Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Characters
Gateshead Hall	Lowood School	Thornfield	Marsh End/Moor House
Mrs. Reed John Eliza Georgiana Bessie – nurse	Mr. Brocklehurst Miss Temple – superintendent Helen Burns Teachers: Miss Smith Miss Scatcherd Madame Pierrot	Mr. Rochester Mrs. Fairfax Adela Varens Sophie – French nurse Grace Poole Blanche Ingram Mr. Mason Bertha Mason       Rochester	St. John Rivers Diana Rivers Mary Rivers Hannah – housekeeper Rosamond Oliver – heiress from town

For discussion:

1. Discuss Helen Burns’ philosophy and how it helped Jane in her present and future life:
1.  “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.” 
2. “If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”

2. What events from Jane’s early years helped her withstand the turmoil in your young adult life?

3. Jane seems quite joyless.  Did she find any pleasure in life?  If so, what?  What do you think would have brought her joy?

4. In chapter 14, when Jane met Mr. Rochester, he stated, “Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.”  Do you think Jane had any remorse in her life?  What about the other characters?

5. In chapter 21, when Jane went back to see a dying Mrs. Reed, were you disappointed in Mrs. Reed’s reaction?  What were you hoping would happen?

6. Discuss the party held at Thornfield in chapter 18 and Jane’s observation of the guests.  She stated that when she considered the environment in which they had been raised and lived, “the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood.  All their class held these principles.” 
1. How did Jane’s upbringing form her personality?
2. How did the party guests’ upbringing compare to Jane’s? 

7. At the party in chapter 18, do you think the guests really would have been tricked into believing that Mr. Rochester was a gypsy fortune teller?

8. Discuss the characters in the novel.
1. Who did you like the most? Find the most sympathetic?
2. Who did you like the least?
3. Which characters added the most enjoyment or meaning to the novel?
4. Is there anyone or anything you would change?

9. This novel is often studied in high school and college literature classes.  Why do you think it is so important?

10. What themes did Charlotte Bronte address in the novel?  How successful was she?  Did she broaden your understanding of the time period or of people in general?

11. Think about your reading experience:
1. If you read this book before, did you enjoy it more or less the second time and at a different stage in your life?
2. Did you read every word or skim?
3. Which part did you find the most moving?

12. Discuss Charlotte Bronte’s writing style, particularly when Jane spoke directly to the reader, for example look at the beginning of chapter 11.

Heartbroke Bay, by Lynn D'Urso

Characters
Hannah Butler Victoria Lady Hamilton Bernard – LH’s personal Butler Poppa Butler – Hannah’s father John Nightwatch – proposed husband in England	Hans Nelson Harky Uliah Witt Michael Severts Dutch Lituya Bay: Negook – Tlingit Bear God Kah-Lituya

For discussion:

1. Why did Hannah marry Hans?  Why was she so loyal?  How can you explain her actions of blindly following him, giving him her money, and never voicing her opinions?

2. On page 67 of the paperback, the author describes the difference between men and women  this way:
1. Women need security.  They want to have homes, have children.
2. Men are more driven, somehow.  They build the nest to get the girl, not for want of a nest.  That’s what all this chasing after gold is about, running crazy to get rich.

Do you agree?

3. Discuss the Indian beliefs, especially regarding while people.      Were the Indians or the white people the more sympathetic characters, more intelligent characters?

4. Compare passages from page 91 (landscape description) and page 12 (typical romantic novel love scene).     Do you think the writing was even throughout the novel?  Did the author do a better job writing about the land or the characters and their relationships?

5. The title was explained on page 49 of the paperback.  What does it mean to be “heartbroke?”

6. Given that the author is an Alaska-based nonfiction writer, did you like the way he/she described the land, the characters, and their experiences?

7. Discuss the end of the story. 

1. Were Dutch and Harky plotting against Hans and Hannah and Michael saved them?
2. Do you think Michael would have continued killing and killed Hans?
3. Discuss Hans’s treatment of Michael when he was held captive.  Was that justified or overly cruel?
4. Discuss Hannah’s reaction – her insistence on having a formal court of law and trial, helping hasten Michael’s death when he was hung

8. Vocabulary:
1. Moue – page 14
2. Dudgeon  – page 16
3. Bedlamite – page 166 

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

Characters

Sarah Summers Andrew O’Rourke – husband Charlie – son Lawrence – lover Clarissa – partner and friend

Little Bee – Udo (means peace) Nkiruka – older sister

At detention center – released with Little Bee: Yvette Sari Girl Girl with no name

For discussion:

1.       1. Can you imagine what Sarah’s world looked like through Little Bee’s eyes?  What do you think would be surprising or difficult to understand from your own life?

