The Granby School

In I Have Some Questions for You, the Granby School acts as a complex symbol of wealth, privilege, and community. Bodie, during her time at Granby, often feels alienated from the largely well-off student body. In the wake of Thalia Keith’s murder, the Granby administration encourages the state police to avoid looking at students and faculty as possible suspects. In this way, Makkai uses the Granby School to epitomize the privilege of wealthy, powerful, majority white institutions in the United States. However, the Granby School also serves as a fraught symbol of home for Bodie and Fran, each of whom feel a strong sense of community at the school. In this way, Granby emerges as a complicated and sometimes paradoxical metaphorical device.

Fireflies

Fireflies represent the proclivity of the human mind for narrativization, even when these narratives prove false or impossible. Bodie recalls...