Millie, by Katherine Mansfield

AUDIOBOOK

SUMMARY, by Begoña Devis

A really hot day, Millie was looking from her verandah at several men riding horses. She looked at them until they were out of sight. She knew that them were trying to catch the young boy who they believed had murdered Mr Williamson, a man liked by everyone, cheerful and friendly. He had appeared in a pool of blood, shot in his head. At the same time, young Harrison, who had arrived to learning farming, had disappeared. That is why they were looking for him, certain that the murderer could not be other than him. Among the group of men was Willy Cox, a young fellow, and Sid, her husband.

Millie went back into the kitchen; it was half past two and Sid wouldn’t be home until half past ten. She prepared her food, cleaned up, and then was looking around, and thinking about nothing and everything, when she heard a noise. She discovered that there was an apparently dead man in the back yard. She went to get her gun, threatened the man and, when she turned him towards her, she discovered a scared young man, almost a child. Millie felt great pity for him and, when he was finally able to stand up and walk, she asked him to follow her to give him something to eat. But he was too scared even to eat. «When will they return?», the boy stammered. Then Millie realized that he had to be Mr Williamson’s young killer. She didn’t care and decided that the men wouldn’t be able to catch him if she helped him: he was just a child, and nobody knew what he had done, or he hadn’t done. You couldn’t trust the justice of men, she thought, for many times they are nothing more than beasts. «Not before half past ten», she told him.

At night, Millie was lying with Sid in bed. Below, there were Willy Cox with the other chap and his dog, Gumboil. Suddenly, the dog began to bark and run in all directions. Sid jumped out the bed and went down, while, in the yard, young Harrison climbed onto Sid’s horse and fled. Sid asked Millie for the lantern, but she pretended not to hear him. Suddenly, the men saw Harrison, and Millie realized that he no longer had a choice. When Millie became aware of this, she felt as if a strange mad joy smothered everything else: she rushed into the road with the lantern, while dancing and singing «Catch him, hunt him, shoot him!»

 PERSONAL OPINION 

I’m not sure about that, but I think that Millie was a kind of philosophical woman, who asked herself about the things of life, and she was not sure of nothing, especially about the human condition. When he saw the young Harrison, she felt pity for him and tried to help him, although maybe he was a murderer, but when she realized that he no longer had a choice, she joined the group of men who want to catch him, because, after all, who knows?

QUESTIONS

What were Millie’s tastes about men?

How do you think Mr Williamson’s death affected her?

Why do you think the young man killed Mr Williamson?

What was the matter with Millie? Why didn’t she want kids?

Why did she go on helping the boy when he knew he was a murderer?

Explain what happened during the ellipsis.

Why did she change her mind at the end? Or did she?

What do you think it’s better for the mankind, justice or pity?

 

VOCABULARY

quivered, dotty, simpered, packing case dressing table, wunner, bulge, ducked, yer, shamming, corned beef, fox, want, ketch, ole, spouting, lantin

Wikipedia

A graphic presentation

Analysis

The Rocking-Horse Winner, by D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence at the Wikipedia

The Rocking-Horse Winner at the Wikipedia

A Summary and Analysis of D. H. Lawrence’s The Rocking-Horse Winner

The Rocking-Horse Winner Study Guide

Audiobook

D. H. LAWRENCE, by Adriana Cruz

BIOGRAPHY

David Herbert Richards Lawrence, his birth name, was born in Eastwood,

England, the 11th of September 1885, and he died in Vence, France, on the 2nd of March 1930 (the cause of death was tuberculosis). He was married to Frida von Richthofen, a German literate.

Lawrence was an English writer, author of novels, poems, plays, essays, short stories, travel books, paintings, translations, and literary criticism. His literature exposes an extensive reflection on the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. Lawrence views on all these matters caused him many personal problems. As a consequence, he had to spend most of his life in voluntary exile, which he himself called a “wild pilgrimage”. Among his most notable works there are Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. He got distinctions like the James Tait Black Award.

