Review Questions: Chapter 16

1.      What symbolic meaning can you find in the description of the squirrel which Eppie watches from the window of the mission house?  Why does Eppie take such delight in watching this small creature going about his ways?  (Note: This passage will be referenced again in the review questions for a later chapter.)

2.      During Eppie’s overnight stay at the mission house she feels a broad range of emotions, from relief to happiness to wonder to despair to shame.  What reasons does she have for feeling each of these emotions?  Which are inherent aspects of her own personality and which are merely due to the circumstances in which she finds herself at the moment?

3.      In the course of the Mayor’s conversation with his family physician, the doctor addresses him by his first name, something no other character in the book does.  The doctor also suggests another mode of treatment for his wife that the Mayor does not like, but to which he ultimately concedes.  What do these facts imply about the Mayor’s relationship with the doctor?  Again, how does this square with the Mayor’s stated political position on such matters?

4.      During Eppie’s visit with her roommates at the jailhouse, what is it about Eppie’s behavior that causes Rachel to feel ashamed of herself?  Do you think that Eppie senses the full measure of her shame?  Compare Rachel’s emotions in this scene with those of her mother in Chapter 5 on the morning when Rachel left home for college.  How has Rachel matured in the intervening years?  Was her mother correct when she predicted that “you'll understand how it feels when you have children of your own someday.”