Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Poprishchin is ugly, curmudgeonly, racist, xenophobic, and a stalker, to say the least. Why does Gogol make him so hard to like?
- How accurate is the picture we get of 19th-century Imperial Russia from reading this madman's diary?
- If this book were written from the perspective of one of the other (more or less sane) characters, how would they describe Poprishchin and the things that happen to him?
- When do you first start to suspect that Poprishchin might not be the most rational guy in the world? Can you think of some recent events that suggest that there might, in hindsight, be forewarnings of mental illness in behavior that didn't seem too strange at the time?
- Why do you think Gogol chose to tell Poprishchin's story in diary form?
- If you were to write a story where dogs could speak and write, what would you make them say? (No fair getting help from Seth MacFarlane on this one.)