What is your understanding of Meatball Mulligan’s character? What is his relation to the guests at his party? Is he an optimist or a pessimist, and why?

Meatball’s party and Callisto’s apartment are starkly different environments. What are some commonalities between them?

The story ends with Meatball deciding to put his party in order, after having first entertained the idea of hiding away in his closet. It also ends with Aubade, his upstairs neighbor, putting her hand through a window. How do these two different endings highlight the story’s theme of entropy?