--What values, morals, or beliefs does the work reinforce, subvert, or question? How do the conflicts in the story support these concepts? What can you speculate about the relationship between the text and the culture from which the text emerged? What patterns exist within the text that make it a product of a larger culture? How are persons/groups described and treated? Why?
--What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference--the ways in which race, religion, class, gender, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form individual identity--in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live?
--What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy? How is the relationship between men and women portrayed? What are the power relationships between men and women, and how are male and female character roles defined?
--How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols and layers of meaning? How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in text? What elements are portrayed in the imagery? How is the setting and mood directly influenced by the characters?
0