63 pages • 2-hour read
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
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Essay Topics
The title story, “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed,” is the shortest in the collection. Why do you think this collection is named for this story? How does it relate to or encapsulate the collection as a whole?
Analyze the order of the stories in the collection. Do they follow a meaningful trajectory that makes it satisfying to read them in this order? If not, how would you reorder the collection?
Analyze the male characters like in these stories. Do they have any shared traits or characteristics? How do they relate to the collection’s female characters?
How does motherhood manifest in the stories? Pick two examples of characters who either contemplate motherhood or are mothers, and focus on them as you develop your response.
How are individual characters in these stories affected by historical or social injustices? Use examples from any three stories.
Analyze how setting contributes to thematic development in any two stories in the collection.
Enriquez uses elements of supernatural horror in some stories, but others are works of realism. Which are more effective works of terror? Why?
Compare and contrast teenage girls in any two of these stories.
How does The Dangers of Smoking in Bed compare to Enriquez’s other short story collections: Things We Lost in the Fire and A Sunny Place for Shady People?
“Kids Who Came Back” is the longest story in the collection. How is this story unique structurally or thematically? How does it fit in with the rest of the collection?
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