Essay Questions

According to Sadie, how can you instantly spot which member of a band has “mother issues” stemming from an absence of maternal love?

Much can be learned about a character based on the odd opinions the author has them express either verbally or as unspoken thoughts. “Two Sad Clowns” is the story in this collection which flashes back to how the recurring characters in the volume named Jack and Sadie initially met. The story is written in the third-person, but the perspective allows the narrator to go into the mind of both characters and tell us what they are thinking. For instance, we know that Sadie thinks her girlfriends have bad taste when it comes to boyfriends.

There is certainly nothing odd or unusual in the least about that opinion. In the very next paragraph, however, Sadie stumbles across the puppet parade which is the event which brings the two together. A giant puppet is being followed by “human fools” banging tambourines. At this sight, Sadie thinks to herself “nobody whose mother ever truly loved them has ever taken pleasure in playing” that particular instrument. The author chooses not to follow up on this particular belief which is almost certainly the better decision. In the end, learning the specific details of why Sadie would believe this is not that important. It is the oddness and the specificity of the thought that matters as it is capable of stimulating a certain feeling about Sadie which puts the burden on the reader of making any psychological determination about her based on this random opinion.

What is strange in the story “Mistress Mickle All at Sea” about the way the title character is presented by the author?

This story is about a middle-aged woman contemplating suicide on New Year’s Eve in Rotterdam. She is in Rotterdam to visit her half-brother Jonas, having traveled across the English Channel from her home in Surrey to do so. She is a successful actress enjoying great fame for her starring role on a children’s TV game show. It is a portrait, obviously, of a profoundly unhappy woman, but it is not really what the title promises. In fact, it is really not even accurate to say that the central character in this story is the titular character since Mistress Mickle is the role she assumes on the TV show.

The story is actually about 49-year-old actress Jenny Early, but she is referred to by that name only three times in the story. More importantly, she is never—not once—referred to as Jenny by any other character. Equally true is that she is never referred to as Mistress Mickle by another character. However, she with those three noted exceptions, the narration only ever refers to her as Mistress Mickle and always as just that: never just Mistress or just Mickle, but always Mistress Mickle (except for one occasion when Aunty Mickle slips in). Therefore, what is strange about this story is that it is not about Mistress Mickle but about Jenny Early. That the author chooses to introduce this strange quality should not go by with analyzing why.

What is the story “A Walk-Through Human Heart” about?

This is one of those stories tailor-made to trip up lazy students given a reading assignment. If one were to closely read only the opening paragraphs and closing paragraphs and merely skim over everything in between it would be absurdly easy to write an essay about this story that stakes the claim it is about grackles. Between the first paragraph and the last two paragraphs the word “grackle” pops up no less than eleven times. Surely any word that shows up eleven times in such a short space must mean that’s what the story is about, right? Between the first paragraph and the end of the story, there will be about ten more references to this particular species of bird so that a mere skimming would seem only to confirm the hypothesis. Lazy students looking to write a quick essay are going to be disappointed at their grade, however, because despite the plethora of references to grackles, it is not a story about birds at all. This story is actually about a grandmother-to-be looking for a vintage doll called Baby Alive that her daughter had pleased for as a child and never got in order to give as a gift upon the imminent birth of her baby. The grackles are merely thematic background.