Evergreen (39 page)

7.    Part Two, set at the Hopewell Orphanage, is quite bleak. How does the author use
language and imagery to make the horrors endured by Naamah tolerable to readers?

8.    On
this page
, the girls’ names are explained—nearly every girl’s first name is Mary, “…  as if Sister Cordelia didn’t want them to be told apart.” Naamah and Ethelina, though, have highly unusual names. How did Sister Cordelia identify these two infants as being different? Did their names somehow seal their fates?

9.    Why does Cordelia choose Naamah to lead the girls in song?

10.    Abandonment is a theme throughout the novel, but becomes especially important in this section. How does Cordelia’s abandonment by her own mother connect to what happens at the orphanage?

11.    Why does the Bible passage, “There is no fear in love” (
this page
), prompt Naamah to leave? Does Cordelia love Naamah, as she insists later to Hux?

12.    When Hux learns that Emil knew about Naamah, he blames him for doing nothing. How might things have played out if he had acted?

13.    Why does meeting Gunther prompt Naamah to move inside Hux’s cabin?

14.    When Naamah chooses to live with Gunther, Hux thinks, “Gunther had always been able to do everything—catch a bucket of fish, chop down a tree, milk a goat—twice as fast as Hux. He’d made a life out of tracking wild things, taming them with the barrel of his shotgun, and mounting them on his walls. Hux had made a life out of preserving what was dead. Of course Naamah would go to someone like him” (
this page
). Why is she really drawn to Gunther?

15.    Why does Naamah go to the Mosquito Net for the first time?

16.    After giving birth, just before naming Racina, Naamah breaks the silver cross necklace. Why?

17.    What makes Ethelina so important to Naamah? How does her death spur Naamah into making such a calamitous decision?

18.    Is Gunther a good parent? Did you expect him to be?

19.    How do Lulu’s coat, Ethelina’s hat, and Racina’s purple boots act as talismans to the wearers?

20.    Encroaching modernity has negative connotations throughout the novel—the flood caused by the dam, Cullen’s connection to attempts to bring light to the forest, the misery of the logging camps. What is the meaning of this?

Suggested Reading

Kim Edwards,
The Memory-Keeper’s Daughter

Janet Fitch,
White Oleander

John Irving,
The Cider House Rules

Elinor Lipman,
Then She Found Me

Michael Ondaatje,
Divisadero

Donna Tartt,
The Goldfinch