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TRANSCRIPT
“Killings”
By Andre Dubus
Short Story Assignment
Teacher: Alicia Healy Astolot Educational Centre
Ottawa, Canada www.astolot.com
Alicia Healy // 2016
Short Stories
Killings By Andre Dubus
1. Summary
Your Summary: Teacher’s Summary Example: "Killings”, by Andre Dubus, is set in a blue-‐collar town in Massachusetts. The story explores the psychology and emotions of a couple after their son, Frank, is murdered. Dubus treats the dark antagonist and murderer, Richard Strout, with small notes of empathy. Dubus provides horrifying detail during the revenge kidnapping of Strout as Matt, Frank's father, walks through the strange and tidy apartment. As a master of the short story craft, Dubus presents this scene with startling incongruity. How does a man who lives in this tidy manner commit such a brutal murder? Dubus brings Strout to a level that is startling: he is an ordinary man who commits an evil act. Who else in the story is capable of such brutality? 1. Theme: 2. How the story is told:
2.1. Setting 2.1.1. Location of the story:
2.2. Structure and Plot Development
2.2.1. Complication (exposition), tension (rising action), contrast, climax, resolution
2.3. Characterization 2.3.1. Protagonist, antagonist, and minor characters
2.4. Style
2.4.1. Descriptions? 2.4.2. Emotions (ex. Empathy)? 2.4.3. Dialogue? 2.4.4. Internal or External expression?
2.5. Narrator and Point of View
2.5.1. First, Second, or Third person?
2.6. Diction and Figurative Language 2.6.1. Metaphor, Simile, Personification, Sarcasm
2.7. Tone and Mood
Alicia Healy // 2016 2.7.1. Tone: gentle, calm, hopeful, gloomy, hopeful vs. hopeless, harsh ext. 2.7.2. Mood: How does this story make you feel? Are you Happy, sad, angry or indifferent? Give
reasons to support your answer
3. Response:
1. Who is the audience of the story?
2. What is the purpose of the story?
3. Can you justify Matt’s actions in taking Richard Strout at gunpoint? Why do you think he took these actions?
4. Trace the emotions of Matt’s character as the plot unfolds.
5. Discuss the significance of the title. Why is “Killings” a more appropriate title than “Killers”?
6. What are the effects of Dubus’ ordering of events in the story? How would the effects be different if the story were told in a chronological order?
7. Describe the Flower family before Frank’s murder. How does the murder affect Matt?
8. How well planned is Matt’s revenge? Why does he lie to Richard about sending him out west?
9. Describe Matt at the end of the story when he tells his wife about the killing. How do you think this revenge killing will affect the Flower family?
10. How might “killings” be considered a love story as well as a murder story?