Week 4
Class Ground Rules
Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.
READ (at least twice): Nancy Hale – “Slow Boat to China,” (from Where the Light Falls, pp. 262-274).
A mother drives her son back to boarding school.
Think About:
The mother, Elvira, and her relationship to her son.
Think of the story in three chunks - the drive to school, at the school, and the drive home. How are they different? What is taking place for Elvira in each of these sections?
How does the landscape reflect Elvira's mood and feelings?
The significance of the song, "Slow Boat to China."
What do you think the ending means?
More to Think About: Summing Up Nancy Hale
Based on the four stories we've read and discussed:
What do you see as the strengths of Hale's writing?
What do you see as the weaknesses?
Do her stories stand the test of time?
Would you recommend Hale to others?
Slow Boat to China (Frank Loesser, 1948)
I'd like to get you
On a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.
To get you and keep you in my arms evermore,
Leave all your lovers
Weeping on the faraway shore.
Out on the briny
With the moon big and shinny,
Melting your heart of stone.
Darling, I'd love to get you
On a slow boat to China,
All to myself alone.
Other Recommended Stories in Where the Light Falls
Those Are as Brothers
The Marching Feet
Someday I'll Find You...
The Bubble
Link to Week 4 class recording: brandeis.zoom.us/rec/play/EeP57UuJ7WLZqQK755-Wmh1mp1Wz000cmzLQB9IyZ0h2-pvGlszQQE0wvkg26vPqGx8MBKUU2-inF9lC.MKFeQYQf8byG0c90