#1--Afterward & after-words and the Introduction
Read what the author says about the novel. What she says helps to establish the context of the novel, not only its historical setting but also its personal impact on the author herself.
Read the Introduction to the novel. Introductions are written to help establish the context for understanding the novel: the time, place, author's background, etc. But, is the Introduction really helpful? Is it necessary? Is there anything in the Introduction that helps you appreciate the novel better?
#2--Chapter One, first paragraph only [p. 1] [No one can choose this question since it is one of the student models.]
What can you tell about the story from only the first paragraph? Who is the narrator? What is the German Village? What evidence for this being a time of economic depression can you find? What do you suppose is the age of the narrator? Give evidence only from this paragraph. How about the religious background of the narrator?
Write a biographical sketch of the narrator. Justify every detail of what you write by referring to what you can determine from only the first paragraph. Distinguish between things you know about the narrator and things that may be likely, that you can only suppose based upon the little evidence that you are given in this paragraph.
#3--Chapter One, through the second paragraph [No one can choose this question since it is one of the student models.]
Paragraph two answers some of the questions raised in paragraph one. Just from these two paragraphs, try to predict the following:
a) the relationship of the narrator to Clara
b) the relationship of the narrator with the other characters mentioned.
Can you say anything about these relationships with certainty? Explain.
Make a list of all of these characters introduced so far, and write a short description of what you know about each one.
Outline possible themes that may develop in the rest of the story only from what you know from reading these two paragraphs. Here are some possibilities:
--Clara and the narrator, their friendship
--sterilization of poor women
--awakening of the narrator to the real world
--prostitution and its relationship to economics
--bootlegging: prohibition and crime
--conflict of religious values with the need for survival
Give specific reasons why these themes are possible by citing from the text of only these first two paragraphs.
#4--Write a biographical sketch of the narrator using clues that are further developed in the first five paragraphs. [p. 1] [New Edition: pp. 1-2]
Comment on her relationship with Clara, Butch, and Ganz.
#5--Language [Although there is a student model for this question, you can choose this question since there are many ways to answer this question.]
Comment on the introduction of baseball language: field, passes, home run, strike out, etc. What do these words mean in this context? Why do you suppose the baseball language is used by the author? Do you know of similar uses of the language of sports to describe non-sport activities?
Is Booya a symbol? Of what?
Comment on the two meanings of the word "cat."
The setting: what clues have you about the setting of the story? What about the time frame? What specific clues do you have that enable you to determine the "where and when" of the story?
#6--Chapter one complete
With the end of chapter one, the important relationships have been initiated, and some of the pre-figuring in the opening paragraphs have been further developed.
Round out the sketch of Clara and the narrator (referred to on page two as "the new girl." Do these words also indicate that she may be a symbol for "the new woman"?
Clara as symbol: her name, its many meanings. Get an unabridged dictionary and a dictionary of English etymology and find as many meanings as you can that relate to her name. Look for words that are similar to "Clara."
Do you know of any famous person named Clara who the author may have based this character upon? [Remember: this character was named in the late 1930s.]
Write a character sketch of Clara that comments on her trust (which is what endears her to the girl but which also allows men to take advantage of her). Comment on her submissiveness, on Clara as a model of woman imposed by the society, on the similarities of Clara to "Booya" and what those similarities might mean, and, finally, on Clara and the language she uses.
#7--Clara and Language [Chapter one]
Note how often Clara speaks in cliches. What does her speech tell you about her character? What can you suppose will eventually happen to Clara? Does she have the making of a tragic character? What are the characteristics of a modern tragic character? [You will have to look up the word "tragedy" in a literary dictionary to get the exact meaning as well as the difference between a classical tragedy and a modern one.]
#8--Belle, Amelia, and the cat [Chapter one]
Belle as symbol [bell, goodness]; Belle as successful and the price she pays for it [Belle as career woman]; Bell and the connection to Susybelly.
Amelia as a focus for the theme of the necessary solidarity of women. Amelia and Clara. Amelia and Belle. Amelia and the girl.
Amelia and literature ["heavy" literature].
#9--Butch [Chapter one]
Butch and animal imagery. What kinds of animals is he compared to" What might this comparison mean that helps us better understand Butch and his relationship with the girl?
Butch and the girl: what is the extent of their relationship so far? Note especially the girl's ideas about sex.
#10--Language [Chapter one]
The Girl is very much about language--who controls it, how to have access to effective language, what is real literature, how language can liberate and how it can enslave, how language is in a crisis that mirrors the economic crisis of the time the story was written, and how language is a rich resource developed by the people and is an agent of discovery and liberation.
