Discuss brevity in the short story collection. How do various authors use short experiences to illustrate a larger truth? What are some of these truths, and how are the moments that authors choose as their narrative points concentrated examples of these truths?

How does the government of a particular country affect the fiction that emerges from it? As a class, discuss the way authors address their governments through short fiction. What issues do they take up in their stories?

Does aging necessarily involve deterioration? Using the stories concerning age in the collection, discuss the disappointments that come with maturity. What does a person lose with advance age? Does wisdom and experience make up for these losses?

Discuss the notion of innocence as it pertains to youth. What factors contribute to the loss of innocence with the advance of time? Is the loss of innocence...