A Light in the Wilderness (33 page)

1. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Willa Cather once wrote that the emotions that drive great stories are passion and betrayal. What were the passions in this story? Where was the betrayal? As you think of your own life stories, how are passion and betrayal a part of them, or are they?
   
2. The author suggests that two other desires are present in all stories: a character’s desire for acceptance and forgiveness. How did Letitia seek acceptance? Do you think she found it? What about forgiveness? Did Letitia seek forgiveness? Did any other characters demonstrate a desire for acceptance or forgiveness?
   
3. How did Letitia overcome her cowers
   ?
   Where did she draw her strength from? What were Nancy Hawkins’s desires? Did she have her own kind of cowers
   ?
   What about Betsy, the Kalapuya woman? What were her worries and how did she resolve them?
   
4. Were there other ways Letitia could have dealt with her stepson, David Junior? How did Letitia’s race complicate her role
   as a stepmother? Was her sense of intrusion by Davey’s son warranted? Why or why not?
   
5. Could Letitia have found a better way than a lawsuit to confront Greenberry Smith? What choices did women of color have during that time period if they experienced an injustice?
   
6. Letitia says at one point, “Maybe that was what freedom meant, being in a place where one didn’t fear.” Later she notes that freedom is having the courage to do what must be done. How would you define freedom? What about justice?
   
7. Does the turmoil around slavery in this far western territory surprise you? How might Letitia and Davey’s life have been different if they had remained in Missouri? What about going north to what eventually became Washington Territory, where historically African Americans received a warmer welcome?
   
8. Letitia notes about her traveling companions on the Oregon Trail that “they might be in new territory, but it would be with the same people bringing what they knew to wherever they were going.” How did that insight reveal itself once Letitia and Davey made it to the Willamette Valley?
   
9. Nancy notes, “Power without love is never just.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
   
10. Did Letitia come to accept the promise of the sparrow? Why or why not? Was Davey’s attitude of “not to worry” justified? Was he a good partner? Why or why not?
    
11. How do Letitia or Nancy or Betsy’s lives speak to women’s lives today? What autonomy did these women have and how did that affect how they survived when injustice entered their lives?
    

Jane Kirkpatrick
is the
New York Times
, CBA, and Pacific Northwest bestselling author of more than twenty-six books, including
A Sweetness to the
Soul
, which won the coveted Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center. Her works have been finalists for the Christy Award, Spur Award, Oregon Book Award, and Reader’s Choice awards, and have won the WILLA Literary Award and Carol Award for Historical Fiction. Many of her titles have been Book of the Month, Crossings, and Literary Guild selections. You can also read her work in more than fifty publications, including
Decision
,
Private Pilot
, and
Daily Guideposts
, and in her Story Sparks newsletter. Jane lives in Central Oregon with her husband, Jerry. She loves to hear from readers at
http
://
www
.
jkbooks
.
com
and
http://Facebook.com/theauthorJaneKirkpatrick
.

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