2.       2. Do you blame Little Bee for Andrew’s death?  Were you surprised that she was there when he died?

3.       3. Do you blame Sarah for Andrew’s death?

4.       4. Discuss Andrew’s book project.  Why do you think he did not tell Sarah?   She faulted him for not caring or doing anything.  Do you think it would have made a difference if she had known about his research?

5.       5. On page 209 Sarah talks about losing your childhood innocence and realizing that “some of the world’s badness is inside you, that maybe you’re a part of it.”    Do you agree?

6.       6. On page 133 Little Bee muses about Nkiruka and states that she “…loved music and now I saw that she was right because life is extremely short and you cannot dance to current affairs.”  What do you think about this statement?

7.       7. Discuss the statement on page 220 about surviving and living.  Little Bee thinks, “To survive, you have to look good or talk good.  But to end your story well – here is the truth – you have to talk yourself out of it.”

8.       8. How could Lawrence go to London with Sarah, Charlie and Little Bee without fear of being caught?

9.  9. What do you think of Lawrence?  Was he a positive or negative character?

1110.   Discuss Sarah.

1111. When Lawrence gave Little Bee the phone when Charlie was missing, do you think he intended for her to get caught when the police arrived?  Why didn’t he call himself – he had the phone and he knew the number.

1212.  Did you like the end of the story?  Was it plausible?

Discussion Guide - Testimony, by Anita Shreve

Characters
Silas Quinney	Parents - Anna and Owen Noelle - girlfriend Gary Quinney - sheriff, Silas' uncle
Rob Leicht	Parents - Ellen and Arthur
James (J.Dot)	Parents - Michelle and Matthew
Sienna	Roommate - Laura
Mike Bordwin	Headmaster Wife - Meg
Irwin	Held camera, never identified
Jacqueline	Researcher from University of Vermont
Others	Daryl - sells alcohol to students Geoff - was Dean of Students, headmaster after Mike Basketball coach - fired as a result of incident Rasheed - junior basketball player, not involved, counseled by his father not to say anything in defense of coach or entire team Colm - reporter, received Pulitzer for story about incident and Avery

For discussion:

1.         Mike thought the story would be interesting to the press because it was at a private school and because people enjoy seeing the "upper class" involved in a scandal.  Do you agree?  Would it still be as intriguing if it happened at a public school?

2.         Discuss the part played by alcohol in the story.  Daryl felt no remorse for selling the alcohol to the students.  He stated that if he didn't, someone else would.

3.         Colm received a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the story.    He states on page 234 of the paperback:    

            "I could go on and on about the ethics of accepting a prize for a sordid tale about alcohol abuse,       sexual assault, and privilege, but you take a look at any story that's won a prize in the last ten years, and you'll see that a lot of them are built on greed or lust or sex or murder.  You tell yourself you're trying to go for a fair and responsible take - unlike the tabloids - but the truth is, we're all tabloids."

Do you agree?  Why or why not?

4.         Do you agree with the way Mike handled the incident (trying to cover it up, had boys sign confession without parents or representation)?  What could he have done differently?

 

5.         Discuss the incident from each person's point of view:

            a.         Silas

            b.         J.Dot

            c.         Rob    

            d.         Sienna

            e.         Colm

6.         Discuss Irwin.  Were you surprised that he was never identified?  What would have been the purpose of him coming forward?  How does he fit into the guilt?

7.         Discuss Mike's relationship with the Quinney's, starting with his accident and then Silas's enrollment in Avery. 

8.         On page 279 of the paperback Mike counts the results of the incident, starting with his affair with Anna.  Where do other people have a responsibility to make good choices or to control their reaction to events taking place around them?

9.         Mike thought that Meg did not know about his affair with Anna?  Do you think she knew?  Would it serve any purpose to inform her?

10.       Mike himself takes complete blame for the entire incident.  Do you agree?

11.       How much blame would you give to the participants?  Sienna, for example.  Does it make a difference that she consented, even though she was underage?

12.       Should one incident (positive or negative) define a person's life? 

13.       Did you like the writing style - having the story sometimes told by narrator and other times with a character speaking or writing to the researcher?

            a.         Did you have trouble following the sequence of events for Silas starting on page                            199?    

