Evaluate the authorial decision to hide Mr. Riley’s true identity in the book’s beginning. What purpose does it serve? How does this make his eventual revelation and his teachings more poignant?

Why do Riley’s lessons always involve a diagram that is presented on some kind of rare object? Analyze what this does for his teachings and for the narrative. Do you think there’s a rhetorical strategy at work? Why?

Why do you think the only character in the book who is identified by name is Mr. Riley? What do you think this does for the narrative? Is it important that the other characters are simply archetypes? What does this say about what is revealed about the characters’ lives, including Riley’s?