Look Homeward, Angel questions?
Dates: 3/25/02,2:09 PM through 3/25/02,2:45 PM (2 postings)
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Look Homeward, Angel questions?
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FROM: Lisa Sheffield <[removed]@transylvania.lib.nc.us>
REC'D: 3/25/02, 2:09 PM
Lisa
Lisa Sheffield
Adult Services Librarian
Transylvania County Library
Brevard, NC 28712
828-884-3151
Opinions expressed are my own.
FROM: David Wright <[removed]@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 3/25/02, 2:45 PM
Look Homeward, Angel
By Thomas Wolfe
Reading Group Discussion Points
1.Like Faulkner and Joyce, Wolfe has been
acclaimed for his evocation of place. What
details in Look Homeward, Angel evoke its
setting, and
what is the relation between its setting and its
themes?
2.Describe the structure of Look Homeward,
Angel. Discuss Wolfe's literary
voice and his use of
dramatic episodes and lyricism. How does Wolfe
use both angels and
trains symbolically? What significance does the
title Look
Homeward,Angel gather in the course of the novel?
3.In what ways does the
novel powerfully represent the American struggle
to go beyond the
limitations of home and hometown? In what ways is
the novel a search for
America as well?
4.Describe the conflict
which rages inside of Eugene Gant? How does it
become the underlying
force in the story?
5.Look Homeward, Angel is
concerned with family and breaking away.
Discuss this theme as
it emerges in the book as well as in the
exchanges
between Eugene and
Eliza, Eugene and Mr. Gant, Eugene and Ben.
6.Wolfe clearly states in
the opening pages: "That we are born alone -- all
of us who ever lived or
will live -- that we live alone, and die alone,
and
that we are strangers
to one another, and never come to know one
another." How does this
sentiment pervade the novel? How does Wolfe
develop it as a
leitmotiv? Who else in the novel, besides Eugene,
is
alone?
7.Women play a
significant role in Wolfe's novel, especially
Eliza,
Margaret, Laura James,
and Helen. What distinguishes Wolfe's female
characters? What do
they all have in common? How do these women
shape events? What
impact do they have on Eugene's growth and
ultimate
transformation?
8.Discuss the impetus
Wolfe's male characters provide Eugene. What
characterizes Wolfe's
male characters? How do Mr. Gant, Ben, Steve,
and Luke contribute to
Eugene's ultimate fate? What role do Wolfe's
male characters play in
the events, in the family?
9.How might Wolfe
perceive his own characters? Does he offer any
insights into their
troubles? Does he treat them sympathetically? If
so,
how? In what ways do
Wolfe's characters, in particular Eugene, try to
win
love? What keeps them
from obtaining it? Do Wolfe's characters ever
break through to one
another? If so, who, how, and when?
10.Beginning with the
death of Mr. Gant's grandfather, to the death of
Mr.
Gant's first child,
death is a constant presence in Look Homeward,
Angel. What impact does
Ben's death have on the Gant family?
Specifically, how does
it alter Eugene's life and perspective? Why is
Ben's death ironic in
the novel? How does the story build to this
climax?
What does Ben's death
accomplish that his life could not?
11.Why might Wolfe have
ended the novel with a visitation of Ben's ghost
with Eugene? What is
its significance both for Eugene and for the
novel?
12.What vision of human
nature does Look Homeward, Angel seem to
express? Does Wolfe
prove or suggest a vision of an ideal world? What
might it be?
Recommended
Readings
Absolom, Absolom, William
Faulkner
Vintage Books, 1991
Alnilam, James Dickey
Pinnacle Books, 1987
Death in the Woods and Other
Stories, Sherwood Anderson
W. W. Norton, 1986
Lost in the Cosmos, Walker
Percy
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982
Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
Signet Classics, 1989
Sophie's Choice, William
Styron
Vintage Books, 1992
The Sound and the Fury,
William Faulkner
Modern Library, 1992
The Thanatos Syndrome,
Walker Percy
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987
Ulysses, James Joyce
Vintage Books, 1979
--- Lisa Sheffield
<[removed]@transylvania.lib.nc.us> wrote:
> Does anyone know of a source for discussion
> questions for Thomas Wolfe's
> Look Homeward, Angel? I have exhausted all of
> my regular resources. Thanks
> in advance!
>
> Lisa
>
> Lisa Sheffield
> Adult Services Librarian
> Transylvania County Library
> Brevard, NC 28712
> 828-884-3151
> Opinions expressed are my own.
>
>
>
>
......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the
> archives?
> Everything Fiction_L:
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=====
David Wright Seattle Public Library
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