Setting
This futuristic setting in "The Veldt" highlights themes of technology and family.
What is a high-tech, automated home with a virtual reality nursery?
George and Lydia are the parents in this story, concerned about their children’s violent tendencies.
What is "The Veldt"?
This is the specific reason the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives for stalking and murdering the old man he otherwise loved.
What is the “vulture eye”?
A major theme in "The Veldt" is the danger of over-reliance on this.
What is technology or automation?
At the end of the Grimm tale, the cruel stepsisters go to Cinderella's wedding to seek favor. This severe punishment is what the white doves inflict upon them.
What is pluck out their eyes/blinding them?
The story "Girl" is set primarily in this domestic environment.
What is a household or kitchen?
The narrator’s voice in "Girl" is read as this person.
Who is the mother?
"Girl" is told in this narrative style, emphasizing the narrator's personal voice.
What is a monologue or stream-of-consciousness?
"Girl" explores societal expectations related to this.
What are gender roles?
The recurring advice in "Girl" symbolizes societal expectations placed on this group.
Who are women or girls?
The oppressive, confined setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is located in this type of room.
What is a nursery or upstairs room?
In a Shirley Jackson short story, a mother is horrified to learn that her kindergartner Laurie’s mischievous classmate, THIS boy, is actually Laurie himself.
Who is Charles?
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator’s obsession with the wallpaper leads to this mental outcome.
What is her breakdown or madness?
"The Yellow Wallpaper" highlights issues surrounding women’s mental health and this societal attitude.
What is oppression or neglect?
The wallpaper in "The Yellow Wallpaper" symbolizes this, reflecting the narrator’s mental state.
What is confinement or chaos?
In "The Lottery," the setting of a small, rural town emphasizes the story's critique of this societal practice.
What is tradition or community?
Tessie Hutchinson is the victim in this story, embodying the critique of unexamined tradition.
What is "The Lottery"?
The shocking climax of "The Lottery" involves the stoning of this character.
Who is Tessie Hutchinson?
"The Lottery" critiques the unexamined power of this societal practice.
What is tradition?
The black box in "The Lottery" symbolizes this unquestioned societal practice.
What is tradition or obedience?
In “Hills Like White Elephants”, Hemingway uses this point of view.
What is third person objective?
Though her actual name is never definitively revealed, this unreliable narrator is confined to a former nursery by her physician husband, John, and eventually loses her mind to the titular wall covering.
Who is the narrator?
Before the lions become a fatal threat, George struggles against this internal issue, fearing that he has failed to properly set rules for his family.
What is parental guilt (or a loss of parental authority)?
Swept up in this group psychological phenomenon, the townspeople in Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery" blindly participate in an annual stoning, abandoning all individual morality and reason.
What is mob mentality?
The "Happylife Home" as described in the "The Veldt" symbolizes the stark contrast between what?
What is human comfort versus predatorial nature?