Vocabulary
Careful; Meticulous
Fastidious
What is the setting of the story?
A house in a quiet residential neighborhood.
Describe the stranger.
He is a very strange man. He seems polite at first, but then ends up overstepping boundaries.
A narrative device in which suggestions or warnings about events to come are dropped or planted is?
Foreshadowing
Who is the antagonist of the story?
The father
Spontaneously
Impulsively
Who are the main characters
The mom, dad, son, and the stranger.
Describe the father
He is violent and acts like he does nothing wrong.
A tool of figurative language where an image, object, idea, or symbol is used to represent something other than its literal meaning is?
Symbolism
Who is the author of the story?
Joyce Carol Oates
Cavelike; vast
Cavernous
What is the conflict in the story?
When the stranger invites himself into the sons room and tells the boy riddles that will make sense one day.
Describe the mother.
She is nice, sweet and uncertain and cautious about others.
What type of figurative language is the quote, "Shadows were dispersed like ragged ghosts and the cut-glass fruit bowl at the center of the table glowed like an exquisite multifaceted jewel."
Simile
What strange request does the stranger make at the end of the story?
He requests to sit on the stairs in the basement with the door closed.
Slowly as to avoid notice
Steathily
What is the theme of the story?
Describe the son.
What figurative language is used throughout the whole story?
Symbolism
What is the mood of the story?
Creepy, mysterious, and strange.
Annoyance; frustration
Exasperation
What is the plot of the story?
One night a strange man came to a family's door. He claimed that he had lived in their house when he was a child. He asked to look around and then the mother invited him inside. The guest is very strange and the strangeness keeps progressing as time goes on. It becomes uncomfortable when he meets that son and shows him a riddle about infinity. He also talks about his problems with his violent father. The father becomes angry with him and tells him to leave. After he leaves they argue about whose idea it was to let him in. It seems like the family has secrets after all.
What does the author foreshadow about the father in the story when the stranger is telling the boy a riddle?
The author foreshadows the father abusing the son.
What figurative language is being shown when the stranger tells the boy riddles, warning him that the father is going to becone abusive.
Foreshadowing
What point of view is the story in?
Third person omniscient.