Assignment task: Chapters 1-4 of Beyond Feelings explore how we know what we know, formulate our opinions, and support them. The chapters also identify obstacles to knowledge, many of which are illustrated in this week's assigned stories ("The Story of an Hour," "A & P," "Saving Sourdi," and "If I Were a Man"). Consider the following lettered question sets below, and then thoroughly answer just two lettered sets. Between the two answers, please meaningfully include characters from all four stories.
(A) How are the characters' actions influenced, and by what/whom? In what ways does the story illustrate how what we often consider our own perspective is actually shaped by other people's ideas and beliefs?
(B) How do the characteristics of critical thinkers listed on pages 21 and 22 of Beyond Feelings (always look for the numbering on the actual pages) specifically apply to this story's characters?
(C) How do these stories' protagonists know what they know, and are they correct in their knowledge?
(D) Are any of the stories' main characters and/or narrators affected by "imperfect perception," "imperfect memory," or "deficient information"? If so, what effect does this have on the story?
(E) Which characters in these stories "create" truth," and which characters "discover" truth? What are the effects to the stories?
(F) Which characters and/or narrators in these stories achieve knowledge "actively" and which achieve knowledge "passively," and what are the differences?
(G) Does any of the characters in these stories rely on "faith," and if so, what are the effects?
(H) Which characters and/or narrators in these stories rely on "assumptions" or "guesses," and what are the effects?