_Beloved_

Please Note that the breakdown of reading questions does not always correspond to the assigned reading (check calendar for each day's reading assignment)

Reading Questions for Pages 3-59

1. What events does Sethe describe on pp.19-21? What impact have these events had on her, even now, 18 years in the future?

2. What does it mean that Halle "gave her freedom when it didn't mean a thing?" (28).

3. What is the "blessing" Sethe refers to on p.28?

4. This section identifies several key events that will come up again in the narrative. What seem to be the significant moments recounted or mentioned in this section?

5. How would you describe Denver's secret refuge? What does this place do for Denver?

6. What does Denver see happening inside her house on p. 35? What does this symbolize?

7. What narrative is Denver obsessed with hearing, and why?

8. Why is the word "plans" important to this section?

9. How do these characters feel about the past? What is the best way to deal with the past?

10. What does this section tell us about love and relationships among former slaves? What about the identity of the slaves themselves?

11. How would you describe the changes these characters have undergone, just in the first four chapters? What sort of tone does the section end on? Why?

Pages 60-100

1. Now that you have finished this section, who do you think the new character, Beloved, is? Find some textual evidence to support your interpretation. If you think this new character somehow corresponds to the baby ghost with "Beloved" on her tombstone, why? In what way? Pull out some evidence in the text for your interpretation, other than the obvious name correspondence. This section is full of possibilities (and mysteries).

2. Go back and look at Sethe's physical reaction to seeing this woman sitting near her house (on p.61). What happens, and what could this symbolize?

3. How do Denver, Sethe, and Paul D respond to this stranger's arrival? Why is Denver "shaking" but wanting more on p. 63? Why is Paul D so disturbed by her?

4. What do the other characters notice about Beloved? (in terms of physical appearance, dress, personality, etc.)

5. Why is Sethe more apt to tell her stories and explain her memories to Beloved than she had been with Denver?

6. What do we find out about Sethe's mother? And the circumstances surrounding Sethe's birth? How does this connect to Sethe's maternal identity and sense of self?

7. What do we discover about the past history of 124? What purpose did it serve?

8. What does Paul D tell Sethe in this section that upsets her so greatly? What is Sethe's reaction to the news?

9. The issue of plans arises again in this section. Why is planning such an important issue for Sethe and the other characters?

10. What else do we discover about Paul D's past? Who is Mister, and what does he signify for Paul D? How does this connect with Sethe's identity and sense of self?

11. On p. 86 Paul D thinks about a tobacco tin. What does this tin symbolize for him?

12. We discover more information about Denver's birth at the end of this section - or do we? Look again closely at the paragraph preceding the jump back into the past.

Pages 101-222

1. What is the Clearing, and what does it symbolize for the community?

2. Why does Sethe go to the Clearing? What happens there? (Who did it?) And what decision does Sethe reach while there?

3. How does Denver react to this event in the Clearing, and why?

4. On p. 123 we hear two questions Denver was asked. What do you think they mean?

7. Describe what we learn about Paul D's past in this section. How would you characterize what he lived through?

8. Explain how the theme of community is raised in this section about Paul D.

9. Why is Paul D slowly moving away from the bedroom he shared with Sethe?

10. What happens on p. 136-8?

11. Describe how Paul D feels about masculinity and what it takes to be a "true man." What changes do his emotions undergo in this section?

12. If you had to choose a protagonist for the entire novel at this point, whom would you choose? Why? What conflict is going on in the novel?

13. On p. 159 it states that "It was Stamp Paid who started it." What did he start, how, and what were the results of what he started?

14. Why did the community get so angry? Because of this anger, what did they fail to do for those at 124?

15. The Garners and their slave operations are brought up again. We raised the issue of "benevolent slavery" in class - what is being discussed on p. 172, and how do you see the Garners and their position as slave owners now?

16. We finally discover the reasons behind the crawling-already? girl's death in the short chapter on p. 174-180. What was your reaction to this narrative?

17. What is Baby Suggs's judgment about this event and Sethe? Does she feel she was wrong or right in her decision? Do you agree with Baby Suggs's judgment?

18. How does Sethe explain her motivations to Paul D? Have your feelings and judgments about Sethe changed after this has been revealed?

19. Why do the three women go skating, and what happens afterwards? How does this event change Sethe's mind about Beloved?

20. Where has Paul D gone, and why do Stamp and Ella disagree about the community's treatment of Paul D and those still at 124?

Pages 222-277

1. The entire section from p.222-234 consists of Sethe talking to whom? What is she trying to tell or explain to this person?

2. What do we discover schoolteacher was doing with the slaves in this first chapter of volume II? Why is Sethe deeply troubled by this? What greater themes do these actions connect with?

3. What causes the Sweet Home men and Sethe to plan their escape?

4. We read a conversation between Sethe and Halle discussing the Garner's type of slavery vs. that of schoolteacher. What does each character believe about the two parties? Why?

5. On p. 234-5, Stamp Paid thinks about the parties involved with slavery. What does he conclude? Are slaves the only ones affected by slavery? Why or why not?

