Reincarnation
The narrator begins the story with this bold claim about her past existence.
What is "In my previous life I was a bat"?
The narrator describes bat mothers caring for their newborns with imagery comparing them to this soft, round fruit.
What is furred plums?
This is the object the narrator clings to in one of their recurring nightmares.
What is the ceiling of a summer cottage?
This is the time of day the narrator prefers, as opposed to high noon.
What are dawn and dusk?
This is the war during which experiments with bats were conducted.
What is the Second World War?
The narrator mocks people who believe past lives as animals are punishments, insisting they can be this instead.
What are an interlude or a reward?
The narrator says bats sing a “supersonic hymn of praise” to their Creator during this time of day.
What is dusk/night fal?
This is the item the red-faced man uses to try to hit the narrator in the nightmare.
What is a tennis racket?
This is the location where the narrator experiences déjà vu.
What are the Carlsbad Caverns?
This is the type of device that was to be strapped onto bats in the experiments.
What is an incendiary device?
The narrator points out that humans rarely choose to remember past lives as spiders, vultures, or this hardworking but undesirable profession.
What is a peruvian ditch digger or latrine cleaner?
The narrator describes newborn bats as having “tiny amazed faces,” highlighting this emotional tone toward bat life.
What is affection and tenderness?
This is the natural phenomenon that the narrator anticipates in the nightmare.
What is a thunderstorm?
This is the type of extremity a vampire bat prefers to target.
What is a toe?
This is the time of day when the bats were to be released over cities.
What is noon?
What is reincarnation?
In the bat prayer, bats ask for deliverance from a creature described as “hair-headed” with a single white unseeing eye—referring to this species.
What is a human?
This is the location the narrator is trying to reach in another nightmare.
What is the home cave?
This is the type of films the narrator finds ludicrous due to their portrayal of bats.
What are vampire films?
This is the reason the bat plan was abandoned.
What is the invention of the atom bomb?
The narrator argues that believing in past lives is just as rational as believing in this economic system people use daily
What is the stock market?
This theme examines the relationship between reality and imagination.
What is surrealism?
This is the metaphor used to describe the sun rising in the nightmare.
What is "like a balloon on fire"?
This is the unlikely hero the narrator mentions in relation to vampire films.
Who is Dracula?
This is the type of memorial the narrator doubts would have been created for bats.
What is a war memorial?