10.26.2006

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome Assignment for November 2-5
Print Chapter 1 and its questions. Read and answer questions to chap 1 in class silently on Thursday.
IF NECESSARY, print Chapter 2 and its questions. Read and answer questions to chap 2 in class silently on Friday.
Also, answer this question: Using the text to support your answer, explain why the narrator becomes interested in Ethan Frome. What makes him intriguing?

The above work is due into the sub on Friday at the end of the hour. The sub will give each student up to 5 points for their behavior on those days and the homework will be worth 5 points. Be sure to use complete sentences.
Happy Novembrinas!
Those going to Binationals- please go to Bi-nationals page on this site...

If you have been assigned to read Ethan Frome, begin with the link that says Ethan Frome. You do not need to begin with the Introduction, but you must begin with the link BEFORE Chapter 1.

Ethan Frome Full Text #1
(Peach background, smaller text)
http://www.americanliterature.com/EF/EFINDX.HTML

Ethan Frome Full Text #2
(White background, larger text)
http://www.litrix.com/ethanf/ethan001.htm#1


Ethan Frome Vocab list and practice quizzes
http://www.apstrategies.org/download/vocab/novels/Ethan%20Frome.pdf


QUESTIONS FOR ETHAN FROME
Prologue

1. What does the name Starkfield suggest about the setting? How does Herman Gow corroborate this later?

2. What is the stereotype of an engineer? How is the Narrator/engineer atypical? Can the reader therefore trust what he tells us? Why did Wharton have the Narrator say that he "...began to piece together this vision" (rather than "version") of Frome's story?

3.What places do Herman Gow and Mrs. Ned Hale occupy in the story?

Chapter I
1. Since we know from the Prologue that the novel involves a tragedy, what foreshadowing devices has the author used?
2. How is the setting itself a foreshadowing?

Chapter II
1. How does Ethan reveal that he feels ambivalent?
2. What foreshadowing is used in this chapter?
3. How is Ethan's conflict between his feelings for Mattie and those for Zeena voiced?
4. Why is the missing door key significant?
5. How are Mattie and Zeena contrasted, physically?

Chapter III
1. How are the two women contrasted psychologically?
2. How is Ethan's conflict intensified in this chapter?

Chapter IV
1. What traits in Ethan's character are emphasized?
2. Comment on Wharton's use of descriptive language in this chapter, particularly to adjectives referring to color. Why are they significant?

Synthesis: Prologue-Chapter III
Explain how each of the following quotations is significant to this section of the novel. What does each reveal about the characters, conflict, or theme?
1. "He's looked that way ever since he had his smash-up; and that's twenty-four years ago come next February." (p. 4)
2. "I merely felt in her an insurmountable reluctance to speak of him and his affairs...." (p. 8)
3. When Mattie says, referring to a group of clouds overhead, "ÔIt looks just as if it was painted,' it seemed to Ethan that the art of definition could go no farther, and that words had at last been found to utter his secret soul...." (p. 26)
4. "I guess you're always late, now you shave every morning." (p. 29)
5. "His glance crossed Mattie's and he fancied that a fugitive warning gleamed through her lashes." (p. 41)
6. "Though she was but seven years her husband's senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was already an old woman." (p. 48)

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