1. The titles of the stories are not always straightforward descriptions of their contents, but they are often suggestive and worthy of careful consideration. Consider how one or more of the less obvious titles (such as "The Sisters," "A Little Cloud," "Counterparts," Clay, or "The Dead") influences your sense of the story's meaning.

2. Priests play some role in each of the three stories dealing with childhood: "The Sisters" tells of the death of Father Flynn; the narrator of "Araby" reads books discarded by the priest who was the former occupant of the boy's house; Joe Dillon, the supplier of the cherished boys' adventure magazines in "An Encounter" later has a vocation for the priesthood. How, in these early stories, is the church related to the "paralysis" that Joyce sets out to reveal?

3. Joyce often takes care to tell us precisely what...