Problem
I. Why would the narrator put beauty cream on his son's face, and why is his wife so mad? What societal pressures already set up in the novel make him feel the need to do that? How does he align this action with history?
II. Review "My cheeks flushed......We could be grinning fools." Why does the narrator say he sees "monsters everywhere I looked" but Penny doesn't see these same monsters? What allows her to not see them?
III. Review "We hit the northbound interstate.... 'What?' She asked." What does the narrators answering an imaginary question tell us about him, his character, his psychological state, and his reliability as a narrator?
IV. Why has the main character never set foot on a plantation before?
V. What is the bellboy so unsettled about, and why does Penny not notice it but the narrator does?
VI. Right after the bellboy is "unsettled" and the narrator notices it, he uses a magic trick to make a bar of chocolate appear then disappear. Review from "Such a smart boy...... 'I remembered the cream'." What is symbolic about this appearing and disappearing of the chocolate or what subconscious process from the narrator's mind is playing out here?
VII. The narrator describes the smile of one of the plantation tour guides like this: "She smiled from the cheeks down, but her eyes were dead." How often do you see this type of smile in the south?
VIII. Why is it ironic (symbolic?) that they use a trained dog to find Nigel in the woods and that they search in the hotbox?