DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Flight Behavior |
1. What is the significance of the novel's
title? Talk about the imagery of flight. How is it represented
throughout the story? Kids in Feathertown wouldn't know college-bound from a hole in the ground. They don't need it for life around here. College is kind of irrelevant .Why isn't college important to these people? Should it be? Would you say the people of Feathertown respect education? Why is faith and instinct enough for some people? When she explained this to Ovid, His eyes went wide, as if she'd mentioned they boiled local children alive. His shock gave her a strange satisfaction she could not have explained. Insider status, maybe .Explain her attitude. Yet Dellarobia also believes that, "educated people had powers. What does she mean by this? How does education empower people? Can it also blind them? 13. After Dellarobia's parents died, what options did she have? She wanted to go to school—and did try—she tells Ovid. People who hadn't been through it would think it was that simple: just get back on the bus, ride to the next stop. He would have no inkling of the great slog of effort that tied up people like her in the day to day. Or the quaking misgivings that infected every step forward, after a loss. Even now, dread still struck her down sometimes if she found herself counting on things being fine. Meaning her now-living children and their future, those things. She had so much more to lose now than just herself or her own plans .What are the factors that hold back people in Dellarobia's circumstances? How can they be overcome? How is each character's ideas about the future colored by his or her circumstances? 14. Flight Behavior illuminates the
conflicting attitudes of different classes towards nature and the idea
of climate change. How does each side see this issue? Where do they find
common ground? Do you believe in global warming or climate change?
Explain the basis of your beliefs. How much do you know about both the
proponents and opponents in this debate? Nobody truly decided for themselves, there was too much information. What they actually did was scope around, decide who was looking out for their clan, and sign on for the memos on a wide array of topics .Do you agree that this is a fair assessment of a divided America? How can we get beyond our judgments and stereotypes? 17. How is media both a help and a hindrance
in our understanding of social issues? How does it offer clarity and how
does it add confusion? How is the media portrayed in Flight Behavior?
What impact does it have on Dellarobia and the fate of the butterflies?
People are envious that the media pays attention to Dellarobia, yet she
says being interviewed was like, "having her skin peeled off." Why are
so many people consumed by a desire for fame? What was the use of saving a world that had no soul left in it. Continents without butterflies, seas without coral reefs, he meant. What if all human effort amounted basically to saving a place for ourselves to park ?How would you answer him? 19. Flight Behavior interweaves
important themes: religion and science, poverty and wealth, education
and instinct or faith, intolerance and acceptance, How are these themes
used to complement each other and how do they conflict? Choose one theme
and trace it throughout the novel, explaining how it illuminates a
particular character's life. A moment, Dellarobia now believed, that changed Preston's life. You never knew which split second might be the zigzag bolt dividing all that went before from everything that comes next .Have you ever had such a defining moment in your life? Was there a special person who influenced you and helped guide or shift the course of your life? 21. What do you think will happen to
Dellarobia, Preston, and Cordelia? |
Home l About Us l Features l Contact Us l Share l Submit Book |