"All She Said Was Yes" Alternate Narrative Assignment

"All She Said Was Yes" Vicky Narration Assignment

Select ONE SPECIFIC MOMENT from the short story. It has to be something that actually happened, or a piece of dialogue etc. Use that as the beginning of your story. Meaning, literally retype it as your first sentence/paragraph. 

THEN, shift to an alternate version of that moment of the story from the POV of Vicky. Meaning, you are finally getting to let Vicky speak. 

Tell her story (can be with dialogue, thoughts, flashback, etc, but doesn't have to be her first person narration). Attempt to be true to her character and be true to Shirley Jackson's voice. (For example, I don't think all of a sudden she would apologize to Mrs. Wright, etc). 

Write between 4-6 paragraphs. You don't have to tell the whole rest of the story. Just complete that moment. 

I explained the assignment, then showed my sample first, which got them very excited about the possibility of writing.


Classwork:

I allowed students about 10 minutes in class to select their moment and begin brainstorming. I stressed it was more a characterization exercise than a pure narrative. It was a chance to let their curiosity guide their writing.

Process:

Select moment. Where does it begin and end? [Structure]

Think about the questions you yourself are curious about Vicky's character, this is your chance to answer them!

What about her character do you want to communicate?

Allusions/setting - what can you use both contemporary to 1960s and in the future to tell your story?


Sample - What prompted this was wondering what it looks like in Vicky's head when she gets visions. I also wanted to talk about the Red Notebook, as it is a key symbol and a plot device. Did she know it got destroyed? Probably. Why did she allow that to happen?

Finally I asked her if I could come in, because I had to talk to her, and she only opened the door wider and stood away, and I came in and she closed the door behind me and stood there waiting.

Well, I was waiting for the show to begin.

The slime of story that gloops into by brain, constantly drip drip dripping like a leaking pipe. This is my life. Drip, my mother's cheek torn by the bent gear shift stick as her face slams into it. Drip, a spider web of broken glass clotted with blood spun on the windshield. Drop, the wheels of a stretcher slamming on the blacktop as the coroner's wagon comes.

I am not even sure if I could have stopped it. This is an unsolved riddle. No one listens. To change the future is to bend the future, like crossing lanes from one oncoming car to another. Perhaps it isn't the car accident this week, maybe it's a stroke the next. 

I have seen it already, Mrs. Narrowman's fumbling. She is stupid and blind, but something in me stinks to her, like maybe how brimstone might cling to a Devil in disguise. But this is a Fairy Tale, I am the storyteller. I shall leave breadcrumbs for her to follow into the forest of her fate. She will sweep them away. I shall leave her Grimm's own book - the red splattered nightmare of how it all ends for Mr. Jones, what becomes of New York, what becomes of us all. The drip drip of Chinese Water Torture that will not turn off. Stains upon stains of vision in my brain, spreading like tree rings, all growing towards the knowledge of extinction.

Could the dinosaurs see the end? No. They craned their necks stupidly towards the bright light. And this woman will ignore it too. She will hold the notebook in her hands. Her narrow world has no way to read the language of water, blood, fire that seeps into me. It will be my gift to her, the chance to change the story to a happy ending. And she will burn the book. And she will doom them all to burn.

Focus Questions for "All She Said Was Yes"

"All She Said Was Yes" by Shirley Jackson, 1962. Appears in Just An Ordinary Day.

Please note I have numbered the paragraphs on the student handout to facilitate focusing on the text.

Directions: For each question, think through the question in your writing and use some brief quotes (phrases) to show where you are finding this evidence in the text. Your writing should be thoughtful, but don't look at it as formally as an essay!

Focus Question 1: Paragraphs 1-6 How does the narrator come across as normal/typical (suburban housewife, mom) to us? Where are we given some details that she has flaws she might not recognize? What are those flaws?

Focus Question 2: Paragraphs 7-23. How does our view of the narrator change? In other words, what type of person do we understand her to be now?

Focus Question 3: Paragraph 26-30.  Do you think it is actually possible for a "rational" society, average person to really believe Vicky? If we/society could, what would that mean (big picture cause and effect)? How would that fundamentally alter the way the world works? How does that explain perhaps why people don't believe her?

Focus Question 4: Paragraphs 42-48; 54-57. Piecing together objective information that the narrator gives us about Vicky, what alternate view of her character emerges? In other words, what has Vicky seen? How do we see her acting out how she has been changed by her knowledge? How might her actions and behavior give us insight into who she is?

Focus Question 5: Especially in the party scene, Vicky ceases to care about the rules of politeness. Why? How do you interpret her frankness, directness, and apparent rudeness in telling people their fate? [Some possibilities to think about... Is she punishing them? Is she lashing out in frustration? Abusing her power? Crying for help, or seeing a sympathetic listener?]

Focus Question 6: How do you think Jackson wants us to feel about the Narrator?

