Deeper Thinking Questions for The Fall of a City by Alden Nowlan

Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper!! Please answer in full sentences, unless otherwise asked to do something different.
1. What literary device is used in the first sentence of the story? Why is it effective? 2. There are two settings in the story. Create a VENN DIAGRAM and write down the similarities and differences between the two. How are these setting important to the story? 3. Describe 3 characteristics of Teddy and use quotations from the story to prove your points. 4. How does Teddys character devolve through the story? What are the reasons this happens? 5. What emotion does the reader feel about Teddy? How does the author evoke this feeling from you? 6. What impression do you have of Teddys intelligence and personality as he plays with his paper city? What gives you that impression? (look at his use of language and his imagination) Give EXAMPLES!! 7. Why does the boy call the king Theodore? 8. Metaphor is a term used to indicate comparison, where one concept is described in terms of another. a) How are the characters in Teddys fantasy world metaphors for his real world? b) How is the setting a metaphor of the real world downstairs? 9. What symbolic meaning does King Theodore take on in the story? And Upalia? And the cutout figures? 10. Find at least 4 quotations from the short story that show how much power Teddys parents have over him. 11. When Teddy speaks to his aunt and uncle, he uses different language in comparison to the language used when he is building his kingdom in his imagination. Explain the significance of this. Why do you suppose Teddy does this? 12. Why does Teddy destroy his kingdom at the end of the story? 13. The city was as he left it. Yet everything had changed (133). What happened? Explain clearly.

ROBERTS 2011