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"?
The violent event in "The Veldt" that reveals the dangers of technology is the children’s behavior in this virtual space.
What is the nursery or veldt scene leading to the parents' death?
A major theme in "The Veldt" is the danger of over-reliance on this.
What is technology or automation?
The veldt in "The Veldt" symbolizes this concern about technology.
What is the destructive potential or loss of humanity?
The story "Girl" is set primarily in this domestic environment.
What is a household or kitchen?
The narrator’s voice in "Girl" is directed towards this person.
Who is her 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?
The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" suffers from this mental condition.
What is postpartum depression or mental illness?
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?
Though Kincaid never mentions a specific setting location in the short story "Girl", cultural clues like "benna" music and "dasheen" suggest the setting is located in this geographical location.
What is the Caribbean?
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?