Mason, Raymond Carver, and Anne Beattie have been called "K-Mart realists." Read several stories by each writer and a few definitions of realism. Do you think the label "K-mart real ists" fits each of these writers? Why or why not?

Research the changing rural landscape of the United States. How much farmland was lost in the 1980s and 1990s? What was built on this land? How do you think this changed the lives of the people who lived there? If possible, inter view someone who currently lives on a farm or someone who has moved from a farm to find out more about their lives.

Read the Dylan Thomas poem, "Fern Hill." What is the subject of the poem? Why does Bobbie Ann Mason allude to the poem in her story?