Prologue: Who is speaking? To whom is she speaking?
Who are the following characters and how are they related: Agnes, Angela Iron, Bush, Hannah Wing, Dora-Rouge, Harold, Jarell Illinois, and Frenchie?
What is significant about the speaker’s dream? What is/was “the frozen heart of evil”?
Can you tell where this story is located? To what tribes or ethnic backgrounds do the characters belong?
What seems the purpose of Bush’s ritual feast?
What do we learn about the natives’ way of life? About the speaker’s mode of expression?
What purpose is served by the prologue? After reading it, what themes do you imagine will dominate the rest of the novel?
Chapter 1: Who is now speaking? What year is it?
What is her first view of Bush, and what do we learn about the latter? (22)
What seems to be the novel’s interpretation of native beliefs and spiritual views? What are some examples of poetic passages or descriptions?
What things does Angela first notice about Agnes? (23) About her home? (24)
What do we learn about the history of Poison Road? (24) What are some ways the history of animals is incorporated into the narrative?
What had happened in Angela’s early life? (26-27) What had been her relationship with her mother?
What is different about Angela’s face? Is this symbolic?
What do we learn about the past history of the island? Of its female inhabitants? (28) Who else lives along the Hundred Mile Road?
Linda Hogan is considered and considers herself an environmental writer. Can you see ways in which this is manifested?
How is Rue described? Tommy? John Husk? What was Rue’s past? (28-29)
What do we learn about Dora-Rouge? How is her loss of faculties described? (31) Is this an unexpected interpretation of the mental world of a partly senile woman?
How does Dora-Rouge respond to the arrival of a great-great granddaughter? How does Angela react to meeting her?
What characterizes Agnes’s relationship with her mother? What are some humorous moments? Is one or the other more often correct? What does Dora-Rouge think of her daughter’s choice of coat, and why?
What does Dora-Rouge tell John Husk she wants, and why? (This will become an important plot element.) Why do you think she makes this statement to him in particular?
What does John Husk regret about his past life, and why? (35)
What do we learn about the island’s water supply, and what has caused this?
Why are passages on pp. 37-40 in italics?
What does Agnes relay about her son Harold’s marriage to Bush? Who is Loretta? How does Agnes describe the latter’s character? What circumstances have dominated her past?
How is deforestation related to the drought of the year Harold leaves the island? What do Harold and Loretta do before leaving? (39-40)
At what age is their daughter Hannah returned to the island? How does Bush respond to her arrival?
What does Agnes claim are some of the origins of their shared history? (40) What forces have altered their lives for the worse?
What is creosote? Why are Dora-Rouge’s statements irritating to her daughter? (41)
What are some poetic features of Hogan’s prose? What are some particularly poetic passages?
At this stage, how would you characterize some of the novel’s features of style?
Chapter 2: What becomes the relationship between Angela and her great-great grandmother? (42, 45, assists in her care) What comparison is made to their sitting together in silence? (to wolves breathing together, 45)
Why hasn’t Angela been able to sleep, and what helps cure her insomnia? (she has been frightened, afraid night will carry her away) What memory of Angela’s infancy does Agnes bring forth? (43, as a child she had loved plants)
What information does Dora-Rouge give about the origin of Agnes’ coat? (45) Why had the bear been brought to the island, and how had he been treated?
What had caused Agnes to kill him, and how has her life been affected by wearing the coat? (44-48; sees her killing of the bear as an act of mercy; the coat is taken from her and she steals it back, incorporates its spirit into her own)
What kind of conviviality characterizes the native men who visit? (48-50, friendly talk of daily life, fishing, etc.) Of what do the women talk? (51, families; Agnes doesn't know Harold's fate, Dora-Rogue wants to return to her people in the north)
What question does Frenchie ask, and how does Angela respond? (51) What does she seem to fear? (fears she will be sent away) Who politely tries to comfort her? (52-53, Angela and John Husk)
What important experience comes to Angela after her outburst? (54) What is symbolic about the name, Adam’s Rib?
What do we learn in retrospect about Angela’s adolescence? (54, slept with many without finding human connection, had undergone surgeries to repair facial damage) How do you interpret her sense of “falling into a lake”? What do her grandmother and great-grandmother represent to her? (55)
Chapter 3: What are advantages to making Angela the primary speaker? Are there any limitations to this choice?
