“Half-Hanged Mary” Expert Groups Discussion

Directions: As a class, we will have an Expert Group discussion on “Half-Hanged Mary” by

Margaret Atwood. For this discussion, you and your classmates will explore issues, ideas, language,
and connections that are found within the poem. You are encouraged to connect this discussion to
The Crucible or either of the smaller texts that we have annotated.

How do Expert Groups work?

There are three main parts to have a successful discussion:

1. Read and annotate the text. You will read through the entire text and annotate it while
you go. As always, the annotations can be anything that helps you have a close conversation
with the text—these can be comments, questions, highlights, etc. You can refer to the
annotation guideline sheet for more in-depth ideas.

2. Discuss your section with your pod. You and the members of your pod are going to be
the experts on a certain part of the text. You will pose and answer questions that you have
about your section of the text. In your discussion, try to identify a few key points that are
most important to your section of the poem.

3. Share your expertise with the class. After each group has had time to become an expert
on their section, we will come together as a class and go back through the poem in order.
When we do, the experts for each section will share what their group discussed about their
portion. If other students have any observations or questions after the experts have shared,
those can now be brought up and discussed. We will carry on this way until we have heard
from each expert group—then, everyone will have the key points for each section.
Your section is: 7 pm
Consider the following questions…
1) The speaker provides her reasons for being hanged. What are these reasons? What do they
suggest about the targets of the witch trials?
2) The speaker notes how “Rumour was loose in the air/hunting for some neck to land on.”
Analyze the word choice here.
3) Where is there a tonal shift in this section? What are the different tones?
4) What does the speaker describe the “word” as? What’s the significance of this metaphor?
5) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 8 pm

Consider the following questions…

1) What is a “windfall”? What is the significance of its going in “reverse”? How does this connect to
the glove that is “turned inside out” in which the speaker must wear?
2) What are the connotations of the words “blackened” and “apple”? How do they connect to the
content of the poem? What possible allusion could the speaker be providing with these words as
well as the “tree”?
3) How does the role of gender function in this poem thus far?
4) How is the speaker like a “flag,” and why is it “raised to salute the moon”?
5) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 9 pm
Consider the following questions…
1) What is a bonnet? Why does the speaker refer to these people in this fashion?
2) The speaker “can see” these people in a different manner than others can. Why? What does she
see?
3) What were the things that the speaker did for these people? How might this have contributed to
her position now and how might this have contributed to the women’s silence? What do these
favours of Mary towards these people and their silence convey about this society?
4) What does the singular “raven” signify? How does the speaker play on a well-known saying:
“Birds of a feather flock together”?
5) The nouns “soot” and “gossip” are linked together. What is the significance of this connection?
How does it connect back to the “blackened apple”?
6) Examine this section for patterns in word choice. What pattern(s) do you detect?
7) What are the various tones the speaker conveys? Note tonal shifts.
8) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 10 pm

Consider the following questions…

1) The speaker shifts to a direct conversation with God. What is the significance of this shift? What
is her tone in the first stanza?
2) What do we learn about the speaker and her relationship with God and her religion in this
section?
3) What criticisms does the speaker provide towards God? How do these criticisms characterize her
relationship with her religion? With herself?
4) The speaker makes references to animals in this section. Analyze these references. What is her
criticism?
5) Why is God’s face a “blank sky” according to the speaker?
6) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 12 midnight
Consider the following questions…

1) The speaker shifts back to her thoughts. How does she convey the struggle she now experiences?
2) The speaker describes death as three different things. What are these things? And what is the
significance of these three comparisons?
4) What “definitions” would the speaker “sink down” to if she submits to death? How would she
“become a martyr in reverse,/or food,/or trash”?
5) The motif of reversal is introduced again in this section. How does this connect back to previous
sections?
6) What is Atwood’s tone in this section? Are there any tonal shifts?
7) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 2 am

Consider the following questions…

1) What is prayer for the speaker? What is it not? What does it mean that “prayer is not
constrained”?
2) What images does the speaker provide, and what is the purpose of this imagery?
3) What is the significance of the allusion to Pentecost? Look up Pentecost if necessary.
4) Explain the last two lines of this stanza. What do they mean? What do they express?
5) What tone(s) does the speaker convey in this section? Are there any tonal shifts?
6) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 3 am
Consider the following questions…

1) Read aloud this section without stopping. What happens? What’s the purpose of no punctuation
in this section?
2) The speaker says, “I call on you as my witness.” Who is she referring to? Why does she seek a
witness?
3) Analyze the meanings of “born,” “borne,” and “bear” in this section.
4) Try to place punctuation where you think it is necessary. Examine where the thoughts start and
begin. What do you notice?
5) What is the speaker struggling to “not give in” to?
6) Examine the tone(s) in this section. Are there any tonal shifts?
7) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 6 am

Consider the following questions…

1) What is the sun often a symbol of? Why is it “no longer a simile for God”? How does this reflect
the speaker’s change?
2) The speaker claims that she has “been out there.” Where is “there.”
3) When does “hair turn white,” and what does it mean that her heart did so? Analyze these details
as well as the images of her heart being “bleached out like meat in water.”
4) The speaker provides imagery of nature – from leaves and trees to celestial bodies – throughout
the poem. Analyze the nature images in this section and how these images contribute to Atwood’s
purpose.
5) Why does the speaker decide to “testify” only “to silence”?
6) Why will the speaker have two deaths?
7) What tone(s) does the speaker convey in this section? Are there any tonal shifts?
8) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: 10 am
Consider the following questions…

1) What are the connotations of the words “harvest” and “corpse”? How do these connotations
connect to or contradict the speaker’s condition? How do these words convey something about her
society?
2) What is the speaker’s attitude in this section? What has the speaker gained? What has she lost?
3) The speaker’s eyes are “sky-blue.” What’s the significance of this image?
4) How is the speaker now a reflection of the town’s “ill will”?
5) Examine the passage for patterns in word choice. What do you find? How do these words
contribute to the poem?
6) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are:

Your section is: Later

Consider the following questions…

1) What is the speaker’s “true body”?

2) What can the speaker do now that she could not do before?
3) What is the purpose of the contrasting images the speaker provides, such as “Holiness” gleaming
form her “dirty fingers,” and her eating of “flowers” and “dung”? Why are such images “two forms
of the same thing”?
4) Who else spoke “in tongues”? What does this suggest about the speaker?
5) The speaker provides celestial images again. What is the significance of these images?
6) What tone does the speaker convey in this section? Are there any tonal shifts?
7) What is Atwood’s purpose in this section?

Your Expert Group’s key points are: