Miss Jane (Watson) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We;ll add publisher's questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to start a discussion for Miss Jane...then take off on your own:

1. Why might Brad Watson have opened the book with the prologue listing what frightens and doesn't frighten Jane? What, if anything, does the opening contribute to your understanding of Jane? In what way, say, does the prologue set a tone for the book?

2. How would you describe Jane Chisholm? What is  her condition? What inner strengths does she draw on? As she grows into adolescence, what is it like for her to be denied romantic involvement?

3. We learn of the night Jane was conceived: her father drunk on whiskey, her mother unconscious on laudanum, and whatever love they might have felt for one another had been worn away. How, perhaps, is that unfortunate  night a foreshadowing device for Jane's subsequent birth and life?

4. Jane learns to isolate herself from embarrassment. She finds solace in the fields and woods. What does the natural world teach her, or offer her? Mushrooms, for instance: what is the attraction the fungal world holds for Jane?

5. What is Jane's relationship with her family—her parents and sister Grace?

6. How does Dr. Thompson help Jane understand and even exceed her limitations? He tells her, "Just as the way you are denies you some things, it also gives you license that others may not have. What does he mean. He also says to her, "In my opinion you live on a higher moral ground." How so? Do you agree?

7. One of the thematic concerns posed by the book is the questions of where heroism lies. Is heroism in fighting against one's physical limitations or accepting them. What do you think?

8. Had you been born with Jane's physical condition, back before it was operable as it is today, how might you have fared? Or this question: how would you have coped as a parent?

9. The author of Miss Jane is a man, writing about a girl and later young woman, a character based to some extent on his great aunt. Does Watson successfully channel a female voice, especially an unusual one, such as Jane's?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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