Explore connections between Rushdie’s short stories and the short stories of other political fiction authors. For example, how are the economic, social, and political commentaries central to East, West in conversation with a title like Nadine Gordimer’s Six Feet of the Country (1956)?

Analyze the overarching structure of East, West. How does Rushdie use section divisions and titles to further his themes? How do the stories in each section function together and in comparison to one another? How would the collection resonate differently if curated in an alternate manner?

Explore Rushdie’s use of humor and absurdity throughout the collection. How do these literary devices further his themes of identity, desire, and truth? In particular, consider the style, tone, and point of view choices in stories like “Yorick” and “Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship.”

Analyze Rushdie’s use of pop culture references throughout the collection. How do allusions to the Beatles, Star Trek, and The Wizard of Oz complicate the collection’s examinations of myth, belonging, and identity?

Identify three symbols not explored in the guide and analyze their significance. For example, what might Ramani’s rickshaw, Eliot Crane’s papers, Star Trek, or chess symbolize and how do they fuel the short stories’ themes?

Compare and contrast the interpersonal relationships central to the stories collected in Part 3, “East, West.” What do similarities between the relationships of Khan and Eliot Crane, Chekov and Zulu, and Certainly-Mary and Mixed-Up say about love, connection, and companionship? Explore the metaphoric possibilities of these relationships, too.

Analyze the boundaries between reality and fiction throughout the collected stories. How do Rushdie’s characters regard fairy tales, myths, or superstitions? What do such stories offer them and take away from them? Does Rushdie present fiction as all good or all bad? Explore why or why not.

Choose three characters from the collection and write an essay exploring their contrasting experiences of home. Where do your chosen characters derive a sense of belonging? What means do they go to in order to feel secure?