How are the two visitors to the island first described? (56) What reception do they receive? What news do they bring? (57-58)
What changes have already occurred in preparation for building? What do the visitors wish from the inhabitants of Fur Island?
What good traits does Angela notice in Tommy?
What does she sense about the future?
Why do you think this chapter is shorter than the first two have been?
Chapter 4: According to Angela’s account, how does Bush know that she is arriving on the island? What do you make of the alleged presence of a child by Bush’s bed? (60)
What gift does Dora-Rouge give Angela, and why is this significant? How does Angela preserve it? (64)
Are we told why Angela is taken to Fur Island? How do you account for this gap? What are some other notable silences in the novel?
On what errand does John Husk visit Fur Island? (61) Is the name of his boat appropriate? (61) What are Angela’s thoughts about Husk as they traverse the water?
What do we learn about the history of “the Hungry Mouth of Water”? How had the beluga whale been treated? (63) According to Husk, why had men fallen into this unfrozen hole?
What are some features of Fur Island? (64) What happens to Angela’s sense of time when she arrives? What does it mean to claim that she is moving in two directions at once? How may this be therapeutic?
What colloquial name is given to the island? (65) What do we learn about the animal life on the island? What early peoples and animals once lived there? Who were the wolf children, and how did they fare when rescued? (65) What had a bishop done to what the natives considered a healing spring? (66)
Why does Bush tether the otherwise floating peat island populated by spiders to Fur Island? What is Pangaea? (66)
How is Bush first described? (67) What changes in herself does Angela note? (67-68) What is Bush’s occupation, and what is her attitude toward the bones she reassembles? (75)
What wider concerns occupy the local inhabitants? (70)
What does Angela notice in her bedroom and in Bush’s house? (70, no windows in her room, vines come in) For what does she value it? (70, first time she's ever had a room of her own) What is significant about her examination of the family photographs that stand on an altar-like table? (first time she has seen photographs of herself as a child, sees herself in an original family, 71)
What does she sense as she views her mother’s photograph? (72, evil spirit) Is this consistent with other things she has experienced since arriving in this area? (72-73, sense of mysterious forces, some of them spiritual)
What provision for light is available on the island? What happens to Angela’s sense of her past, and what compensating story of her history has she constructed? How do you interpret the fact that she can no longer believe it? (74, forced to relinguish myth of a once-loving mother)
Why does Angela identify with the skeleton of the large turtle that Bush is reassembling? (75) What is Bush’s dominant social trait, as perceived by Angela? (76)
Under what conditions does Bush tell Angela details of the latter’s past life? (76) Why do you think the story is unraveled so slowly? What frustrates Angela about what she learns? (77)
What does Bush reveal about Hannah Wing’s life? (77) How do we know that her partner (perhaps Angela’s father?) was an evil man according to native values? (77)
What seems symbolic about the sudden onset of a heavy rain? (78) After the rain, what emerges? What epiphany (sudden revelation) comes to Angela? (79)
Chapter 5: What is the subject of this chapter, and why is it so short? (72) Why do you think it is inserted at this point?
Chapter 6: According to Angela, what do these native peoples believe about the nature of the world? (81) How do anthropologists describe this world view? What do they see as the relatioship between humans and animals? (81-82)
What does Angela object to in LaRue’s behavior? (82-83) How does she interpret the fact that they experience lightning en route home? (83)
What is the importance of the fact that Angela drops and breaks her mirror, then tries to put it together again? (85-86) How does this relate to the broader problems of the island and of her own identity? (86)
What do you make of the fact that she claims to “see inside water”? (85) What is meant by calling the invaders “reverse people”? (86)
What sad history is evoked by the sound of organ pipes? (86-87) What had the prospectors been seeking, and what act of deception evokes a pleasant memory? (87)
Why is Fur Island associated with the color yellow? (88) What had happened to the Fat-Eaters of the north?
What do we learn about the characters’ corn-raising practices? (88)
What changes occur in Angela as she “learns water,” that is, to use a boat? (89) Why does she identify Bush with water, and herself with light? (89)
How does Angela respond at first to the people with whom Tommy lives? When he visits the home of Agnes and Dora-Rouge with her, what changes does she note? What characteristic observation is made by Husk? (92-93)
How long has it been since Angela’s arrival? (93) Is this surprising to the reader? How does she respond to autumn winds? What does she see as her relationship with the three women she has met? (93)
What practical labor does Angela perform in preparation for winter, and what is her response to this? (94)
What does Angela see as the motive for Bush’s taxidermy? (94-95) Its relation to herself? (94) The relationship between her attempt to retrieve and understand her past and the onset of winter? (94-95)
For what does Bush respect wolverines? (95) How does she respond to animals?
