Discussion Questions

Not only do they build their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, students can build their metacognitive skills while annotating literature, and then use those annotations to assist them in comparing or contrasting, or evaluating and analyzing the text in terms of theme, conflict, figurative language, tone or mood. Studying literature has many benefits that extend beyond higher level critical thinking skills as well including gaining a deeper sense of empathy. Reading allows children to experience situations vicariously, and think about what they would do in the character's place. Although it could be argued that it is a generalized statement, women’s literature is usually written by women in the recent century, it explores themes which explore the struggle of sexism or the conflict women have between societal expectations and true identities.  Munro’s social realism was significant as it further insinuated the upcoming feminism wave. Munro’s work contributed to gender equality as she pioneered the genre of women’s literature and provided an original lens on mundane life experiences from the perspective of a female. She was able to inspire other female writers to rise up and gain a voice in literature. I enjoyed reading about the morphogenesis of young girls to conform to the definition of femininity when they approach adulthood and how Munro leaves it up to the reader to interpret whether this change came about inherently or as an inevitable consequence of societal pressures.