Note the examples in the first chapter of the many complexities and the richness of language that the author utilizes and makes implied comments upon. Note the many puns. What do you suppose is her purpose in using so much slang? How does a specially coded language, like slang, help hold a group together? How does it exclude other people? How does it limit a group in participating in the larger social group, society in general?
What are the benefits and limits of specialized language [slang, sports language, academic language]? Is there such a thing as "acceptable" language? Acceptable to who?
#11--Amelia and language [Chapter one]
Amelia and the "heavy" literature. What, for Amelia, is real literature? How does Amelia's belief that committed writing is "heavy" compare to how the author wrote the novel? [Look at the author's remarks in the Afterwords.]
Is literature fiction? Is literature a real story? How does fiction differ from biography? From history?
#12--The girl and language [Chapter one]
The girl as a virgin. Not how the author uses the play of language to show that the girl is both a virgin (sexual) and is also a virgin in the sense that she has not obtained some essential knowledge. What is the "it" the girl refers to? During the Twenties Clara Bow was a famous actress who was referred to as the "it girl." She had it: sex appeal. Perhaps the character Clara is so named to make an association with Clara Bow? Reveal the terms of that association in enough detail to support the claim that Clara was named after Clara Bow.
#13--Language of power and powerlessness (Chapter one)
Note the use of cliches, slang (Belle and "nuts"), baseball terms, puns. The characters, many of them, seem to have no language of their own. Is not having your own language a tragedy? What does it mean to not have your own language? Don't we all have our own language? Can't we all communicate? How do some language uses allow us access to power while other uses exclude us?
#14--The crisis of the Sign [Chapter one]
Note how things are often not called by their real names (like "Their German band which was Irish....). All of the relationships of the characters with each other are clouded by the language they use. In current psychological usage: the characters' language reveal them to be dysfunctional.
Comment on how these relationships have been made oppressive as illustrated through the language used by the characters: male dominance of females, class struggle, the power of the state, etc.
#15--Narrative structure [Chapter one]
A. Story line
Trace the different story lines developed so far: the narrator, Clara, Belle, Hoinck, Ack, Amelia, Butch, Bill, Ganz. These are characters to follow through the story as each develops her or his own story line. Note the implied connections: all the individual stories connect with the others.
State now what seems to be the important connections. As the story unfolds, correct your original assumptions. For instance, Belle and Hoinck have a relationship that will certainly develop more, but Belle has strong relationships with the narrator and Amelia that affect her relationship with Hoinck.
B. Character
The girl is not named. What is the significance of this? In many ways the girl is a mirror to the other characters and has no real identify: at least her identity is less formed early in the novel. What does this tell you about her and the possibilities of her growth? What can you say about the girl that does not translate into easy characterization? What is there about her that is not easily labeled?
C. Time
When does this story happen? As the story unfolds, how long does each incident happen in story time and in "real" time? Note when the author condenses the time. Why does she do this? In many ways, chapter one prefigures the whole novel, and so the time of the novel is "contained" in this chapter. Point to specific examples.
D. Point of View
All we learn in this novel is from the narrator's point of view. Is she believable? Why? How does the author develop the necessary trust so that we do believe the narrator?
E. The Reader
One of the most interesting aspects of this novel is the relationship of the reader to the text. The following diagram is one way to represent the relationship of author and reader to the characters of the text.
RA IA Na Ne IR RR
Red=Inside the text
The Real Author [RA] stands outside the text as does the real reader [RR}. Inside the text is the implied author [IA], the narrator [Na], and the implied reader [IR].
Who the narrator is is by now obvious; though there is much more to say, we can say quite a bit about her. What about the other relationships?
Who is the story being told to [within the story itself]? Is there an audience for the narrator? What about the implied author and reader? Are they the same as the real author and reader? Any author must write for some reader other than the real readers since it is not possible to know the real readers. Can you name any characteristics that the implied reader has? What about the implied author? Is the implied author the same as the real author? Can you think of cases where it is not so? What about a writer like Ernest Hemingway, someone who seemed to struggle very hard to keep the real and implied authors the same?
Look at the Afterwords section again.
Speculate on the relationship of the real author to the implied reader.
To speculate o the relationship of the real author to the implied author you would have to know a lot more about the real author. Look at the biographical material available online. Write a brief sketch of the relationship between you, the real reader, and the implied reader.
Write a brief sketch of the relationship between the implied author and the implied reader.