What story does she tell of Hannah’s past? (96-101) What metaphors are used to describe her problems? What offensive acts does she commit? What acts of physical intrusion has she suffered, and what are some of the results? (98-99) How is her fate linked to that of her mother Loretta? (100)
What is meant by “soul loss”? (98) What “presence” does Bush experience as she finds Hannah hovering by the wall of her house? (100) What does the Old Man say in diagnosing her problems? (101) What solution does he suggest?
Chapter 7: What do Husk and Bush believe about the power of songs to affect reality? (102) How does this relate to the further account Bush gives of Hannah’s past? How does Bush attempt to heal her, and according to her account, how does this fail? (103)
What violent act does Hannah commit before she leaves for Oklahoma? (104) What do the older people fear when she becomes pregnant? (105)
Chapter 8: What do the natives remember about past winters, according to Angela? What bad omens accompanied especially bad recent winters? (108)
According to Bush’s account, what had happened the night of Angela’s birth? What do we learn about Angela’s father? (109) Why had he been absent at her birth?
What do we learn about the midwife, Ruby Shawl? (109-111) Why had she been afraid to leave Hannah with her newborn? (109-10) What finally prompts her to leave the house, and with what result?
What is notable about her trip through the snow to find Bush? When the women return to the trapper’s cottage, how are they able to open the door? Is this explained? (111-112)
What has Hannah done in the midwife’s absence, and what do you make of this? (112) Who finds Angela, and under what circumstances? (112) How is the infant described? (113)
Chapter 9: What fatal accident occurs during the winter near the “Hungry Mouth”? (114) Would alternate modes of transportation across the mostly-frozen lake have been possible?
How does Bush characterize Hannah? (115) Does she believe it would have been possible to change Hannah’s character?
How do Bush and Angela obtain supplies? (116) What forms of nature do they observe in their immediate vicinity? (115-116) What is shown by the scene in which the stranded moose is surrounded by hungry wolves? (117)
What had occurred when Angela visited her half-sister Harriet? (116-117) What had been her relationship to Angela? To Agnes? (117) What conclusions might the reader draw from this episode? (118)
Under the influence of winter (and in her view, of her ancestral memories), what sights and sounds does Angela hear and sense? (118-119) How does she imagine her people’s past, and how does she relate this to her knowledge of her mother and mother’s mother? (119)
What is significant about the fact that Bush and Angela now sew? (119) What do you make of the fact that Angela dreams of a plant which Dora-Rouge is able to identify? (119) To what does Angela ascribe her dreams? (119) What does it mean for her to say that she can “see with my skin, touch with my eyes” (120).
How does John Husk explain the nature of time? (120) To what fairly recent events does Angela relate this to, and how does Angela associate these events with Bush’s (and her) present? (120)
Why does Bush decide to travel by canoe? (120) Why does Angela accompany her? (121)
Why do they have to start out in early spring, and what problem is anticipated from this? (121) Is Bush correct that this will happen?
Why is it difficult for Bush to find a map she can trust? (122) For what does she seem to be searching? (122) To what does Bush attribute the fact that on an old map the waters were connected, and what are we to infer from this?
According to Angela, what don’t maps account for? (123) What does she do during her free time before the ice melts? (124) What perspective does she imagine birds have towards humans? (124)
What statement by Bush causes Hannah to feel better about her scars? (125) How do Angela and Tommy show affection for one another? (125-27) What do they seem to have in common?
What astronomical winter phenomenon does Angela observe? (127) Why does she refuse Tommy’s offer of a drive back across the frozen ice? (129) What has caused Bush to cry in her absence? (130)
What does LaRue bring Bush, at her request? (131) Over what do they quarrel? (132) What are Angela’s motives in trying to keep the peace? What advice does she give LaRue on the way back to the mainland? (133)
Chapter 10: At what season does Bush cross to the mainland to explain her plans? (134) How do Agnes and Dora-Rouge react? (135) What objections does Agnes have, and do you think these are realistic? (136)
What are planaria, and what is unusual about them? (137) How does Angela interpret this biological phenomenon? How does this relate to her beliefs in general? (137)
What is the meaning of the humorous exchange between Angela and Dora-Rouge over the latter’s memory of an alleged time when there was a clear waterway to the north? (137)
What is Dora-Rouge eager to find up north? (137) What is the origin of the conveyance used to transport Dora-Rouge? (137) What changes in tone within this small society does this reveal?
