At the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions that some things are forbidden. What are they?
2. What signs convince the narrator that he should go east? 3. Upon his return, what does the narrator tell his father? 4. Why do you suppose that it is forbidden to go east? 5. What do the Dead places appear to actually be? 6. Summarize what the young priest finds in the Place of the Gods. What conclusion does he draw from his experience? 7. Why is the young priest so surprised to find that people, not gods, built the city? Mood is the climate of feeling in a literary work. Through his choice of setting, objects, images, words, and point of view, Stephen Vincent Benet creates a specific mood in his story.
What mood does the narrator create in the first 8 paragraphs of the story?
2. Describe the Mood during the young priest’s journey east.
3. How does the mood change at the end of the story after the narrator makes his startling discovery?
4. Is the mood at the end of the story optimistic or pessimistic? Why?