Why does Adela tell the others to avert their eyes when she goes to quiet Jacob? Why does the writer not tell us what Adela says, but just describes her body language? What is the effect of the writer's lack of detail here? What mood does it create?

Why does Adela terrify Jacob?

The narrator describes his father imitating a bird, but as the story progresses he is often described as a cockroach. Why this devolution?

What is the narrator's relationship to his father? Where do we see them interact, if at all?

How does the young narrator interpret his father's madness?

Do the fantastical passages of the book actually happen? Is the writer asking us to believe that the narrator spoke to a horse? If not, what purpose do these imaginary passages serve? What is he telling us about reality, if fantastical things...