Increasingly Obvious Attempts to Draw Attention to the Old Lady in My American Literature Class

“Although Hemingway’s In Our Time is now regarded as one of the seminal American expatriate works of the era, at the time of its release it was met with mixed critical review. It’s unfortunate that none of us has the capability to truly grasp the evolved public reception to the novel due to our lack of years.” [Cast knowing glance towards old lady]

“Sir, with all due respect, why are we students cooped up inside an auditorium on such a beautiful spring day? We’ve got the rest of our lives ahead of us to study literature. Well, at least some of us do.”

“Public inhibitions with regard to alcohol have changed dramatically since the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, an era exemplified by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. These days it’s near impossible to buy liquor unless you know someone who’s 21 or 80.”

“Psst… does anyone have a pen I could borrow? No? What about arthritis?”

“Two-part question: First, how does Twain’s use of character-specific colloquial dialogue contribute to the dynamism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Second, why is there is an old lady in the front row of our class?”