Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Lesson Plan

Why do you think Cortázar chose to make the narrator in "A Yellow Flower" a foreigner? How does his status as an outsider impact the telling of the story as well as the events within it?

Students might note that while in several of his other stories, Cortázar's narrators are professional writers and self-described storytellers, here, the narrator is the receiver of a story, a listener, and an outsider. They might reflect on how that difference impacts the lens through which we as readers experience the story. They might also note Cortázar's own outsider status as an Argentinian in Paris, consider the autobiographical elements that often comprise fiction writing, and...