Instant Resources for The Father by Bjornstjerne Bjornson!

Whether you're looking for a short story to pair with the novel you're teaching, or you need a 2- to 3-day sub plan to use with the stories in your textbooks, Prestwick House Instant Short Story Packs go beyond basic comprehension to help students learn how to analyze literature. 

Each downloadable pack addresses key skills through 5-10 standards-based analysis questions by guiding students through a series of scaffolding graphic organizers and in-class activities. 

This Instant Short Story Pack for The Father by Bjornstjerne Bjornson:

• Scaffolding graphic organizers and in-class activities
• Standards-based objectives
• Introduction and pre-reading notes
• Complete short story text
• Rigorous analysis questions
• Detailed teacher's answer guide

About The Father

“The Father” is quite possibly your first encounter with Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. In his own country, however, as well as across Europe, he was quite famous, and his plays, poems, and short stories were what we would consider bestsellers. In 1903, he became the first Norwegian to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

While his poems, plays, and novels were popular and well known throughout Scandinavia, Bjørnson achieved widespread international fame for his short stories, especially his early “peasant idylls,” which portray hardship, rugged perseverance, and tragedy. “The Father” is an excellent example of this kind of peasant tale.

As is often the case with short fiction, “The Father” is deceptive. It is short and—on its surface—tells a simple tale. William Morton Payne, a literary critic who translated several of Bjørnson’s novels into English, calls the story “the supreme example of Bjørnson’s artistry…a literary gem of the purest water.”

As you go through the story, read deeply into Thord Överaas’s conversations with the priest; pay close attention to his words and to the priest’s replies. Examine how the commonplace events in this brief story go beyond the narrow time and place of the action and apply to people and their lives everywhere, and you will understand why “The Father” has been heralded as revealing the genius of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.