Novel Women Discussion Questions

Novel Women
Discussion Guide

Here is a list of things that may be discussed. Some ideas may be relevant to every book, some may not. There will not be time to discuss every aspect of every book.

-character development - who did you like/dislike? why?

-characters' actions - free choice or destiny? would you do what they did?

-social implications - how does the world the characters inhabit affect characters' concepts of morality? moral responsibility? human's place in the world?

-symbolism - specific political, religious, cultural references

-author's purpose - the meaning behind the story? the author's vision? why did the author write it/ what question/s is the author asking?

-credibility - could this happen? what reasons does the author have to stretch credibility?

-reader's emotional response - how did the character feel when (something) happened? How did the reader feel?

-resolution - is the reader satisfied? should they be? what happens next?

-- personal reference - how are our real-life experiences connected to this book?

-literary merit - what constitutes good literature? what makes a well-written book? was it worthy of your time?

-similarity to other readings - compare with other work by the same author or similar work by a different author

-narrative - you, the story, the storyteller-who is telling the story? how would it be different if someone else told it?

-theme - what is the book about? what is the driving force?

-point of view - author's and the characters'

-style - language - (base, middle, grand), diction (glib, flippant, street, haughty, sarcastic, ironic,...) sentence structure, syntax. try reading it out loud

-setting - authenticity, selectivity of detail. how does it affect the story?

-time and memory - effect of presence of time, the passage of time and the limitations of time.

-self - is there an essential self? how does economic, religious, regional, political and gender factors affect self? what effect do scars, dates, and events have on personality? astronomy genetics, legacies, names? what constitutes self?

-cause and effect - if one character had acted differently, how would it have affected others?

-design - balance in the speed of action, the introduction of characters, tension and release, the interweaving of themes, images and symbols