A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. Activity 1

I want to begin by thinking about how narrative order, story-time, and discourse-time operate in "A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud." In your groups, determine how McCullers has sequenced the events in the story, then think about a different choice she could have made. You might re-sequence the story:

• as a "flash forward"
• with discourse-time being significantly shorter than story-time
• with a closed rather than an open plot

Choose a strategy other than McCullers's and collaborate on writing a key paragraph from the new story (at least 5-6 sentences). You might re-write the first paragraph, last paragraph, or a climactic paragraph; whatever you feel best illustrates the consequences of your re-sequencing. As you construct your paragraph, note the ways in which your re-sequencing changes the character, even the "point" of the story.