Russo chapter 3
Jack is in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
1. There are two types of places that his parents think about living while they are on Cape Cod.
2. What are they?
3. What does Jack’s mom think of his wife Joy?
4. What does Joy think of Jack’s mom?
5. What do you think of how Jack’s dad died?
6. Who is Sid and what role does he play in Jack’s life?
7. On page 38 we are told about Joy. What did Jack find attractive about her?
Russo chapter 3 cont. •What is the worry for Jack and Joy’s daughter about her parents?
•What is the Great Truro Accord?
•What are Joy’s parents, Harve and Jill, like?
•What was not a part of the Great Truro Accord?
•What gets into Joy at the end of this chapter?
Russo chapter 4
•Jack’s parents meet the Brownings at Cape Cod in the summer.
•Who are the Brownings and why do they matter?
•How does Jack feel about them?
•Why does he feel this way?
•What does this tells us about Jack’s parents?
•How do Jack’s parents feel about the Brownings?
•What does Jack admire in Peter Browning?
•How does Jack feel about Peter’s mom? Why?
chapter 5
•What does this chapter title mean? The answer is in chapter 7.
•How is Jack Griffin like his father?
•He says his parents “were born renters”. Why?
•What do learn about the places they rent in this chapter?
•How does Griffin feel about Joy’s parents?
•Where does Griffin get the money for his home?
•We are told in this chapter that Joy sees the big picture. What does this mean?
•What is the epiphany Griffen has when he sees the older couple at the bar?
•Why does Joy cry in the shower?
russo chapter 6
•Who is Sunny Kim and how does he feel about Laura?
•What is the wedding of Kelsey Apple like on the Cape?
•Why does Sunny use instant messages?
•What does Sunny do for a living?
•Describe the difference between Sunny Kim’s family and Laura’s family.
•Who is Tommy and what is his relationship to Jack Griffin and Joy?
•Who is Sunny looking at the end of this chapter and why?
Below are my course mates finished homework , please see it as sample for these questions.
Chapter 3 – The Great Truro Accord
1. The two types of places Jack’s parents think about while on Cape Cod are “Can’t afford It and Wouldn’t Have It As a Gift” (29). While leafing through the real-estate guide, Jack determined, like his parents, that the homes on the Cape “were either mind-bogglingly expensive or little more than shacks” (29).
2. Jack’s mother thought Joy was intellectually inferior according to her standards. Jack was embarrassed to tell his mother that Joy had not attended an Ivy League school. “He’d taken a deep breath,” before explaining to his mother that Joy’s level of education was an undergraduate degree (31). Jack’s mother responds “Yes, but what sort of person doesn’t do graduate work?” placing emphasis on the word person (31, 32). Jack’s mother sees Joy as almost alien because she has not taken her education to the graduate level.
3. Joy thought Jack’s mother was a snobby, cantankerous woman and jokingly asked Jack “if there was any chance he’d been adopted” (32). Years later Joy takes notice of how physically similar Jack is to his father. Joy believes that Jack has inherited “his mother’s genetic gifts,” whenever Jack is “unkind or snobbish, especially about someone in her own family” (32). “Poor Joy had spent the first decade of their marriage trying to get her mother-in-law to think better of her, the next trying to fathom why that wasn’t happening and the one after that pretending it didn’t matter” (32).
4. Jack’s father’s death is suspicious given the circumstances surrounding the discovery of his body. Found “slumped over in the passenger seat,” begged the question who might the driver, whom abandoned him, be? The car was on the perimeter of a large parking lot at a rest stop with “the ignition in the ON position,” and the gas tank empty (34). Two possible scenarios popped into Jack’s mind. Either his father had picked up a female hitchhiker or he was headed to Massachusetts with “one of his coeds…” (35). The police confirmed that the anonymous caller reporting the incident “had been a woman, possibly a young woman” (35). Not wanting to be identified, the alleged woman panicked after Jack’s father died from an embolism on the Massachusetts turnpike.
5. Sid was Jack’s agent when he and Tommy were writing screenplays in Los Angeles back in the ‘80’s. After learning from Joy that Sid had called him, Jack “immediately felt the adrenaline rush,” as he imagined that Sid might be calling him to work on “a feature film” (37). Sid’s role in Jack’s life is symbolic of a happier, more carefree lifestyle where Jack was making more money
and he and Joy were happy.
6. Jack thought that “every man he knew had been in love with Joy” (38). He was attracted to her because she “was not only beautiful but genuine” (39). Little things like Joy believing in ghosts “endeared” him to Joy (45). Jack thought Joy’s “exuberance” about their dream house and their future together was “infectious” (46).
chapter 3
1. While on the Cape Jack’s parents divide the real estate listings into two categories, the “can’t afford it” and “wouldn’t have it as a gift.” We see Jack continue this and while searching thorough a real estate magazine “he quickly determined (the listings) were either mind-bogglingly expensive or little more than shacks.”
2. Jack’s mother looked down on Joy and had a “low opinion” on her since ”Joy had gone directly to work after getting her undergraduate degree.” To Jack’s mother, “there was no greater barometer of personal worth” than the graduate school a person goes to. Jack’s mother even asked “what sort of person doesn’t do graduate work?” emphasizing that she didn’t agree with Joy’s decisions.
3. Joy finds Jack’s mom snobbish and rude. At first, she was dying to meet Jack’s mother and “spent the first decade of their marriage trying to get her mother-in-law to think better of her” but then spent “the next trying to fathom why that wasn’t happening.” Joy even questioned Jack asking “if there was any chance he’d been adopted” but later said “”that’s your mother talking” whenever he was unkind or snobbish.”
4. Jack’s father’s death is suspicious and strange. He was found “slumped over in the passenger seat.” We question why was he in the passenger seat and what took so long for someone to call the police. “It had been a young women who made the anonymous call.” We are led to believe that Jack’s father had either “stopped for pretty hitchhikers” or “talked one of his coeds into making the trip with him.” Either way we still have no clue who was with Jack’s father which is a strange scenario.
5. Sid was Jack’s “agent back in LA” when he used to write screenplays. Jack was very excited to think that he could have a gig to write back in LA. Sid’s calls reminded Jack of his time in LA and the fun he had. Jack hoped Sid needed him for a gig and even said “wouldn’t that be sweet” to be called for work.
6. Jack was attracted to Joy because she was “not just beautiful but genuine” which was a rare find especially in California. “Every man he knew had been in love with Joy” and Jack felt as if Joy was “out of his league.”
