Unit 6 Study Guide

"The Lost Explorer"

The questions at the end of the story will serve as an excellent starting point for your analysis. In particular, however, pay attention to the way the child, Evelyn, is characterized. Think about how old she is and what she might be going through. Look at the way she interacts with the adults. What is her relationship with her parents? Do you find it odd that her father would give her a pickled thumb? What does that say about her father? About Evelyn?

Who or what is the Explorer? Is there any reason for us to believe he is real (or not real)? What is the significance of the final sentence and how the Explorer disappears when Evelyn decides to become a doctor?

The garden and the shed are both intricately described, more so than perhaps anything else in the story (the garden gets its own section on p. 117). Why?

Do the items that the Explorer has mean anything? What does Evelyn do with the items?

This story is also about a child who has a vivid imagination. Dan is younger than Evelyn, however, so the significance of his fantasies is not the same, in all likelihood. Examine the fantasies that Dan acts out. Is there something disturbing about the violence behind them? Or is this typical? What about the real violence Dan experiences? What are his other methods of escape?

As you should be examining the relationship of Evelyn to her family in "The Lost Explorer," you should also be looking at Dan's relationship with the members of his family. What is Dan like, considering his age and his situation? What is his relationship with his mother? His father? His siblings? Do you find these relationships odd in any way? Compare them to Evelyn's relationships. Do you agree with Dan's assessment that "for seven long years Dan Crane had hung on grimly. Seven years: his whole life, a slave" (p. 286)?

What exactly is Dan hungering for?

Whose point of view is the story told from? How does that affect what we read and how we interpret things?

Immediately, our "hero" is introduced as "Dan Crane" -- this is in contrast to Dave from "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" where Dave's last name isn't revealed until the very end. In fact, Dan is often referred to by his full name. Is there any significance to this or any significance to the times when he is only referred to as "Dan" or "Danny"?

There are a couple of references to time and how Dan can't count or tell time -- is this significant?

How does this story fit into my thematic idea of "Fairy Tales, Dreams, Imagination and Magic Words"?

Who are these two main characters? What is their background and how do they really feel about each other -- before, during and after the rumor? If the Rumor were to be considered a "character" in the story, how would you characterize it? Where does it come from? Where do rumors usually come from? Is there any truth to this rumor? In other words, is Frank gay? Was he gay? Has he become gay?

The discussion of Japanese and their reaction to / viewpoint of art seems to stand out from all this talk of sexuality. What is that section doing there in the story?

What is the effect of the rumor ending? How does Frank react?

Approximately how old do you think the narrator is? How do you know? Is his age significant in terms of your understanding what happens to him in the movie theater?

What is the boy’s attitude toward the movies? Why does he find his father’s explanation of what a movie is unsatisfactory?

Why is there so much emphasis in the story on doorways and corridors?

After falling “into a stupor or reverie” in the men’s room, the narrator goes back into the theater. Why? What is he searching for?

Describe the underground world the boy discovers. What is his relationship to the beings he finds there? Why do you think they are so large? What might they be symbols of?

Look at the passage about the woman whom the narrator follows to the red dressing room. Why does he follow her? What kind of fantasy does this scene represent? Why is the experience so frightening to the boy, and why does he remember his mother in the midst of it?

After the narrator leaves the woman, he finds himself in “an alien room filled with harsh laughter.” What is the meaning of this laughter? In the end, rejoining his father, the boy finds “wildly funny” the older man’s “look of stern surprise.” Why?

Early in the story the boy speaks of encountering in the movie theater “the powers of the dark.” What are those powers? What is both wonderful and terrifying about the theater? How is what he encounters there different from everyday reality? What does the boy learn from his mysterious journey?