Katherine Anne Porter chooses to leave some critical elements of the story uncertain, including the name of the disabled son. What other elements of the story are ambiguous? Provide three specific examples from the story ("He"). Explain why the author purposely leaves things unclear.

Porter purposefully leaves out many elements from the story in order to underline the theme of reality versus appearance. Mrs Whipple is obsessed and even paralyzed with fear that other people from the village might look down on the family or even pity them. By investing so much energy into hiding their perceived "dirty laundry" from other people, she has started hiding the truth from herself too. That is the root of all ambiguity in the story; the reader has to do a detective work to unearth the truth and figure out the true relations between the family members.

Explanation:

Here are three other examples of uncertain or ambiguous elements.

We never get to hear the proper voices of Adna or Emly, the other two children. How are they coping with their brother's incapacity? Are they angry with their mother for favoring him at the dinner table even at the price of their being hungry? We don't get to hear any of that from them. Their mother is the main myth maker in the family, and the only tension is between her vision of the family and the truth that the reader is trying to fathom.

Another ambiguous element is how He came to be that way. Was He born "simple-minded" or did something happen that affected His capability? In this story, we have to work with what Mrs Whipple has given us - and that's a twisted story full of little lies that even she fails to catch up on.

The reader also has to face the question why Mrs Whipple constantly exposes Him to dangerous situations while still acting overprotective at the dinner table. For example, she sends Him to snatch a piglet from its mother when Adna refuses to do it. A mother who truly cares for her disabled son would have done it herself, or had her husband do it. Another such situation is when she sends him to bring the bull.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

the first proposition is to question economic materialism and victorian christianity. the lines are:

“it moves us not.—great god! i'd rather be

a pagan suckled in a creed outworn; ”

wordsworth is stating that nature no longer interests mankind, that the latter is not “moved” by it and explains that ancient western paganism had a more positive attitude concerning nature since it lacked the perv erted judaeo-christian interpretation of having received the world and all its animals and elements from god to use as we , instead of humans actually being not only part of nature but its wardens, meant to appreciate it and protect it.

the next lines are:

“so might i, standing on this pleasant lea,

have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

have sight of proteus coming from the sea;

or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.”

wordsworth here make it very clear that by actually looking and contemplating nature, human beings would reconnect with happiness, serenity and purpose. the use of mythological figures is quite evocative as well, proteus is a greek mythological god of the changing sea. he personifies the sea that changes, which symbolizes the way nature changes and inevitably can change to be destructive not only due to natural causes but to human pollution. furthermore, the sea is even more symbolic since all life originated in the sea so it is not only our past but our future since no life form in our planet can survive without water and if all water is destroyed in earth all life will be gone as well.

he then uses triton which is symbolic of the synthesis of both nature and mankind. triton is a mythological greek god that has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish (a merman). this human fish duality evokes the fact that humans are not only human but also part of nature, the fish tail representing nature. the main attribute of this god was that he used a conch shell as a horn to calm the roaring seas. in other words, triton uses nature through science for the benefit of human sailors who risk death during tempests. with the use of such metaphor, wordworth is conveying the message that human technology   is supposed to use nature to preserve nature and thereby humanity as well.