#16--Animal imagery [Chapter two]
More characters are referred to in terms of animal images. Locate each time and comment on how this relates to the extensive use of animal images pertaining to the character of Butch. How does this use of animal imagery relate to the "Booya"?
#17--The Robbery [Chapter two]
In the beginning of this chapter [p.5] [New Edition: p.6], the robbery is first introduced. Write a brief sketch of what you think will happen given only what you know about the characters from reading these first two chapters. Look at Hoinck's statement in the fourth paragraph on page five.
#18--"Beating" [Chapter two]
Butch's character is further developed. His philosophy of "beating" is introduced. How does this philosophy relate to his connection with baseball and with his [and Bill's] comments on beating women? What about the connection with "beating" the system? Possibly investigate the historical relationship of women to trade and the contemporary portrays of women as objects. Look at the relationship of physical abuse to economic hard times.
#19--Clara and language [Chapter two]
Clara so far almost always speaks in cliche language. Find all the examples of her cliches language from these two chapter. This certainly tells us something about her, but what does it tell us about language when some of her cliches are appropriate, are true? Compare Clara's "knowing what to want" and the girls' "knowing" about "it."
#20--Butch [Chapter two]
Butch can be considered as a symbol, but symbol of what? He is certainly a member of the working class. Would you describe him as proletariat or lumpen proletariat? Discus the evidence that you can gather in these first two chapters that Butch is a symbol for the un-awakened proletariat. What constitutes his inability to see how he is oppressed? How does language figure into this "blindness" of his? Butch seems trapped into a view of himself as somehow being "natural." What dos he mean by this? How does this limit his ability to act in a way that will be effective?
What is natural about economics? Is the economic depression in any sense natural? Look at Butch's statements about machines and guns. Does his being enamored of such things limit his ability to see what is happening to him and the others, the economic circumstances they find themselves in?
#21--"Rugged Individual" and solidarity [Chapter two]
Two themes that run continually through the novel and introduced here in thee two chapters are the myth of the rugged individual and its relationship to collective solidarity.
What characters embody the rugged individual and which seek solidarity?
How does this participation in these two ways of participating in the world relate to the stereotypes of the macho male and the submissive female?
Who about the relation of men to feminism?
How does feminism help men to liberate themselves from oppressive roles that society tries to get them to adopt?
#22-- Police corruption (History) [Chapter two]
The police have been shown now to be in the pay of Ganz. Describe the effects of Prohibition on the police, the rise of organized crime, and the rise of the romance of the bank robber.
#23--Language [Chapter two]
Note the further development of the richness of language and how skillfully the author develops character through language and how she points to further themes that may develop: baseball language, puns (for example, how Amelia's book sack is compared to the cat's birth sack).
Note the use of "sign" language, how the girl cannot decipher the signs from Clara, how this inability relates to baseball language. Document the significant language developments. Comment on what interests you about the author's use of language as well as how the author uses her language.
#24--The girl and self-knowledge [Chapter two]
The Girl is very much a novel of a woman's self-discovery, her awakening, growth into mature relationships. Discuss the girl's search for knowledge. What is the knowledge she is looking for? Who does she look to for it" What is "it"? How does she differ from Butch who is also searching? Show exactly where the author shows that Butch knows more than the girl. Who will end up knowing more? Why? Be specific about the two different approaches exemplified by Butch and the girl.
#25--Birth [Chapter two]
Amelia helps with the birth of Susybelly's kittens. Is this symbolic? Of what? Look at the analogy used at the bottom of page six. If I tell you that there will be another birth in this story, who do you think will attend the birth? This birth is a prefiguring of a birth to come, a unifying device and a way to reenforce Amelia's role in the story. What is that role?
#26--Clara [Chapter three]
Chapter three further develops the character of Clara. Clara's individualism is shown to be inadequate to fulfill her desires. Discuss Clara as a symbol of consumerism and the resulting consumer culture. The author offers some biographical information about Clara's childhood. What does this explain about Clara's behavior? Compare Clara's ideas about "luck" with Butch's.
#27--Mothers and daughters [Chapter three]
Clara discusses her mother. The girl mentions hers. Both Amelia and Belle serve as mother figures. Look at the top of page seven. Amelia names the girl, and the girl "names" Amelia as "mama." Is this significant? Discuss the comments by the author's daughter in the Afterwords section. Discuss mother-daughter solidarity and the lack of father-son solidarity.
#28--Animal imagery [Chapter three]
Clara as spider. Fish faces. Butch as a tick. Rats. Belle as a fish. What does this add to developing the characters? What does it signify that the girl is "game"?
