p. 493
Mason, “Shiloh,” p. 511
Mansfield, “The Fly,” p. 5506
Mukherjee, “The Management of Grief,” p. 565
Munro, “Miles City, Montana,” p. 578
O’Brien, “The Things They Carried,” p. 608
O’Connor, “Good Country People,” p. 634
Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing,” p. 671
At the beginning of your essay, (1) identify the ORIGINAL point of view the original
author has chosen to use in the version of the story in our textbook. Be as specific as
possible in your identification (use the types and subtypes such as 1 st person major
character point of view or 3rd person slanted point of view).
Next, (2) identify the new point of view with which you plan to retell the story. I would
prefer that you choose a totally different point of view from the original even to the
extent of changing the pronouns from 1st person to 3rd person or vice versa for instance.
Finally, (3) retell the story in your own words in that new point of view. Please try to limit
your retelling of the story to no more than one or two pages (250-500 words) at most.
Just summarize the story in your new point of view; you needn’t be as detailed as the
original author was, in other words. All you are being asked to do in your retelling is to
prove you understand the differences between the two points of view by illustrating that.
Take no more than an hour to complete this writing exercise. Your A/F grade on this
assignment will be based EQUALLY all three of the items you are being asked to do as
indicated above.
Good luck with this assignment.