Who attends the ceremony for Frenchie’s daughter’s death, and what causes their grief? (141) To what does the narrator ascribe their longevity? What ritual do they perform? (142)
Why do you think Angela paddles to the edge of the Hungry Mouth, and what does she see and do? (143)
Chapter 11: How do the women prepare for the trip? What is notable about the neighbors’ farewells? Why don’t Tommy and John Husk accompany them on this dangerous adventure?
What are some of the difficulties and dangers they encounter along the way?
Who becomes the trip’s chief guide? Why would this be appropriate, according to the novel’s ideology?
What happens to Angela’s sense of time and space during the journey? What effect does this have on her?
What tragic memory does Dora-Rouge bring up from her past? (167-68) How had she avoided being taken to the residential school? What important aspect of Canadian-native history does this recall?
How do the women come to relate to one another, according to Angela? (177)
What do the people they meet along the way think of them? What prompts their opinion, and are they correct? (184-86)
How does Angela interpret “the old world dawning new in me”? What metaphor does she use? (189)
What happens to Agnes along the way? Is this unexpected?
How do you interpret the plant pictures on pages 172 and 189?
As they near the north, why aren’t the women able to bypass the large Se Nay River? (191) What has caused its flow to intensify? What emotions does Dora-Rouge ascribe to the river? (192) Why do the women chose not to turn back? (193)
How have the women changed during their journey? (193) How does Dora-Rouge deal with the situation? (193) Is it important that she sings? (194)
Are all the women afraid? How are the sensations of riding down the rapids portrayed? (194) What advice does Angela remember as she falls? (195) To what does Angela attribute their survival? What is significant about the fact that she doesn’t name this force “God”?
What new skill does Angela learn? (105-106) What metaphorical train of thought does this suggest about her people’s past and her own life? By implication, what has she come to hope? (107)
Chapter 12: What is North House? What horrific facts do we learn about its past? What eerie phenomenon has been the aftermath? (196)
How are they greeted on their arrival? (197) Who greets them, and who are the house’s other inhabitants? (198) What differentiates the Europeans from the Indians? What does the narrator seem to think of the former’s pursuit? (199-200, 202)
What is new about the language of these local natives? (200)
What package do the travelers receive, and what is sent for Angela? What does Agnes receive, and who has sent it? Why is this important? (201)
What important events does Bush believe are censored from the newspapers? (201)
How do the local native peoples respond to the travelers? (202-203) What do the other old woman, Jere, and Dora-Rouge talk about? (203)
What sensations does Angela experience as the women again begin their journey? (204)
What do they find has changed when they visit the Place of Sleepers? What is ominous about these changes? (204-205)
How do Dora-Rouge and Agnes react to these changes? (205) Is there anything ominous about the latter’s reaction?
What seems symbolic about the Islands of Flowers? (205) Why do the other women send Angela off to find the medicinal plants for Agnes? Do you think this was wise? (206)
In Angela’s view, what does she experience on the trip? (207) Why do you think these experiences occur to her in this context? (207) Is there symbolism to the fact that the map isn’t accurate? (207)
What happens to Angela after she finds the red-rooted tubers? (207) What does she see as she returns to the women’s camp? (208-209) Does this seem a dignified end for Agnes’ life?
Why does Dora-Rouge feel guilty for her daughter’s death? (210)
What causes the death of the moose? (210) How may this be related to the themes of this section? What does Dora-Rouge mean by the statement, “It isn’t God that did this.” (211)
Chapter 13:
Why are the remaining travelers discouraged at this point? (212) What conditions do they meet at the Two Town post? (213) For what favor do they first ask? (214) Why does the proprietor look at them with suspicion? (214-215)
What has happened to Dora-Rouge’s relationship with the spirit of her dead husband, and what does she imagine are the consequences? (215)
What had happened to the canoe bearing Agnes’ body? Is this appropriate, according to Angela’s view of the matter? (216) How does this news change Angela’s behavior? (216)
What seems significant about the fact that the women are able to take a shower? (217) At what point does Angela seem to change/ assume her last name Iron?
