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These are questions for your group to consider during book club meetings, but, each of you should come prepared with at least one question for the group per meeting. You can use this as inspiration. Also keep them in mind as you read.

Core Discussion Questions

1. What are the major themes in this section of the book? How do they relate to the sociology of emotions?

2. How do historical events shape the emotional lives of the characters and their families?

3. In what ways do family traditions, expectations, and relationships evolve over generations in the book?

4. How does the novel portray the role of emotions in maintaining or challenging family bonds?

Critical Thinking and Analysis

5. How does the book illustrate the ways emotions are shaped by social, cultural, and historical contexts?

6. What social forces (e.g., war, migration, economic changes, discrimination) impact the emotional experiences of different generations in the book?

7. Are there noticeable differences in how emotions are expressed or understood across generations? What might explain these changes?

8. How does the novel depict power dynamics within families, and how do emotions reinforce or challenge these dynamics?

Personal and Social Connections

9. Can you relate any family dynamics in the book to your own experiences or observations?

10. What insights does the book offer about intergenerational trauma, resilience, or adaptation?

11. How do emotions in the book reflect broader societal changes, such as shifts in gender roles, class structures, or racial/ethnic identities?

12. How does this novel compare to real historical events or sociological studies on families and emotions?

Group Reflection and Engagement

13. What passages or moments stood out to you the most, and why?

14. Did any section of the book challenge or surprise you? How did your group interpret it?

15. What questions do you have about the historical or sociological aspects of the novel? How might your group research these further?

16. How is your group dynamic shaping the way you interpret the book? Are there different perspectives that have changed your understanding?

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Read Part One; Effia, Esi, Quey Ness

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Read James, Kojo, Abena, H

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Read Akua, Willie, Yaw, Sonny

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Read to the end; Marjorie, Marcus

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Power, Trauma, Gender Roles, Violence

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“The Dove has failed. Oh, what to do? Make her to suffer or you’ll fail too!“

Stood out to me because the Big Man's family was urging for him to beat Abronoma. It seems abuse and violence is so normalized and does this have to do with the fact that Big Man is in charge? Would he be shunned if he didn’t? Is that what this comment is implying by his relatives. With that, I feel like this involves gender roles because if Big Man didn’t punish Abronoma, he would probably be seen as weak and too lenient. Which is not a man's job, especially in his position, to do.

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What does the stone signify?

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“Quey had wanted to cry, but that desire embarrassed him. He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father’s whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast.”

This stood out to me since it shows how race is at play and how one can feel united or isolated because of it.

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What did that wrestling sequence when Quey challenged Cudjo signify?

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Theme of Loss, Isolation, and Loneliness

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Theme of Loss, Isolation, and Loneliness

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I think each chapter will involve the theme of loss based on the quote Ness said and the previous chapters.

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“Ain’t we all done lost someone?” Ness asked.” This stood out to me because it emphasizes how people are constantly lost physically or mentally during these times. As a result, affecting one's emotions, feelings, actions, or the like.

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Why did Pinky become so attached to Ness?

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I wonder how Jame's family reacted when he “died” or did they ever find out the truth?

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“Now James grabbed Akosua’s hand, stopped her from moving. The bucket on her head began to sway, and she lifted her hands to steady it. “I want to marry you,” James said.”

It’s wild to me that James wants to marry a girl he just met, but given the circumstances and how there’s already arranged marriages in place, it cause him to have fast attachment. Also, him saying this shows how powerful love or infatuation could be since he would rather be with someone he loves with a lesser status than someone he doesn’t love with great status and power.

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What was that interaction between the stranger and Kojo? Did that stranger secretly know him? Know Anna? Does he know something Kojo doesn't?

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“There were rallies and protests throughout the North, and not just among the Negroes. White people were joining in like Jo had never seen them join in about anything before.”

This shows how history repeats itself when the Fugitive Slave Act got passed and runaways were getting captured. Not only did black people join in, but white people too. It's like today in America showing the theme and history of segregation and discrimination. Perfect example of BLM, especially with George Floyd. Black people were and still are tired of our mistreatment and so we held protests with white people joining in. As well as the rest of the world.

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“‘I won’t stop you if you want to go, but please take this with you. May it serve you as well as it has served me.'"

Unlucky gives the stone to Abena. I looked up what a black stone represents, and it said, protection, mystery, and strength. I would assume that meaning applies here.

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Are the hardships Abena is going through with her broken promises and the rest of her lineage a form of karma?

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“In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight.”

Is the woman in the fire Esi and Effia's true mom and how she was around during the fire?

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I feel like the relationship with Akua and Maame with the fire resembles how trauma passes down even through generations. Given the fact that they both were involved in fire and their children as well.

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"She never called his name anymore. Even if she was falling into the street or a man was robbing her or a car was coming at her, she knew not to call his name. She’d done it once, and Robert had turned, and everyone had stared."

In their previous town, they would be all comfortable and lovey dovey, but because of their racial differences in a different city, they are less connected in public. This portraying how people act differently in different social contexts and the impact one’s racial identity has. The reminder of a persons place in society.

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"He rolled over to face the wall, and Willie stayed on her back, staring at the ceiling above them. The large brown spot on the ceiling was starting to look soft to her, as though the whole thing could come crashing down on them at any moment."

Is this spot symbolic and foreshadowing Robert and Willie's relationship and how 8t will/may crumble? All do to the way society treats their skin color.

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“Yaw realized that it was not his scar that had terrified her, but rather the problem of language, a marker of her education, her class, compared with his. She had been terrified that for the teacher of the white book, she would have to speak the white tongue.”

Not only does Yaw's families trauma show only his scar, but it shows how colonization can show fear in minorities such as Esther and Yaw. Being able to maintain one’s language and culture brings so much joy and this shows the connection that it can bring with Esther’s joy.

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Now getting this far in the novel, does the stone signify the curse of the trauma both family lineages go through? Or is it a sense, that slither of hope that in the darkest of times protrudes for them?

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“Deliverance was exactly what Sonny wanted. He was a forty-five-year-old dope fiend, and he was tired but he was also sick, and the sickness of trying to come off the dope outweighed his exhaustion”

Evidence of structural strain theory. Carson/sonny has gone through so much, he uses dope as a getaway.

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At the end of the chapter, Sonny decides to stay with his mom after she told him more about his familial history. Why did Willie wait so long to tell Sonny when she saw him turn into something worse and worse?

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“Now, keeping her head down and fighting back tears as Tisha and her friends called her “white girl,” Marjorie was made aware, yet again, that here “white” could be the way a person talked; “black,” the music a person listened to. In Ghana you could only be what you were, what your skin announced to the world.”

Discrimination and isolation is worldwide. Lasting generations.

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Does Marjorie's poem signify her difference from others in high school based on her background?

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“The cane kept hitting at his foot, and for a second Marcus had felt as though at any moment the man would lift the cane all the way up toward the ceiling and send it crashing over his head. He couldn’t guess why he felt that way, but it had scared him so badly, he could start to feel a wet stream traveling down his pant legs.“

Displays how intergeneration trauma is real and it can be triggered at in point in time. Any context that can make one feel inferior.