Focus Question 7: Look up Cassandra (here is a link www.stanford.edu/~plomio/cassandra.html ) Focus on Apollo's curse, her powers, her role in the Trojan war, her fate.) What does knowing about Cassandra add to the meaning of the story? ("Cassandra" was a possible alternate title for this short story)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle Journal Prompts

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson journal prompts (pagination based on Penguin 1984 edition, green window cover)

At least one paragraph per. THINK through the prompts. Quality over quantity.

1. Page 21 -  “And you can tell your sister from me…” Whom do you trust in this story? How does Merricat feel? How do the villagers feel? LIST 5 clues we have gotten that might hint to a larger history between the villagers and the Blackwood family. 

2. Page 53 – “I’m leaving.” What do you think happened? Is Uncle Julian telling the truth? Why or Why not? What questions do you have about the crime? 

3. Page 57 – GENRE 1. What kind (type, structure) of story or narrative is this? (If we had a blonde girl, running in the forest, being chased by a killer… hmm. It isn’t a Disney movie, right? Horror/slasher film). What category of story would you classify it as? Briefly explain your answer. 

4. Page 78 – “We’ll always be here together…” What is your opinion on Merricat? Be specific and give some evidence from the story to support your thoughts. 

5. Page 107 – GENRE 2. What kind of narrative is this? Clues? Evidence? 

6. Page 161 – “Yes…the way I did before.” Hold up! GENRE 3. What kind of story is this? What are your reactions to plot developments in Chapter 8. 

7. Page 191 – “I love you, Constance.” Think about how inside and outside work in this novel. What is the outside world like? What is the inner world of the house like? Does this disturb you at all? Why or why not? What are your reactions about Merricat and Constance’s reaction and coping strategies to what happened in Chapter 8? 

8. Page 214 - “We are so happy.” GENRE 4. What kind of story is this? (By the way – this book DOES have an ending. You need to understand genre in order to figure out the ending.) What do you think will become of Merricat and Constance 5,10, 15 years down the road? How does this link to what kind (genre) of story that the novel leaves off at? (THINK. It isn’t an easy question. You might not be “right” but you might surprise yourself with your intuitive literary genius.) 

9. What do you think the title of the novel means? We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It must mean something! What were your first impressions/associations of the title before even opening the book?

Upon reading "All She Said Was Yes"

"All She Said Was Yes", Just And Ordinary Day

     It started with a curious title in the book room at school, and a name that kept popping up in the curriculum, although I had never heard mention of anyone teaching the novel. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. A slim unassuming little novel with an author that to many is a one-hit-wonder, Shirley Jackson of "The Lottery" fame. I had read and taught "The Lottery" (perhaps more on that later), but knew little about Jackson.
     I took Castle home and devoured it in one sitting.
     For the brief few years when I taught Freshman English, the Castle unit was my favorite. How quickly the unhinged, paranoid fusion of magic and teen angst cuts to the quick of the b.s. of social veneers. How quickly Merricat throws you into a world of fractured logic that tests your training as a reader, to follow, to understand, to sort out fact from fiction.
     Of course, like any good English major, I turned towards research. Other than some NYT book reviews, an obit, at the time, there was a shocking paucity of published critique on Jackson. How could this be? I hit WorldCat, finding many of her books to be out of print. I tracked down a copy of the play version of We Have Always Lived in the Castle (perhaps more on that later), read whatever novels I could get my hands on, and I stewed.
     I have been a silent fan-girl of Jackson's for a little over a decade, a high school lit teacher Cassandra whispering about what Jackson's rightful place in American letters should be. So many teases and glimmers of hope have surfaced that the day of recognition would come. A new edition of We Have Always Lived in the Castle a few years back (albeit woefully pandering to YA cover). Stalled pre-production on a film adaptation (I am curious to see it, and have optimism the unusual narrative can create an opportunity for greatness in the right hands). The odd blog post or review here and there.
    But my Google Alert on We Have Always Lived in the Castle reveal that I am not alone in my affection for Jackson, or my indignation at her absence in the culture at large. Over the past year, my how things have changed. A slew of titles unavailable for decades are still being rolled out as we speak. A Library of America anthology (which means teaching a class on her is easier than ever). Articles and interviews in major media. Her time is coming.
     I was reading and annotating "All She Said Was Yes" to give to my students this evening as an example of narrative that relies on allusion. (More on that later). I kept thinking to myself, had I gone into academia, Jackson would be my focus. There is so much still unsaid about her writing. I have the newly reprinted books on my shelf. I have a role to play in raising the discourse about her work. And my commentary, however researched or anecdotal it might be, might be of use to other readers, students, or teachers, who want to approach her work.
     So thank you, Mr. Mustillo, for being the fierce and keen reader that brought Castle into our curriculum. And Jackson into my literary consciousness.