6. The next 4 chapters are written in what is called in literary studies a "stream of consciousness" narrative, in which the thoughts of a character are expressed as they are thought. Look for connections and similar themes expressed across these 4 chapters. Who is speaking in each one? To whom is this person speaking? And what are they trying to explain or describe? In other words, what is the motivation for the existence of these chapters?

7. Why is the third chapter in this series written so differently than the first two? Watch for patterns of imagery and symbolism in this chapter.

8. Who is speaking in the fourth chapter of this series?

9. The last 2 chapters of this section return us to Paul D's memories and his current situation. What does he remember this time about his time at Sweet Home (Garners vs. schoolteacher), the escape plan, and the results?

10. How does Stamp Paid feel about Sethe's decision to try and kill her children?

11. What else do we discover about Stamp's decision to rename himself, and what does this suggest about his identity or way of dealing with trauma?

Pages 281-324

1. The first sentence of volume III is "124 was quiet." Why - what has changed?

2. How would you describe the changing relationships between Sethe, Beloved, and Denver in this section? (especially compared to the "unspoken thoughts" from the 4 chapters in the last section). Why and how have things changed for these three women?

3. How are their household roles changing? What is Sethe acting like, and Beloved? Because of these changes, how does Denver's role change?

4. What does Denver decide to do, and what does this symbolize?

5. What do the "gifts of food" (p. 293) symbolize for the community and those at 124?

6. Who becomes the leader of the "rescue" of 124? Why do you think Morrison chose this particular character instead of say, Paul D, Stamp Paid, or the Bodwins?

7. What does this character think about Sethe's actions, and also the past and present in general?

8. What happens at the end of the chapter on pages 304-9? What does the arrival of these characters represent, what memory and motivation causes Sethe's violent reaction, and what are the results?

9. Why didn't she try to kill her child under the threat of "schoolteacher" this time? What was different?

10. On p. 322, Paul D thinks that "He wants to put his story next to hers." What does this one short sentence symbolize for the characters of Beloved?

11. What is the last chapter saying? What were the results the disappearance?

12. Why does it say "This is not a story to pass on" ? What is ironic about that statement? What different meanings might this have?

_Lone Ranger and Tonto_ Reading Questions

“Every Little Hurricane”

1. Pay attention to the use of meteorological language; what role does it play in this story?
2. Consider the larger implications of what the narrator tells us in the paragraph that begins: “ ‘They’re going to kill each other’” and ends with “It didn’t even deserve a name” (3)
3. Why does Victor feel his memory is more dependable than a video camera?
4. What explanation is given for the brothers’ fight (?

“A Drug Called Tradition”

1. In what ways is this story about tradition? About the past? About the present? About the future?
2. Why do you think the boys take the drug, and what do you make of its effects?
3. Read the passage about the skeletons of the past and future. What is Alexie trying to say here? (21-2)

“Because my Father Always Said…”

1. What is ironic about the photo of Victor’s father? (24-5)
2. What comments does this story make about marriage and divorce among American Indians? (32; 34)
3. What does this story have to say about memory? (33-4)

“Crazy Horse Dreams”

1. What is it about Crazy Horse that would have made him appealing to a contemporary Indian?

“Traffic Signal”

1. What do you make of the moments of “magical realism” (like when Victor talks about having four hands)? (43)
2. Why are heroes so important on the reservation?
3. Where do we see moments of “survival humor” in this story? Why might Alexie use this technique?
4. Why is it difficult for reservation Indians to be optimistic? (49)
5. Why is “the big stuff” easier for Indians to deal with than the more everyday injustices? (49)
6. Why do Adrian and Victor immediately go into the house and bolt the door after they had just decided to go into Spokane? (52)

“This is What it Means to say Phoenix, Arizona”

1. What do you make of Thomas’s story about the two boys who want to be warriors? (63)
2. Does Thomas really fly when he jumps off the roof? And why are the other children jealous of him? (70)
3. Why does Thomas tell stories? Why does everyone else dislike his stories?
4. Why can’t Victor be friends with Thomas, even after the trip?
5. Think about the difference between what Thomas thinks about dumping the ashes, and what Victor thinks about it. What do these differences in perspective tell us about these characters?

“The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire”

1. Why does Thomas’s testimony include stories that clearly did not happen to him? What is the point behind his testimony?
2. What does the nature of this trial tell us about the condition of the contemporary Indian?

“Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother”

1. What do you make of the English translation of the baby’s Indian name: “He Who Crawls Silently Through the Grass with a Small Bow and One Bad Arrow Hunting for Enough Deer to Feed the Whole Tribe” (111)? What is the significance of his shortened name, “James” (111)?
2. Why do so many sentences/thoughts in this story run together with little punctuation in between?
3. What does Suzy mean when she says “nobody on the reservation is ever a kid and that we’re all born grown up anyway” (121)? And why, when he looks at James, does Victor “think maybe Suzy is wrong about Indian kids being born adults and that maybe James was born this way and wants to stay this way like a baby because he doesn’t want to grow up and see and do everything we all do?” (121)
4. Victor tells us that James finally speaks on Christmas of 1973, and “the only thing that matters is that he says he and I don’t have the right to die for each other and that we should be living for each other instead. He says the world hurts. He says the first thing he wanted after he was born was a shot of whiskey. He says all that and more. He tells me to get a job and to grow my braids. He says I better learn how to shoot left-handed if I’m going to keep playing basketball. He says to open a fireworks stand” (128). What is James saying here?