In his childhood, he studied at Beauvale Board School, becoming the first local student to win a county council scholarship to Nottingham High School.

He also studied at the University of London, where served as a teacher and received a teaching diploma in 1908. In the autumn of the same year, Lawrence left the home of his youth for London, although he continued to work as a teacher for a few more years.

Lawrence had a very close relationship with his mother. 

He had an affair with a married woman six years older than him with three small children, and they flew to Freida’s parents’ home in Metz. Afterwards, they got married.

He spent the rest of his life travelling in the company of his wife around several countries. Finally, they arrived in the United States in September 1922, where they met Mabel Dodge Luhan, a public figure, and contemplated establishing a utopian community on what was then Kiowa Ranch near Taos, New Mexico.

They acquired the property, known today as the D. H. Lawrence Ranch.

 

SUMMARY

The story tells of a middle-class family with three children (a boy and two girls), who live in a good house with a garden, with discreet servants. Although so that everyone could notice, they kept up appearances. The mother is haunted by a sense of failure, always thinking that she needs more than she has. Her husband did not earn as much as she wanted and the life he would like to have with her luxuries and extravagance. Her children feel this anxiety, even claiming they can hear the house whisper, “There must be more money.”
The boy Paul was playing with his wooden horse in search of luck and ordered his horse to take him where the luck is.
Basset, the gardener, told him about horse racing and the two became partners.
One day, the boy is questioned by his uncle on the subject, and he is surprised when he tells him the name of the winner. Uncle Oscar, intrigued, asks how he knows who will win, but Paul tells him that he only knows who wins and doesn’t tell him his secret. That’s how the guy finds out about his earnings and successes.
Uncle Oscar Cresswell becomes a partner with them. The boy and Bassett make huge bets on the horses Paul names.
When Paul decides to give the mother a gift of £1,000, on her every birthday, for five years, so that he can ease her commitments, but only makes her spend more.
Disappointed, Paul tries harder than ever to be “lucky.” As the Derby draws near, Paul is determined to meet the winner.
The mother, returning from a party, discovers his secret; She has spent hours riding his rocking horse, sometimes all night, until he “arrives”, in a clairvoyant state where he can be sure of the winner’s name.
Her uncle and the Gardener bet and won big on the investment of 14 to 1 of everything he had.
The mother now had a lot of money, but she did not have her son.

The boy told his mother, “Mom, I’ll ever leave you: I’m lucky”.

QUESTIONS

Talk about the main characters:

Paul
His mother
His father
His uncle
The gardener
Why do you think the mother couldn’t love her children?
Do you think money can make happiness?
And what about luck? Can it make you happy?
Being lucky is something that depends on the causality, or can you do something to be lucky? Remember the saying “Fortuna helps the brave”.
Are you pro or against lotteries? Why?
Paul’s mother became unlucky when she got married? Do you think marriage can change people so much?
Mantra is a commonly repeated word or phrase, especially in advocacy or for motivation. In the story we can find two or more mantras (“There must be more money”, “I want luck”). Do you think mantras can be useful or effective? (Perhaps you remember old people saying the rosary.)
Why do you think uncle Oscar is lucky?
Do you believe in intuitions or hunches?
The mother got some money for her birthday. Was she happy then? Why?
Does our childhood determine the way we are as adults?
Some interpretations of this story say that the boy has the Oedipal complex and that his rocking on the horse is like a kind of masturbation. What is your opinion about this interpretation?
What is the symbolic meaning of the story according to your point of view?

VOCABULARY

thrust, grinding, racked, champing, smirking, pram, brazening it out, peer, careered, steed, batman, blade, sport, honour bright, daffodil, romancer, fiver, spinning yarns, writs, writhed, drapers, sequins, overwrought, quaint, prance, uncanny, Master, as right as a trivet, tossing 

I Want to Know Why, by Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson at the Wikipedia

I Want to Know Why: Summary

I Want to Know Why: Analysis

I Want to Know Why: Review

I Want to Know Why: Audiobook

BIOGRAPHY

Sherwood Anderson was born in 1876 in Camden, Ohio.

