Discussion Questions

1. Discussion Questions Significant Quotations: Discuss the following quotations: “Wife and brats – who do he think we are – slaves? He can tell us to leave this flat, but he can’t tell us to leave the town. He’s not a king – he don’t own us!” (page 25) “At night she listens to the wind growl. She imagines the wind as a great white beast, humped just outside the Cape, holding them all between its terrible paws. Its breath shakes the shed.” (page 32) “It’s not a bad thing to be without husband or sons.” (page 41) “But by then there will be other graves on the point.” (page 51) (Lavinia) “is unwilling to discard the protection of childhood.” (page 90) “They are stunned into silence at the suddenness of this death, the first for which they all feel grief.” (page 99) “Maybe she is lonely – bue she’s known that for a long time – chosen it, in fact.” (page 108) “Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a tribute far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life my all.” (page 120) “The children are right, there is a stranger in the woods, and I don’t think it’s the devil.” (page 125) “Then there are the other, most intriguing paths of all, those bridging the worlds of children and adults. Paths unseen and unseeable until, in the fullness of time knowledge of them is bestowed on the child.” (page 138) “They are in the promised land.” (page 151)

2. “It’s not a bad thing to be without husband or sons.” (page 41) • Lavinia writes this in her journal after a day of witnessing the men sealing. The men recklessly jump from one ice pan to another without regard for the danger. “making the job more dangerous that it needed to be.” The reader recognizes one of the reasons why Lavinia chooses to be among the children instead of thinking about choosing husband and sons. She looks at this as something a woman would regret. These lines are significant as they reveal Lavinia’s personal motivation to not marry as other girls on the Cape have already done by her age.

3. But by then there will be other graves on the point.” (page 51) • These lines are from the narrator. This foreshadows how other Cape Random residents will die within the next year. The entirety of the paragraph describe Lavinia’s attempts to erase the memory of Hazel dying in the fishstore. The narrator reveals that life will go on for the remainder of the settlers, but death will also touch them. This is significant to conflict (the harshness of the environment will end in tragedy for some of the characters) & the theme of the constant struggle with the environment.

4. (Lavinia) “is unwilling to discard the protection of childhood.” (page 90) • The narrator describes Lavinia’s reaction to Angus obvious attempt to make his interest in her known. Angus has stopped her on her way down a path and blocks her way, but is at a loss for words. Lavinia has just learned from Meg that Angus “has his eye on her”. The narrator says “ She has no patience for his silent declaration.” She does not want to marry Angus, but Angus seems confidant that she will marry him and this makes her angry. This is significant because it reminds the reader of her earlier reasons for not wanting to marry.