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Have
you ever flipped to the end of a book to see how the story turns
out? Or just flipped ahead a few pages to see if the character who is in danger
survives the crisis? What happens if, once you have done that, you are still not
sure? Why would the author not give you a clear message? What if you expect
events to unfold one way, and something totally unexpected happens? What is
the author trying to do?
Perhaps the author is trying to make you think. Sometimes when an author is
trying to make a point, he or she will lead you to a certain point, and then force
you to take those few steps on your own. The ending may have been left off
completely, or what actually happens may not be what you expected. In either
case, it is your job as reader to figure out what effect the author was trying to
achieve by using this technique.
In Book VII of The Republic, Plato gives his famous Allegory of the Cave. The
book is written as a conversation between Socrates and one of his students.
Plato begins by describing a scene in which human beings have been chained
in a cave since early childhood. Their legs, necks, and heads are chained in
such a way that they cannot move and can look only forward. Behind them is
a low wall, and behind that is a large fire. Plato then describes people passing
along the wall carrying various objects. The prisoners can see only shadows.
They believe these shadows are real. They gain prestige in one another’s eyes
by being able to name these shadows quickly. In Plato’s allegory, one prisoner
is taken out from the cave and forced to see actual light and actual objects. At
first, the light hurts his eyes, but he eventually realizes that what he had seen
before was only illusion. If he then returns to the cave to share his new knowledge, those who never left will think him a fool because his eyes, now accustomed to the light, will be unable to adjust fast enough to allow him to identify
the shadows quickly. Plato asks if those who never left would kill the one who
had, thinking he is a fool and a danger.
Plato presents this entire allegory as a series of questions, with the student
providing answers. Why would he set it up this way? What happens when you
read a question? Plato’s hope is that as you read the questions, you will provide your own answers, predicting what answer he will give, and so be drawn
into the discussion. He is attempting to teach by having you reach the conclusion he has in mind on your own, with his guidance.
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Predicting Outcomes
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Student Name________________________________________________________
For each of the following, read the story synopsis or passages provided and answer the questions
that follow.
1. At a certain point in Pip’s youth in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip is told that he
has a secret benefactor who is sending him to London to be brought up as a gentleman, and
that he will inherit a “handsome property,” meaning he will be rich. Pip has always lived in the
same small village. Soon after, he goes for a walk, and this is part of his reverie.
No more low wet grounds, no more dykes and sluices, no more of these grazing cattle
– though they seemed, in their dull manner, to wear a more respectful air now, and to
face round, in order that they might stare as long as possible at the possessor of such
great expectations – farewell, monotonous acquaintances of my childhood, henceforth I was for London and greatness: not for smith’s work in general and for you!
When Pip arrives in London, he meets a series of people who are waiting for his guardian,
who is a lawyer. They are all despicable, and his guardian is revealed as dishonest. Pip is then
taken to a hotel to meet the son of the man with whom he will be staying. The hotel is described
as “the dingiest collection of buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for
Tom-cats.” Pip’s description goes on, “…while dry rot and wet rot and all the silent rots that rot
in neglected roof and cellar – rot of rat and mouse and bug and coaching-stables near at hand
besides – addressed themselves faintly to my sense of smell….”
a. What did Pip expect to find in London?
b. What did Pip actually find when he arrived?
c. Why does Dickens set up this contradiction?
d. What point is Dickens making about London, about expectations, about Pip?
2. In The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant introduces us to Mathilde Loisel. The story takes place at
a time when women did not generally work and their status was determined by their husbands’
rank. Mathilde believed she had married “beneath her.” She wanted desperately to be rich. De
Maupassant says:
Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries. She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls,
at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another
woman of her rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her
angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble housework aroused in
her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams.
Mathilde’s husband gets tickets to a ball, which he believes will make her happy. She insists
on buying an expensive dress, and then borrows a diamond necklace from a rich woman she
knew in school. Mathilde loses the necklace at the ball. Her husband borrows an enormous
amount of money so they can replace it without telling the owner what had occurred, and both
of them have to slave for ten years to pay the debt. Maupassant describes Mathilde at the end
of the ten years.
Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished households – strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew and red hands,
she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water. But sometimes,
when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window and she thought
of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so
admired.
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Continued
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Predicting Outcome | L-1
COMPREHENSION SKILLS PRACTICE
Predicting Outcomes
Level L-1
Student Name________________________________________________________
Mathilde then meets the friend from whom she had borrowed the necklace in the park. She
decides to tell her friend the whole story. The friend does not recognize her at first, but after
Mathilde tells her tale, the friend tells her the original necklace was paste, costume jewelry.
a. Why did Mathilde find it necessary to borrow the necklace?
b. Why did Mathilde and her husband not tell her friend the truth when the necklace
was lost?
c. Why does de Maupassant have Mathilde find out after ten years that the original
necklace was worth a small fraction of what they paid to replace it?
d. Was this the ending you expected? What point is de Maupassant making about
human nature? What led to Mathilde’s downfall?
3. In The Lady, or the Tiger, Frank R. Stockton tells a story set in a kingdom long ago. The king
is described as “semi-barbaric,” and he employed a rather unique form of public punishment.
When someone committed a crime that came to his attention, he would gather all his subjects
in a public arena and have the criminal brought (all the criminals were men) out and given a
choice between two doors. Behind one door was a beautiful woman, who would marry the
criminal (regardless of what he wanted or whether he were already married or in love) and they
would be free to go off and live happily ever after. Behind the other door was a vicious tiger that
would come out and rip the criminal to shreds.
The king had a daughter who fell in love with a man whom the king disliked. The two loved
each other very much. When the king found out, he decided that the young man should be sent
to the arena. The princess was smart and resourceful and was able to find out which woman
would be placed behind the door, and behind which door she would stand. The chosen woman
was beautiful and charming. The princess thought she had seen her flirting with her boyfriend,
and him flirting back. The princess hated her with a passion. Now she had a choice. She could
tell her boyfriend where the lady would be and allow him to marry this rival she despised, or she
could let him die.
Stockton tells us that the princess had deliberated for many days and sleepless nights over
how she would advise her boyfriend. She knew he would look to her for guidance. She would
awake from nightmares of him being ripped apart by the tiger, or from nightmares of him blissfully forgetting her in the arms of this woman she hated. What Stockton does not tell us is what
she decided.
a. To which door do you think the princess would direct her boyfriend and why?
b. How would you choose in a similar situation?
c. Why does Stockton not tell the reader what the princess chose?
d. What effect does Stockton achieve by leaving the reader to decide how the story
ends?
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Inc.