He was the third of seven children. His mother died in 1895 and his father had started to disappear for weeks, and Sherwood took a number of jobs to support his family. Anderson's talent for selling was evident, he was very successful in this type of business.

In 1898, he signed up for the United States Army, and his company was sent to the war in Cuba. He met Cornelia Pratt, the daughter of a wealthy Ohio businessman, they were married and had three children, and he ran a number of businesses.

In November 1912, Anderson had a mental breakdown, he left his wife and their three children and decided to become a creative writer. He divorced Cornelia in 1916; later he got married to Mitchel, they divorced, and he got married again to Elizabeth; they divorced in 1932 he got married again to Eleanor Copenhaver.

In 1916, Anderson's first book, Windy Mc Pherson's Son, was released in 1916, and Anderson's most famous book, Winesburg, Ohio, was released in 1919. In 1923, Anderson published Many Marriages, where he explored the new sexual freedom. Dark Laughter appeared in 1925, and it was his only bestseller.

Anderson died in Panama in 1941 during a cruise to South America. He was buried in Marion, Virginia. The writing on his gravestone reads "Life, Not Death, is the Great Adventure".

ANALYSIS

In Beckersville, county of Kentucky, there lived a 15-year-old boy, who loved race horses. He sensed that a horse was going to win the race because, when he noticed it, it was difficult for him to swallow and his throat hurt. He was so excited about the horse racing environment, that every morning he would go to Ed Becker's stable to watch the horses training.

At the time of horse racing in Beckersville they only talked about horses, new foals, jockeys, races in Lexington, Louisville, Saratoga, etc...

This boy and three friends ran away from home to watch the great Mulford Handicap horse race in Saratoga.

In this race, the Sunstreak horse ran; it was one of those horses that caused a sore throat to the boy from Beckersville and was trained and ridden by Jerry Tillfort, a rider whom the boy admired for how well he treated the horse and how professional he was.

As expected, Sunstreak won the race. At night, the boy followed Jerry Tillford and his drunken friends to a farm where there were women with a bad reputation. There he saw his idol Tillford kissing one of them and saying that the race had been won by him and not by the horse.

So, the boy asks himself the question "I Want to Know Why" a man so good at horses could kiss a woman so bad.

I really liked the description

-first, of the hobby, enthusiasm and delusion for a certain event or job.

-second, of an important event that takes place in a certain location,

-and third, of the disappointment that a boy has when his idol lets him down.

 

QUESTIONS

Nigger is an offensive word. So, what do you call a person who is black? What do you call foreign people?
What are black people good at (according to the story)? What a black person (nigger in the story) would do and what wouldn’t he do?
Describe Bildad Johnson.
Do you know more clichés about black people or about different social groups?
“I wish I was a nigger”. Did you ever wish to be another person or to have another nationality or belong to another social group?
How far is Beckersville from Saratoga Springs? Explain their trip.
Talk about these characters:
--The protagonist
--The protagonist’s father
--Henry Rieback
--Henry Rieback’s father
Harry Hellinfinger’s jokes: can you explain them?
How does the narrator know when a horse is going to win? Do you have this kind of intuition for something, or do you know anybody who does?
Who’s Jerry Tillford?
What is the best smell in the world, according to the narrator? And for you?
Tell us about Sunstreak.
Describe the rummy looking farmhouse.
What happened when Jerry and his friends arrived at the rummy farmhouse? And when they were inside the house?
What do the protagonist and Jerry have in common?
What do you think or do when a person you hate (or you don’t like) love the same things as you? What are your feelings?

VOCABULARY

freight train, (race) track, nigger, scratch around, wheedle, colt, outfit, livery barn, lay low, cut out, be nabbed, squeal, give you away, gambler, sheet writer, faro, thoroughbred, gimlet, stunted, spunk, gobble, lit out, plow, gelding, Sam Hill, post, sire, itch, jawed, paddock, bugle, untrack, stallion, plunk, skin, rummy, fantods, homely, brag,