READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. 1. How does blindness, both literal and metaphorical, function in the novel?

2. 2. What is the role of the setting and landscape?

3. 3. What is the significance of the many references to the “unseen hand”?

4. 4. How is the West represented in the novel?

5. 5. Literary critic Jane Tompkins has argued that “metamorphosis is what the novel strives for and enacts at every level. You can see it not only in the relation between character and landscape, but also in the constant boundary-crossing that takes place within and between characters.” Discuss.

6. 6. Whose worldview wins and why?