#29--The girl [Chapter three]
We learn more about the girl. Note her comments about "beating." Compare the girl's ideas about "beating' to Butch's. The two ideas about beating and the two meanings of beating are themes running through the whole novel. Is it fair to say that "beating" [someone out of a job, etc.] inevitably leads to [physical] beating?
#30--Political philosophy [Chapter three]
Capitalism and the destruction of community. Chapter three introduces this theme. It also adds to the theme of the destruction of the family. What instances in the book can you point to that illustrate how an economy based solely on the profit motive destroys family and community values? What traditional American values oppose the destruction of community threatened by capitalism? Look at contemporary political developments and ideas expressed by politicians. How many instances can you find where a politician says that he is for the American family and then puts into play policies that send jobs to Mexico or Korea and, thereby, destroys working communities? Look at the protests over the World Trade Organization.
#31--The service station as symbol [Chapter three]
What can you say about the service station as it functions in this novel? What does it stand for" In some ways it functions a s a symbol for the American Dream: making it on your own, economic independence, being your own boss. How does Butch buy into this dream? How does his unquestioning faith in this dream influence his relations with other characters? How does robbing a bank relate to this dream? Are there any clues that Butch is aware that his dreams are only dreams?
#32--Clara and language [Chapter three]
Cliches, sarcasm, puns. Does Clara's language reveal a mental deterioration? Does it not also reveal true insights? What is a cliche? Why do English teachers always say not to write with cliches? If cliches are expressions that people use a lot, why shouldn't we also write with them? Wouldn't people be able to understand us better if we write with cliches?
#33--Belle: reality vs. appearances [Chapter four]
Compare Belle's idea of society and her cheerful appearance. Looks at Belle's "masks." Note the relationship of politics to the theme of appearance and reality. The theme of appearance and reality is embodied in the relationship between Belle and Clara. Clara is the good "bad" girl, and Belle is the bad "good" woman. Belle sacrifices herself and takes the rap for Hoinck, and she has thirteen abortions. Clara sacrifices herself, but for what?
#34--Scabs and strikers [Chapter four]
This issue has been pre-figured already with he character of Amelia. Discuss the destruction of language as it pertains to scabbing, especially Butch's self-deception.
#35--Speaking in tongues [Chapter four]
What is this phenomenon? Does it add to the richness of the author's commentaries on language? Both Hoinck and Belle have spoken in tongues. Is there any symbolism in their names that adds to the explanation of why the author says that they could do this?
#36--Religion: Hoinck [Chapter four]
Hoinck discusses his seeing through the hypocrisy of official religion. His "own" religion sounds very much like some New Age pronouncements every thing is good." Belle pays for Hoinck's so-called enlightenment. Discuss Hoinck as shaman-showman and Belle as victim.
#37--The myth of the frontier [Chapter four]
In the Twenties, Frederick Jackson Turner published a book called The Frontier in American History, one of the most famous history books of the time. It expressed the theme that the frontier was essential for the development of American democracy. Discuss this theme in relation to capitalism, democracy, and the back to the land ideas raised here. Make note of recent popular ideas that are similar to this back-to-the-land dream.
#38--Winning [Chapter five]
Butch makes much of his belief that he is a "natural. Discuss Butch in relation to sociologists' basic division: society and nature. In what sense could Butch be considered a natural winner? Why is he deluded? How does his beliefs relate to his statements that there is nothing better than winning and beating? Compare Butch's desires with the girl's lack of them.
#39--History [Chapter five]
Butch shares some qualities with the most famous preacher of the time, Billy Sunday. Both were ex-ballplayers, both considered themselves "natural winners," both were tried to convince others of the viability of the American Dream. Certainly they were very different as well, but can we understand Butch better if we see him as part of the times in which Billy Sunday was so influential?
#40--Eggs and balls [Chapter five]
Much of the tension of this novel is produced by the interplay between the characters who embody two distinctive ways of looking at life: those living with the attitudes of the myth of the rugged individual and those seeking solidarity. For the most part, these two groups divide along gender lines: men express themselves through baseball, women nest, gather together. Look at page fifteen to see the contrast between Butch and the girl as expressed in their desires to be alone and to be with others. Are all of the male characters individualistic, and are all of the female characters in solidarity with each other? What are the exceptions? What might the exceptions be later as the novel progresses?
#41--Ack's philosophy of stooling [Chapter six]
Related to Ack's ideas is the corruption of language that is also an ongoing theme throughout the novel. Discuss how "stooling" accompanies the philosophy of "beating." What does Ganz mean when he says that everybody's a stool?
