Seeing and not seeing — and knowing and not knowing — emerge as crucial issues in “The Servants’ Dance.”
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this is the story you will be reading. the way you answer the questions will be on a separate google doc and there is a file included that tells you the format the questions need to be answered in. be sure to read it because he is picky! thank you so much!
QUESTION SET #1 (a through d) • Throughout this course, any question set not attempted receives a
grade of zero. In addition, any response not presented as a complete sentence receives a grade of zero,
even if the content it contains is factually accurate. Points are deducted for incorrect grammar and
confusing expression. Carefully proof-read your work before submitting it. Do not collaborate with any
other student in producing your Write Now exercise.
When quoting from the story in an answer, ensure that you include signal the page number — for
example, (page 31).
To open the story, Brennan’s unidentified, third-person narrator offers a sketch of Charles Runyon, whose
family name may be Irish (meaning “champion”). Although he lives in the Murray Hill district of
Manhattan, Charles is weekending beside the Hudson River “thirty miles from New York [City]” (page
28). Small details count for a lot in this tale, so the responses to the following will prove useful as you
read on. (1.a) What is Charles’s “main interest” as a “literary gentleman”? Charles’s public
“reputation” has two planks or components, one of which is his being “a wit.” (1.b) What is the other,
and what does that word mean? (Use and cite a reputable source, such as the Oxford English
Dictionary.) (1.c) In what activity does Charles engage “every night”? (1.d) Which 38-year-old
person is on Charles’s mind, and why is that so?
QUESTION SET #2 (a through d) • (2.a) In whose home (part of the riverside community of
Herbert’s Retreat) is the unmarried, 54-year-old Charles spending the weekend? (When answering,
provide the family name, the wife’s first name, and the husband’s first name.) (2.b) On page 29, what
phrase does Charles use in connection with Bridie; and what kind of look does that woman give
Charles?
A working-class Irish immigrant to the United States, Bridie’s native tongue may be Gaeilge, the Irish
language, as opposed to the (much younger) English language. (2.c) What multisyllabic English word
does Bridie “[say] to herself”? (2.d) Why, in your opinion, might that word be significant, given
some or other aspect of — or theme within — “The Servants’ Dance”?
QUESTION SET #3 (a and b) • (3.a) On page 30 of “The Servants’ Dance,” what color-pallet does
Charles, a dandy, “select from his wardrobe”? Both Charles and Leona wear Bermuda shorts. (3.b)
What color are Leona’s shorts, and from what type of material are they made? Incidentally, the
name Leona means “lion,” and the text later describes Charles as “[Leona’s] lion” (page 31).
QUESTION SET #4 (a through d) • Seeing and not seeing — and knowing and not knowing — emerge
as crucial issues in “The Servants’ Dance.” For example: towards the end of the tale, Charles tells
himself, “I simply must remember that I am an observer” (page 57). Shaded from public view by “old
greenery” (page 30), Leona’s garden contains two statues. (4.a) Which of them is closest to the Hudson
River? (Later, in a huff, the down-at-heel character Edward will “[balance] himself against” this object.)
(4.b) On page 31, whose “beady … eyes” observe Charles and Leona as they stroll “arm in arm to
the river”?
Answer preview Seeing and not seeing — and knowing and not knowing — emerge as crucial issues in “The Servants’ Dance.”
APA
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