Write about how intercalary chapters function thematically. Look for instances where intercalary chapters broaden, disrupt or change the theme that the conventional chapters pursue. In Hemingway's "In Our Time," for instance, the intercalary chapters depict horrific scenes from World War One battles, while the other chapters are about the experience of traumatized soldiers returning home after the war. Write a paragraph or two detailing the novel's overall theme, and how the intercalary chapters impact it.
Discuss the structural implications of the intercalary chapters. Track how the intercalary chapters disrupt the flow of the narrative's chronology, as in "The Grapes of Wrath," where the tale of the Joad family is constantly interrupted with poetic descriptions of the landscape. Outline the major events in the plot as they take place and what events the intercalary chapters disturb. Write a paragraph or two detailing how the interrupted flow forces readers to change their expectations of narrative chronology.
Explain how the intercalary chapters alter the genre of the novel by interrupting its narrative flow. In "Moby-Dick," for instance, Melville disrupts the seafaring story with chapters describing the technical details of whaling that make the novel seem like an instruction manual. Write a paragraph or two detailing what other genres the novel takes on in the intercalary chapters, and how these transformations change the novel.
Discuss how the intercalary interruptions of the narrative mimic other kinds of interruption going on in the text. For example, the fragmentation that the intercalary chapters of "In Our Time" produce mimics the cultural and psychological breakdown that Hemingway detects in the First World War. Write a paragraph or two detailing how the broken structure of the narrative draws the reader's attention to thematic instances of breaking or interruption.