“Imagining the Reservation”

1. What is the significance of this equation: “Survival = Anger x Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation” (150)?

“The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor”

1. Laughter serves many different functions in this story. Look for instances of laughter, and determine what its function is in each instance.
2. What is the significance of Simon only being able to drive in reverse, “using the rear-view mirror as his guide” (156)?

“Indian Education”

1. Why does the narrator consider Randy’s advice to “Always throw the first punch” to be “the most valuable lesson about living in the white world” (176)?
2. Why, when he kisses the white girl in eighth grade, does the narrator say: “I felt the good-byes I was saying to my entire tribe” (176)?
3. Wally Jim kills himself, even though he isn’t an alcoholic, has a good job and a family. When asked why, everyone says: “‘Don’t know,’ we all said, but when we look in the mirror, see the history of our tribe in our eyes, taste failure in the tap water, and shake with old tears, we understand completely” (178). Why do they understand completely?
4. When he reads the newspaper headline “INDIANS LOSE AGAIN” the narrator says: “Go ahead and tell me none of this is supposed to hurt me very much” (179). What is so hurtful about the mascot and the headline for the narrator?
5. What does this story tell us about “Indian education?”

“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”

1. What is the significance of this title, for both the story and for the collection of stories as a whole?
2. Why does the idea that “Indians can reside in the city, but they can never live there” seems “as close to the truth as any of us [Indians] can get” (187)?

“Witnesses, Secret and Not”

1. In what ways in this story similar to “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire”?
2. What does the narrator mean when he says: “Why is it that car accidents take so long to happen? And they seem to get slower as you grow older? I’d been in one accident or another every year of my life” (213)? And later, when he asks: “I’m always asking myself if a near-accident is an accident, if standing right next to a disaster makes you part of the disaster or just a neighbor” (215). What larger significance, beyond the literal, do these passages share?
3. After giving Jimmy some money, which they know he will use to get drunk, the narrator tells us: “WE just drove off then and left Jimmy to make his own decisions. That’s how it is. One Indian doesn’t tell another what to do. We just watch things happen and then make comments. It’s all about reaction as opposed to action” (216). What does he mean by this? How is much of this book, its stories and characters, is “about reaction as opposed to action,” and what is Alexie saying about this?
4. What does this story have to say about witnesses? In what way(s) is this entire collection about being a witness?

_On the Road_ Reading Questions

On the Road

Part One

Chapter One

1. Sal makes distinctions between his New York friends and Dean Moriarty. Look for lines/passages in which he talks about the differences between them, and think about how these groups of people are different. Why might Sal be so drawn to Dean?

Chapter Two

1. Sal begins to learn how to be a traveler on the road in this chapter. What lesson does he seem to learn from him first day on the road, especially when he says: “It was my dream that screwed up, the stupid hearthside idea that it would be wonderful to follow one great red line across America instead of trying various roads and routes” (13)?

Chapter Three

1. Look closely at the following passage and see if you can determine what Sal means and why he might feel the way he does here: “and that was the one distinct moment in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn’t know who I was….I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future…” (17).
2. Two people really seem to embody the West for Sal here: the first cowboy he sees and the farmer in the Nebraska diner. Think about what these two men represent for Sal, how the symbolize the West for him, and why.

Chapter Four

1. Take note of the role of the landscape, and how it grows increasingly more important for Sal the further West he goes. Pick out moments in which he notices the landscape, and contemplate what significance the landscape has for him.
2. Sal comes upon a Wild West festival in Cheyenne. Look at this passage and think about what Sal’s reaction is to it, and what he means when he says: “I was amazed, and at the same time I felt it was ridiculous: in my first shot at the West I was seeing to what absurd devices it had fallen to keep its proud tradition” (33)

Chapter Five

• 1. When Sal finally sees his friends in Denver, he has this to say: “and in their eyes I would be strange and ragged and like the Prophet who has walked across the land to bring the dark Word, and the only Word I had was ‘Wow’!” (37). What does he mean by this?

Chapter Six

1. There is clearly tension between Sal’s group of friends in Denver. What does he suggest when he says: “It was a war with social overtones” (38)?

Chapter Seven

1. Major tells Sal: “Ah, Sal, if you could sit with me high in the Basque country with a cool bottle of Poignon Dix-neuf, then you’d know there are other things besides boxcars.” “I know that. It’s just that I love boxcars and I love to read the names on them…” (41). What larger difference does this establish between these two characters?

Chapter Eight

1. What do you make of this all-night conversation between Dean, Carlo, and Sal?

Chapter Nine

1. Sal constantly makes distinctions between himself and the tourists. In what way does he view himself as something other than a tourist? Do you agree with him, or is he also just a tourist in the West?

