THE NECKLACEBy Guy de Maupassant

Setting: Paris in the second half of the 19th century

Madame Mathilde Loisel comes from a family without money or position. She marries a man who is not wealthy, but she dreams of having a beautiful home and expensive clothes. One evening her husband comes home with an invitation to a reception at a mansion. He expects his wife to be delighted, but Madame Loisel refuses to go because she does not have a proper dress to wear. Her husband agrees to give her money to buy a dress. Madame Loisel needs a necklace to go with her dress, so she borrows a necklace from her wealthy friend Madame Forestier. Madame Loisel attends the reception and has a wonderful time. Upon returning home, she realizes that she has lost the necklace. She and her husband use all the money they have and borrow more to buy a necklace just like the one she lost. After she takes the new necklace to her friend, she and her husband work hard for ten years to pay back the money they borrowed. Madame Loisel looks old and rough when she sees Madame Forestier on the street one day.

What is greed? Could greed cause a person’s downfall?

What is your definition of status? How important is status in today’s society? How important is it too you? What happens to people who place too much importance on status, or the position they have in a group?

What is your definition of materialism? Have people become too materialistic?

What would you be willing to do to become rich? Is being wealthy important to you? Why or why not?

“Honesty is the best policy” is a common saying. Do you agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer. Tell about a time when you obeyed/disobeyed this saying.Why is it important to always tell the truth? Do you always tell the truth? Is there ever a situation or circumstance in which it would be acceptable or appropriate for a person to tell a lie? Explain your response.

The time and place where the story occurs.

The sequence of events in a story. A husband and wife who recently lost their baby, adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

The use of specific objects or images to represent abstract ideas.

A contrast between appearance and reality.

The apparent attitude of the narrative voice.

Any of several vantage points from which the story is told.

The narrator reveals the thoughts, feelings and observations of a single character (referring to them as “he” of “she”).

The Protagonist is the principle character in a literary work. The Antagonist is the counterpart to the main character and a source of the story’s main conflict.

The principle

character in a

literary work.

Counterpart to the main character and a source of a story’s main conflict.

When what happens at the end isn’t what the reader/audience expected to happen (an example of situational irony.)

Use of description, dialog, dialect and action to create the emotional, intellectual and moral dimension of a character. Beyond personality, characterization may also give clues about social, cultural and geographical background.

Gilly Freeborn in Letters of a Lovestruck Teenager by Claire RobertsonUnfolding in a series of letters to an agony aunt, Gilly Freeborn is quite possibly the most screamingly funny teenage character ever written. Dealing with being pancake flat, having a vain, bitchy older sister, two warring parents and, of course, falling for "the Vision", Gilly is the female answer to Adrian Mole.

Cherry Vanilla in Sarah by JT LeRoy OK, technically Cherry Vanilla is 12, therefore not quite a teenager, but I'm including him anyway because JT LeRoy (alias Laura Albert)'s fantastically savvy, yet ethereally naive "lot lizard", mired in a fairytale world of drugs and prostitution, must surely be one of the most original characters invented.

Mark in New Boy by William SutcliffeFor all his cleverness, Mark is initially a rather unsympathetic creation. It is only as the novel unravels, in increasingly hilarious segments, that a young man drowning in peer pressure is revealed – tragically only semi-aware of the fact that he is fast losing his own identity.

Round characters are developed and complex characters that have some of the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in real peopleDynamic character changes as a result of the plot. Static character does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of the character does not grow. Flat characters have just a few qualities or traits and are generally not developed.

Idiom (n.) an expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words.

“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be.”

Has there ever been a time in your life where you were envious (jealous) of someone else because of something he or she had? What things have you been jealous over? Would you consider trading your life for someone else’s? Why or why not? If so, who is that person? What material possessions does that person have that would make your life better?