Tim O'Brien: In the Lake of the Woods
Frazier: Cold Mountain
Directions: After reading the lecture, answer one of the main questions, which will appear in bold. This question is due no later than Thursday, Mar. 23. Following that will be other questions which you should read and think about--they may help you answer the main question. However, you are not required to answer these questions in writing.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Sunday, Mar. 26. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond to at least 2 other people's postings.
This set of discussion questions is worth a possible 20 points. Remember: late answers receive 0 points, so post early :)
We will be using the ETUDES Discussion Board for this class. Click on the link below to get to the ETUDES portal, sign in, and then click on the tab for this class. You will find the "Discussion and Private Messages" link on the left side of the screen:
There are questions about two novels on this page. You are welcome to write about both, if you wish, but you are only required to answer ONE "red" question about ONE novel.
O'Brien, In the Lake of the Woods
WARNING! These discussion questions will reveal plot points. If you don't want to know what happens, wait until you have finished the novel to read them.
1. How does John Wade's desire for love influence his actions throughout his life?
2. How do John's experiences in Vietnam influence him afterwards?
3. What is your interpretation of what happened to Kathy Wade? Explain why you think this.
4. John does not consider himself an evil man. Do you think he is evil?
1. How does John react to the death of his father?
2. What is the relationship between magic and politics in this novel?
3. On page 21, the narrator intrudes to make a comment in a footnote (footnote 21). Why does he say what he does, and why say it at this point in the novel?
4. Why does John spy on Kathy?
5. In what ways does Kathy lie to herself?
6. How does Kathy help John hide from the truths he doesn't want to see?
7. On page 101, the narrator intrudes to make a comment in a footnote (footnote 36). Explain why he says what he says in this footnote.
8. On page 103 (Chapter 13), the first mention of Lt. William Calley is made. What do Calley's state of mind and his later actions reveal about John Wade's motives for his actions in Thuan Yen? Why does John shoot Weatherby?
9. How does John deal with the memory of Thuan Yen?
10. Chapter 16 is called "Evidence." What does this chapter reveal about memory?
11. In the footnote on page 146 (footnote 67), the narrator talks about how familiar the ditch at Thuan Yen seems. What is he telling you about himself and his own state of mind? (See also footnote 88 on page 199.)
12. What effect does Kathy's abortion have on John and Kathy's relationship?
13. When John Wade takes the boat out alone in Chapter 23, does he intend to return? What do you think happened to him?
14. What are John's reasons for changing all of his military paperwork? (See p. 269.)
15. In this novel, is it possible for the reader to know the truth?
16. On footnote 133, on page 301, the narrator says, "...we all perform vanishing tricks..." Is he right?
17. At the end, the narrator asks, "Can we believe that he was not a monster but a man? That he was innocent of everything except his life? Could the truth be so simple? So terrible?" Why would believing such a thing be "terrible"? What does the narrator reveal about himself with this question?
Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain
WARNING! These discussion questions will reveal plot points. If you don't want to know what happens, wait until you have finished the novel to read them.
1. For the characters in this novel, is redemption possible? Explain.
2. Both Ada and Inman reflect, at different times, that they are living in a "new world" (33). What changes is America undergoing at the time of the novel, and how do Ada's and Inman's experiences, and the people they meet, reflect those changes?
3. Many readers object to Inman 's death at the end of the novel. Do you think it was necessary to the novel that Inman die? Explain.
1. How have Inman's experiences during the war changed him?
2. For a large part of the novel, Inman prefers to look back into the past. Why does he find that more satisfying than imagining the future?
3. How are the leaders of the war portrayed?
4. What does the blind man outside the hospital represent, symbolically?
5. How is the narrator of Bartram's Travels similar to Inman? How is he different?
6. How is Swimmer's view of the world disturbing to Inman? How is it, at times, comforting?
7. Why does Inman desert?
8. It is easy to see what Ruby contributes to Ada; what does Ada contribute to Ruby?
9. How does the theme of "breaking traditions" run through the novel? How does the war contribute to the tendency to break traditions?
10. How does the landscape through which Inman travels serve as a metaphor for his emotions and his spirit?
11. After rescuing the pregnant girl from the preacher (Veasey), Inman says he "wished not to be smirched with the mess of other people" (123). Yet, he does rescue or help others several more times. Why?
12. Inman's view of the world is that it is chaotic, without order, ruled by chance; Ruby sees the world as an orderly place, in which everything works together to create a coherent whole. Which view does the novel, as a whole, seem to endorse?
13. Inman, before he left for the war, told Ada the story of the Shining Rocks (pp. 249 ff.). What did the story reveal about his own fears and desires?
14. What does Inman learn from the goat woman?
15. How did the war change Stobrod? What function does music serve for him?
16. How is Stobrod's music different from Sara's song (321)?
17. Is Inman happy at the end? Is Ada?