Discussion questions for "Gather the Daughters"

I'm not sure I can say that I enjoyed this book, but it really got under my skin. I found some discussion questions online from the publisher (indicated by *), some of which I expanded on (indicated by **). I added a bunch of my own as well.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for GATHER THE DAUGHTERS by Jennie Melamed

**1. What do you think about Janey's claim that there are no Wastelands? What evidence is there to support this? Is there evidence that the Wastelands exist? How do you interpret Vanessa’s view of the Wastelands (mainland) as she approaches them at the end of the book?

*2. How have their upbringings and their relationships to their fathers’ upbringing affected Janey, Caitlin, Mary, Vanessa, and Amanda?

**3. At Mrs. Balthazar's party, Denise asks Amanda, "What happens to the sons, when the fathers leave?" What does this statement signify? Does it change your view of the Island? What do you think happened to the young men who disappeared? Did they commit suicide?

**4. How culpable are the men for abusing their daughters, when their culture and religion expects it of them? How does this level of responsibility compare to someone who abuses a child in our society? What do you think of Janey’s father’s perspective on his “obligation” to his daughters? What about Vanessa’s father’s approach to this issue?

5. How culpable are the women for allowing their husbands to abuse their daughters, when their culture and religion expects it of them? How can we make sense of their willingness to participate in this? Can you think of examples in other cultures where women allow daughters to be abused, such as Chinese foot binding or African female genital mutilation? How do we account for this?

6. What do you think of the daughters’ acquiescence to the Island’s culture of incest? Do you think it is realistic? Can you think of examples, like religious cults, where this sort of thing happens in real life? Do more girls (in real life) rebel against it?

7. What do you think of the Island’s method of dealing with people as they age? Why do you think the Wanderers chose to eliminate people so (relatively) early in their lives (once they could no longer reproduce)? What did you think about Vanessa’s reaction to Mrs Adam’s tale of her grandmother?

8. Why do you think Janey was the only one to rebel? What did you think about the other daughters’ initial reaction to Janey’s “sermon” – just thinking about alternate islands with year around summer or better food, but not thinking about a different social order or escape from submission to their fathers? Do you think that is realistic? What do you think the author was trying to say by having Janey’s “sermon” play out like this?

9. What did you think of the way that girls are initiated into “fruition” (with a multiple week orgy)? What did you think of the Island’s way of letting young people run wild all summer? What did you think were the functions of those traditions? Can you think of any examples in real life that compare, such as the Amish Rumspringa?

*10. Are there any elements of life on the Island that you could see existing in real life, now or in the future? If so, which ones?

11. What do you think about Vanessa’s access to books? What do you think the author is saying about books and reading? Do you think Vanessa would have been as naturally curious and questioning without having spent time reading?

12. What do you think of Vanessa’s father’s reaction when he realizes that other Wanderers have murdered Island residents? What do you think of Vanessa’s reaction to his reaction?

13. What did you think of the sickness that came to the Island? What do you think happened? Do you think this is realistic? What did you think of the Islanders response to the illness? What did you think of the Wanderers response to the aftermath of the illness?

14. Where do you think Vanessa’s father got the medicine he forced Vanessa to take? Why did Vanessa resist taking it? What do you think the Wanderers should have done about the illness and about the medicine?

15. What did you think of Janey’s death? What do you think was her cause of death? Do you think her death was inevitable? What do you think the author was trying to say about her character? Was her character a savior? Christ-like?

16. What did you think of Caitlyn's suicide? Do you think her death was inevitable? Did you think it was noble or hopeless or cowardly?

17. What did you think about the Wanderers recruitment campaign? How do you think they were finding participants from the mainland? What do you think of the observation “Maybe there are no more men like the Wanderers”? What do you imagine the original Wanderers were like?

18. What did you think of the Island economy (subsistence farming and bartering)? What do you think the Wanderers used for money when they went to the mainland to get glass for windows and other things?

*19. In many works of fiction, we see utopias quickly descending into dystopias. Do you think the Island was originally a utopia, or was it always a dystopia for its inhabitants? How and why do utopias often turn into dystopias?

*19. Which character did you feel the strongest connection to? Did this change over the course of the novel?

*20. Which scenes or developments in the novel affected you the most?

*21. What did you make of the novel’s end? Did you want more closure? 

22. How do you think Vanessa and her family fare on the mainland? Do you think they are able to adapt?

*23. Where do you see the characters in ten years? Do you think the Island continues to exist or is it discovered and disbanded? 

24. Would you like the author to write a sequel? If so, what would you like to see happen in it?

25. Is your reaction to the novel altered at all by hearing that the author is (in real life) a nurse who has worked with children who are victims of abuse and trauma?

* Questions from the publisher, Little, Brown and Company

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/littlebrown-rgg-gatherthedaughtersrgg.pdf

** Questions from the publisher, supplemented by questions from Danielle

All other questions (those unmarked) are created by Danielle