In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tobias Wolff
- First Published: 1980
- Type of Plot: Satire
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: Colleges in Oregon and upstate New York
- Principal Characters: Mary, Louise, Ted, Jonathan, Roger, Dr. Howells
- Genres: Realism, Short fiction, Satire
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Betrayal, Bankruptcy or financial crisis, Employment or employees, Colleges or universities, Censorship, Interviewing
- Locales: New York, Oregon
The Story
“In the Garden of the North American Martyrs” begins with a summary of Mary's career, a sort of curriculum vitae establishing her credentials as an uninvolved person: a college history teacher who “watched herself.” Early in her career, she witnessed the firing of “a brilliant and original” professor whose ideas upset the college's trustees. To diminish the chances of similarly offending, Mary carefully wrote her lectures “out in full” beforehand, “using the arguments and often the words of other, approved writers.” She just as carefully avoided...
[The entire page is 1703 words long]
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