A Study Guide for Tobias Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Tobias Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jul 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535825887

Book preview

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In the Garden of the North American Martyrs

Tobias Wolff

1980

Introduction

First published in the journal Antaeus in the spring of 1980, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs was later revised and became the title story of Tobias Wolff’s first collection of short stories, published in 1981. This collection of fiction helped Wolff earn a reputation as one of the most promising writers of his generation. In this and the other stories in the book, Wolff probes the details of everyday life and ordinary characters in an effort to discern the aesthetic and moral patterns beneath the surface. In this story, Mary, a college professor who has carved out a safe career for herself by never risking originality, gets an offer to interview for an opening at a prestigious college. When she realizes that her interview has been arranged just to satisfy a rule about considering female candidates, she must choose how to react. Her final performance is a speech in which she finally recovers her power to speak in her true