Adventures in Guangzhou!

After a brief writing prompt about the meaning of "responsibility," I handed out the following story to every student:

THE DRAWBRIDGE

As he left for a visit to the countryside, a jealous King warned his pretty wife: "Do not leave the castle while I am gone, or I will punish you severely when I return!"

As the hours passed, the young Queen grew lonely, and despite her husband's warning, decided to visit her lover who lived nearby. The castle was located on an island in a wide, fast flowing river, with a bridge linking the island and the land. "Surely my husband will not return before dawn," she thought.

After spending several pleasant hours with her lover, the Queen returned to the bridge, only to find it blocked by a madman wildly waving a long, cruel knife. "Do not attempt to cross this bridge, Queen, or I will kill you," he raved. Fearing for her life, the Queen returned to her lover and asked him to help. "Our relationship is only a romantic one," he said, "I will not help."

The Queen then sought out a boatman on the river, explained her plight to him and asked him to take her across the river in his boat. "I will do it, but only if you pay me my price of five gold coins." "But I have no money with me!" the Queen protested. "That is too bad. No money, No ride," the boatman said flatly.

Her fear growing, the Queen ran crying to the home of a friend, and after again explaining the situation, begged for enough money to pay the boatman his price. "If you had not disobeyed your husband, this would not have happened," the friend said. "I will give you no money."

With dawn approaching and her last resource exhausted, the Queen returned to the bridge in desperation, attempted to cross to the castle, and was slain by the madman.

DIRECTIONS: In the story above, there are six characters. Rank the characters (from 1 to 6) in the order of the responsibility for the death of the Queen.

1:­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ ____________ (most responsible)

2: ____________

3: ____________

4: ____________

5: ____________

6: ____________ (least responsible)

The story in and of itself is thought-provoking, but I have found that it's also an interesting clue into basic cultural differences. Personally, I feel that you can make a compelling case for each character to be most responsible (which, I suppose, is the point), but across the board, almost every one of my students put the Queen as #1. When asked to defend their choice, they all said, "She disobeyed her husband. If she hadn't disobeyed, the rest of the story never would have happened."

It took quite a bit of prodding and leading on my part, but by the end of class I had at least one person in the room arguing vehemently for each of the six characters to be most responsible. It's extremely satisfying as a language teacher when you can just melt away into the walls and allow the students to engage in debate without any assistance, especially when it's completely in their second language.