White Angel

Bobby’s character is particularly observant. How would you characterize his voice as a narrator? Directly cite at least three examples from the story.

Woodstock and Yasgur’s farm are mentioned several times in the story. What does Woodstock represent to Bobby and Carlton?

The story’s tone is frequently humorous, although the story ends in a tragedy. How does the humor in the story contribute to the experience of reading it?

From almost the beginning of the story, the reader knows that Carlton will die, although they don’t know how he will die until the end. How would the reading experience change if the reader weren’t told about the death in advance? Why is the foreknowledge important?

Though the reader understands that Bobby narrates from a point in the future, years after the events occurred, the narration shifts between past, present, and future tenses. Track these shifts and theorize about their significance. How do they reflect the narrator’s emotions or his attitude toward the death?

Why do you think Cunningham titled this story “White Angel”? The white angel is one of many symbols in the story, so what makes it special and important enough to become the title? To develop an answer, cite at least three examples from the story.

Bobby narrates the story from a point in the future, years after the events have transpired. Therefore, while the narrator is presumably an adult, he narrates a story of his nine-year-old self and describes his childhood perspective. What effect does this have on the story? What happens when an adult narrates the mind of a child? How might the story be different if the child Bobby were narrating?

At the beginning of the story, Bobby’s father is building a grandfather clock from a kit so he can have something to leave to his kids. By the end of the story, the clock is in the hallway when Bobby finds his father walking around in his pajamas, “thinking of ghosts” (15). What does the grandfather clock represent in this story?