The Grass Is Singing Study Questions & Topics for Discussion

The Grass Is Singing Topics for Discussion

Consider the various forms of racial and/or ethnic and/or spiritual discrimination in the world. Is it still possible for someone to feel about another race or another group of individuals the same way Mary, Dick and the other white people in this book feel about blacks? Do those feelings continue to manifest in the same kind of financial, emotional and physical violence? Provide examples.

Discuss the extent to which Mary's feelings about male natives and about Moses in particular might be colored by her repressed sexuality. Consider in this context Dick's attitudes towards sexuality and children: How do his desires compliment and/or challenge hers?

Consider the way that almost all of the principal white characters—Mary, Dick, Marston and Slatter—all have deluded themselves, one way or another, while none of the black characters (particularly Moses, but also the briefly glimpsed field hands) have any delusions at all. In this key difference,...
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