Assignment 2

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How do you understand the title of the story? Comment on it.
Ritz or Ritz-Cartlon Hotels were first found in New York City in 1911. This company was
considered to have the most luxurios hotels ever. At first, I though that this story will provide
us a narration about someone being wealthy and rich.

2. Name the main characters and describe them.

John T. Unger is a teenage boy (he is 16 at the beginning of the first chapter) that needs to
move out of his house to St. Midas' school. (Also, he was fond of dancing 'before he put on
long trousers').
Percy Washington is a John's peer who has the wealthiest father in the world.

3. How can you describe John T. Unger? Speak about his family and town. Use the text to
support it.
John T. Unger came from Hades which is a small town on the Mississippi River in a well-
known family. His parents think of him as of very giften and talanted son.
'John’s father had held the amateur golf championship through many a heated contest'.
'Mrs. Unger was known “from hot-box to hot-bed,” as the local phrase went, for her
political addresses'.
'That respect for a New England education which is the bane of all provincial places,
which drains them yearly of their most promising young men, had seized upon his parents'.
'Hades was too small to hold their darling and gifted son'.

4. What is your attitude to John T. Unger? Explain your opinion.

At first I thougt that Johny is just a spoiled kid who likes only rich people.

5. Who is Percy Washington? How does the author describe him first? Use the
text to convey the author’s opinion.
Percy Washington in a quiet, handsome boy who comes at St. Midas' school in the middle of
the second year. He had been put in John’s form.
'The newcomer was pleasant in his manner and exceedingly well dressed even for St.
Midas’, but for some reason he kept aloof from the other boys. The only person with whom he
was intimate was John T. Unger' (but nevertheless he still wasn’t communicative enough).

6. What does Percy tell John about his father and wealth? Use the text to support
your ideas.
Percy told John that his father was by far the richest man in the world and that he owns a
diamond that as big as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

7. Describe John’s inpressions when they got home. Speak about Percy’s
family.
When John first saw the house he felt enchantment and was absolutely stunned by the house.
Description of the mansion:
'There was a room where the solid, soft gold of the walls yielded to the pressure of his hand,
and a room that was like a platonic conception of the ultimate prism—ceiling, floor, and all, it
was lined with an unbroken mass of diamonds, diamonds of every size and shape (…)'
'Through a maze of these rooms the two boys wandered. Sometimes the floor
under their feet would flame in brilliant patterns from lighting below, patterns of barbaric
clashing colors, of pastel delicacy (…)'
John’s inpression:
'He tried drowsily to answer a question that had been asked him, but the honeyed luxury that
clasped his body added to the illusion of sleep—jewels, fabrics, wines, and metals blurred
before his eyes into a sweet mist.
Percy's family: (it is mostly about Percy's grandfather)
'The father of the present Mr. Washington (his full name is Fitz-Norman Culpepper
Washington) had been a Virginian, a direct descendant of George Washington, and Lord
Baltimore. At the close of the Civil War he was a twenty-five-year-old colonel with a played-
out plantation and about a thousand dollars in gold'.
'He selected two dozen of the most faithful blacks, who, of course, worshipped him,
and bought twenty-five tickets to the West, where he intended to take out land in their names
and start a sheep and cattle ranch'. His father was very poor to the point where he had nothing
to eat. Then on one day he noticed a diamond in squirrel's mouth and this discovery made him
rich at once. And apparently the mountain in his area had nothing but diamonds inside.
'The mountain was a diamond—it was literally nothing else but solid diamond'.
However when he found larger diamond he was arrested as a public disturber.
'He escaped from jail and caught the train for New York, where he sold a few medium-sized
diamonds and received in exchange about two hundred thousand dollars in gold'.
'(…) he married a Virginia lady, by whom he had a single son (Percy's father Braddock
Tarleton Washington)'
'His son, Braddock Tarleton Washington, followed this policy on an even more intensive
scale. The minerals were converted into the rarest of all elements—radium—so
that the equivalent of a billion dollars in gold could be placed in a receptacle no
bigger than a cigar box'. Mr. Washington eventually (Braddock Tarleton Washington) sealed
up the mine.

8. How was the first morning of John’s stay in Percy’s house? Describe the
servants, the room and the chateau. Use the text.
As John woke up his servant was already next to him.
'John lay quietly as his pajamas were removed—he was amused and delighted'.
'(…) he plumped gently into water the same temperature as his body'
His servant offered him 'hot rosewater and soapsuds this morning, sir— and perhaps cold salt
water to finish'
'After a cold salt-water bracer and a cold fresh finish, he stepped out and into a
fleecy robe, and upon a couch covered with the same material he was rubbed
with oil, alcohol, and spice'.
His servant's name was Gygsum.
'John walked out into the brisk sunshine of his living-room, where he found
breakfast waiting for him and Percy, gorgeous in white kid knickerbockers,
smoking in an easy chair'.

9. What is your attitude to Percy? Explain your opinion.

Percy isolates himself from people because he wants to make sure his family is safe and I
think he is doing the right thing. But it still feels like Percy wants to brag about his wealthy
life but isn't allowed to do it.

10. Role-play the conversation between John T. Unger and Percy Washington:
a. about Percy’s grandfather, how he became rich;
b. about Percy’s family house and family.