Stevens scowls and shakes his head, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and mutters something under his breath about the “catastrophe of modernism” before turning toward the chalkboard.
This imagery presents Stevens reaction to Dana's response. He obviously comes off as a very grumpy character and shows his irritation toward his very own students.
Plastering on a smile, he welcomes the students to Intro to Creative Writing
This piece of text says "Plastering on a smile" which indicates that Stevens probably doesn't want to be there and is forcing a smile when talking to his students.
Fridays he breakfasts at Burger King before heading out to the lake, where he smokes cigarettes on the shore and ignores his wife’s phone calls. He idolizes James Dickey. He’s no good at fiction. The Department Chair’s out to get him.
This describes and provides Stevens morning. The imagery used helps the reader picture who Stevens is and how he likes to go about his day. It also says that he ignores his wife's calls which just provides more insight into who Stevens is as a person.
The girl in the back looks up from her journal. Bobby furrows his eyebrows. The kid in the Twins hat quickly writes down the assignment, CORN, at the top of his single sheet of paper.
This imagery presents the confusion of the kids in the class after Professor Stevens assigns them CORN as their topic.
Dumbfounded but hardly surprised, Stevens shuffles back to the table in front of the room, noisily pulls the chair out, and plops down into it.
This shows Professor Steven's attitude toward Bobby as he already expected an answer like that from him. The adjectives used also contributes to the imagery created of Stevens sitting down in his chair.