The Coming-Out of Maggie, by O. Henry

Jimmy's Hall, by Ken Loach

Audiobook

Summary and analysis (video)

SUMMARY
The Clover Leaf Social Club (CLSC) organized balls in the Give and Take Athletic Association (G&TAA) rooms. The G&TAA was a sports club, all its members were males and in its premises there were the rooms you usually could find in a gym. In general, only members of these two clubs attended these balls.
Maggie Toole, our star, used to go to the ball with a couple of friends, Anna and her boyfriend Jimmy, because she was a plain girl, and no one had ever asked to take her to the ball.
But Maggie didn’t like this situation, and one Saturday she told her friend it won’t be necessary their company to go to the ball because somebody was escorting her there. Anna was very happy for Maggie because that was something good for her, and she was curious to know who was her partner and what was he like; but Maggie would rather keep it secret until they meet him at the ball.
When Maggie and her escort got to the assembly rooms, everybody was astonished, because the man was really handsome, stylish, tall and attractive. Every girl admired him. But boys showed here some jealousy, and, moreover, they begin to notice that Maggie wasn’t so plain as they had thought until now.
However, the G&TAA boys and its leader Dempsey got suspicious of Maggie’s partner. The question was that she introduced him as Terry O’Sullivan, and when Dempsey asked Big Mike O’Sullivan, another well-known member of the G&TAA, if he knew Terry and he answered he didn’t, the mistrust was total, because they said all the O’Sullivans knew each other in that city. Dempsey then insulted Terry, and a formal challenge ensued.
But the G&TAA had very strict rules, and one of these rules was that when somebody had to settle their differences they had to go to a back room where they would combat, but using only the weapons the nature had given them.
No woman ever had seen that back room because that kind of show wasn’t appropriate for the fair sex, although they knew what happened there.
Maggie noticed her partner had disappeared, and somebody told her the boys had taken him to the back room to settle their differences with Dempsey. Maggie got extremely alarmed and darted to the back room, and although everybody tried to block her passage, she got there at last. And there…

QUESTIONS

-Who was Beau Brumell? In you opinion, is it a good idea for a club / institution to have a Master of Cerimonies?

-Do you think we can understand somebody’s character according the way he or she dances?

-How prejudices shape our tastes and ideas?

-Who is more to blame, the pretender, or we, that are blind by our prejudices / first impressions?

-A classical way to settle differences is a duel. Can you tell us about famous duels? What do you think it's the best way to settle diferrences?

VOCABULARY

hop, comely, beseeched, sandpaper, pinned, prowess, bow legs, fob, dumbbells, terpsichorean, sneer, buds, stiletto, 

While the Auto Waits, by O. Henry

A play (by students)

Audiobook

Review

Summary

Analysis

SUMMARY
The star of this story was a delicate pretty young woman who wore a simple grey dress and covered her face with a veil, and pretended to be wealthy. Every evening she went to the park in search of rest and calm and sat on a bench to read her book, because she wanted to be where normal people go.
This girl had a kind of stalker-suitor, a young man called Parkenstacker. He knew about the girl’s habits and wandered around the places where she sat.
On the day of our story, when the young man was around, the girl droppped her book. Immediately, Parkenstacker, who was watching her, picked it up and took it to her. But she said she didn’t mind very much because there was not a good light to read and that she’d rather talking, and openly invited the boy to sit down next to her.

Parkenstacker made a flattering compliment, but the girl checked his advances.

The girl was very extrovert and talkative, and they did some polite small talk. From their conversation we can see that the girl wanted to exhibit her  high position in society, although she didn’t feel comfortable being a patrician because she had to do all the trivial things rich people do, as going to parties, restaurants, etc. She also had a lot of admirers, and this was very annoying for her; we also can see she was sophisticated and snob because she never said the boy’s name correctly, meaning she didn’t mind him at all.

As she said she was fed up with rich suitors and she’d rather have a poor one, a working man, Parkenstacker could see a possibility for himself as he said he worked as a cashier in the restaurant across the street in the night turn. But now, all of a sudden, the young woman said she had to go: her car with the chauffeur was waiting for her in a corner of the park. When the young man asked to see her again, she answered that it would be impossible. She crossed the park heading to the car, but when she arrived to the vehicle…

 

QUESTIONS

What do you know about the book she was reading, New Arabian Nights, by R. L. Stevenson?

Why the narrator repeats she is dressed in gray?

The girl forgets her book as she didn’t mind about it. In your view, why?

The girl is very seductive. What do you think it’s the best way to seduce somebody (for an affair, for business...)? In your opinion, will the arts of seduction disappear (because of the applications that help you to look for a partner)?

 

VOCABULARY

impeccancy, hovered, joss, beat, chairmen, bowled over, cue, surmise, palls, fad, kid, drone, whim, box, bondage, turf

An Unfinished Story, by O. Henry

Review

Summary and analysis

Audiobook

SUMMARY

Our narrator is having a dream. In his dream, a group of very prosperous looking spirits (or souls) are arranged waiting for the last judgement. A policeman asks the narrator if he belongs to this group… But, to know the ending of his dream, we have to read Dulcie’s story first.
Dulcie is a shop assistant working in a big department store. She doesn’t like much her job (the narrator says in that store they could sell everything), and she earns a very small salary for her work. Also, she lives poorly in a very small lodging (a furnished room) and she is all the time under the watch of her landlady. In her apartment there are the usual simple pieces of furniture, and on the walls some pictures of historical figures. The one she has more reverence for is general Kitchener’s. She doesn’t know who exactly was.

One day, a man they call Piggy asks her for a date. They are going to go out to a restaurant, to the cinema or the theatre, etc. Piggy (his real name is Willy) is an elegant man and appears to have a lot of money. Every girl has to be happy to have a date with him, but at the same time girls say he is a prowler in search of beautiful girls, a womanizer who only wants to seduce and forget. Dulcie is elated about the date and she wants to dress beautifully, but she calculates all the money she has until the last cent, and she realizes she doesn’t have enough to buy the things she would like to shop for. So she feels a big disappointment with her life.

The appointed time comes, and Piggy goes to pick Dulcie up, but at the last moment Dulcie looks for an excuse (that she’s ill, or something) to not go out with him. Feeling miserable, she sits to have her poor dinner, alone and pitiful. But perhaps another day she’ll go out with Piggy, who knows.

This is Dulcie’s story.

But what about the dream? How does it finish?

 

QUESTIONS

Do you think there is a heaven or a hell? How do you imagine them? Nietzsche said hell or heaven is our life lived over and over again after we die.

Why do you think Dulcie doesn’t want to go out?

Who are the people in the pictures on the wall? General Kitchener, William Muldoon, the Duchess of Marlborough, O’Callahan.

Do you think that if all the world’s wealth will be distributed between all the people on the planet in order to make everybody equal (in the question of money), we here would be poorer? And what about “the next day will be rich people and poor people again”?

What is a fair salary? What do you think: A person has to earn according to their necessities or according to their skills or talents? Do you think if you earn more money, your work is better?

 

VOCABULARY

groan, bar-of-judgement, follow suit, bondsmen, cereus, dime, licorice, carouse, swine, marshmallows, pongee, spurious, rickety, snippy