Questions for “The Custom House”
Please complete by Monday, September 14: complete sentences and deep thought!
1. What do you learn about the narrator from the opening paragraphs? What do you learn about the setting?
2. What is the symbolic significance of the eagle above the entrance of the Custom-House? How is it an apt metaphor for the narrator’s own experience?
3. Describe the other employees at the Custom-House and their general characteristics.
4. The narrator describes several people who work at the Custom-House in some detail. Based on his descriptions of the Inspector, the General, and the Collector, what are the qualities you think the narrator most admires? What qualities does he not respect?
5. What does the narrator find in the old papers on the second floor of the Custom-House?
6. What does the narrator do with what he finds, and how does he react? In what way is his reaction an example of foreshadowing?
7. What is the most suitable time of day for a romance writer to “get acquainted” with the characters in his story? Why is this so?
8. The narrator states, “There are few uglier traits of human nature than this tendency . . . to grow cruel merely because they possessed the power of inflicting harm.” To what is he referring?
9. What happens to the narrator as a result of the election? How does the narrator react?
Please complete by Monday, September 14: complete sentences and deep thought!
1. What do you learn about the narrator from the opening paragraphs? What do you learn about the setting?
2. What is the symbolic significance of the eagle above the entrance of the Custom-House? How is it an apt metaphor for the narrator’s own experience?
3. Describe the other employees at the Custom-House and their general characteristics.
4. The narrator describes several people who work at the Custom-House in some detail. Based on his descriptions of the Inspector, the General, and the Collector, what are the qualities you think the narrator most admires? What qualities does he not respect?
5. What does the narrator find in the old papers on the second floor of the Custom-House?
6. What does the narrator do with what he finds, and how does he react? In what way is his reaction an example of foreshadowing?
7. What is the most suitable time of day for a romance writer to “get acquainted” with the characters in his story? Why is this so?
8. The narrator states, “There are few uglier traits of human nature than this tendency . . . to grow cruel merely because they possessed the power of inflicting harm.” To what is he referring?
9. What happens to the narrator as a result of the election? How does the narrator react?