Chapter Ten

1. Before heading to San Francisco, Sal says: “Beyond the glittering street was darkness, and beyond the darkness the West. I had to go.” He has to leave Denver in order to get to the West, but isn’t he already there? The West seems to keep moving further west for Sal. Why might this be? What does this tell us about him?

Chapter Eleven

1. Sal definitely sees himself as being a very different type of person than the other night watchmen he works with in San Francisco. Look for lines or passages in which these differences become clear. In what ways are they different?
2. Consider the following two quotes by Sal: “The time was coming for me to leave Frisco or I’d go crazy” (73); and, “Here I was at the end of America—no more land—and now there was nowhere to go but back” (78). Why does he feel the need to leave, and what does he seem to have accomplished by coming to the other end of the country? Why is there nowhere to go but back?

Chapter Twelve

1. Why do you suppose Sal and Terry are both suspicious of each other?

Chapter Thirteen

1. What is the significance of the repetition of the word “manana” in this chapter?
2. Sal tells us of his time working the cotton fields: “I forgot all about the East and all about Dean and Carlo and the bloody road….I was a man of the earth, precisely as I had dreamed I would be, in Paterson” (97). How is it possible that he forgets his friends, and in what way might this be the life he had dreamed of for himself in Paterson?
3. And how is it possible only a few passages later for Sal to then tell us: “I could feel the pull of my own life calling me back” (98). What is the difference between his “own life” and the “man of the earth” life he had dreamed of?
4. Sal tells us, upon his parting with Terry: “Well, lackadaddy, I was on the road again….This was the end of something” (101). What exactly is it the end of?

Chapter Fourteen

1. Walking through Pennsylvania Sal thinks about the ways in which his conception of the wilderness has changed. He says: “I thought all the wilderness of America was in the West till the Ghost of the Susquehanna showed me different. No, there is a wilderness in the East…” (105). In what way is there a wilderness in the East, and in what ways is it similar/different to the wilderness Sal encountered in the American West?
2. Upon his return to New York City, Sal is eager to return to his aunt’s house in New Jersey where he has a bed of his own, and where he can: “lay my head down and figure the losses and figure the gain that I knew was in there somewhere too” (106-7). What do you suppose he will figure up as losses, and what as the gain?
3. Part One of On the Road begins and ends with Sal thinking about Dean Moriarty. In what way is this first part of the book all about Dean, even though Sal doesn’t see much of him?

Part Two

Chapter One
1. Take note of how Sal has grown/changed from Part One to Part Two. What lessons has he learned from his first trip on the road that he puts into practice this time around?
2. Note that Part One begins and ends with Sal thinking about Dean, and Part Two also begins with thoughts of Dean. Take note of Dean’s influence on Sal throughout the text, especially since he is more present in this trip than the first. How is this trip with Dean different than Sal’s first trip?
3. What does Sal mean when he says of Dean: “This was the new and complete Dean, grown to maturity” (114)?

Chapter Two
1. Sal says, talking of finding the right girl and settling down: “This can’t go on all the time—all this franticness and jumping around. We’ve got to go someplace, find something.” To which Dean replies: “Ah now, man…I’ve been digging you for years about the home and marriage and all those fine wonderful things about your soul” (116). Why might Sal be yearning to settle down, and how do you interpret Dean’s reply to him?

Chapter Three
2. In this chapter, Dean talks about how he knows God exists, and when Sal points out all of the troubles he and his family encounter, Dean replies: “Troubles, you see, is the generalization-word for what God exists in. The thing is not to get hung-up” (120). What do you make of this conversation, and how exactly does Dean suggest he knows God exists?
3. Consider the following passage: Sal’s aunt says “the world would never find peace until men fell at their women’s feet and asked for forgiveness.” Dean seems to know this. Sal says “The truth of the matter is we don’t understand our women, we blame on them and it’s all our fault,” to which Dean replies: “But it isn’t as simple as that,” warned Dean. “Peace will come suddenly, we won’t understand when it does—see, man?” (122). What do these characters seem to think about peace, and about women? What does this passage suggest about the men in this novel’s understanding of/attitude towards women in the novel?

Chapter Four
1. Driving around with Dean on New Year’s Eve, Sal says: “I didn’t know where all of this was leading; I didn’t care” (124). What does this tell us about how his character has changed?
2. What do you make of the passage about Sal’s “Shrouded Traveler?” What are these characters trying to say about life, and death? (124)

Chapter Five
1. Why does Sal decide to travel West again?

Chapter Six
2. What does Dean mean when he tells Sal and Marylou: “we should realize what it would mean to us to understand that we’re not really worried about anything” (134)?
3. What do we learn about Sal when he realizes he and Marylou won’t hook up, but decides: “But why think about that when all the golden land’s ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you’re alive to see?” (135). Is this a lesson he’s learned from being on the road? A lesson from Dean? Neither? Both?
4. Sal says of his turn at the wheel: “All alone in the night I had my own thoughts and held the car to the white line in the holy road. What was I doing? Where was I going? I’d soon find out” (138). What is the significance of the road, here, and throughout the book? In what ways is “the road” Sal’s version of “Walden Pond”?
5. Why do the young travelers look up to Old Bull Lee? In what ways is he a teacher, and what does he study that seems to be of such worth/importance?
6. Sal walks down to the Mississippi to look at the river from the banks but tells us “instead of that I had to look at it with my nose against a wire fence. When you start separating the people from their rivers what have you got?” (148). In what ways does this echo Thoreau’s concerns about our connection to the landscape in Walden?

