The Smoker Response paper
Engish 1302-
Response Paper #2
“The Smoker” by David Schickler
The literary story “The Smoker” is told in third person through the Doughlas Kerchek, a teacher of high school English. He teaches English at St Agnes High School which is an all girl private school. In this story it goes into detail about the character, Douglas, how he has a PH.D in English that he got from Harvard and how he lives this simple life alone. A solitary well –boxer- built man, good –looking early 30’s, he is a figure of interest among the young women and his collegues. The title refers to the recurring event of the Friday Night Smokers hosted by the Society of gentlemens club in Kerchek hometown in which Mr Kerchek went to often. He lived this simple life where he had a routine he did, and he did this day by day week by week.
There are two main characters in this story: Mr. Kerchek and Nicole Bonner, an intelligent rich attractive young girl that attends St Agnes High School. It begins with Mr Kerchek musing over a note that Nicole has appended to her essay that she turned in. In this note she describes her late night reading in bed, in which the author states that she read a novel a night, her disdain for Hunter S Thompson and her family’s habit of sharing a brandy before bedtime. Kerchek is taken aback by the intimacy of Nicole’s observations and by her personal, nearly impertinent, question about how he had bruised his ankle. Mr Kerchek knows that he is the only male teacher at this school and that many of the students and some of the single teachers find him attractive and find themselves wanting to date him. He is not attracted to his female colleagues so he does not date any of them but he does find Nicole as dangerously alluring. Mr. Kerchek knows that Nicole is a brilliant educated intelligent woman and that he writes a keenly detailed recommendation letter to Princeton strongly supporting Nicole application for admission. It is this that leads to the setting
Response Paper #2
“The Smoker” by David Schickler
The literary story “The Smoker” is told in third person through the Doughlas Kerchek, a teacher of high school English. He teaches English at St Agnes High School which is an all girl private school. In this story it goes into detail about the character, Douglas, how he has a PH.D in English that he got from Harvard and how he lives this simple life alone. A solitary well –boxer- built man, good –looking early 30’s, he is a figure of interest among the young women and his collegues. The title refers to the recurring event of the Friday Night Smokers hosted by the Society of gentlemens club in Kerchek hometown in which Mr Kerchek went to often. He lived this simple life where he had a routine he did, and he did this day by day week by week.
There are two main characters in this story: Mr. Kerchek and Nicole Bonner, an intelligent rich attractive young girl that attends St Agnes High School. It begins with Mr Kerchek musing over a note that Nicole has appended to her essay that she turned in. In this note she describes her late night reading in bed, in which the author states that she read a novel a night, her disdain for Hunter S Thompson and her family’s habit of sharing a brandy before bedtime. Kerchek is taken aback by the intimacy of Nicole’s observations and by her personal, nearly impertinent, question about how he had bruised his ankle. Mr Kerchek knows that he is the only male teacher at this school and that many of the students and some of the single teachers find him attractive and find themselves wanting to date him. He is not attracted to his female colleagues so he does not date any of them but he does find Nicole as dangerously alluring. Mr. Kerchek knows that Nicole is a brilliant educated intelligent woman and that he writes a keenly detailed recommendation letter to Princeton strongly supporting Nicole application for admission. It is this that leads to the setting