Assignment Help: selecting at least two stories, explore or compare what in the stories “Meat,” “A Tiger in the House,” and “Van Gogh’s Ear” could be humorous
PREP QUESTIONS:
What is the story about? What are the stories about?
Did you find anything funny? If so, what? Why? Underline it.
Did you find anything uncomfortable or disturbing? If so, what? Why? Underline it.
Did you find anything grotesque? If so, what? Why? Underline it.
Did the story raise any feelings?
Did the story raise any thoughts?
PROMPT:
In his critical essay about Virgilio Piñera’s short story “Meat,” Thomas F. Anderson writes that “it is
precisely this ambivalent quality of his stories which makes them so strange and disturbing, and
which causes the reader to question whether he/she is supposed to turn away in disgust, or to let out
an uneasy chuckle.”
Using evidence from the text, and selecting at least two stories, explore or compare what in the
stories “Meat,” “A Tiger in the House,” and “Van Gogh’s Ear” could be humorous, to what is
disturbing, and what do the authors achieve by including and/or mixing the humor and with what
could be disturbing or dangerous?
