- A question about tone. What seems to be DFW's attitude about the things he describes in ‘Shipping Out’?
- Give three examples of a detail he describes that gave you insight into the underlying message or purpose of his essay. Explain.
- According to DFW, what is it that the Megaline cruise ships ultimately promise or offer? What features of the cruise embody such a promise? Is it able to deliver on that promise?
- Prior to the cruise experience, what were DFW's mental associations with the ocean? What were some of the literary references that formed those associations for him?
- Convey what was said in the most interesting footnote you read.
- How does DFW explain the apparent contradiction between the fact that mostly older people go on cruises and yet cruises are (because they immerse you in the ocean) surrounded by death and decay?
- Explain what DFW means when he says the cruise’s brochures have a ‘queerly aythoritarian twist’.
- How and why does DFW compare the cruise to the womb experience?
- What does DFW say is so insidious about the 7NC brochure? What's dishonest about it?
- What do you think might be the significance (to the essay's main thesis) of the story about the porter who got in trouble when DFW carried his own duffle bag?
- What's the significance of DFW's choice to focus on the idea of being ‘pampered’. ‘pampered to death’ even?
- What's the significance (to the essay’s main themes) of the toilets in the cabins, how they work, the sign above them.etc.?
- How does DFW begin to feel when another cruise ship, the Dreamward, pulls up next to his? How or what does DFW's confession of that feeling contribute to the essay’s social critique?
- How well does DFW's attempt at trap shooting go?
- Summarize the final entertainment event (hypnotism) that DFW describes. And explain how the hypnotist event encapsulates DFW's main themes throughout the essay about the cruise experience. what people really want and get from it.
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