Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter's arc — discovery, announcement, leak, pilgrimage, sermon — then name the central tension White is developing between the wonder itself and the uses people find for it, and decide whether he handles that tension honestly or lets the comedy soften it.
Discussion Questions
- Why do the words in the web carry more authority in this chapter than Edith's plain explanation that the unusual thing is the spider, not the pig? Use the words and details of the kitchen and pigpen scenes to decide what makes the sign persuasive to the people who read it, and what that response suggests about how written words work in this community.
- The minister first postpones interpretation — 'We don't know what it means yet, but perhaps if I give thought to it, I can explain it in my sermon next Sunday' — then preaches that the words proved people must watch for wonders. Weigh his handling of the sign as an act of interpretation: is he reading the event or managing it? Use the text of his two appearances — the private counsel of secrecy he gives Zuckerman and the public sermon — to decide whether his method serves the sign or the institution.
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Critical Thinking
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