Name:

Date:

The Necklace

Guy de Maupassant

DIRECTIONS: Complete the following items after you have read the text.

____________________________________________________________________________

RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

1.(a) Determine a theme of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text.

Identify a theme, or insight about life, conveyed in “The Necklace.” Then, explain how the theme is shaped by specific details over the course of the story.

(b) Provide an objective summary of a text.

Write an objective summary of “The Necklace” that includes main ideas and important details but not your own opinions or judgments.

____________________________________________________________________________

RL.9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

2.(a) Determine the meaning of words as they are used in a text.

Reread paragraph 100 of “The Necklace.” What is the meaning of the word fortitude as it is used in the second sentence of the paragraph?

(b) Determine the meaning of words as they are used in a text, including connotative meanings.

What connotation does the word fortitude have as it is used in paragraph 100? Explain your answer.

Author’s Choices: Literary Devices

Directions: Complete the following activity as either a written response or a group discussion.

_____________________________________________________________________________

RL.9-10.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

3.Explain why the ending of “The Necklace” is a surprise and how de Maupassant crafts the story to create the element of surprise. As part of your explanation, describe the situational irony that is revealed at the end of the story.

Use these guidelines in your writing or discussion.

●Identify the basic plot events of the story, and tell what the surprise is at the end.

●Explain what is ironic about the ending. Consider the definition of situational irony—an event that is contrary to what characters or readers expect.

●Explain how de Maupassant leads readers to expect a certain outcome. How do his descriptions of the characters and their reactions at key points in the story cause the reader to make certain assumptions about the necklace and what will happen?