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Question 11 pts
In the middle of the 1923 International Conference, Stevens is given an important task involving Mr. Cardinal (the son of one of the important guests at the conference). What is Stevens asked to do?
Group of answer choicesTeach Mr. Cardinal how to shoot a rifle
Teach Mr. Cardinal how to polish silver
Teach Mr. Cardinal about sex
Teach Mr. Cardinal how to drive
Question 2
Despite insisting that “Lord Darlington was a gentleman of great moral stature…and I will readily vouch that he remained that to the last” (126), Stevens lies to Mr. Farraday’s friend, Mrs. Wakefield, and tells her that he didn’t actually work for Lord Darlington. Why does Stevens lie?
Question 3
Which of the following correctly distinguishes between an unreliable narrator and a discordant narrator?
Group of answer choicesUnreliable Narrator = a narrator whose facts (about story events, characters, the storyworld) raise doubts or are not to be trusted / Discordant Narrator = a narrator whom we believe provides accurate story facts, but whose interpretation of those facts we question or distrust
Unreliable Narrator = a narrator whose facts (about story events, characters, the storyworld) raise doubts or are not to be trusted  /  Discordant Narrator = a narrator whom we believe provides accurate story facts, but whose interpretation of those facts we question or distrust
Question 4
In one of Stevens’ father’s favorite anecdotes about composure and professionalism, a butler must confront a wild animal lurking in a dining room before the meal can be served. What kind of animal was it? 
Group of answer choicesA Hawk
A Bear
A Snake
A Tiger
Question 5
True or False: At the time Stevens receives her letter, Miss Kenton has not worked at Darlington Hall for 20 years.
Group of answer choicesTrue
False
Question 6
Having a staff that’s too small is just one of challenges Stevens faces as he tries to adjust to working for Mr. Farraday. Which of the following is a “duty” that Stevens really struggles to fulfill? 
Group of answer choicesDrive a car
Play the piano
Make small talk / banter
Do laundry
Question 7
How does Stevens respond when Miss Kenton brings him a vase of flowers for his butler’s pantry (office)?
Group of answer choicesHe tells her he doesn’t like flowers in his office
He kisses her
He writes her a thank-you note
He smashes the vase on the floor
Question 8
At the risk of stating the obvious, novels are usually longer and more complex than short stories. Setting aside the issue of time management–unlike short stories, novels aren’t easily read in one sitting–how has the shift from short stories to novels affected your reading practices/strategies and what you’re getting out of the reading experience? Provide a brief description of two noticeable differences in your reading experience since we began reading novels,
Lesson 10: Framing Narratives & Embedded Narratives
“The process most like the process of life is that of observing events through a convincing, human mind, not a godlike mind unattached to the human condition” (Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction, 45).
In the first week of our course, we started to think about how literary narratives cultivate the feeling that through the act of reading we actually access to the consciousness and point of view of characters. The concept of perspective (recall focalization and voice) helps us describe how a narrative uses language to create the effect that we can see through characters’ eyes or even hear their thoughts being voiced inside their head. Unlike third-person narration, which can involve shifts among different characters’ perspectives, first-person narration usually maintains a fixed perspective. As we observe in The Remains of the Day as well as in Salvage the Bones, first-person narration may limit our view and perception of story events and the storyworld by only offering the narrator’s perspective, but in doing

so, it can also create an extraordinarily immersive experience by allowing us readers to occupy the narrator’s consciousness in sustained, uninterrupted, and extremely intimate ways. Part of this immersive sensation comes from the way in which first-person narrators decide where, when, how, and why the narrative will go in the directions it goes. In other words, the narrator’s consciousness organizes and arranges the representation of story events in ways that we readers can perceive.
In Salvage the Bones, Esch narrates the story events as they unfold, while contemplating the significance of what’s happening and occasionally reflecting upon past experiences and situations that resonate with what’s currently before her. Though Esch might daydream from time to time, she remains primarily focused on the present. Consequently, the narrative’s chronological plot doesn’t really feel like something Esch is actively controlling or arranging as narrator. Indeed, our proximity to Esch’s consciousness is so close that we may not sense that she’s actively narrating at all.
In The Remains of the Day, however, Stevens proves to be a much different type of first-person narrator. Though we readers certainly gain tremendous access to his consciousness, we encounter Stevens from a distance. Esch’s voice gives us readers the feeling that we’re overhearing her as she thinks to herself. By comparison, Stevens’ voice sounds different, as though he’s actually talking to us.
Is Stevens “talking” to us?
“I should say…” “I should point out…”
“But let me make it immediately clear what I mean by this…”
“But you will no doubt agree…” “You may be amazed…” “but then you will agree…”
“I hope you do not think me unduly vain with regard to this last matter…”
“Incidentally, now that I come to think further about it, it is not quite true to say…”
“What I should have said…”
“Perhaps you might be persuaded…” “But you may think me merely biased…”
The habits, tendencies, and ornamental turns of phrase that adorn his sentences give a rich, distinctive quality of voice to his narration. In effect, Stevens’ narration draws attention to itself in a way that Esch’s simply does not. And as expected, Stevens’ idiosyncratic voice and his almost constant efforts to clarify what he’s trying to say and to manage our reception underscore the active role he plays in telling us his story. Stevens’ self-consciousness, which almost approaches insecurity, enhances the feeling that the narrative is being crafted and conveyed by a complex, motivated, and “real” person.
Framing the Past
Stevens’ unique voice and the way he seems to possess a consciousness that’s self-aware—even aware of the storytelling he’s doing—not only affects how we engage with him and feel about the story events he relays, but it also affects what we engage with and when. That Stevens appears to be candidly constructing the narrative (something we don’t get so much from Esch’s narration) helps to elucidate how the narrative’s complex plot works.
Like Salvage the Bones, The Remains of the Day uses chapter titles that include timestamps that help us keep track of the steady, linear progression of time as it moves forward over the course of the novel. The chapter titles map out, day by day, Stevens’ trip to meet Miss Kenton. And each chapter begins and ends with some account of story events that occur while Stevens is on the road. However, the chapters readily leave Stevens’ present storyworld (the English countryside, July 1956) behind and devote their pages to storyworlds and story events from the past (usually Darlington Hall at different points during the 1920s to 1940s).