1. In what sense is Marcel a "nervous child"? How does his account of the evening illustrate this quality? Will he outgrow it? What might be a modern diagnosis for his behavior and would it be wise to 'treat' it or not?

2. Comment on Proust's use of digression, how does it relate to his personality and outlook?

3. From what point of view is the story told?

4. Are there any comic elements in the story?

5. Compare Proust's associative technique with that of other writers you have read, or even works in other media.

6. When Marcel was young, according to him people took an "almost Hindu view of society, which they held to consist of sharply defined castes." What errors do Marcel's great-aunts in particular fall into because of their rigid sense of class distinctions?

7. Like Rousseau, Marcel has very early memories of a parent reading to him. Why is this such a primal experience for children? What role does family intimacy play in such recollections?. Why do children want to have the same books read and reread? How would you compare the importance of the spoken word in oral culture to the role played by books read aloud in these two works of memory?

8. What are the two kinds of memory Proust speaks about? How do they relate to the two kinds of time we spoke of?

9. Of all the childhood or other memories he could have chosen, why does Proust tell the story of The Kiss?