Night - Alice Munro

Night - Alice Munro

Revision

Alice Munro

• Canadian writer

• Nobel Prize winner

• Short stories

• Night > Dear Life

• 'not quite stories' > autobiographical writing with ficitonal elements

Let's remind ourselves of the text

Anthology p. 46

Context

• Rural Canada

• WWII

Multiple Choice

What event does the writer link to the dramatic experiences in her life?

• A cancer diagnosis

• A snowstorm

• A trip to the hospital

• A cold dark night

Multiple Choice

Why did the writer's family still have horses around?

• They couldn't afford a car

• Cars were not invented yet

• The war meant gas was expensive

• Because they lived in the countryside

Multiple Choice

How far did the writer have to travel to the hospital?

• About a kilometer

• No more than three miles

• No more than a mile

• No more than a mile and a half

Multiple Choice

What word does the writer use to describe the snow falling outside her hospital window?

• Delicate

• Somber

• Heavy

• Terrific

Open Ended

How does this quotation show that the narrator is looking back on this event?

"I don't suppose it ever crossed my head to wonder how my father was going to pay for this distinction."

Multiple Choice

What did the doctor remove besides the writer's appendix?

• A tumour the size of a duck's egg

• A growth the size of a chicken's egg

• A tumour the size of an ostrich's egg

• A growth the size of a turkey's egg

Open Ended

Look at paragraph 6 (l. 25 - 29). This paragraph shifts between past and present tense. Why?

"The thought of cancer ... cloud around that word."

Multiple Choice

Where did the writer sleep?

• The bottom bunk

• Next to her sister

• In a hammock

• The top bunk

Open Ended

In what way does Munro describe her night time games with her sister? Support your answer with a quotation from the text.

Multiple Choice

What was the first sign to the writer that something might be wrong?

• She didn't have as much work to do

• The doctor removed more than her appendix

• She started to have trouble sleeping

• She started having disturbing thoughts

Open Ended

What effect does this simile have?

Multiple Choice

What word from the text means "using one's own will"

• Effort

• Volition

• Desire

• Vocation

Multiple Choice

What is the thought? "And I did think of it. The more I chased the thought away, the more it came back"

• That she was dying

• That she was going to harm her sister

• That she had cancer

• That she was insane

Open Ended

What does the narrator do to make sure she does not act on her thought?

Multiple Choice

What technique?

"And I did think of it. The more I chased the thought away, the more it came back"

• inner dialogue

• pace

• repetition

• hyperbole

Multiple Choice

What technique is used here?

"We stood to hang out the heavy wet washing, and haul it in smelling all fresh and congratulatory"

• pathetic fallacy

• imagery

• metaphor

• pathos

Multiple Choice

What night of her wandering routine did she encounter someone?

• twentieth

• twelfth

• eighth

• she couldn't say

Open Ended

What was strange about her encounter with her dad that morning?

Multiple Choice

What did the writer realise soon after beginning to talk to her father?

• He was worried about her

• He lived a double life

• He was scared of her

• He had known about her night wandering

Open Ended

In the final part of the story, there is a tension shift. Where? Quote from the text.

Multiple Choice

What did the father believe was causing the distressing thoughts?

• Imagination

• Mental illness

• Either

• Ether

Open Ended

When is the tension resolved? Quote from the text.

Open Ended

Look at the penultimate paragraph. What language stands out here, and why?

"I have thought ... an impossible woman."

Open Ended

What is the effect of the final paragraph?

Open Ended

What themes do you recognise in this text?

Open Ended

What questions do you have left about this text?