#42--Appearance and reality [Chapters 6, 10, 11]
Chapter six adds to the theme of "appearance and reality" introduced earlier in the novel through Belle's statements and the "facts" as reported by the narrator. Belle again makes statements at odds with the real situation but so do other of the characters: the girl's mother [chapter 10] especially talks about how bad her life was then but then speaks of her relationship with her husband as being so wonderful even though he beat her. Compare Belle and Emily's marriages and how it has affected their ability to see and report on their present situations.
Death. Getting dressed up for death is symbolic of this split between thee characters' inability to make sense of their situations. Butch (and earlier Ack) speaks about his brother's appearance at the funeral home. Note the girl's comments. What does this tell you about the girl's perceptions of reality compared to the other characters? note also the distortion in the characters by an unreasonably proletarian pride. How many examples can you find of characters who limit their ability to get what they deserve because of a pride that keeps them from taking assistance from the government? Why is it that the wealthy take such assistance [large farms that get paid not to plant, corporations that get relief from paying taxes, corporations that get bailed out by the government, lawyers who provide tax shelters, etc.] but that poor people are made to feel guilty when they have the opportunity to get welfare, unemployment, food stamps, etc.?
#43--Clara [Chapter seven]
The character of Clara is further developed. How does her statement about patriotism add to what you know about her? How much of what she says is believable?
#44--Beating and being [Chapter eight]
Butch's philosophy of "beating" and the girl's belief in "being" are contrasted. Discuss the earlier developments of this theme. Note also Butch's impulse to blame the victim, a theme that recurs through the novel. Explain this them in relation to the philosophy of beating, using current examples.
#45--Butch and the girl's father [Chapter eight to eleven]
Butch and the girl's father both subscribe to the Horatio Alger myth, that a person can, by himself, go from rags to riches. Discuss the similarities and the differences of their attitude toward welfare (pride that stands in the way of people demanding what they deserve) and other specific parallels.
#46--The Pastoral Myth [Chapters ten and eleven]
Discuss the Pastoral Myth [Butch's desire to "go back to the land" and the girl's father and farming]. Several of the characters have varying degrees of belief in the myth that being close to the land will solve their problems. Discuss this myth in relation to earlier developments in the novel and in terms of how it further isolates people from their collective strength.
#47--Animal imagery [Chapter six to eleven]
The animal imagery continues: Butch is compared to an animal, the girl to a lamb, and woman as stew. Explain how this use of imagery adds to what we already know about these characters. Note how the use of these images serves to unify the novel. Note every reference to stew and Booya. How does the stew serve as a symbol? Discuss the role of food in developing solidarity.
#48--The Biblical Job and the girl's father [Chapter ten]
Many of the characters in the novel are tragic figures, depending of course on your definition of tragedy. The girl's father is potentially a tragic figure. Compare him to Job. Is Job tragic? Would Job be tragic without a final reward for his unfailing service to the Lord?
#49--Language [Chapters ten & eleven]
Note the language play. The character Joe is defined mainly by his language. What can you say about Joe's pragmatic view of language. Is Joe a survivor or a victim?
#50--The girl and knowledge [Chapter eleven]
Knowledge for the girl is made to often appear as a thing ["it], but as the story unfolds "it' is revealed to be more of a process. Note how the girl is able to see the reality of situations that other characters are unable to see even though it is the girl who is looked upon as being without knowledge. Can the girl see clearly because she recognizes herself as a seeker? Women seem to know something awful [awe-full]; look at what it is that the girl's mother knows.
#51--"It" [Chapter twelve]
After the girl returns from her mother she considers herself to be a different person. She is till after "knowing' But feels that she has gained knowledge already by entering her mother's life in a way she had not before. Now she wants "to be in it." "It" in this instance means an active knowing. Later Clara says, "If I was a john I'd hide from you. You look mighty beautiful and out to get it." "It" here seems to mean an intimate knowing. Discuss the various meanings of "it": "it" as sex and money; "it" as abortion and abortion as failed language [note the wordplay, for example Butch as "paperboy"]; "it" as sex only [for Clara]; "it" as having a baby.
#52--Butch as the girl's father [Chapter twelve]
When the girl returns from her mother's she encounters Butch. There are suggestions that there is a strong symbolic relationship between the girls' father and Butch. Detail these connection with both comparisons and contrasts.
#53--The service station and Butch as boss [Chapter twelve]
One pages 40 & 41 [New Edition: p. 56], Butch refers to the service station again. It is obvious now that Butch's dream of being a boss is related to his alienation from the very people who might offer him some help. Being a boss of one's own is a powerful American myth. Discuss how this myth points to a tragic end for Butch.