Chapter Seven
1. Why is Old Bull Lee so interested in Sal’s vision? What to him does it represent?

Chapter Eight
2. As they get back on the road and continue their journey, Sal wonders: “What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks disappearing?—it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies” (156). The chapter also ends with a similar thought. Think about how this moment is similar to moments when Sal parted with companions in Part One, and also how it is different from those partings.

Chapter Nine
1. Upon arriving in San Francisco, Dean exclaims: “No more land! We can’t go any further ‘cause there ain’t no more land!” (170). Does he seem to convey the same sentiment that Sal did in Part One when he leaves San Fran?

Chapter Ten
2. What does Sal mean when he says he “lost faith” in Dean? (171). How has this happened?
3. Interestingly, Sal sees Marylou as a “whore.” Do you see any hypocrisy here? What do Sal’s thoughts on/interactions with women in the novel tell us about his attitude towards them in general?

Chapter Eleven
1. By the end of his trip Sal seems pretty burned out. Why is he so eager “to get out” (178)?

Part Three

Chapter One
2. Why does Sal go back to Denver, and why is it such a let down for him?
3. What do we learn about Sal when he tells us: “Either you find someone who looks like your father in places like Montana or you look for a friend’s father where he is no more” (180)? In what way(s) does this statement inform our understanding of some of Sal’s earlier actions?
4. Walking around what he refers to as the “colored section” of Denver, Sal laments: “I wished I were a Denver Mexican, or even a poor overworked Jap, anything but what I was so drearily, a ‘white man’ disillusioned. All my life I’d had white ambitions; that was why I’d abandoned a good woman like Terry in the San Joaquin Valley” (180). What does he mean when he calls himself a “‘white mate’ disillusioned?” Is he perhaps romanticizing people of other racial background’s lifestyles? What do you suppose were his “white ambitions” and how might they have led him to leave Terry?
5. Sal had last parted with Dean on not-so-great terms, but now, upon his return to San Francisco, he heads immediately to Dean’s house because he “was burning to know what was on his mind and what would happen now, for there was nothing behind me any more, all my bridges were gone and I didn’t give a damn about anything at all” (182). What seems to have changed/happened to Sal that leads to this change of heart about Dean? What does he mean when he says “there was nothing behind [him] any more?”

Chapter Two
1. Why does Sal feel that the moment he and Dean decide to go to New York together was the “pivotal moment” of their friendship (189)?
2. When their group of friends are giving Dean a hard time for being selfish and irresponsible, Sal thinks to himself: “I suddenly realized that Dean, by virtue of his enormous series of sins, was becoming the Idiot, the Imbecile, the Saint of the lot” (193). What does he mean by this? Why does he want to come to Dean’s defense?

Chapter Four
1. Much of this chapter is spent in jazz clubs. In what ways is the jazz they listen to connected to characters like Dean and Sal? What similarities do you see between this type of music (as it is described in this chapter in particular) and the lifestyles of Dean and Sal?

Chapter Five
2. What does it tell us about their characters when Sal says he used to imagine himself riding a white horse alongside his family’s car when he was a child, and Dean imagined himself running alongside it? (208)
3. What does Dean mean when he tells Sal they “know what IT is and we know TIME and we know that everything is really FINE” (208)? In what way does this differentiate them from the other people they are traveling with to Denver?

Chapter Six
1. Lashing out at Dean for a remark he’d made about Sal’s age, Sal says to himself: “Every one of these things I said was a knife at myself. Everything I had ever secretly held against my brother was coming out: how ugly I was and what filth I was discovering in the depths of my own impure psychologies” (213). What exactly is going on here? Why is Sal so upset, and what is he really upset about?
2. Dean gets mad at “Okie Frankie ” for not parting with her money to buy a car, and gets really worked up, and then it comes out: “it’s my father my father my father all over again!” (215). What exactly seems to be bothering Dean here? Use what we’ve learned about his relationship with his father as a place to start understanding this exclamation.

_Slaughterhouse Five_

Reading Questions Chapters 3-5

1. At times Billy’s time travel does not seem to be simply random. Look for moments in which there seems to be some sort of connection between the times he travels between, and explain the connection.
2. Billy’s original captors are described in a way that strikes one as being very different that what both the American soldiers and the reader expects. What might Vonnegut be trying to say by pointing out this discrepancy? (pgs. 66-7). Look for other passages in which similar discrepancies are noted.
3. Why does Billy not speak out against the bombings in Vietnam? (pg. 76) In what way is his refusal to protest at the Lion’s Club lunch related to the prayer he has framed in his office? (pg. 77)
4. There is a lot of repetition in the novel, especially of words, images, ideas, and colors (for example, the stripes painted on the POW trains are orange and black and the tents at Billy’s daughter’s wedding are orange and black). Look for repetitions such as these and decide what the connection between them is.
5. The question of “Why?” (i.e. “why me?) repeats again and again in the novel. Look for moments in which Vonnegut gives some sort of response to this question.
6. Why does the Tralfamadorian say that it is only Earthlings who maintain the notion of free will? Are there moments in the text which seem to support the idea that free will is an illusion?
7. What do you make of the description of the English POW’s? (pg. 120-1)
8. Look for passages that lend insight into why Billy cries or why he commits himself to a mental ward.

