AGENDA:
TEST:
Directions: Select JUST 1 of the 3 essay topics and write a few paragraphs of response.
1. Power and Greed were two common themes in this book. Where did they appear, and how do they differ in their manifestations?
2. Sacrifice was a theme that was very prevalent in this book. Who were the characters most affected by this theme, and how did they allow sacrifice to change their lives?
3. Ronsel endures many different trials before the end of the book. What are some of these trials and what lessons does he learn through these experiences?
Discussion Questions
1. The setting of the Mississippi Delta is intrinsic to Mudbound. Discuss the ways in
which the land functions as a character in the novel and how each of the other characters
relates to it.
2. Mudbound is a chorus, told in six different voices. How do the changes in perspective
affect your understanding of the story? Are all six voices equally sympathetic? Reliable?
Pappy is the only main character who has no narrative voice. Why do you think the
author chose not to let him speak?
3. Who gets to speak and who is silent or silenced is a central theme, the silencing of
Ronsel being the most literal and brutal example. Discuss the ways in which this theme
plays out for the other characters. For instance, how does Laura's silence about her
unhappiness on the farm affect her and her marriage? What are the consequences of
Jamie's inability to speak to his family about the horrors he experienced in the war? How
does speaking or not speaking confer power or take it away?
4. The story is narrated by two farmers, two wives and mothers, and two soldiers.
Compare and contrast the ways in which these parallel characters, black and white, view
and experience the world.
5. What is the significance of the title? In what ways are each of the characters bound ---
by the land, by circumstance, by tradition, by the law, by their own limitations? How
much of this binding is inescapable and how much is self-imposed? Which characters are
most successful in freeing themselves from what binds them?
6. All the characters are products of their time and place, and instances of racism in the
book run from Pappy’s outright bigotry to Laura’s more subtle prejudice. Would Laura
have thought of herself as racist, and if not, why not? How do the racial views of Laura,
Jamie, Henry, and Pappy affect your sympathy for them?
7. The novel deals with many thorny issues: racism, sexual politics, infidelity, war. The
characters weigh in on these issues, but what about the author? Does she have a
discernable perspective, and if so, how does she convey it?
8. We know very early in the book that something terrible is going to befall Ronsel. How
does this sense of inevitability affect the story? Jamie makes Ronsel responsible for his
own fate, saying "Maybe that's cowardly of me, making Ronsel's the trigger finger." Is it
just cowardice, or is there some truth to what Jamie says? Where would you place the
turning point for Ronsel? Who else is complicit in what happens to him, and why?
9. In reflecting on some of the more difficult moral choices made by the characters ---
Laura's decision to sleep with Jamie, Ronsel's decision to abandon Resl and return to
America, Jamie's choice during the lynching scene, Florence's and Jamie's separate
decisions to murder Pappy --- what would you have done in those same situations? Is it
even possible to know? Are there some moral positions that are absolute, or should we
take into account things like time and place when making judgments?
10. How is the last chapter of Mudbound different from all the others? Why do you think
the author chose to have Ronsel address you, the reader, directly? Do you believe he
overcomes the formidable obstacles facing him and finds "something like happiness"? If
so, why doesn't the author just say so explicitly? Would a less ambiguous ending have
been more or less satisfying?
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