Moore, "People Like That are the Only People Here"

Discussion questions: Moore (1997)

1. How does Moore use medical detail in her short story? That is, when she uses medical details, what effects is she trying to create, or what points is she trying to make?

2. What kind of personality does Moore give her character "the Mother"? Thinking back to Klass's essay on how people confront dying, how does Moore use the idea of appropriate and unacceptable responses to terminal illness in creating that character?

3. Why make the Mother a writer like Moore? Why claim that the notes have been written only for the money? Does the self-referential, ironic, post-modern style of the story keep it from turning sappy, or does it push us away and keep us from getting involved in the story?

4. What passages are hardest hitting, emotionally? Which are funniest? Which are medically interesting?

5. Did you notice places where Moore uses metaphor (e.g., the metaphor of the elevator at the end of the essay: "up or down, all of us have to leave this way")? Were any particularly effective?