Had Christianization succeeded in this area? (218) What new efforts are being made in the area, and for what purpose? (218-219)
What quality of sleeping accommodations do they find? (220) How do they obtain a chair for Dora-Rouge? (221-22) What seems by report to be the efficacy of the clinic? (221)
What do the women think of their reflections in the mirror? (223) What happens to their possessions while they engage a room? (223)
Chapter 14:
What does Angela find characteristic of this northern land? What benign effect does the flooding have on the area? (224)
Chapter 15:
What had been the original name of the Fat-Eaters? (225) What is Dora-Rouge’s reaction on arriving at her old home, and why? (225) How has the life of the inhabitants changed? (226)
Whom does Dora-Rouge meet, and what is their shared attitude toward their world? (228-29) What traces does Angela find of her mother? (216)
What experience does Angela have when she immerses herself in cold water? (228-229) What native myth of origins does she remember? (229)
Under what circumstances does Angela meet her mother? (229-30) How does Hannah respond, and what is Angela’s metaphorical assessment of her? (230-31) What insights does she gain about her mother? (231)
What do we now learn about Angela’s scars? (231)
What is the content of their conversation? (232) Who tries to comfort her? (232)
Why are the women evicted from their boarding house room? (232) What do Bush and her new friend Auntie have in common? (234) Who are now Angela’s role models?
Is it significant that Angela sleeps with the bear coat over her? (235) What observation does Tulik make to Angela? (235)
What is the tone of John Husk’s letter to Agnes? (236) Why do the women think Bush’s letter telling of Agnes’ death hadn’t reached him?
Chapter 16:
How does Angela know that her mother is dying? (239) What trip is necessary to reach Hannah? (240-41) What are features of her death scene? (242-44, 249-50) Is it important that Angela is the only one who watches her mother die?
What has caused the mother’s death? (245) Why have the natives not called the police? (247)
Whom does she leave behind? Is this unexpected? (244) Who has been the child’s father?
What had caused him to deteriorate psychologically? (246) What does the visiting woman tell her about Hannah’s reaction to her (Angela) as an infant? (246)
What ministrations does Angela perform to save the infant? (244) Why does she remove the child from the house? (250)
What horrific story does Dora Rouge tell of a past death from ice? (248-49) What message does Angela take from this? (249)
What are her emotions when her mother finally dies? (250-51) How do Bush and Angela prepare the body for burial, and how do they find this fitting? (253)
What does Angela discover in Hannah’s possessions after the latter’s death? (253) What does she predict will be the fate of Hannah’s house? (254)
What do we now learn had been Dora Rouge’s bargain with the water spirit as they passed over the Se Nay River? (255)
What sound closes the chapter, and how is this appropriate? (255)
Chapter 12: What is North House? What horrific facts do we learn about its past? What eerie phenomenon has been the aftermath? (196)
How are they greeted on their arrival? (197) Who greets them, and who are the house’s other inhabitants? (198) What differentiates the Europeans from the Indians? What does the narrator seem to think of the former’s pursuit? (199-200, 202)
What is new about the language of these local natives? (200)
What package do the travelers receive, and what is sent for Angela? What does Agnes receive, and who has sent it? Why is this important? (201)
What important events does Bush believe are censored from the newspapers? (201)
How do the local native peoples respond to the travelers? (202-203) What do the other old woman, Jere, and Dora-Rouge talk about? (203)
What sensations does Angela experience as the women again begin their journey? (204)
What do they find has changed when they visit the Place of Sleepers? What is ominous about these changes? (204-205)
How do Dora-Rouge and Agnes react to these changes? (205) Is there anything ominous about the latter’s reaction?
What seems symbolic about the Islands of Flowers? (205) Why do the other women send Angela off to find the medicinal plants for Agnes? Do you think this was wise? (206)
In Angela’s view, what does she experience on the trip? (207) Why do you think these experiences occur to her in this context? (207) Is there symbolism to the fact that the map isn’t accurate? (207)
What happens to Angela after she finds the red-rooted tubers? (207) What does she see as she returns to the women’s camp? (208-209) Does this seem a dignified end for Agnes’ life?