Reading Questions Chapters 6-10

1. How does the plot of Billy’s favorite author, Kilgore Trout’s, book The Gospel from Outer Space connect to the plot of Slaughterhouse Five? What do you make of the alien’s insights into Christianity? Of his new version of the Gospel?
2. How do the Tralfamadorians rationalize letting one of their own people accidentally end the universe? What does Billy learn about humans from this?
3. Does Billy buy into the Tralfamadorian’s advice to “‘Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones’” (150)? Locate passages to support your response.
4. Why would the epitaph on pg. 156 be suitable for Billy and Vonnegut?
5. Starting on page 160, Vonnegut himself enters into the narrative (and this happens a few more times). Why might Vonnegut make these “authorial intrusions?”
6. How does Howard W. Campbell, Jr.’s monograph function in the novel (164-6)?
7. Look for passages in which the soldiers are described. Note the similarities and differences Vonnegut points out between them. What do his descriptions seem to tell us about soldiers, humans, war?
8. How do you interpret the following passage: “There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters” (208-9)
9. What do you make of Kilgore Trout’s “money tree” (213)? What about his robots in The Gutless Wonder? (213-14)
10. Choose one of the passages about the books Lily brings to professor Rumfoord at the hospital, and conduct a close reading of the passage. Why would Vonnegut include these excerpts? (236-240)
11. Rumfoord believes “that people who were weak deserved to die,” and the hospital staff believe that weak people should be helped as much as possible, that nobody should die” (247). What would Billy’s belief be in regards to this? Locate passages to support your claim.
12. Why is the condition of the wagon horses the only thing in the war to make Billy cry? (252)
13. Billy stumbles into a radio show where literary critics discuss what “the function of the novel might be in modern society” (264). How would Vonnegut answer this question? Look for evidence in the text to support your claims.
14. We are reminded of the “prayer” on Billy’s wall again at the end of the novel, in the drawing of Montana Wildhack’s locket. How does this prayer connect to the larger themes of the novel? Why might Vonnegut choose to remind us of it at the end of the novel?

_Typee_ Reading Questions

Reading Questions Chapters 12-18

1. Look for moments when Tommo is conflicted in his attitude towards the Typee’s behavior. He recognizes their generosity and friendliness, but still has doubts as to their sincerity. How might we account for this? There are moments when he seems to regret doubting his caretakers, but at the same time his mistrust tends to prevail for the most part. Why?
2. At the same time, both Tommo and Toby have no doubts as to the hospitality and friendliness of the Happars. Why is this so, and how is their expectation challenged?
3. In the first publication of _Typee_, the narrator tells us he “literally interpreted” the words of Kory-Kory, but in the American edition, this is changed to “liberally interpreted” (103). The use of the word “literal” is very different from “liberal.” How do we interpret each of these words, and what does Melville’s use of both tell us about his feelings towards the Typee?
4. After it takes Kory-Kory an enormous amount of effort to light a fire, Tommo reflects on the differences between Savage and Civilized life in regards to fire (112). What conclusions does he draw from this?
5. Look for instances in which the narrator goes to great lengths to describe the houses, clothing, plants, etc. found in the Typee valley. Why might he go into such explicit detail? In other instances, he compares things he encounters there with things that would be known in the West; why might he make these comparisons?
6. Pay particular attention to the section in which “civilized and savage life [are] contrasted.” What are Tommo’s thoughts regarding this? (124-6). What does he value about each culture, and where does he find fault with each? Does he seem to privilege one over the other?
7. What do you make of Tommo’s disregard for the taboo, and of the elders’ decision to comply with his desire to have Fayaway ride in the canoe?

Questions for Chapters 19-25

1. Tommo just can’t figure out why the Typee want to keep him in the valley. What could possibly explain their desire to treat him well, yet also hold him as a “prisoner,” as he calls it?
2. Look for moments in which Tommo critiques Western culture, and points out ways in which the “savages” are perhaps lead happier lives. Do you see other moments where his celebration of the natives’ simplicity also comes across as a bit condescending?
3. Look for moments in which Tommo is critical of the missionaries. In what ways does he suggest the missionaries have been harmful to Island cultures? Does he feel all missionaries are bad? Does he disagree with missionary work in a general sense, or just some of its practices?
4. How does Tommo set himself apart from others as a reporter/recorder of the “savages,” their customs, and their way of life?
5. Beware of Melville’s use of irony and sarcasm. Look for moments when he says one thing, but means another. Why might he use this technique?

