Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Gravedigger's Daughter:
1. For those familiar with Oates's work, this novel like many of her others carries the theme of the ongoing, explosive threat of male violence. Is the violence in this book over the top, or is it an integral part of the plot? What precipitates her father's final act of violence? Why does her father insist that the family is not Jewish?
2. What kind of person is Anna's mother? How do she and her daughter differ in personality?
3. In what way do shame and poverty motivate and shape Rebecca's character as she claws her way in the world?
4. Rebecca is born on the ship over to the U.S.—as if to symbolically set the stage for her journey of identity. What different personas does Rebecca "try on"? Why does she eventually take on the name of Hazel Jones, the name of someone with whom she is mistaken in the prologue? Does Rebecca/Hazel ever forge a genuine identity for herself?
5. Jacob tells Rebecca that "in animal life the weak are quickly disposed of. So you must hide your weakness, Rebecca." Do you agree with that assessment of life—that human life is akin to animal life in the wild?
6. Why does Rebecca/Hazel envision her parents during her son's piano competition? Is this a result of survivor's guilt?
7. How do you feel about the last minute plot twist? Was it sprung on you unexpectedly? Or were you ready for it...did you forsee it?
8. What symbolic significance might the title have in this work? Why, af all occupations, might Oates have chosen gravedigger for Jacob Schwart?
(Questions from LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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