Why does Dora-Rouge feel guilty for her daughter’s death? (210)
What causes the death of the moose? (210) How may this be related to the themes of this section? What does Dora-Rouge mean by the statement, “It isn’t God that did this.” (211)
Chapter 17:
What is “Ek’s book,” and how would you describe its pages? (257) How is it put to use by her descendants?
What humorous result occurs when Tulik and others believe Aurora reincarnates an ancestor? What effect does it have on their behavior? (257) What does Angela wish for her? (258)
Why is Aurora’s name important?
Who disagrees slightly with their interpretation? (256-57) How does she cure Tulik of calling Aurora “my grandfather”? (258)
What prevents John Husk and Tommy from arriving as planned? (258)
What prompts Tulik and Angela to seek to gather plants? (260) How do they react to the gathered plants? (261)
What methods are used by the traditional healer and her helper? (261) What does Angela learn from them?
How does Angela describe the relationship of this small community to one another? (262)
What causes Angela to burn herself, and how is she healed? (262-264)
What characterizes Aurora’s rearing? (264)
What Native creation legend is told, and where does this creative force reside? (265) What, according to this legend, is the origin of all things?
Chapter 18:
How does the coming of electricity affect Native life? What things do they find changed at first, and what do they enjoy? What are some criticisms of the new form of light? (267-68)
How does Angela respond to the radio? (268) On what basis does a Cree village reject electricity? Does Angela think this is wise? (268)
Who were the laborers who brought the electric lines? (267)
What are some of Angela’s thoughts as she dances in the absence of others? (272)
What sudden changes occur in the landscape, and what causes these changes? (272)
What are Angela’s reflections as she listens to their dog respond to the wolves outside? (273)
What striking changes do they now perceive in the local water and animal habitats? (273-74)
How do the Indians prepare for the local meeting regarding the dam? (277) What motivates Angela to attend? (275)
Who has called the meeting, and what is their intent? In what specific ways will the electric dam alter this region? (278-79)
Are any outsiders present to offer help, and if so, how are they described? (278, 292, 296-97)
What interpretation does the narrator give of the fact that the church is superior architecturally than the native shacks? (276)
Which of the natives protests the loss of their land? (280-81) How does Tulik describe the Indians’ present life? (281) What final declaration does Bush make? (283)
How are the company and government representatives characterized? (279) Which of their words are perceived as especially offensive?
Why are their promises of compensation (jobs, schools, a clinic) not believed? (281)
What happens to the petition? (281) What action causes the company representatives to feel less respect for Tulik? (281)
What happens in the scene in which bulldozers tear up the yard around Tulik’s house? Why do the others wish Angela to leave with Aurora? What happens when she tries to pass the bulldozers? (285-89)
As she leaves the house, what self-description does Angela offer of herself? (287)
What actions do Luce and Angela take to publicize the plight of their people? (289, 292)
How, according to Angela, did the officials interpret the actions of the Indians? (283)
Why is Angela arrested? (291) Why has she not bothered to carry identification with her? (290)
What name does she give the officer as hers, and how does this represent a change? (290) What seems the significance of Angela’s dream while in jail? (291)
What horrific incident is reported the same day Angela is permitted to return home? (292)
What prompts Miss Nett’s arrival? (294) What desecrations to the north does she report? (295)
Why do the construction workers return to bulldoze by Tulik’s house again? (297, 299)
What actions do the protestors continue to perform, and do they believe they have had any relative successes? (300) What local non-native man offers space for the protesters to gather? (301)
How do the newspapers report on the protests, and why does Angela find this offensive? (302) What does she think happens to one’s sense of time in a crisis? (303)
What major, radical action do the Indians next take, and with what results? (304) What does Angela notice about the young policemen who threaten them? (305)
What behaviors are censored in the younger male protestors? (306)
What event causes Miss Nett special grief? (307) What photograph is taken of the event? (307-308)
What reinforcements come to help the local natives, and how is their leader described? (308-309) What is the significance of the comparison to the twelve apostles? (309)
How are the underground informers who join them described? (309-310)
As the chapter draws to a close, what ominous changes in the official response to the protests do the Natives face? (310-311)
What divisions occur within their own ranks? What disturbing signs of hatred are found/occur at their home? (311-12)
Chapter 19
From what perspective does Angela speak the opening paragraph? (313) What has she gained from her participation in the James Bay protests? (313-14)
What does she remember had been the source of the Natives’ hope? (314) Which aspects of this hope will survive the flooding of their land? How has her identity strengthened? (314)
What seems the symbolism of the Natives’ painting of the church bright red? (314)
How do the white workers respond to their pickets? (315) What response do the natives make? (315)
What changes in the land do they continue to note? (315)
What ominous confrontation occurs between Dora-Rouge and a policeman? What is amusing about her response? (315)
How does Bush respond to this incident? (315) In general, what is Bush’s response to her fellow Native protesters, and what roles does she attempt to play? What possible bad outcome does she prevent?
