Read a selection of Grimms' fairy tales and make note of what features any of them have in common with Wharton's "Pomegranate Seed."

Research the effects of the Great Depression in New York City, and compare the Ashbys' experience of the 1930s with others you might discover in your investigation.

Read the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and consider what it has in common with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Consider what sort of ghost story might be made out of the Adonis myth. Write a ghost story based on the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite.