Book Selection Status: READ
Month: April 2010
Genre: Fiction Literature
Book of the Month: True Colors
Author: Kristin Hannah
Question source: http://www.kristinhannah.com/
1. In the novel’s opening scene, Henry pits one daughter against the other by simply handing one a lead rope. Winona realizes the impact of his action and knows that from then on, something in their family is changed. Does her realization change the outcome or solidify it? How does this scene reflect the central conflict in the novel? How do Henry’s choices set in motion the difficulties that lie ahead?
2. The epigraph at the start of the novel is about passion. Why do you think the author chose this quote? How does passion, in all its many forms, lie at the very heart of True Colors?
3. Winona, Aurora, and Vivi Ann have similar and idealized perceptions of their mother. How has her absence affected them, separately and collectively? Conversely, each sister has a radically different perception of Henry. Who is the real Henry? Which sister has the most accurate understanding of who he is? Is Henry’s antipathy toward his daughters subject to interpretation or is he as cold and uncaring as he appears?
4. There is obviously a symbiotic relationship between person and place in this novel. What part does the small town setting play in the novel? Could this story have taken place in a big city? What would have played out differently, in your opinion? What would have remained the same? How does the setting reflect the differences between Vivi Ann and Winona? Certainly it appears at first glance that Vivi Ann is more rooted at Water’s Edge and in Oyster Shores than Winona. Is this really true?
5. The Grey sisters would have said that they were happy before Dallas came to town. Is that true? Or was Winona right at fifteen when she observed that “from then on, jealousy had become an undercurrent, swirling beneath their lives”? Was Dallas actually the cause of their troubles? Was Luke? Or was the disintegration of the family inevitable? Who is most to blame for the bad things that happen to the Grey family?
6. How do Winona’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities play into the story? How do her strengths? Do you see her as a likeable character? A good sister?
7. How about Vivi Ann? In what way is she really the architect of her own life? How do her strengths and weaknesses allow for all of the good and bad things in the novel to happen? How would this story have been changed by honesty between the sisters from the beginning?
8. There are several moments in the story when Winona makes difficult choices. Was she right to tell Luke about Vivi Ann’s affair? Should she have represented Dallas at his first trial? Did she deny the case for personal or professional reasons?
9. Noah becomes the first true catalyst for change in the Grey family. Like Vivi Ann, Aurora, and Winona, he has grown up in the shadow of loss. He is a fatherless boy; they are motherless girls. How has Vivi Ann’s parenting hurt Noah and set him on his self destructive path? Is Vivi Ann’s downfall understandable? Regrettable? Unacceptable? If she had been your sister, what would you have done to help her deal with Dallas’s imprisonment?
10. Do you understand Dallas? Or did he remain enigmatic throughout the story? Did your belief in his guilt or innocence change throughout the course of the novel? How much did he contribute to his own legal problems? How did Vivi Ann contribute to them? When did he fall in love with Vivi Ann, and why?
11. Prejudice is an important component of the story. In small, close-knit communities like Oyster Shores, it can often be difficult to be perceived as an outsider. How much of Dallas’s arrest depends upon prejudice? Would he have been arrested as quickly if he’d been “one of them?” What if he had been white? How much did his own bad reputation in town work against him?
12. Eyewitness testimony is often unreliable. This is especially true for minorities and people of color. Why do you think this is? What should we, as a society, do about it? Was Myrtle mistaken in her testimony? Did she lie? Did she simply see what she expected to see?
13. Was Vivi Ann wrong to give up on Dallas? Was Dallas right to ask it of her?
14. Discuss Henry. Does he change over the course of the story? Does he love his daughters? How did the loss of his wife contribute to the father he has become? Would he change if he could?
15. Think about the future. How is the Grey family changed by all that they have endured? Where do they go from here? Do Vivi, Noah, and Dallas stay at Water’s Edge? What about Winona? How has she been changed by the journey she has undertaken? Is she still jealous of her sister? Desperate for her father’s love? Will she stay in Oyster Shores? Should she? Will she and Luke make a future together? And what about Noah? For most of his life he’s been able to blame his bad behavior on someone else. What will his life be like now that his father is home?
Month: April 2010
Genre: Fiction Literature
Book of the Month: True Colors
Author: Kristin Hannah
Question source: http://www.kristinhannah.com/
Discussion Questions
2. The epigraph at the start of the novel is about passion. Why do you think the author chose this quote? How does passion, in all its many forms, lie at the very heart of True Colors?
3. Winona, Aurora, and Vivi Ann have similar and idealized perceptions of their mother. How has her absence affected them, separately and collectively? Conversely, each sister has a radically different perception of Henry. Who is the real Henry? Which sister has the most accurate understanding of who he is? Is Henry’s antipathy toward his daughters subject to interpretation or is he as cold and uncaring as he appears?
4. There is obviously a symbiotic relationship between person and place in this novel. What part does the small town setting play in the novel? Could this story have taken place in a big city? What would have played out differently, in your opinion? What would have remained the same? How does the setting reflect the differences between Vivi Ann and Winona? Certainly it appears at first glance that Vivi Ann is more rooted at Water’s Edge and in Oyster Shores than Winona. Is this really true?
5. The Grey sisters would have said that they were happy before Dallas came to town. Is that true? Or was Winona right at fifteen when she observed that “from then on, jealousy had become an undercurrent, swirling beneath their lives”? Was Dallas actually the cause of their troubles? Was Luke? Or was the disintegration of the family inevitable? Who is most to blame for the bad things that happen to the Grey family?
6. How do Winona’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities play into the story? How do her strengths? Do you see her as a likeable character? A good sister?
7. How about Vivi Ann? In what way is she really the architect of her own life? How do her strengths and weaknesses allow for all of the good and bad things in the novel to happen? How would this story have been changed by honesty between the sisters from the beginning?
8. There are several moments in the story when Winona makes difficult choices. Was she right to tell Luke about Vivi Ann’s affair? Should she have represented Dallas at his first trial? Did she deny the case for personal or professional reasons?
9. Noah becomes the first true catalyst for change in the Grey family. Like Vivi Ann, Aurora, and Winona, he has grown up in the shadow of loss. He is a fatherless boy; they are motherless girls. How has Vivi Ann’s parenting hurt Noah and set him on his self destructive path? Is Vivi Ann’s downfall understandable? Regrettable? Unacceptable? If she had been your sister, what would you have done to help her deal with Dallas’s imprisonment?
10. Do you understand Dallas? Or did he remain enigmatic throughout the story? Did your belief in his guilt or innocence change throughout the course of the novel? How much did he contribute to his own legal problems? How did Vivi Ann contribute to them? When did he fall in love with Vivi Ann, and why?
11. Prejudice is an important component of the story. In small, close-knit communities like Oyster Shores, it can often be difficult to be perceived as an outsider. How much of Dallas’s arrest depends upon prejudice? Would he have been arrested as quickly if he’d been “one of them?” What if he had been white? How much did his own bad reputation in town work against him?
12. Eyewitness testimony is often unreliable. This is especially true for minorities and people of color. Why do you think this is? What should we, as a society, do about it? Was Myrtle mistaken in her testimony? Did she lie? Did she simply see what she expected to see?
13. Was Vivi Ann wrong to give up on Dallas? Was Dallas right to ask it of her?
14. Discuss Henry. Does he change over the course of the story? Does he love his daughters? How did the loss of his wife contribute to the father he has become? Would he change if he could?
15. Think about the future. How is the Grey family changed by all that they have endured? Where do they go from here? Do Vivi, Noah, and Dallas stay at Water’s Edge? What about Winona? How has she been changed by the journey she has undertaken? Is she still jealous of her sister? Desperate for her father’s love? Will she stay in Oyster Shores? Should she? Will she and Luke make a future together? And what about Noah? For most of his life he’s been able to blame his bad behavior on someone else. What will his life be like now that his father is home?
3 comments:
To Question #1:
Her realization changes the outcome. This one scene in which the now widowed father ridicules the oldest to prove a point, entirely disregards the middle daughter, and displays undeniable favoritism towards the youngest, reveals the central conflict in the novel, because it brings to light each sister’s status in the eyes of their revered father. When Henry passes that rope off to the youngest daughter he creates a seed of envy in the oldest daughter that festers over the years, a sense of being elite in the youngest that gives her the blinding impression that life isn’t hard or disappointing, and a neutral disposition in the second oldest daughter which is the burden of mending her sister’s problems while shoving aside her own.
To Question #2:
It is evident in Winona’s desire to win her father’s love and acceptance as well as Vivi Ann’s infatuation to uphold her father’s praise and family ranch, that passion, in all its many forms, resides at the very heart of True Colors.
To Question #3:
Winona, Aurora, and Vivi Ann have similar and idealized perceptions of their mother. Their mother’s absence affected the girls collectively for she was the one person that loved them entirely and the one person who saw them for who they really were. Their mother’s absence affected the girls separately because each daughter missed her for her different qualities. Whether it was her presence, her insight on life, or her keen motherly ability to recognize and reveal the strength and beauty of her daughters. Each daughter remembers their favorite quality of their mother which is why their perceptions tend to vary.
