Prose anthology (Stories of Ourselves) — IGCSE World Literature (0408) questions by topic
Stories of Ourselves questions ask how a short-story writer makes a moment memorable, entertaining or satisfying as an ending, with explore, discuss, explain and to what extent as the top command words. Expect to track a narrator's changing feelings about home, or the ambiguity built into a story's final lines, across a single extract or the whole story.
This page collects 30 genuine questions from 2023 to 2025 papers, each answered as a 25-mark essay. Write full responses and submit them for instant marking so you can check whether your analysis of language and structure, not just plot recall, is what the mark scheme is crediting most highly.
What examiners look for
- On a story about leaving home, examiners praised answers tracing the narrator's journey from dislike of home to nostalgia and fear of leaving, reading the ambiguity in 'eating with a smile on my face and disgust in my heart'.
- Reports repeatedly reward candidates who stay focused on the specific terms of the question and the named story throughout, selecting apt references from across the text.
- Strong answers moved beyond surface meaning to a sensitive, evaluative personal response, supported by well-integrated quotation rather than technique-spotting.
May–June 2025, Paper 31
Selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 2 Read the printed extract from Words (by Carol Shields), and then answer the question that follows it. (The extract is described in…
Answer this question and get it marked →Selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 2 Explore how Henrietta Rose-Innes strikingly conveys the narrator's thoughts about growing old in Promenade. [25]
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 32
Read this extract from A Walk to the Jetty by Jamaica Kincaid (from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 2), and then answer the question that follows it. In the extract the young…
Answer this question and get it marked →How does Ken Liu powerfully depict the relationship between the narrator and his mother in The Paper Menagerie? [25]
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2025, Paper 33
Selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 2 Read the printed extract from 'Promenade' (by Henrietta Rose-Innes, Stories of Ourselves Volume 2, pp416-418), and then answer the…
Answer this question and get it marked →Selection from Stories of Ourselves, Volume 2 'Mrs Sen struggles to adapt to life in America.' In what ways does Jhumpa Lahiri memorably convey this in her story, Mrs Sen's? [25]
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 31
How does Mulk Raj Anand make this such a powerful moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →How does Jhumpa Lahiri create such a sad portrait of Mrs Sen in her story Mrs Sen’s?
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 32
How does Ruth Prawer Jhabvala make this such a memorable and entertaining moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore the ways in which Ovo Adagha vividly depicts greed in The Plantation.
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 33
Explore the ways in which Anna Kavan makes this such a striking ending to the story.
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore the ways in which Ken Liu creates such a moving portrait of the mother in The Paper Menagerie.
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 31
How does Ovo Adagha make this such a striking and revealing moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore how Katherine Mansfield vividly depicts childhood in The Doll’s House.
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 32
How does Ovo Adagha make this such a striking and revealing moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore how Katherine Mansfield vividly depicts childhood in The Doll’s House.
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 33
To what extent does Jhumpa Lahiri make this a satisfying ending to the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →How does Ruth Prawer Jhabvala make Pritam such a fascinating character in In the Mountains?
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 31
In what ways does Liu memorably portray the narrator and his parents at this moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore the ways in which Jamaica Kincaid vividly conveys the narrator’s thoughts and feelings about her parents in A Walk to the Jetty.
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 32
Explore the ways in which Lahiri makes this such a vivid and revealing moment in the story.
Answer this question and get it marked →How does Mulk Raj Anand encourage you to feel sympathy for Srijut Sharma in The Gold Watch?
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 33
How does Adagha make this moment in the story so memorable?
Answer this question and get it marked →How does Ruth Prawer Jhabvala memorably depict the relationship between Pritam and her mother in In the Mountains?
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 31
In what ways does Mansfield make this such a disturbing moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →In what ways does Anna Kavan make A Visit such a mysterious story?
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 32
In what ways does Mansfield make this such a disturbing moment in the story?
Answer this question and get it marked →In what ways does Anna Kavan make A Visit such a mysterious story?
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 33
How does Mulk Raj Anand make this such a revealing introduction to Srijut Sharma?
Answer this question and get it marked →Explore how Katherine Mansfield makes you feel sympathy for the Kelvey sisters in The Doll’s House.
Answer this question and get it marked →Other IGCSE World Literature topics
- Drama (60)
- Prose (60)
- Poetry anthology (Songs of Ourselves) (30)
- Unseen poetry and prose (15)