Katherine Anne Porter chooses to leave some critical elements of the story uncertain, including the name of the disabled son. What other elements of the story are ambiguous? Provide three specific examples from the story ("He"). Explain why the author purposely leaves things unclear.

Porter purposefully leaves out many elements from the story in order to underline the theme of reality versus appearance. Mrs Whipple is obsessed and even paralyzed with fear that other people from the village might look down on the family or even pity them. By investing so much energy into hiding their perceived "dirty laundry" from other people, she has started hiding the truth from herself too. That is the root of all ambiguity in the story; the reader has to do a detective work to unearth the truth and figure out the true relations between the family members.

Explanation:

Here are three other examples of uncertain or ambiguous elements.

We never get to hear the proper voices of Adna or Emly, the other two children. How are they coping with their brother's incapacity? Are they angry with their mother for favoring him at the dinner table even at the price of their being hungry? We don't get to hear any of that from them. Their mother is the main myth maker in the family, and the only tension is between her vision of the family and the truth that the reader is trying to fathom.

Another ambiguous element is how He came to be that way. Was He born "simple-minded" or did something happen that affected His capability? In this story, we have to work with what Mrs Whipple has given us - and that's a twisted story full of little lies that even she fails to catch up on.

The reader also has to face the question why Mrs Whipple constantly exposes Him to dangerous situations while still acting overprotective at the dinner table. For example, she sends Him to snatch a piglet from its mother when Adna refuses to do it. A mother who truly cares for her disabled son would have done it herself, or had her husband do it. Another such situation is when she sends him to bring the bull.

the characters especially dave, are frustrated with the inequalities that exist within their life. we  

infer that if he doesn't escape, then he will work on the fields for the rest of his life. an example  

within the text is the conversation between mrs. saunder and dave. mrs. saunder say's "lawd,  

chill, whut's wrong wid yuh? ". here we seen how she comes for dave in an emotional way.

in at least one hundred words, explain how dave’s search for adulthood in “the man who  

was almost a man” reflects the african-american desire to escape the poverty of the south

at the time the story was written.

dave's desire to escape slavery greatly reflects the african-american desire to  

escape oppression and poverty. dave is struggling to declare his identity with the occurence of  

the rural south in his place. throughout the  

story

dave is very irritated because of the way he is  

being treated by whites and how he basically has no freedom. his search for adulthood is exactly

how most african-americans felt and acted during that time. dave also gets so fed up that he  

wants to actually fight back which is how all the other african-americans felt too. desperation is

a major theme in the story as dave is desperate to experience his adulthood, and african-

americans are desperate to escape poverty.

william zanzinger killed poor hattie carroll

with a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger

at a baltimore hotel society gath'rin'

based on these first lines from the song "the lonesome death of hattie carroll," what can

the audience infer about zanzinger?

he is a wealthy man.

the vietnam war was the first one watched by americans on television. how did this  

viewing of the war in their living rooms most clearly affected modern literature in which of  

the following ways? select all that apply.

the literature focused on the realities of war.

since people saw the war all the time, the literature focused on happy things.

it was written with a purpose to actually end the war.