Who arrives from Fur Island, and what news does he bring of the others? (316) How is he received by the younger Natives? (317)
What seems the relationship between him and Bush? (317) What does he do to soothe her relations with the more militant band members? (317)
What response does Tulik give to the agent who tries to convince him to surrender? (318)
What symbolic name do they call Aurora? (318)
What happens to Tulik’s house? His dog? Who or what do the Indians believe is responsible for the fire? (319)
How do you interpret the existence of wolverine tracks around the house? What myth do the natives associate with wolverines? (321-22)
What does Angela realize about their vulnerability in the face of threats? (319) What important items have been destroyed in the fire? (320)
What do you imagine Hogan may refer to when she says that “Eron . . . killed my mother”? (321)
What does Angela imagine as she sets out to steal supplies from the invaders? (322) Is her dangerous mission successful? Does it serve a purpose for her?
What division opens between Auntie (Tulik’s daughter) and Bush? (323-24)
What are some of Angela’s reflections as she considers the situation in which the Natives have been placed? (324) What does she fear could happen to the Natives themselves? (324)
What sense of the future and of the scope of time provides her with relative comfort? (325)
How does Angela describe her heightened sense of identity under stress? (325) What double-edged conundrum does she believe her people must inevitably face? (325)
How do others respond when an Indian man chooses to find work on the dam? (326)
What causes a chunk of land to break off from the mainland? (326)
What escalation of the conflict destroys their village? (327-28) What aspect of the men with guns seems most frightening? (328)
How does Angela respond to the presence of the wolf, and what is its fate? (328) What causes Aurora’s sickness, and what difficulties do they encounter in obtaining treatment for her? (329-332)
Chapter 20
What changes do they find when they return to Adam’s Rib? To Fur Island? How long has it been since Angela first arrived at Adam’s Rib and Fur Island? (335)
What has happened to those they have left behind?
What reflections about human life come to Angela after she is reunited with Tommy? (337)
What useful service does LaRue provide? (338) What have Tommy and the others done to resist the oncoming changes?
What happens to the turtle skeleton? To the Hungry Mouth? (339) What other items on the island are submerged? In what tone are the rising waters described? (339)
What unexpected changes have occurred in LaRue? (339-340) What causes him to grieve for the dead animal, and how does Angela respond to his account of the hunter’s pride in killing the last of a now-extinct species? (339)
Chapter 21
How much time has now passed since the events of the last chapter? (341) Do we know what brings Angela to the city? Tulik?
What ordeal does he now undergo, and do we know the outcome? (342) Why had he needed to alter his appearance? (342) What does he describe as his inner state? (342)
Why does Angela find the representation of Tulik in the local newspaper offensive? (344)
What victory does she celebrate in retrospect? (344) What reflections on the self-destructiveness of nature and humans come to Angela? (344)
What does Angela hope for the spirit of her mother Hannah? (345) Which of Tulik’s sayings does she remember most often? (345)
What had been Tulik’s role in Angela’s life?
What voice does Angela hear inside herself? (345) Is there hope that the Natives may yet regain some ancestral ways? (346)
What metaphors does Angela use for her shaping of her life? (346)
What does Dora-Rouge wish from Angela? (347) What now makes it harder to locate the traditional medicinal plants? (348) How is the land adapting to new changes?
How does Dora-Rouge die? (347-349) What thoughts come to Angela as she imagines a new constellation? (349)
How do Angela and Tommy celebrate their marriage? (350) What does Angela imagine is their relationship to their ancestors? (350)
What final visitations pass through Angela’s mind? (351) As the novel ends, what is she starting to hope?
What is meant by her statement, “Something beautiful lives inside us”? (351) To whom does she refer?
Is this an appropriate ending to the novel? Which of its themes does it summarize? (351) Why do you think Hogan ends the novel with Angela’s reflections rather than with a description of the gains which the Natives had won through their protest?