Discussion Questions

These questions are designed to help you understand the texts, and to encourage you to think about particular themes and issues when you are reading.  Please keep all of the questions in mind when you read the weekly text, but pick one Issue (i.e., one letter below) that looks particularly interesting to you before you read.  As you read, make NOTES!  Underline, highlight, or use separate pages, but make references to textual EVIDENCE  that relates to the question you have chosen.

After you have finished reading, write your journal essay as an answer to the question you have investigated.

Remember that although you write about only one topic, all topics are to be considered carefully.  Such consideration will be helpful on the midterm and final exams!

This list of questions will be updated regularly as the course progresses.  As a general rule, questions will appear here about a week or two before the reading is assigned.  To find the questions due on any day of the class, click on the date below or scroll down this page to the appropriate date.

January 29     Rising Tide 1-6
a) Who were Humphries, Ellet and Eads?   What was the nature of their rivalry, and what experiences did each build their arguments on?   How does the Army Corps of Engineers fit into this story?
b) Who was Guglielmini and how did his arguments differ from those of other players?  Why is this still important today?
c) How would you characterize the Mississippi River (size, shape, flow, direction, banks, meanders, etc.)? 
                        Huckleberry Finn
a) Huckleberry Finn has been banned by various groups for different reasons since its publication in 1884.  Considering some major currents in our nation’s history since that time, find specific passages that you think would have been offensive to particular groups.           
b) The conflict between law and conscience is generally considered to be at the heart of Huckleberry Finn.  Identify passages where this conflict is most evident.   Which wins?  When is the defining moment?
c) The ending of the novel has been troublesome for critics since the beginning.  Does it seem artificial and not in the spirit of the rest of the novel or does it work?  Make specific references to the text in your response. 
d) Defining a symbol as that which evokes meanings beyond its literal significance, consider some of the ways the river functions as a symbol.
e) Find examples of social criticism in the novel.  What are some of the targets?  How does Twain get at them?  

February 5  Uncle Tom's Cabin
a)  Is the current popular definition of an “Uncle Tom” a fair reading of the character of Uncle Tom in Stowe’s novel?  Why or why not?  Make references to specific scenes in your answer.
b)  The critic Cynthia Wolff in her article “Masculinity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin” discusses how gender roles for both men and women were being redefined during the l850’s.  She writes that the abolitionists, Harriet Beecher Stowe included, wanted masculinity redefined from the aggressive, competitive, conquest model of colonialism to one of “fraternal love” or self-sacrifice for the community and sensitivity to the needs of others.  Discuss at least TWO male characters from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one in each category.  What actions and characteristics help define them?
c)      What are examples of racial stereotyping in Uncle Tom’s Cabin?  Do they detract significantly from the novel?  Why or why not?
d)   Harriet Beecher Stowe had had a child die before she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and critics have noted the strong theme of maternity in the novel.  Cite specific instances of this theme and explain how Stowe uses them to advance the central thesis of the novel.

February 12 Heart of Darkness
a)  What does the text reveal about the world views of Europeans and Africans?  What are the things that each world view values?  For example, what is the role of work (even meaningless or absurd work)?  What material things, and what philosophical issues, does each world-view value?  How do people from each background value human life? learning? etc.?  Treat this carefully by concentrating on the text.  You will probably find some interesting contradictions and inversions within each world-view. 
b)  What inversions does the author present while portraying moral issues like good and evil, brilliance and madness, light and dark, civilized and uncivilized?  By this, we mean when are these portrayed in their "normal" way (good is really good, etc.) and when are they portrayed in reverse (good is really evil)?  Can you find examples that reflect similar inversions in Huck Finn?
c)  What are the roles of physical places, especially rivers, in the story?  How are the places described and portrayed?  How are the Thames and the Congo contrasted?
d)  What events are described in eerie, ethereal, or surreal fashion?  Why are they portrayed this way?  What does this portrayal have to do with the way the author describes the collision of world views?  What is the significance of the story about the boat’s steam whistle?
e)  What are the roles of women (occupations, social positions, etc.) in the story, and how do they compare or contrast to those of men?  How are they similar or different for African and European women?
f) Paralleling e (above), what roles do European and African men play?

