Essay Questions

What makes the character of Reverend Dave in "Total Cave Darkness" so ironic?

A reverend is a respected leader of a Protestant Christian church. As such, he is called to pursue God in word and deed, serving as a moral role model for his congregation. He is essentially a Protestant priest, preaching a sermon from the Bible to the members of his congregation, who look to him for leadership.

Reverend Dave is essentially the opposite of a good Christian reverend. When Martha comes to him for help breaking her alcohol addiction, he uses his position of authority to ask her to dinner, sparking a thoroughly un-Christian sexual romp through the country. He genuinely cares about Martha, but he acts in a way that disgraces the mantle he wears, behaving more like a caricature of ecclesiastical corruption than an actual human being. His actions, despite his position, are clearly contrary to what he preaches, making Reverend Dave an incredibly ironic character.

What is the significance of the title of the story "Escapes"?

In "Escape," Caryn looks after her fourteen-year-old niece, Jennifer, for a little while to give Jennifer's mother a break. Jennifer has a problem: she steals things with no respect for people's property. She also cuts her wrists, which is especially concerning since her father committed suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell. Jennifer isn't just rebellious, though; through talking with her and observing her characteristics, Caryn learns that she does these things to create an escape from ordinary, mundane life, which she finds drab and depressing. This is the same reason why she enjoys hanging off the cable cars as they fly down the street and sticking her head out of fifth-story windows.

These "escapes" are the source of the story's title, as well as the obvious: Caryn and Jennifer see Alcatraz, the world's most famously inescapable prison, and they learn that three men tried escaping and disappeared, and no one knows whether they succeeded. Jennifer says that she hopes at least one of them made it, reflecting her desire for her own escapes. At the end, however, Caryn tells Jennifer that her father had the same desire and acted on it, escaping life by committing suicide. Her advice, making an impact on young Jennifer, is this: "It's not worth it. Sooner or later you have to come back."