STUDY QUESTIONS - BOOK REPORT IDEAS

1) Analyze McCullers' use of the child's point of view to narrate the novel. What does this point of view enable and what does it limit McCullers from doing in telling the story of Frankie Addams' last childhood summer?

2) Examine the issue of race in the novel. How does McCullers view the racial divide in the town and the racist institutions of the town such as the legal, civil, and employment institutions?

3) Analyze Berenice as a mother figure in the novel. What makes her an unusual mother figure to Frankie Addams and John Henry West?

4) Examine Frankie as an artist figure. What are her potential areas of artistry and what personality characteristics make Frankie a likely artist figure?

5) What is the place of the Blue Moon cafe in the world of Frankie's rite of passage from childhood into adolescent girlhood?


6) Map Frankie's sojourn through town on the day she goes to buy her wedding dress. What does this map of the town tell us about the social-economic structure of mid-century southern society?

7) Why does McCullers build up to the wedding and then write it as a sort of anti-climax in the novel?


8) Discuss Frankie's encounters with the red-haired soldier, especially the climax scene in his room. Why does McCullers write this scene as the climax of the novel?

9) Trace Frankie's fantasies about what she will do in her future life. Do you see a progress towards maturity or are the fantasies the same throughout?

10) Evaluate the end of the novel. What does it tell you about McCullers' sense of the realities of life?

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