Part B Scholarship Exam Short Story

Happy Endings Girl The Garden Party The Yellow Wallpaper

Author of Happy Endings

Margaret Atwood

Date of Happy Endings

1983

Author of Girl

Jamaica Kincaid

Date of Girl

1978

Author of The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Date of The Yellow Wallpaper

1892

Author of The Garden Party

Katherine Mansfield

Date of The Garden Party

1922

What kind of Woman?

Are you going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?

Sing what?

Is it true that you sing Benna in Sunday school?

Throw away

This is how … to throw away a child before it even becomes a child.

Smile

This is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much … to someone you don’t like at all  … to someone you like completely.

Meaning of life?

And what life was she couldn’t explain. No matter. He quite understood.

Sacrafices?

People like that don’t expect sacrifices from us. And it's not very sympathetic to spoil everybody’s enjoyment as you’re doing now.

Wear what?

Tell her to wear that sweet hat she had on last Sunday. 

Last line of The Garden Party

Isn't it, darling?

Trusting

It does not do to trust people too much.

Self Realisation

I wonder if they will come out of that wallpaper as did I

What doesn’t John like

There comes John, and I must put this away, – he hates to have me write a word.

What does the yellow look like?

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.

What does the physician say?

If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?

Fake endings

The endings are the same however you slice it. Don’t be deluded by any other endings; they are all fake.

The one real ending

The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

I’ve talked about plot now what?

That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why.

Ending?

Eventually they die. This is the end of the story.

Where to pick up next?

Everything continues on as in A.