Questions for Chapters 26- Appendix

1. Choose a passage in which the narrator goes into great detail about the customs of the Typee. What does he seem to conclude based on his observations in the passage?
2. Choose a passage that deals with Tommo’s reaction to cannibalism when he finally encounters it. What does Tommo ultimately think about this practice? Does he gain any new insight into it? Identify a passage that helps to answer this.
3. Identify the moment when Tommo realizes he cannot fully become a member of the Typee tribe. In what way does he literally know he can’t do what the Typee ask of him? In what way is this act more symbolic?
4. Choose a passage that explains why Tommo decides to leave the Typee and return to the Western world.
5. What does the narrator hope to accomplish with the Appendix? Identify passages that reveal his goals for this Appendix to the narrative.
6. Tommo speaks of the other narratives about the islanders that were incorrect, and yet he presents us with yet another narrative about them. What do we make of these competing narratives? Is there one real story about the Typee, or are there multiple realities that can be constructed?

_Walden_ reading questions

Reading Questions: Thoreau’s Walden

Key Concepts for Walden

• Labor
• Materialism
• Freedom/Slavery/Independence
• Self-reliance
• Individualism
• Experience (personal)
• Primitive/Civilized
• Necessaries of Life
• Wilderness/Landscape

“Economy”

1. In “Economy,” Thoreau is very much concerned with the concept of Labor. Look for moments when Thoreau addresses this issue throughout the chapter. What does he have to say about labor? He also seems to see different dimensions of labor—physical, emotional, and intellectual. Look for moments in which he addresses these different types of work, and note how he sees them differently.
2. Thoreau clearly privileges personal experience over learning from others’ past experiences. Look for passages in which Thoreau suggests the importance of personal experience. Why does he privilege personal experience?
3. Thoreau suggests that the most dangerous slave driver is “the slave driver of the self” (49). What does he mean by this? In what way(s) is slavery of the self worse than slavery of the body? Look for passages in which Thoreau returns to the idea of slavery of the self and suggests the need to work towards freedom. In what sense does he use the word freedom? Freedom from what?
4. Why is it significant that Thoreau moves into his house on July 4th?
5. Why does Thoreau give us the breakdown of his living costs and the amount he earned through farming?
6. One important tenet of Transcendentalism is the idea of self-reliance. Look for passages in which Thoreau treats this topic. What are his thoughts on self-reliance?

“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”
1. What does the narrator mean when he says “a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone” (126)?
2. In this chapter, Thoreau gives us some hints as to why he has written this narrative of his time at Walden Pond, and also why he chose to do this experiment in the first place. Look for passages in which he indicates his rationale for both.
3. There are several moments in this chapter in which the importance of the imagination is discussed. In what ways is the imagination important for Thoreau?
4. What is Thoreau getting at when he talks about the need for men to be awake? In what sense does he mean this?
5. For the Transcendentalists, perception, or the way we look at things and interpret them, creates meaning. Look for passages in which this idea is articulated by Thoreau. How can the assignment of meaning to things within the world be a source of power?
6. What does the narrator mean when he says: “I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born” (142)?

“Reading”
1. What differences does the narrator establish between the Orator and the Writer? Why does he privilege one over the other?
2. Thoreau establishes a difference between “reading” and Reading.” Identify the two different types of reading Thoreau establishes and explain why he privileges one over the other.

“Sounds”
1. In this chapter, the narrator describes the hours he spends simply sitting in his doorway and letting the time pass. What value does he see in this exercise? In what way(s) is it not time wasted, but rather, time well spent?
2. This chapter deals at length with the railroad. How does a chapter about “sounds” become about the railroad? How does he get started on this topic, and what problems with the railroad does he point out? Why are these problems for him?
3. The narrator notes the various smells that he notices as the trains pass by. Why does he point this out to us?
4. Why does the narrator seem to find the church bells less of an intrusion than the train whistle?
5. Note the progression of sounds: from train to church bells to cows to birds, etc. What significance might this progression have?

“Solitude”
1. What does the following passage suggest that the narrator recognizes about his relationship to nature? “The gentle rain which waters my beans and keeps me in the house to-day is not drear and melancholy, but good for me too. Though it prevents my hoeing them, it is of far more worth than my hoeing. If it should continue so long as to cause the seeds to rot in the ground and destroy the potatoes in the low lands, it would still be good for the grass on the uplands, and, being good for the grass, it would be good for me” (176).
2. The narrator doesn’t think of his life in the woods as lonely; in fact, he sees this as a good type of solitude. Look for passages in which he explains the benefits he sees in solitude.
3. One of the most significant points the narrator attempts to make in this chapter is that physical closeness is much different than mental closeness. What does he mean when he says: “What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary? I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another” (178)? Locate other passages in which he discusses these two types of closeness, and think about the differences he establishes between them.

“Visitors”
1. Interestingly, the narrator’s ode to solitude is immediately followed by his claim in this chapter that “I think I love society as much as most, and am ready enough to fasten myself like a bloodsucker for the time to any full-blooded man that comes in my way” (185). He seems to want us to note the contradiction, and for us to think about how he can say something like this right after a chapter on the virtues of solitude. How does this chapter relate to what he has to say about solitude?
2. What is the narrator suggesting when he says: “If we would enjoy the most intimate society with that in each of us which is without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot possibly hear each other’s voice in any case” (186)? What does he really mean here? Or do we take him literally? Is he suggesting there’s a difference between talking and communicating?
3. The Canadian wood-chopper is set up as an ideal man. What qualities does the narrator see in/attribute to the wood-chopper? In what ways is he the ideal we should work towards?

