(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/funnysmellspicture/funny%20smells%20children.jpg) | 1. Given the etiquette of the day for a respectable women traveling, and how properly cared for children were expected to act toward adults, what must the Beautiful Lady have thought? 2. What imagery does the author use to let us know the children are not wealthy? Do you think they are from a poor or a middle class family? 3. After the first few encounters, do you think the social class of the children helps to move the story along – explain? In what way does it benefit the story that Carol is mute? 4. What beautiful smell would you like to be? |
Carol, as well as alternate spellings such as Carrol and Carroll, was somewhat more common as a male name in the early 20th century than today. It actually has the same meaning as the names Charles, Carl and Charlie - "free man".
In 1908 Abbott married Dr. Fordyce Coburn and relocated with him to Wilton, New Hampshire.[4] Soon after moving, several widely read magazines accepted her work for publication. Two of her poems were accepted by Harper’s Monthly Magazine in 1909. She went on to publish seventy-five short stories and fourteen romantic novels. Being Little in Cambridge When Everyone Else Was Big is an autobiography written by Abbott about her childhood in Cambridg
Abbott had no children. She died in 1958 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
I too am curious why Carol was dumb? Cannot figure out how that factor is important to the story I would love to hear what others make of it.I don't know what to make of it either. It's interesting that he can hear all right, so that's not the cause of his lack of speech.
My favorite sound is Bach's Suites which I listen to over and over.I'm with you there, Judy. It's impossible to get tired of Bach. I debated whether to be the sound of Bach or my favorite string quartet (Beethoven's Op 131) but I think Bach; the only question is which one.
I think the mother here is the author, rediscovering her girlhood freshness and sense of possibility through her daughter.Now there's a thought, JoanK!
I'm reminded of the gentle mother's desire to be a raging storm at sea. I'm wondering what this story reveals about women's position in the home and in society at this time.This bit says a lot about the mother. She has totally devoted herself to her family, and this satisfies her strong nurturing side. But she has a wilder, adventurous side which has been stifled by this. Her husband doesn't understand--doesn't see this side of her at all.
[...]And the most important thing to him is what the woman he used to love wrote. (We assume that the romance will rekindle, after all these years.) He hides this by saying "in the cause of science", but the mother sees through this, and smiles as she hands him the book.
[...] And do you see a parallel between the mother, the happy, though not well-off mother, who married for love...and the quite wealthy Ann Dun Voorlees, who never forgot her childhood crush?
When little Annie Vorlees returned to claim her family's land, she was accompanied by her husband's brother. At first it seemed to the doctor that the pair was going to develop the land into an odiferous industry, and a shanty town for the workers.
But then came the twist, the surprise at the end. Little Annie had a mind of her own - and the $ to spend as she wished.
When you _read_ a book, of course, you expect to be surprised. If you didn't think the person who made the book was going to tell you something that you didn't know before you wouldn't bother to read it. But when you're _writing_ a book it doesn't seem exactly as though so many unexpected things ought to happen to you!
(http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/funnysmellspicture/funny%20smells%20children.jpg) | 1. Given the etiquette of the day for a respectable women traveling, and how properly cared for children were expected to act toward adults, what must the Beautiful Lady have thought? 2. What imagery does the author use to let us know the children are not wealthy? Do you think they are from a poor or a middle class family? 3. After the first few encounters, do you think the social class of the children helps to move the story along – explain? In what way does it benefit the story that Carol is mute? 4. What beautiful smell would you like to be? |