Against the far wall a young man in sweat pants and a Minnesota Twins hat snores quietly—his desk empty, except for his head. In the front row Stevens spots Dana, the notorious overachiever, pretending to read Finnegans Wake.
These descriptions all create a different image of a student in our heads. The uniqueness of each person's description creates a sort of identity for each person in the class. It creates different students in a class instead of a class of students with equal identities.
He stares out the window that faces the street; it’s a still December night—no traffic, no sirens, no obnoxious noise or light. Across the street, a string of colored Christmas lights wrapped around a porch railing glow beneath a blanket of thick snow.
The stillness and serenity of the outside world is compared with the pretty eventful class indoors. The fact that no sound or light emanates from the outdoors emphasizes the emptiness and creates an image for the reader.
checks his watch—he’s five minutes late, as usual.
This further shows that Professor Stevens does not care about his job. He doesn't appear to class on time and he doesn't carry himself in a proper manner (wearing his jeans incorrectly, for example), and has to fake a smile when he enters his class.
He’s no good at fiction. The Department Chair’s out to get him.
We learn later in the passage that Professor Stevens is a creative writing teacher. The fact that he thinks that Dpt. Chair is coming to get him shows that he must be really bad at his job. Not only that, but we also see that he really hates his job as well, so it makes us readers wonder why Professor Stevens stills has his job.
his uniform—faded black jeans that sag in the rear and a worn fleece pullover
These choices of clothes for the main character shows that Professor Stevens really doesn't like his job of teaching a lot. He either doesn't care about how he looks too much, or he doesn't care to make himself look better, and I am willing to bet that it's the latter. This sentence shows that the main character doesn't really care about his appearance to his classmates, and it sets an idea about how the main character acts to his classmates.
assortment of faces—some intently focused on their lists, others panicked, staring at blank sheets of paper. A girl near the door smacks her gum and gazes up at the clock
The difference between children's faces while working shows how interested and skilled they are in their work. Some are working hard and diligently, while others struggle to even put a word down. There are even those few, who don't even try, like they don't want to be there like Professor Stevens. This shows that there are many students in that classroom that don't want to be in that class.
“Your first assignment is to write a poem about corn.” 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. Dana’s hand shoots up.
When Professor Stevens talks about, unexpectedly, that the assignment is going to be about corn, everyone in the class reacts differently. The girl who was looking at her journal the entire time, looks up in confusion. Bobby, who the professor was talking about just now, is also confused or frustrated, However, the kids in the Twins hat is eager to start, maybe because he knows the topic very well. This shows the audience the complexity that a group of people could have, even if they are collected together towards a common goal (in this case, to become better writers).
a skinny young man in a Bob Dylan t-shirt, skin-tight jeans, and checkerboard-patterned Vans sneakers
This description of Bobby Jorgenson creates an image that the author of this short story intends to tell the reader. It reinforces that image of some of what a boy grown on a farm may look like, while it creates new images for others. Whichever one the reader is, the description given by the author creates an image for what this character may look like.
Professor Stevens dislikes donuts; the icing gets stuck in his beard.
Professor Stevens is apparently a person who doesn't see the bright side of things. He doesn't care that the donuts are delicious sugary sweets or that the icing on donuts taste just as great. He only cares that the icing gets stuck to his beard, and he dislikes donuts because of that one reason. This shows that Professor Stevens only sees the negative in things and never decides to lighten up.