1) HOW does the working-class setting of Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh" contribute to your understanding of Leroy, Norma Jean, and/or the story? The rig parked in the backyard, the kits Leroy likes to build, the inexpensive organ Norma Jean masters -- all these details of setting and more are used by Mason in her development of her two chief characters. How does she use these details?
2.) Discuss how Bierce manages to persuade the reader that Peyton Farquhar escaped hanging. Considering that some of the details Peyton notices are frankly impossible for him to perceive, how did Bierce manage to fool us?
3.) Analyze James Joyce's use of setting in "Araby." In what ways does he use setting to reflect or mirror the internal states of the narrator? In what ways does setting underscore the narrator's epiphany at the end of the story?
4.) Discuss irony in either Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" or "A Good Man is Hard to Find." What does O'Connor achieve with her use of irony? How does it help her undermine her protagonists?
5.) Discuss either point of view or plot in William Faulker's "A Rose for Emily." What does the story gain by Faulkner's interesting point of view? How does he manipulate the story's events in creating his plot and what does he achieve by doing so?
6.) Discuss the use of first person OR irony in Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." What does Poe achieve through his use of either device?
7.) Discuss the use of diction in Carver's "Cathedral." How does Carver use diction to reveal the character of "Bub"?