51 pages • 1 hour read
Grace PaleyA Conversation with My Father
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Activities
Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.
“Intergenerational Conflict Short Story”
In this activity, students will write their own short story about an Intergenerational Conflict.
Grace Paley’s story reveals the theme of Intergenerational Conflict through the disagreement between the writer and her father. At the heart of the conflict is the contrast in how the two characters approach Coming to Terms With Tragedy. Draw on your own experiences with a member of another generation to craft your own short story about Intergenerational Conflict. Consider how you might create another theme through the nature of the conflict in your story.
Brainstorm conflicts you’ve had or are familiar with others having with members of a different generation. Consider family, work, and school.
- Choose the conflicts that most interest you and list a potential theme at the heart of each conflict like the contrasting ways of Coming to Terms With Tragedy in “A Conversation with My Father.”
- Share your list of conflicts with a classmate. You might hear something in their brainstorm that sparks an idea for you.
- Choose one idea to develop into a short story featuring the conflict.
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