“The Bean-Field”
1. The narrator refers to his own bean field as “the connecting link between wild and cultivated fields” (203). What does he mean by this, and how is his home at Walden Pond also like a “connecting link” between the primitive and the civilized? Does he seem to suggest this is the ideal? Why?
2. After spending a good amount of time telling us about the cultivation of his own beans, the narrator then says: “Why concern ourselves so much about our beans for seed, and not be concerned at all about a new generation of men?” (210). How do you make sense in this seemingly contradiction? How is his method of husbandry superior to the methods of other farmers?
3. What does the narrator seem to recognize about his relationship to the land when he says: “This broad field which I have looked at so long and looks not to me as the principle cultivator, but away from me to influences more genial to it, which water and make it green” (211-12)? Do you recall moments from other chapters in which he has made similar claims?

“The Village”
1. What differences does the narrator point out between life in the village and life at Walden Pond? What is the significance of these distinctions?
2. What does the narrator mean when he says: “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations” (217). On one level (micro) he is referring to people actually losing their way in nature. How might he mean this on a larger (macro/symbolic) level? What is important about the fact that he can find his way home in the dark without the use of his eyes?

“The Ponds”
1. What does the narrator mean when he says: “It is a vulgar error to suppose that you have tasted huckleberries who never plucked them” (220)? Look for specific lines from the text to support your answer. In what ways is his claim here similar to his later discussion of the townspeople’s removal of the forests for wood and the piping of water from Walden Pond to town (i.e. pg. 239)?
2. Thoreau constantly describes everyday, common occurrences at the pond in a very literal way, but he also tends to have a second layer of meaning he intends (i.e. the micro and macro). How might we read the following passage metaphorically: “Not a fish can leap or an insect fall on the pond but it is thus reported in circling dimples, in lines of beauty, as it were the constant welling up of its foundation, the gentle pulsing of its life, the heaving of its breast” (235)?
3. Why is Thoreau so angered that the farmer named Flint Pond after himself? Look for lines and passages that address this topic. In what ways does this connect to the ideas from question #1?

“Baker Farm”
1. The narrator suggests that John Field and his family would greatly benefit from adopting the type of lifestyle he has developed at Walden. Why does he feel they would benefit from this simple life? For what reasons are the Fields kept from pursuing this simple lifestyle? Look for specific lines and passages in which Thoreau addresses this.

“Higher Laws”
1. The narrator tells us: “I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both” (257). Why does he reverence both? Look for passages in which we find the narrator valuing either a spiritual life or a primitive life. What are the benefits of finding a happy medium between the two?
2. Why might the narrator make the following claim: People who spend their lives in the woods (like wood choppers and hunters, etc) “are often in a more favorable mood for observing” nature “than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation” (258)? How does this idea connect to other passages we have looked at in previous chapters? What theme that we have discussed does it seem to relate to?

“Brute Neighbors”
1. The narrator tells us about two different encounters he has with animals in great detail (i.e. the ant battle and the loon on the pond). Choose one and determine why he might share these incidents with us, and what he learns from them/wants his reader to learn from them.

“House-Warming”
1. Come winter, the narrator seems to delight in the warmth of his house and the glow of the fire, and notes that: “Even the wildest animals love comfort and warmth as well as man, and they survive the winter only because they are so careful to secure them” (300). How might we connect what he says here to his earlier claims about the “necessaries of life” in the first chapter, “Economy”?

“Former Inhabitants”
1. In this chapter we learn about the many people who once had homes in Walden Wood. Now they and their homes are gone. Why might the narrator tell us about these people and point out what condition their former homes are now in?

“Winter Animals”
1. In this chapter the narrator asks: “may there not be a civilization going on among brutes as well as men?” (320). Can you think of other passages throughout the text in which the same idea is expressed? Why does the narrator want us to see connections between animals and humans?

“The Pond in Winter”
1. What is the narrator getting at when he claims: “It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it” (333)?
2. Why does the narrator find the carting off of the ice so troubling?

“Spring”
1. Why would Thoreau choose to end his narrative with Spring? What does that season seem to represent for him?
2. There are several passages in this chapter that follow the micro/macro structure. Look for passages in which, on the literal, microscopic level, the narrator is talking about nature, yet is also suggesting a larger (macro), more universal meaning that we as humans should take away from the literal example.

“Conclusion”
1. What does the narrator mean when he tells us: “I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there” (371)? Look for other lines/passages in the chapter to support your answer.
2. Thoreau uses the conclusion to sum up his ideas and to make one last appeal to his reader. He seems to see it as his last chance to get his main points across. Look for lines or passages that you feel are his last words of advice that he most especially wants the reader to take away from the reading experience.
3. As you have now finished Walden, think about what you take away from it. Have you gained anything, and if yes, what? In what ways do you find connections to our own society/culture/world today?