Homer and Langley, by E. L. Doctorow

Characters:

Homer Collyer

Langley Collyer

• Lila van Dijk – wife, kicked out after one year

Siobhan – maid

Julia – maid

Wolf – butler, chauffeur

Mrs. Robileaux – cook

• Harold – musician, grandson, killed in WW II
• Ella – Harold’s wife

Mary Elizabeth Riordan – piano student, became Sr. M. E. Riordan, killed in jungle

Vincent – gangster

• Massimo - son

Mr. and Mrs. Hoshiyama - hired to clean, sent to detention camp during WW II

Hippies – during Vietnam War

• Lissy
• JoJo
• Connor
• Dawn
• Sundown

Jacqueline Roux– muse, met in park at end of book

Historical events throughout novel:

• WW I
• Great Depression
• WW II
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• Jim Jones
• Four young girls murdered in Sunday School in Birmingham, AL

For discussion:

1.       Discuss Langley’s Theory of Replacements – “Everything in life gets replaced.”  Do you agree?  Can everything be replaced?  Even people? 

a.       Eventually this theory developed into the idea that the same things happened over and over again.   Do you agree with this?

2.       On page 12 Homer writes, “Life was made tolerable by its formalities.”  Do you agree?

3.       What did you think about Homer’s affair with Julia?  Why did she continue with the affair?  Did she steal Homer’s mother’s ring?

4.       Discuss the tea dances.  Why do you think people sat out the livelier numbers and danced to the slow songs?  Homer’s theory was that people had lost their will to fight.  What do you think? (page 64)

5.       Discuss Langley’s impulse buying.  He bought things because of an “unthinking impulse” and felt that he would eventually need the item or understand why he bought it.  Can you relate?

6.       When Vincent and Massimo were hiding in house and did not kill the brothers, Homer wrote that, “At no time did they consider us worth shooting.”  How did that realization make the brothers feel?  How did it make you feel regarding their story?

7.       Discuss the hippies moving in and how there were more people living there than the brothers realized.  How did this happen?

8.       Trace Homer and Langley’s development throughout novel.  At one point Langley studied law through the mail.  Do you think he would have been able to have a successful normal life under different circumstances?  What kind?  What do you think influenced him to follow the path that he did?

a.       Discuss how Homer dealt with his blindness and eventual loss of hearing.

b.      At one point, Homer thought they “…were living original self-directed lives unintimidated by convention – could we not be a supreming of the line, a flowering of the family tree?” (page 177)

9.       Can you understand how Homer and Langley became hoarders?  Do you think anything could have saved them?

10.   Did you like how Homer wrote to Jacqueline throughout the book, but we never meet her until toward the end?

11.   Discuss the end of the book, when both brothers were down to one small space each.  What do you think happened in the end that made the “whole house shake?”

12.   Did you see this book as a narrative about our country’s history as well as about hoarders?  What do you think was Doctorow’s reason for writing the book?

13.   This book was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for fiction.  Do you think it deserved this consideration?

Cleopatra, Stacy Shiff

People and Events
Alexandria	Rome
Cleopatra Auletes – father Arsinoe – sister (executed by Mark Anthony) Ptolemy XIII – brother Ptolemy XIV – brother, husband Berenice – older sister (executed by father) Caesarion – son by Caesar Children by Mark Anthony: Alexander Helios Cleopatra Selene Ptolemy Philadelphus Donations of Alexandria – 34 BC (Cleopatra 35 yrs.)	Caesar Calpurnia – wife Octavian – nephew - named by Caesar as his heir – ruler of Rome – renamed Augustus after defeat of Cleopatra Mark Anthony Fulvia – wife Octavia – Octavian’s sister, Anthony’s wife # 2 daughters Writers: Cicero Plutarch Dio Cassius Late 32 BC Octavian declared war on Cleopatra Anthony stripped of all authority in Rome
Other Herod – King of Judea Mariamme – wife Aristobulus – brother-in-law Alexandra – mother-in-law

For discussion:

1. If you lived in that time period, do you think you would have liked Cleopatra?

2. What were Cleopatra’s positive characteristics?  Her negative ones?

3. How was Cleopatra portrayed in history and fiction?  What was the truth and what was completely fiction?
1. What were her contributions to Alexandria and to Rome?  To women?

4. Discuss Cicero’s role in Mark Anthony and Octavian’s rise.

5. Discuss Dio’s statement about democracy vs. monarchy (page 154 of hardback).  He stated that democracy sounded good but did not necessarily have positive results and that, “Monarchy, on the contrary, has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live under.  For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of them.”

6. Contrast women in Alexandria and Rome.

7. On page 247 (hardback) the author wrote that Octavian questioned Anthony’s reputation and foreshadowed future competitions between men and women.  She wrote, “He (Octavian) publically acknowledged what many men who have faced a woman across a tennis net have since noted: in such a contest, there is greater pride to be lost than glory to be gained.”  Is this still true?

8. How do you think Cleopatra died – by poison of asp?  Do you think Octavian had any part in her death – at least by letting it happen?

9. What was your reading experience? 
1. Did you like the chapter titles and introductory quotes?
2. How did you like the author’s writing style?  Was it easy or difficult to follow?  Did you enjoy how she described and stated things?