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1. No one has a name in Megan Hunter's novel:
neither the narrator/mother, her partner R and their child Z. R's
parents are referred to as N and G. Why the initials and no names?
2. In what way is having a child, or motherhood, the central metaphor
for the novel? How does Z's coming birth and infancy parallel the course
of the flood? Is the point, perhaps, that becoming a parent feels like
the end of the world? How could that be?
3. The narrator observes: "How easily we have got used to it all, as
though we knew what was coming all along." What is she referring to —
got used to what?
4. What do we know about the causes of the cataclysm? Or what do you
surmise is the cause? Talk about the resulting devastation and collapse
of British society — the traveling crowds on the road, food shortages,
and refugee camps — the peril around every corner.
5. What prompts R to take off from the refugee camp, leaving the
narrator on her own with the baby?
6. How would it be for you to raise a child in this less-than-Brave
(i.e., "admirable") New World? Reading about Z's growth, we can contrast
his normal development with the abnormal state of the world. Aside from
protecting Z, what does the narrator hope to accomplish for her child?
What skills will she pass on to him, or how will she enable him to live
in this new world?
7. Some of the narrator's observations about motherhood and babies are
very funny. Find some passages you find particularly humorous.
8. How do you react to Hunter's use of the italicized interludes, which
seem to be based on various creation myths. Do they enrich the
storyline? Do you find them lyrical and imaginatiive, or hollow and
undeveloped, or perhaps just confusing? What is their purpose?
9. What was your experience reading The End We Start From?
Reviewers have commented on the sparseness of Hunter's writing. Do you
find it too sparse, wishing the prose had been more expansive? Or is the
writing just brief enough to allow the story to come through? Why might
the author have chosen to write in such an abbreviated style? Might she
be alluding to the inadequacy of language to convey all that is
happening in the world?
10. As a follow-up to Questions 9 and 2: Might Hunter's
sparseness with language be another way to use motherhood as a metaphor
for the altered world? Consider that a mother's bond to her child is
primal, requiring few words. Nor do infants yet have the capacity for
language to express their needs.
11. What does the book's title, "The End We Start From" mean?
* Some questions from LitLovers.
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