1. What is atmosphere in a story and how do authors create it?

2. How do the physical descriptions in 'To Build a Fire' create a specific atmosphere, and how does this differ from the atmosphere in 'The Sanctuary Desolated'?

3. What role do carefully chosen details play in shaping a reader's emotional response to a setting?

1. What is mood in literature and how does it differ from atmosphere?

2. How might the cold and forbidding atmosphere of 'To Build a Fire' evoke a different mood than the atmosphere of decay in 'The Sanctuary Desolated'?

1. How does a character's environment reveal information about that character's values and personality?

2. What does the setting of Irmo in 'The Appropriation of Cultures' reveal about the characters who live there and their attitudes toward difference?

3. How does Daniel's relationship to the setting of Irmo differ from the relationship of the people who live there, and what does this reveal about each character?