No Subject

[Monseigneur]

Having read Ethan Frome in class, and having gone through a very strange test, and a futile discussion that followed, I still have some questions in mind.<br><br>1) Did anyone get the idea that Ethan Frome wanted to teach college before his father's illness? I thought he wanted to be an engineer...that was our dispute over the True or False question "Ethan planned to be a college teacher after he graduated." or something along that line.<br><br>2) Does anyone think that Ethan is the antagonist as well as the protagonist? I thought that Zeena was the protagonist. Yes, Ethan hindered himself. But doesn't almost every protagonist in the history of literature?<br><br>3) About symbols...did the spruce symbolize anything? Is there an argument that they didn't? And as for the sawmill, is it possible that it was a symbol?<br><br>4) If someone asks you "True or False, Ruth Varnum continued to visit Ethan and Mattie Silver regularly and often after the accident", would you think that they're asking you about right after the accident or the time lapse between the accident and the time when the narrator tells the story?

[Conseil]

I thought, as you did, that Ethan wanted to be an engineer after he graduated. The only hint to the notion that he wanted to teach after finishing school would come from his caring character. A man that gives up his hopes and dreams to help others would be great at teaching students about something he loves learning.
The spruces could symbolize death because they usually described as black... "two black Norway spruces at the gate" (chapter 1) and "black curtain of the Varnum spruces" (chapter 9). The sawmill may symbolize Ethan's failure because it is the place that he works incessantly and yet, he still has no money. Due to his lack of funds, Ethan couldn't escape Starkfield with Mattie and is forced to remain in his living grave.
For the true and false question about Ruth Varum I would think more about the time right after the accident, but the question should be worded more specifically because Mrs. Hale talks about both lapses of time.