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Lesson One - The Painted Door

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Course: ELA 30-1 RVSO
Book: Lesson One - The Painted Door
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Monday, 10 November 2025, 9:00 AM

Table of contents

Introduction

spouseLesson One - "The Painted Door"
Duration - 5 blocks (5 x 80 min + homework)

"Rash actions are seldom committed in isolation. With the first rash action we always do too much. So we usually go on to commit a second one—and then we do too little." - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher

Could you live in an isolated setting, away from all contact with society, for a long period of time? Do you think such a setting would have some effect on your mental and emotional well-being?

In this unit, we are going to explore the question, "What idea does the text creator develop about the role of honesty when an individual experiences tension between optimism and reality?"

 

Lesson

James Sinclair Ross (1908-96), was born on a homestead near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, one of three children. He grew up on prairie farms where his mother worked as a housekeeper after the breakdown of her marriage. Leaving high school after Grade 11, Ross worked as a bank clerk for what would eventually become known as the Royal Bank in a succession of small towns in Saskatchewan before being transferred to Winnipeg in 1933 and then to Montreal in 1946. Apart from four years in the Canadian army (1942-6), when he was stationed in England, he remained with the bank until his retirement in 1968. He then lived for some years in Greece and Spain, returning to Canada in 1980, settling in Vancouver.

Ross is best know for his early fiction, which uniquely captures the harsh, impoverished lives of prairie farmers and townspeople during the dust- and drought-ridden years of the Depression. Stories such as "No Other Way", "The Lamp at Noon", and "The Painted Door", resonate with realistic detail reflecting the isolation, bone-wearying labour, helplessness in the face of the elements, and psychological strain, especially between husbands and wives, that Ross saw as characterizing life on the Prairies during those hard times.

Ross is regarded as one of Canada's finest craftsmen of the novel and short story. He is the author of 4 novels and 18 short stories, published between 1934 and 1974, many of which uniquely capture the harsh lives of prairie people during the Depression years. He was largely unheralded as a writer until his seminal 1941 novel As For Me and My House was reprinted in Canada in 1957, but the power of his work is credited with influencing many Canadian prairie writers.

  • Read "The Painted Door". The document contains the short story, followed by an analysis.

Assignment 1

Respond to the questions posted in the U4L1 Forum: Painted Door 

Respond to the questions in as much detail as possible in order to earn full marks.

The forum is worth 50 marks.

Your first post - that is, your answers to the questions posed - are worth 35 of those 50 marks. 
Compose your answers in a document and then copy and paste them into the forum.
If you compose in the forum window, and it is open for too long, it may time out before you click "submit" and all of your work will be lost!!

The remaining 15 marks are earned by your comments on your classmates' posts. 
You must comment on at least three of your classmates' posts.
Writing "I agree, good post" will earn you no marks, as that engenders no discussion.

The forums in this course replace the discussions that would be held in a traditional classroom.
Be sure that your comments add to a discussion.

Assignment 2

(100 marks)

Open a new Word document. Save it as E301U4L1surname
In this document, complete the assignment as outlined below.
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox for U4L1 Painted Door essay

For this assignment, you will be writing a critical/analytical essay. Your response should be between 800 and 1600 words.
Historically, on the diploma exam, students who write 800 words tend to score around 50%. Those who write closer to the upper range of 1000 - 1600 words tend to reach the Standard of Excellence, which is 80% or higher. View 1600 words as a cap, however, and not as a target. Writing MORE than 1600 words does not necessarily improve your mark. It may, in fact, do the opposite. Choose your words judiciously. 

For this assignment, answer this question: "In his short story, "The Painted Door", what idea does Sinclair Ross develop about the role of honesty when an individual experiences tension between optimism and reality?

Use the thesis planner and the essay skeleton to aid in your planning. Begin by first filling in the red cells of the chart, followed by the evidence, and then the explanations. Use the information you charted in this skeleton to write the good copy of your essay. You are not limited to writing only three body paragraphs! 

Your essay will be evaluated using the Critical/Analytical Response to Literary Text RUBRIC.

Conclusion

As Anne learned to her everlasting horror, honesty is vital when considering both optimism and reality. Societal conventions may preclude one's ability to work through those tensions.