Congratulations for reaching Year 4 of your American English studies. This year we will read numerous American short stories to build American English listening and reading comprehension skills. Please pay close attention to each American short story assigned here and share your insights and what you’ve learned in the comments section below.
Directions: Listen and read each short story and then share what you learned in the comments section below.
Lesson 4.10.4: Lesson 10
American short stories.
”The Furnished Room”, written by O’Henry.
The story revolves around a young man, whose name is not mentioned and a young lady, Miss Eloise Vasher, whom the young man looking for.
Although the people of New York’s West side have hundred homes, but they are transients. They go from furnished room to furnished room. They carry everything they own in one small box and sing a song without knowing it’s meaning. The song is,” Home Sweet Home”. Out of the hundred house every house has his own different and interesting story.
One evening a young man, who has been travelling and rings the bell of the boarding house. After a while door opens and a lady appears the housekeeper Mrs. Purdy. The young man asks for a room, Mrs. Purdy confirms she has on the third floor and has been vacant for a week. She leads him to the room and shows the young man the furnished room. Mrs. Purdy tells him some of the previous tenants who acted and sang in the theater. He then asks if Mrs. Prudy remembers a young woman, named, Eloise Vasher with red hair and a mole above her left eyebrow. Mrs. Prudy answer is, ‘No, she does not remember anyone of that description and moves away. the young man looks around the room with its ragged furniture. He notes various objects left by previous tenants as well as stain and fingertips. The young man smells a familiar scent of mignonette, which is revealed to be Eleusis’s favorite perfume. He determines Eloise must have been in that same room. He tears apart the room, looking for anything that might reveal she was a prior tenant. The young man once more inquiries from Mrs. Prudy about prior tenants, again the answer is, ‘No’. The young man turns the gas on, he lies down on the bed and ready to die of suffocation.
The final scene of the story takes place in the basement in the boardinghouse, where Mrs. Prudy and another housekeeper, Mrs. McCool talking to each other and sharing the stories of their tenants. Mrs. McCool expresses surprise that her friend was able to rent out the room as the previous tenant died from gas poisoning only a week earlier. Mrs. Prudy points out that she has to rent out the room for her livings. But she notes that the young woman who died by gas suffocation had amole above her left eyebrow. What a tragic story !