February 19   Rising Tide 7-16
a) Summarize the history of the Percy family.  What role did L. Percy, Parker, and Scott play in the establishment of the Delta?
b) Describe the history and role of the Klan in the story of the 1927 flood.
c)  Describe the levee break at Mounds Landing in as much detail as possible (who? When? Why?, etc.).  We will be visiting the site of this break soon.

February 26 Uncle Tom's Children
a) How and why do Uncle Tom’s children differ from Stowe’s Uncle Tom?   Consider such differences as the historical time when the works were written and the backgrounds and world views of the authors.  Would Uncle Tom have acted differently had he lived during the twentieth century?   Be very specific in how certain fictional characters in Children differ from their “father” and also how they might have inherited traits from him.     
b) When Uncle Tom’s Children was first published in 1938, only four short stories were included.  “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow” and “Bright and Morning Star” were added in the 1940 edition.  Considering Uncle Tom’s Children in the context of a “river of time,” how might the four stories of the 1938 edition be said to present a historical progression of life for Black Americans in the South from about 1910 to the 1930’s?  As the critic Eugene B. McCarthy points out, “Although each story is rooted in some historical actuality, each is a fiction, a metaphor, not a documentary.”  Explain both the actual and the metaphorical significance.
c) Consider how songs relate to the titles and meanings of the five fictional stories.  Some are religious; what do they suggest about the role of religion for Uncle Tom’s children?
d) The effect of naturalist writers like Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser on Richard Wright is noted in the introduction to the Harper Perennial paperback of Uncle Tom’s Children.  “Naturalism” assumes that the destiny of a human being is determined by a combination of biological drives and the forces of an indifferent universe.  Men and women are not heroic, but are simply animals controlled by forces beyond them.  What are some evidences of naturalism in UTC?
e) In an essay entitled “Blueprint for Negro Writing,” Wright says that black authors of his time in history were “being called upon to do no less than create values by which his race is to struggle, live and die.”  What values does Wright create in Uncle Tom’s Children? 

March 5 If I Forget Thee Jerusalem 
a)      So far in the course, we have read Mark Twain’s river, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s river, Richard Wright’s river, and now we have Faulkner’s river.  How does Faulkner’s compare to the others?  Characterize the river according to Faulkner, citing specific passages where he personifies or otherwise gives the river a consciousness beyond a geographic entity.
b)      Metafiction is the label given to a passage where the writer writes about writing.  Cite instances of this in both “Old Man” and “Wild Palms.”  What do you think Faulkner’s purpose was in including these elements?  What is he saying about formula fiction, that is, fiction that is written for the sole purpose of entertaining and selling books?
c)      The title of a book is always a good place to start looking for meaning.  Faulkner’s editors insisted on The Wild Palms as a title for the novel, and later Malcolm Cowley in The Portable Faulkner pulled “The Old Man” out and treated it as a short story.  Faulkner’s intention, however, was to title the book If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, and he allegedly wrote in the way our edition appears, alternating “The Wild Palms” and “Old Man” sections.  Why do you think he presented the novel in this way, and what do you think his title means?  The title’s source is Psalms 137.
d)      Both Uncle Tom’s Children and If I Forget Thee are novels published in the 1930’s.  Compare their treatments of  a depressed economy and labor issues.
e)      Are there sympathetic characters in If I Forget Thee, that is, characters you pull for, or pity, or like?  Who are they and why do you sympathize with them?  

March 19   Rising Tide chapters 17-23
a)  What role did financial institutions play in the decision to blow up the levee near New Orleans?  Why did they decide the place and time of the demolition?  What role did the newspapers play?  Who won, and who lost?
b)  Was it really necessary to blow up the levee South of New Orleans?  What other options were available at the time?
c)  In what ways did Herbert Hoover’s training as an engineer influence his politics?
d)  Describe the flooded Delta of 1927.  In If I Forget Thee, the convict seems to encounter new floods and walls of water every few days.  Explain this in your description of the flood as portrayed in Rising Tide.

