At Kathy's March 2015

'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' discussion questions

1. What is the meaning of the novel's title? How does the tree function as a symbol throughout the novel? 
2.  Who seems stronger in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the male or female characters? Cite examples from the book. 
3.  Some critics have argued that many of the characters in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn can be dismissed as stereotypes, exhibiting quaint characteristics or representing pat qualities of either nobility or degeneracy. Is this a fair criticism? Which characters are the most convincing? The least?
4.  What connection could be made between Francie's early writing—including the stories that her teacher rejects— and Smith's work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? 
5.  In a particularly revealing chapter of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie's teacher dismisses her essays about everyday life among the poor as "sordid," and, indeed, many of the novel's characters seem to harbor a sense of shame about their poverty. But they also display a remarkable self-reliance (Katie, for example, says she would kill herself and her children before accepting charity). How and why have our society's perceptions of poverty changed—for better or worse—during the last one hundred years?
6. Francie observes more than once that women seem to hate other women ("they stuck together for only one thing: to trample on some other woman"), while men, even if they hate each other, stick together against the world. Is this an accurate appraisal of the way things are in the novel?
7. The women in the Nolan/Rommely clan exhibit most of the strength and, whenever humanly possible, control the family's destiny. In what ways does Francie continue this legacy?
8. What might Francie's obsession with order—from systematically reading the books in the library from A through Z, to trying every flavor ice cream soda—in turn say about her circumstances and her dreams? Although it is written in the third person, there can be little argument that the narrative is largely from Francie's point of view. How would the book differ if it was told from Neeley's perspective?
9. How can modern readers reconcile the frequent anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant sentiments that characters espouse throughout the novel?
10. Could it be argued that the main character of the book is not Francie but, in fact, Brooklyn itself?
11. Neither Lee Rhynor nor Ben Blake seems to be the type of man that Francie wants. What kind of man does she want? 
12. Many girls and women are traumatized for years by a rape attempt. Who or what helps Francie recover from an attempted assault?

At Joanna's in February 2015

I Served The King Of England - discussion questions

1. Who is the main character of the book?
2. Do you like the first part of the book? Does it seem interesting?
3. What do you think of the hero as a teenager learning to wait tables at a hotel?
4. How is Ditie faring before WWII?
5. What do you think of Dietie's marriage to a German gymnastics teacher?
6. A big part of the book takes place during the war, yet war seems mostly distant. Diete's opinion is that Czechs do not fight. Do you agree?
7.  Ditie uses money from the sale of rare stamps to buy a hotel. Is Ditie an opportunist or a criminal?
8. What was Hrabal's message to the readers?
9. Is Hrabal poking fun at Czechs? Is he condemning them?
10. What happened to Ditie after the war? Why was he in a labor camp?
11. What do you think of the ending of this book?
12. Hrabal shows the career of a simple man as a metaphor of the twentieth century. Do you agree or not? Is there something more sinister in the story?
13. Is Ditie a simpleton or ruthless and opportunistic egoist?

At Jackie's January 2015

Questions for Anna Karenina

1.      How are we to understand the epigram "Vengeance is mine, I will repay"? Should Anna's fate be considered the result of God's vengeance? Is Anna's desire to take vengeance on Vronsky being condemned?

2.      Talk about the first sentence of the novel. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Do you agree with its assertion?

3.      When Vronsky first meets Anna, "it was as if a surplus of something so overflowed her being that it expressed itself beyond her will..." (p. 61). What is this something? Why is it expressed beyond her will?

4.      Why is Anna able to reconcile Stiva and Dolly

5.      We are told that it is unpleasant for Anna to read about other people's lives because she "wanted too much to live herself" (p. 100). Why are reading and living placed in opposition to one another?

6.      When Anna and Vronsky have satisfied their desire for one another, why does Tolstoy compare Vronsky to a murderer?

7.      After telling her husband about her affair, why does Anna feel that "everything was beginning to go double in her soul" (p. 288)?

8.      At the beginning of the novel, we learn that Anna has a very close bond with her son Seryozha. Talk about what it means for her to leave him in order to be with Vronsky.

9.      Why does Tolstoy counterpose Levin and Kitty's marriage with Anna and Vronsky's relationship?

10.  Why does Levin continually imagine his future in such detail, only to have his actual experience differ from what he had expected?

11.  Do you feel Anna's relationship with her brother and his wife Dolly is a good one? Discuss this dynamic and how you think it may play out as the book progresses.

12.  While explaining her affair to Dolly, Anna says, "I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself" (p. 616). Does the novel present these two objectives as compatible or incompatible.

13.  Reflect upon Karenin's predicament. He can't easily divorce his wife, yet she has moved beyond the pale of his influence. If he were to handle the situation in a morally upstanding way, what would be his best course of action

14.  Why does Anna kill herself? Why does everyone and everything seem so ugly to Anna just before she does so?

15.  Is it Anna herself or the society in which she lives that is more responsible for her unhappiness?

16.  Why are the consequences of Stiva's adultery so insignificant relative to those Anna faces?

17.  Why does Vronsky go to war as a volunteer after Anna's suicide?  

18.  Of all the novel's characters, why is it only Anna and Levin who contemplate suicide?

19.  Why does Levin believe that he must keep the revelation in which he comes to understand faith a secret from Kitty?

At Doreen's November 2014