|
Characters |
|||
|
Mallard |
Desiree |
Stella |
|
|
Decuir –
founding family, 1848 Adele Decuir Vignes
-mother Leon -
father, killed by white men |
Sam Winston –
husband, abusive Jude –
daughter (see below) Early Jones –
hunted missing people Lou’s Egg
House |
Blake Sanders
– husband Kennedy –
daughter (see below) Reginald and
Loretta Walker – black family moved into Palace Estates Cindy -
daughter |
|
|
Jude Winston |
Kennedy Sanders |
||
|
Reese Carter -
boyfriend Barry – Reese’s
friend, high school teacher and drag queen |
Franz –
boyfriend Played
Charity Harris in soap opera, Pacific Cove Became
successful real estate agent |
||
For Discussion:
NOTE: Page numbers are from the hardback edition.
1.
The twins witnessed their father being killed
and then were forced to leave school to work after 10th grade? How did these two events change their
lives? Was it fair of their mother to
insist they leave school? Did she have a
choice? Would Stella have changed her race if she had been
able to finish school and go to college?
2.
Were you surprised that Stella spoke up at the
Home Owner’s Association meeting against the Walkers moving in? Why then did she almost become friends with
Loretta?
3.
What motivated Stella to get her GED and then go
on to college and eventually teach? How
hard do you think it was for Blake to suddenly have a wife different than from
what he expected?
4.
How do you think he would have reacted if he had
found out Stella was technically considered to be an African American?
5.
Do you think the fact that Blake had a black
doll, Jimbo, when he was young that his dad destroyed one day would have made a
difference in how he would react to the news?
6.
Why do you think Jude felt compelled to tell
Kennedy about her heritage? Why couldn’t
she just leave it alone?
7.
In her thirties, Kennedy began to feel that “Her
whole life, in fact, had been a gift of good fortune – she had been given
whiteness” and “a bounty of gifts she hadn’t deserved” (page 299). Could you understand why she felt this way?
8.
Did you gain any insight into acting? Kennedy realized that “she became new each
time she stepped under the lights” (page 246).
Her drama teacher told her, “True acting meant becoming invisible so
that only the character shone through” (page 267). Have you seen any movies or plays where you
felt the actors ceased to exist as their own self?
9.
Leaving seems to be one of the themes in the
book. For example, both girls left
Mallard, Stella permanently; Kennedy left for a year and traveled; Early’s
parents left him when he was young. How
did leaving, returning or staying affect the characters’ lives?
10.
In an interview, Brit Bennett said that one of
the questions in the novel is what makes us who we are? Do we define ourselves or do others define
us?
11.
In the interview she asked what race really
is. Does it require participation of
others to confirm what we think or how we identify ourselves?
12.
How hard is it to redefine yourself, for example
to start to think about yourself as someone who exercises as opposed to a couch
potato? How hard do you think it was
for Stella to redefine herself?
13.
Did you like the organization of the book,
bouncing back and forth between 1968 and 1978 and then beyond?
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