#54--The girl and blood [Chapter thirteen]
The animal imagery continues: the girl as lamb and chicken; women as animals. Note how this theme of the pursuer and the prey develops. This is one of the persistent themes of American literature and a source of not only mythic power but also of much irony. What clues have you that the girl will no longer be hunted but is also a hunter? Look at references to blood and how they relate to the girl and her quest for knowledge.
#56--Butch (character development) [Chapters fourteen & fifteen]
Look at the various references to Butch as dog, beating, baseball, the many puns and their relation to irony, and his beating the girl. Write a summary of Butch's character as if you were writing a letter to a friend who you may introduce him to as a possible date.
#57--Language [Chapters thirteen & fourteen]
On page 43 [New Edition: p. 58] the girl looks at the signs in the cafe; language is a sign that is hard for her to interpret. Comment on the author's use of signs and her other uses of specialized language that both limits some characters in their ability to interpret them and benefits others in their being able to communicate meaning that is understood only by others who know how to understand it.
#58--Amelia's husband [Chapter fifteen]
On page 48 [New Edition: p. 66] we encounter a positive male character. How does Amelia's husband relate to the other male characters in terms of the theme of tragedy? Look at how Amelia initially resisted her husband's union activities and the philosophy that motivated them.
#59--Prostitution-- [Chapter fifteen & sixteen]
For Clara prostitution is preferable to scabbing. Note how literature [the university men] is tied to prostitution. Compare Amelia's view of literature to that present in the scene of Clara in front of the University Club.
#60--Butch's bourgeois dreams [Chapter seventeen]
Butch's striving for a service station of his own is continued here. Butch is also referred to as a boy and a baby, and a whipped dog. What does this tell the reader about Butch's dreams and how much of a chance he has of realizing them?
#61--Ganz as a fascist [Chapter seventeen]
Ganz has an expressed admiration for Hitler. Discuss the relationship of fascism to the perversion of real values, values that are supposed to be upheld by religion and government.
#62--The girl as meat [Chapter eighteen]
The girl is referred to as chicken, Ganz as a wolf, the girl as "game," the girl as a trained dog, the girl as prey. Develop the theme of objectification and exploitation of women as it refers to the novel, making reference to similar social examples evident today.
#63--money [Chapter nineteen & twenty]
Ganz uses money as a weapon for beating. The girl is money but not worthless paper money; she is the source of wealth. Compare Ganz's view of money with the girl being compared to a vault. Look at references to the girl as wealth that grows [yeast], that is alive [note the many plays on the word "dough"].
#64--Hone [Chapter nineteen & twenty]
Hone is a failed "honey." Discuss Hone as an example of how lawyers have betrayed the public trust.
#65--Abortion and the news [Chapter twenty-three & twenty-four]
Note the girl bleeding, sex and beating, the woman and the body, being and having. The suggestion here is that for women language is more substantial, less liable to be twisted and mis-used than for men, especially men so engaged in the pursuit of an illusory wealth.
#66--Abortion and the news [Chapters twenty-two & twenty-three]
Earlier in the novel, Belle describes how she wrapped her aborted fetus in a newspaper. Discuss abortion and its relation to the daily newspaper. Discuss abortion as a failed use of language. Why does Butch want the girl to abort? Why does he refer to the fetus as "it"?
#67--Language
Note the animal images again. The puns: snake eyes, Ack as hack and his yacking; cockeyed, the use by Butch of "slap." Comment on how language develops the theme of honesty and betrayal.
#68--The girl as knowing [Chapter twenty-seven]
The girl is seen during the robbery as being the one most in control. Note Ganz's actions, how amateurish he looks compared to the girl's self-assuredenss. Note how Ganz is so afraid of losing "it." Again, there is a reference to Ganz and Hitler. Note the girl's ability to see. The girl sees knowledge as right action as compared to Ganz who sees knowledge as some thing that happens to you. Can you develop these themes into a statement about politics: direct democracy vs. fascism?
#69--Butch and tragedy [Chapters twenty-eight & twenty-nine]
Gambling, fate, luck are themes that run through the novel, especially in relation to Butch. Progress is seen to be a big lie that motivates people to alienate themselves from friends, family, and community. Butch knows almost nothing about cooperation; his competition leads to ruin. As he is dying, Butch seems to attain some self-knowledge. How can you say that Butch is a tragic character?
#70--The mouth as wound [Chapters twenty-nine & thirty]
Relate Butch's final predicament, his knowledge bleeding out of him without his being able to control, to the earlier theme of "shutting up" the girl, her bleeding being beaten by men, and her continual refusal to shut up.
