Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver

Characters
Family and friends	Others
Dellarobia Turnbow Cub – husband Preston and Cordelia – children First baby - stillborn Hester and Burley (Bear) Turnbow – Cub’s parents Dovey – Dellarobia’s friend Bobby Ogle - Pastor	Ovid Byron- scientist Juliet – wife Pete, Mako and Bonnie – students Crystal Ester Jazon and Mical – sons Brenda, sisters and mother – ran church nursery Lupe and Reynaldo Josefina – daughter – school friend of Preston’s Tina Ultner – television reporter Leighton Akins – Sustainability Pledg

For discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are for the paperback edition.

1. When you first read the description of the forest at the beginning of the novel, what did you think it was?  How well did the author make you see the image without telling you what it was? On page 35 the author wrote, “Unearthly beauty had appeared to her, a vision of glory to stop her in the road.  For her alone these orange boughs lifted, these long shadows became a brightness rising.  It looked like the inside of joy.”

2. Discuss Dellarobia’s dissatisfaction with Cub as a husband.  Was it fair?  At one point she “wished she was a different wife, for whom Cub’s good heart outweighed his bad grammar.”  Would things have been different if she had treated him differently?

3. How did the local culture affect the young people growing up?  Could they do anything different?  Did anyone seem happy in the novel?  What do you think will happen to Preston?

4. Did you think Hester and Burley’s treatment of Dellarobia was fair and considerate?  Why did they treat her the way they did?   Why did they treat Cub the way they did?

5. At the beginning of the novel Dellarobia stated that she had nothing of her own and once had a dream of “birds pulling the hair from her head…”    Could you understand this picture that she painted of motherhood?  

6. What did you think when Dellarobia was going up the mountain to have an affair?  Could you understand her motivation?  What would have happened if it had actually taken place?  Why was she always having obsessions with other men? 

7. What were some of your favorite scenes from the novel?  Some of mine were:
1. When Dellarobia tried to impress Ovid with what she knew about the butterflies only to discover that he was an expert scientist in the field.
2. Ovid’s respectful treatment of Preston and his interest in science.
3. Cordelia and toy telephone - Dellarobia stated that “she doesn’t know it’s a telephone.”
4. Dellarobia taking Akins’ Sustainability Pledge 

8. Discuss Tina Ultner and her interview with Ovid.  Did you think this was a fair representation of the news media?  Did it make you watch the news any differently, perhaps with some skepticism?

9. When reflecting on Ovid’s influence on Preston, especially at their first meeting, Dellarobia stated that, “You never knew which split second might be the zigzag bolt dividing all that went before from everything that comes next.”   Do you think this is possible?  Have you had such a moment?   

10. When Ovid and Dellarobia were discussing peoples’ understanding of climate change, Ovid didn’t understand why people do not comprehend what is happening.  Dellarobia stated that, “People only see things they already recognize…. They’ll see it if they know it.”   Do you agree?   Why? 

11. (SPOILER ALERT!)  Were you surprised to find out who Bobby was?   What did you think about the church service before the family was to meet with him to decide how to use the land and lumber on the mountain?   Did he design the service to sway Bear’s opinion? 

12. Discuss Leighton Akins, his Sustainability Pledge and how none of the items related to Dellarobia and her way of life.  Was Leighton completely unaware of the rest of the world? 

13. How did Dellarobia change throughout the novel?   After working with Ovid and interns, she thought, “Never in her life had anyone spoken to her this way, and now someone had, and it made her a different sort of person.  Someone she would like to keep being” (page 258).  

14. On page 323 the author wrote about how difficult it is to understand a different side of an issue.  Dellarobia said to Ovid, “People shut out the other side.  It cuts both ways.”  Ovid replied, “Humans are hardwired for social community…Reading the cues and staying inside the group, these are number-one survival skills in our species.”  How can we bridge this divide?

15. This novel was published in 2012.    Did it change or support your thoughts about climate change?  Is fiction an effective means of effecting change or public opinion?

16. Did you like the ending?   What do you think will happen next?

*****
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