After completing the story, reflect on the title. Why do you believe Cheever selected it? Is it designed to shed light on a particular character, or does it aim to reinforce one of the story's themes? Compose an essay where you provide an explanation for the title. Ensure your arguments are supported by the text and include quotes from the story where relevant.

Read another one of Cheever’s most acclaimed short stories, "The Swimmer," and compare it to "The Country Husband." If you were to draw conclusions about Cheever’s overall body of work—considering elements such as style, structure, characterization, and themes—based solely on these two stories, what would those conclusions be? Jot down some notes on this. Then, read an overview of Cheever’s career (Twayne’s Authors Series is a good resource) to see if your conclusions align with published critiques of his work. What does this exercise reveal about how individual pieces fit into the larger context of an author’s oeuvre?

Reflect on a time when you experienced a defining or life-changing event, whether it was positive or negative. How did this event impact you? Looking back, do you think the experience had a greater or lesser effect than you initially anticipated?