Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the narrator resolves to die rather than take part and pleads with Parker, who attacks him; how the others insist and the four draw lots, and Parker is chosen to die so the rest may live; how the narrator turns away from describing the worst; how, days later, he remembers an axe Peters had passed him and the friends cut through to the store-room; and how they bring up olives, ham, wine, and a Gallipago tortoise full of sweet water and give thanks to God. Then name the moment you find most decisive and defend your choice.
Discussion Questions
- Parker reasons that 'it was unnecessary for all to perish, when, by the death of one' the rest might be saved, while the narrator resolves to 'suffer death... rather than resort to such a course.' Explain why the two men draw such opposite conclusions from the same desperate facts, and what each view assumes about the limits of human action. Use details from the chapter.
- The narrator alone resists the plan, pleads with Parker, and threatens to throw him overboard, yet when the other three unite he submits and holds the lots himself. Is his conduct best understood as a conscience that finally gave way, as the only course left to a man overpowered, or as both at once? Defend the stronger reading. Use details from the chapter.
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Critical Thinking
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