1) In "The Painted Door", the title has great significance at the end of the story. Ann had been painting the door when John left and the paint was still wet throughout the night. When Ann dreamt that John had come in the middle of the night, she realizes that he really was there because she found him the next day outside, frozen and dead, with a speck of paint on his palm. This is a very good title as it is the only way of knowing for sure that John was there and it is appropriate because it depicts an important part of the story.
2) Ross sets the story during a storm only involving three characters in the whole story, which is unity of action. The story occurs in one night during the blizzard, which is unity of time. Unity of place is established since the story takes place within a small radius of the farm and mainly in the house. These are important because the story is meant to be short and unity keeps the reader interested. All of these characteristics (action, time, and place) are tightly woven, without much jumping around, and leaves room to express more emotions and thoughts of each character.
3) Narrator vs Arthur Vickers - This man vs man conflict occurs when the thirteen year old narrator believes that Arthur had stolen his two calves. The narrator doesn't believe much of what Arthur says and spends most of the night figuring out how to outsmart him and retrieve the calves.