March 26      The Wide Net, Rising Tide chapters 24-27
a)  "The Winds" and "The Wide Net" are both set during the fall equinox, and the critic Peter Schmidt suggests that both stories are about the transformation of children into adults. Support that theory with specific evidence from the stories.
b)  In the story "The Wide Net" what roles does the Pearl River play, both literal and metaphorical?
c)  Welty uses actual historical characters in some of the stories here. Who was Aaron Burr, Lorenzo Dow, James Murrell, and John James Audubon and how does Welty blend them with imagination in her fiction?
d)  Rodney is one of the towns the Mississippi River by-passed. How does Welty use this setting in "The Landing"?
e)  "Asphodel" suggests the ruins of Windsor, which Welty photographed and which once had been a landmark for riverboat pilots along the Mississippi. What use does Welty make of this setting in the story? What mythological references are woven through the story?
f)  In preparation for further discussions, write a detailed description of the personality of William Alexander Percy and his life up to the beginning of the flood of 1927.
g)  Compare and contrast the views of William Alexander and Leroy Percy with regards to the following issues:  race, equality of all persons, destiny, leadership.
h)  Who was Robert Moton, and what did he believe in?  If you had to pick one character from our previous readings to compare this man to, who would it be and why?  Justify your answer.

April 2            When We Were Colored
a)  How does Taulbert characterize his family relations during early childhood?  Compare his childhood family with that of Percy.  Look for specific descriptions that reveal the relationships between each of the young writers and their families.
b)  Make a similar comparison between the two texts regarding the role of school and education, and the role of the Church.
c)  According to Taulbert, what ethnic groups make up Delta culture?  What characterizes each group?  What is the role of social class in Taulbert's world?  What determines class according to him?  Who were the "candyman" and what was the social status of "straw bosses?"
d)  Who were "the big four" role models of Taulbert's life?  This will require some outside referencing- check the web!  Why are these people good role models for anyone?
e)  What man-made analog of The River plays an important role in this text?  How does its own history parallel the story of change in the Delta during Taulbert's life?  To what forces does Taulbert credit these changes?

April 9             Rising Tide chapters 28-end 
a)  Explain what a "bird's foot delta" is, and how it comes to be.  Why does this structure appear so differently when viewed from the perspectives of "end of the land" and "beginning of the river?" Give an example of the extreme difference in these two points of view.
b)  Describe the mouth of the Mississippi before and after the arrival of Eads' engineers.  What did Eads do to change the way the river meets the Gulf?  How can it be that the volume of the Mississippi is greater at Rosedale, MS, than at the mouth of the River?  Explain this phenomenon.
c)  Who was "the Great Humanitarian?"  Why did he deserve or not deserve this title?  What was the prevailing view of "charity" at this time?
e)  Who was Julius Rosenwald?  Why is he involved in this story?
f)  What were the long term affects of the flood of 1927 on the Delta?  Why?

April 16          Lanterns on the Levee  
a)  What social and ethnic categories of people does Percy describe as living in the Delta?  What characteristics does each group have?  What group does Percy belong to, and what groups does he like or dislike?
b)  How does Percy view the aristocracy of his time?  How did the aristocrats become such anyway?  What makes a Southern aristocrat different from all other people according to Percy? 
c)   Prepare yourself for a discussion of the similarities and differences in the early childhoods of William Alexander Percy and Clifton Taulbert.  Of course they grew up in different times, but there are many other differences too.  How did these affect their outlook on life, their learning experiences, etc.?
d)  In what ways does Percy's account of the Delta seem particularly dated today? Give specific examples.
e)  If you have the edition that has Walker Percy's introduction, does it change the way you view Will Percy? Why or why not?
f)  If Will Percy were alive today, would he still be convinced that Western civilization is crumbling? Imagine his reaction to three or four current Delta issues.
g)   Is the picture that John Barry paints of the relationship between father and son consistent with the picture that William himself paints?  Why or why not?

RETURN TO THE RIVER HOME PAGE