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)