Alice Munro’s Open Secrets and Wrap Up

Week Eleven

• Read: Alice Munro’s Open Secrets – You may skip “A Real Life,” “Open Secrets,” and “Spaceships Have Landed.”
• Post: Munro Response Paper (40 points)
• Complete: Munro Wrap Up (10 points)

Instructions

RESPONSE PAPER

Pick two of the stories in Open Secrets. Write a response paper that compares and contrasts the main female characters in the stories. What do these similarities and differences tell us about Munro’s feelings regarding women’s inherent strengths and weaknesses?

To turn in your paper, go to “Assignments >> Weekly Assignments >> Week Eleven >> Open Secrets Response Paper” on our Blackboard site. Attach your Word document as directed. But DO NOT SUBMIT yet….

Then, for full credit, copy your thesis statement sentence from your paper, and paste it into the comment section of the submission form. This should be a one-sentence thesis only (as described in the “Writing About Literature” documents you read), and it should be identical to the thesis statement in your paper. Finally, click to submit your work.

OPEN SECRETS WRAP UP

•  Alice Munro and Zora Neale Hurston are similar writers in a number of ways. How would you say they’re different in terms of the ways the portray women’s relationship with men mentioning one story by each author to make your point?
• Alice Munro is the first living woman writer we’ve read. Would you say her writing is modern and contemporary? If so, how so? If not, why not?