She does not do harm, but like Frank she does nothing to prevent harm from being done to others -- she does nothing to 'stanch' Mary's internal bleeding, just as Frank does nothing to staunch Kenny's real hemorrhaging. 3) What doesn't Mary like about the people at the New York college?

Mary finds them brittle, false and superficial -- she realizes she is being interviewed to satisfy 'a rule,' nothing more and despises the formulaic and hypocritical nature of the process.

4) One might identify Mary's desire for __approval____ to be in conflict with...

At the beginning of the story, Mary is shown straining to hear a professor, showing she is always on the receiving end of other's opinions, and that she never gives her own ideas. Her hearing aid is said to be the result of straining to hear others for so long. But she is often deaf to people's real meaning, as when she is tricked into being asked to interview for a faculty position simply to fulfill a quota.