Drown Lesson Plan

This story is deeply troubling in many ways. How does it affect you emotionally? Is it difficult to get through? What is the value, if any, in reading a story from the perspective of someone who is physically abusive? (Aurora)

This discussion should be approached thoughtfully and delicately. Students should be given free rein to discuss how they felt reading the story. They should also be allowed to, and perhaps even encouraged to, push back against it. The way in which violence is framed in this particular story is crucial to unpack. The narrator is only moderately remorseful about hurting Aurora, always mentioning ways in which she also hurt him (with her fingernails,...