The Greenlanders Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

This Study Guide consists of approximately 7 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Greenlanders.
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The Greenlanders Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

This Study Guide consists of approximately 7 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Greenlanders.
This section contains 292 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy The Greenlanders Short Guide

Connections between The Greenlanders and either the modern world or Smiley's other works may seem initially tenuous. However, once one lifts the barrier between a fourteenth-century community and the twentiethcentury world, one finds many parallels exist both in the dilemmas characters face and the circumstances in which they find themselves.

1. How does the plight of the Greenlanders resemble that of marginal minority cultures in the contemporary world? Does their inability to adapt to changing circumstances doom them?

2. In what ways is The Greenlanders a critique of medieval Western Christianity? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Church?

3. What qualities does Smiley imply are crucial for a human culture to survive over many centuries?

4. How do the diminished expectations of the Greenlanders find parallels in Smiley's novella Good Will (1989) or the novel A Thousand Acres?

5. In what ways do conflicts between parents and children in TheGreenlanders...

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This section contains 292 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy The Greenlanders Short Guide
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The Greenlanders from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.