The Language of Sycamores (28 page)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. In what ways do the characters in the book measure success? How are their values reflective of, or a reaction to, today’s society? How have expectations changed in the last fifty years in terms of the typical American family?

2. Do you agree with Brother Baker’s assessment that it is our scars—our little nicks, dents, and imperfections—that make us able to relate to other people? Have you seen evidence of this in your own life?

3. Karen defends her career change by saying that, after years of pursuing the outward symbols of success, she now desires a job that will give her satisfaction of the soul. In what ways do you seek satisfaction of the soul?

4. Karen’s journey home causes her to rediscover lost parts of herself. Do you think it is possible to rediscover lost interests and passions? What lost passions would you like to rediscover?

5. Karen describes the moment of childhood’s end, in Mrs. Klopfleish’s class, when she suddenly became conscious of her own imperfections. After that, everything was different for her. Do you think everyone has such a moment of moving from the innocent self-acceptance of childhood to the self-criticism and self-consciousness of adulthood?

6. Karen asks, at one point, why God would give Dell such an amazing talent, yet put her in such an oppressive, destructive environment. What are some possible answers to that question, or is there an answer?

7. In what ways has the decision to have or not to have children become an invisible barrier between Kate and Karen? Have you seen instances in which this issue has divided friends and family members?

8. Which sister, Kate or Karen, did you relate to more easily?

9. On the plane, Keiler notes that it is the tragedies in our life that bring us back to the foundations of family and faith, the things that do not change when everything else does. What have been the foundations in your own life? What events have taken you away from them, and brought you back again?

10. The sound of sycamore leaves is a touch point that takes Karen’s mind back to her childhood visits to the farm. Are there similar touch points in your own life?

11. Karen jokingly says that, if there were anyone, anywhere stubborn enough to manipulate other people’s lives from beyond the grave, it would be Grandma Rose. In what ways is Grandma Rose still a presence in the family, even though she is gone?

12. James finally confesses to Karen that one of his reasons for not wanting children was his own fear of being left alone to raise a family, as his father was after his mother’s death. In what ways do we let fear rule our lives? In what ways does fear keep us from really living?

13. What does the river symbolize in the story? In what ways are Karen’s plunge into the mermaid pool and the eventual return of the new generation to the riverside symbolic?