#71--The service station, again [Chapter twenty-eight]
All the many references to the service station are shown to lead to this final realization by Butch that his dream was a lie. Discuss this lie and its relation to similar dreams that are used to keep people isolated and helpless.
#72--Baseball [Chapter twenty-nine]
Discuss baseball and the dreams of ghetto youths, sports as a way to live the American Dream. How is Butch victimized? Are highly paid athletes also victims? How so? What has been the role of unions in athletics? Why are owners allowed to keep their earning secret while players' earnings are widely publicized?
#73--The Double Bind
Developed by the American philosopher Gregory Bateson, the double bind in a theory that points to situations where a person is in a no-win predicament, and the result is severe psychological damage. An example would be a mother telling her son that she loves bim but by her action is obviously resenting him. Many social commentators see the double bind as being the most accurate way to describe modern language used by the State ["Kill for peace, " "We had to destroy the village to save it," nuclear missiles called Peace Maker, former President Ronald Reagan calling paid killers "the moral equivalent to our Founding Fathers" etc.]. See Butch's language of the double bind in chapters 28, 29, and 30. Find earlier instances of such use by Butch and other main characters. What constitutes language that does not give contradictory messages? Is there such a language? How does talk (or theory) relate to action (and reality) to avoid such double binds?
#74--The unity of the novel
There are many aspects of the novel that give it a sense of unity, that join earlier to later parts, that join through formal connections seemingly disparate elements: the mention of the sack of kittens on p. 100 comparing it to the opening scene of the birth of the kittens; the birth of the kittens and the girl giving birth; Clara's "O" as a formal device showing her "oneness" to men'; the mirror imagery' sterilization as a theme (first mentioned on p. 1); the fact there are forty chapters and forty weeks to the gestation of the human fetus; Clara introduced on the first page and the new Clara ending the novel. Point out other formal devices and expand on these, commenting on the author's skill in relation to how the novel was written and to your previously held ideas about the realistic novel.
#74--Clara and Butch [Chapter thirty-four]
See Clara's realization of self-knowledge and compare it to Butch's. Do they really see through the illusions that have kept them from living fulfilling lives?
#76--Clara disintegration [Chapter 34]
Clara is in many ways a reverse "mirror" to the girl: she gets weaker as the girl gets stronger. Look at what the author says about the role of the writer as a "mirror" (p. 133) [New Edition: p. 183]. Explain the details of this mirroring. Note the examples of her mental and physical disintegration shown through language. Her language is destroyed as her body is used up. Who is responsible for killing Clara?
#77--Clara and literature [Chapter 34}
The girl discovers Clara's private literature. Note the relation of this private literature as wish fulfillment, fantasy, but also note how necessary it is that Clara write something In what sense is this episode a commentary on the popular literature of the times and these times?
#78--Clara and silence [Chapter 38]
Clara is given shock treatments that destroy her memory, that silence her. Discuss her situation as symbolic for all of us who have little memory of historical events; relate her situation to the author's comments in the Afterwords. Discuss her situation and the theme of clarity.
#79--Clara as a Christian saint
Can Clara be compared to the prostitute who was Jesus' companion? How so? In what sense is she a "door" to saintliness? What was Christ's attitude towards prostitutes?
#80--Recovering literature [Afterwords]
Note the mention of significant events in our history that for the most part are buried by the official history taught in our schools. How does this hidden history relate to the plight of Clara and Butch?
#81--The Double Bind of language
The ideas about the double-bind are further developed: Belle's lack of knowledge, government corruption, vulgarity as truth, newspapers as lies the police on the take. Discuss the kinds of knowledge that the characters have through living under the conditions of the double-bind. How does this double-bind relate to the kind of literature people are exposed to? What does the author say about her attempts to rescue literature from this double-bind?
#82--Amelia's knowledge [Chapter 34]
Amelia is something of an "earth mother" [note the scene where the girls eats dirt, p. 64][New Edition: p. 86]. Look at the relationship between the Amelia and her husband and note that it is Amelia who names the girl a woman. What does all of this tell you about Amelia and the source of her knowledge, where she got it from, what it is, and what it is good for?
#83--Solidarity
Follow the development of the women's solidarity through the expressed views on abortion especially in chapter 32. How do these views relate to the present Women's Movement?
#84--Women and Labor [Chapter thirty-nine]
Women are the original laborers since all human life is the result of their labor to give birth. Discuss this fact as a symbol of the relationship of women to the labor movement.
