The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty

Characters
Cora Carlisle	Louise Brooks
Alan – husband Sons – Howard and Earle (twins)   Raymond Walker – Alan’s friend   Mary O’Dell – mother, gave Cora up for adoption   Viola Hammond – Cora’s friend who joined the KKK   Kaufmanns – Cora’s adoptive parents   New York Home for Friendless Girls   Joseph Schmidt – custodian, passed as Cora’s brother Greta - daughter   Children’s Aid Society – sent orphan children to the Midwest to be adopted	Myra – mother Leonard - father Siblings – June, Theo   Eddie Vincent – Sunday School teacher, molested Louise, mother knew and kept quiet   Denishaw Dance Ruth St. Dennis – “Miss Ruth” Ted Shawn – “Papa Shawn”   Floyd Smithers - luncheonette

      For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the paperback edition.

1. When Cora was in school, why was the ring toss game, graces, so important to her acceptance?  How was Mother Kaufmann so wise to understand this and also to advise Cora just to show her skill and let the other girls come to her (page 81).
2. As you were reading the beginning of the novel, what did you anticipate would happen?   What surprised you as you read further?
3. Why was Myra so eager to send Louise to New York?
4. When Louise told Cora about the abuse when she was a child, Cora at first condemned Myra for keeping it a secret.  But Louise told Cora that she, Cora, would have been among the first to gossip.  Cora recognized that she was right and that to Louise, she was a “confused, hypocritical old biddy” (page 273).  Was Cora being too hard on herself?
5. As reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8-8-2020: Daisy Coleman, 23, subject of movie Audrie and Daisy, was sexually assaulted at age 14 and committed suicide in August 2020.  She and her family suffered “hostile reactions to her allegations in Maryville, MO.”  Have people’s attitudes and reactions changed any since Louise was abused?  Why or why not?
6. This novel was published in 2012 and was set in 1922, but it addressed many of the issues we are facing today in addition to how we treat victims of sexual abuse.   Did you gain any new insights?
1. Spanish flu of 1918
2. Homosexuality
3. Judging past actions by current standards (pages 11-13)
4. Alcohol/Prohibition
7. Cora and Louise went to see Shuffle Along, a musical with an all-black cast.  Cora’s godson, 50 years later, asked if she remembered seeing Josephine Baker in the show.  To Cora, the show, enjoyed with a multiracial audience, changed her views of integration (pages 167-169).  Can just one show do that?  Was that realistic?
8. Prisoners of war and civilian detainees were housed at Fort Oglethorpe, GA from 1917 to 1920.  In the novel Joseph Schmidt was sent here when he refused to kneel and kiss the American flag (page 226) even though he loved America.  Why did he refuse to do that?
9. Why didn’t the living arrangement among Cora, Alan, Raymond and Joseph ever raise suspicions?
10. Would Cora have had the courage to refuse to sign Winifred’s petition to ban contraceptives in the drugstores without having first spent time with Louise?
11. Did you know that Louise Brooks, Denishaw Dance and Eddie Vincent were real or did you find this out after reading the Acknowledgements at the end of the book?  Whenever you discovered this, how did this knowledge change your reading experience?

**Note from  Arden 8-22-2020:  After several months of not meeting, my groups are happy to be back together - outside at a pavilion, wearing masks, and social  distancing.  We plan to meet outside as long as the weather is nice, and then continue for the rest of the year online.  Stay safe and happy reading!!