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1. The Chaperone opens with Cora
Carlisle waiting out a rainstorm in a car with a friend when she hears
about Louise Brooks for the first time. What do we learn about Cora in
this scene? What does it tell us about her and the world she lives in?
Why does Laura Moriarty, the author, choose to open the novel this way?
Why do you think she waits to introduce us to Brooks?
2. When we first meet Louise Brooks, she seems to be the complete
opposite of Cora, but the two women form an unlikely bond anyway. Are
they really so dissimilar? What does Cora learn from Louise? Do you
think Louise learns anything from Cora?
3. When Cora arrives in New York, the city is worlds away from her life
in Wichita. How much do you think Cora actually embraces New York? When
she returns to Wichita, what does she bring back with her from New York?
What parts of her stayed true to Wichita all along?
4. The limits of acceptable behavior for women were rapidly changing in
the 1920s, and both Cora Carlisle and Louise Brooks, in their own ways,
push against these boundaries. Discuss the different ways the two women
try to change society’s expectations for women. Is one more successful
than the other? What are the values involved in each woman’s approach?
5. Cora becomes frustrated with the hypocrisy of the women in her
Wichita circle of friends and yet she herself chooses to keep details
about her own life secret. Do you think she should be more open about
her life choices? What are the risks for her if she were to be more
open?
6. Cora Carlisle hopes to find the secret of her past in New York City
but discovers that the truth doesn’t align with either her expectations
or her memory of the past. Why do you think Laura Moriarty has chosen to
leave Cora’s history ambiguous? What does this tell you about Cora? How
has Cora’s attitude toward her past changed by the end of The
Chaperone?
7. Cora narrates the events of the book from a perspective of many years
later. What juxtapositions does this allow her? By placing Cora’s
narration at a time of radical social change, what parallels is Moriarty
making?
8, Think about Louise Brooks’s behavior. How much of it would be
considered scandalous today? What values has society held on to? In what
ways has society changed?
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