#85--Baseball transformed [Chapter forty]
Baseball has been shown through the novel to be a system that distorts people's language, substituting dreams for actions that may transform society and as a type of knowing that separates men from women. Baseball skills, however, can be used against the oppressor. Is this scene [p. 129] [New Edition: p. 179] a commentary about all the elements that make up the mechanisms that impose cultural control over people? Can you point to others?
#86--The tyranny of Relief [Chapters thirty-four and thirty-five]
Social agencies that provide economic assistance are shown to be very intrusive into people's lives. In many ways, this intrusion is but another example of blaming the victim. Point out ways in which this system, which is supposed to help people, penalizes them and makes them fell inadequate, worthless, etc.
#87--Birth and language [Chapter forty]
Note once again the references of birth to newspapers [the afterbirth is wrapped in newspaper]. Also while the child is being born the mimeograph machine is pounding out a beat [compare this kind of beating with the other kinds]. Birth for the poor is another way of saying that they refuse to be defeated. Compare the girl's birthing with the author's novel: the girl to The Girl.
#88--Fathers
Look at how fathers are treated in the novel; look at the "city fathers," the patriarchal relationships within families, the successful fathers. Can you come up with a theory of the author's attitude toward fathers?
#89--Women as stew
There are several references to the stew pot throughout the novel. I assert that these references also end up producing an image of the stew as a symbol for the solidarity of women. How would prove me right or wrong?
#90--story and ignorance [Chapter thirty-seven]
An ongoing theme throughout the novel is the relationship between what we know of our history and how we act to change our circumstances in the present in which we live. Look at the references to historical events on pages 120 and 121[New Edition: p. 166 & 167]. How many do you know? How do you go finding out more about them? Detail your search and comment on what the condition of not-knowing tells you about the condition of education and the politics of ignorance.
#91--Sterilization
Beginning on the first page and continuing throughout the novel are references to sterilizing women. Sterilizing is related to shutting women up. Map out the connections using references to the novel and to the Afterwords.
#92--The media and reality [Chapter 34]
There are several references to the radio playing love songs. The accumulation of references becomes a commentary on the pacifying effect of the public media and the distortion the media places on the public's perception of reality. Spell out the details using references to the novel and to today's media.
#93--Potluck / potlatch [Chapter forty]
When Clara dies, the people create a kind of shrine form their gifts. This scene has elements that are similar to the Northwest Indians' Potlatch ceremony, a ritual giving for the benefit of the community. Relate this scene to the many references to suffering together and to the labor union solidarity and to the larger theme of the two opposing forces: individualism and community.
#94--Knowledge and the girl
The girl is certainly the most fully developed character in the novel. She is the most insistent seeker of knowledge and the one who most fully attains that knowledge. What is the knowledge the girl attains?
#95--Women and enforce silence
Women have silence imposed upon them; men seem to impose it on themselves. Look especially at the scene of the men gathered in the park at Christmas time. Look at the scenes in which women, especially the girl, are "shut up." The whole novel is an attempt to tell the story of women that has long been denied as an essential part of our literature. What examples in your own family can you find that either confirm or refute these themes?
#96--The voice of the people
The claim in the Afterwords is that the novel is not just the story of one woman writer but of a write in the service of a community of women. How does the novel support this claim: How does the novel support the implied claim that the ordinary life of oppresses peoples is anything but ordinary, that such a life is inherently dramatic, even heroic?
#97--Distance
The Afterwords and the implied message of the novel is that the creative writer is not separate from the material she creates with. The form of the novel should be an example of this expressed idea of the intimacy of the act of writing. How much confirmation of this theory can you find? How different is this novel from a more typical realistic novel? If remembering is so important to the author, how does the form of the novel reflect the activity of remembering?
#98--Re-vision
Read the essay by John Crawford and comment on why you think the author made some of the essential changes that she made in the re-writing of the novel. How much do you think the changes in society [the women's movement, for instance] had in the author's decisions? Can you think of other novels that might have benefited from essential re-writing had the author lived long enough to do so?
#99--Make a list [All chapters]
Make a listing of all the characters in the order of their appearance, indicating the page on which the character first appears and pages in which the character is revealed in essential ways. Reveal relationships you uncover between characters, i.e. formal relationships [such as that between the girl and Clara, the girl getting stronger and Clara weaker].
#100--Name each chapter
Give each chapter a title that indicates what is for you the essential quality of each chapter. How much of the story is revealed just by your chapter titles? Justify your names by isolating the key conflict or character action in five of the chapters. [You have to quote from the story to illustrate your answer, but you only have to do this for five chapter titles.]
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