Conversely, each sister has a radically different perception of Henry. Winona has the most accurate understanding of who he is? Through Winona’s interpretation it is clear that Henry is an unaffectionate, unrepentant lonely and resentful widow
Henry’s antipathy toward his daughters is subject to interpretation. Although Henry is self absorbed, blunt, bitter and unapologetic he however does care for his daughters in a muted kind of way.
To Question #4:
There is obviously a symbiotic relationship between person and place in this novel.
What part does the small town setting play in the novel? The small town setting serves as beneficial place in this story because it is relatively stagnant and predictable. As a result depiction of the sister’s growth and depth of impact on the small town is easy to recognize.
Could this story have taken place in a big city? No. this story could not have taken place in a big city. It is the simplicity and slow pace of day to day life in the town and on the ranch that keeps the story in line. A big city would only add more distracting factors and alternate opportunities that would have most likely affected the overall essence of the story and outcome.
Although If this story had been set in a big city, then both their father’s disposition and the sister’s overall desire for their father’s love would have remained the same. This is evident based on his bias disposition throughout the entire story and the underlying tension present between the two sisters.
The setting reflects the differences in Vivi Ann and Winona because they both made their mark on the town. Winona is reputable for her calculated insight on legal matters, and Vivi Ann is revered as the town’s beautiful horse loving sweet heart. Vivi Ann is more rooted to Water’s Edge ranch than Winona. Winona doesn’t value it as much as Vivi Ann nor see its splendor. However, Winona loves that town and being an active member in it. This is evident from the simple fact that she returned there instead of making her mark elsewhere.
To Question #5:
The Grey sisters wouldn’t have said that they were happy before Dallas came to town. Winona was right at fifteen when she observed that “from then on, jealousy had become an undercurrent, swirling beneath their lives”. Dallas was not the cause of their troubles? However, besides the mild sibling rivalry that already existed between the sisters, the return of Winona’s best friend and secret crush Luke provoked that mayhem between the sisters. It is because Luke chose Vivi Ann over Winona that she truly begins to loathe her younger sister and all of her fortunes in life. Winona and her blind desire to be noticed and appraised as well as her cowardice in confronting Vivi Ann about how she felt about Luke had spiraled into an abyss of problems. All and all, Henry is most to blame for the bad things that happen to the Grey family? As the only living parent of three daughters, he should been more involved, sober, open and affectionate. I say this because if Henry wasn’t so crude and took the time to make his daughters feel equally loved and accepted, then Winona would not have so much animosity towards her younger sister, she wouldn’t be self conscience about her weight, She might have had the courage to tell Luke how she felt about him before he had gotten involved with Vivi Ann, most of all she wouldn’t live her life trying to win the affection of her father.
In a sense the Winona, Aurora and Vivi Ann’s relationship with their father is quite symbolic to the main men in the girl’s lives. Consider the fact that Winona yearns for a Luke’s love and recognition as she does her father. Aurora gives up hoping and accepts her father will never change in correlation she gives up waiting for Mr. Right and settles for someone who seems to be a good guy. Vivi Ann believes in the good in her father similar to the way she whole heartedly continues to believe in Dallas when her father, the town and law challenge her love for him.
1.She realizes at that moment that Vivi Ann holds some special bond with their father that she will never be apart. I think Henry favors Vivi Ann because is some ways they are alike. When they love they love hard and when that love is gone they become empty inside.
Central conflict is the girls is having Henry's love or favor. By Henry always show some favor to Vivi Ann is cause the some jealous among the other sister , especially Winona.
I read some where that better you get along with you parents the more siblings fight between each other, and when there is not good relationship with parent the more siblings stick together I found this to be true in the story and in real life.
2. Passsion for their father favor, passion for Water Edges, for Dallas, for Luke, etc.
3. They all have their interpretation of their father and I believe all of them are right. The real Henry left when his wife die. He didn't move for the sake of his children. Not uncaring but he maybe afraid of caring to much that it hurts too bad.
4.Small town was better setting for this story. Because in small town you find the single mindness, prejudice, and family tradtions than in big city.
The town is both part Vivi Ann and Winona. They both felt it was their home.
5. No to blame, but maybe if they had more family support and from the town I don't Dallas would have went to prision.
6. She won me over at the end. She finally grew up.
12. Eyewitness testimony is unreliable and has proven to be. That's why you need more evidence. Minorities has been victim of such injustices for years. Assuming the evil before proving justices.
13. I think was selfish act on Dallas part. He felt he would never give out and it wasn't fair for Vivi Ann. I think Vivi Ann had let go or she would lose her son and what left of our life.
14. He never really changes in the story.
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