Part 1:The novel raises several important questions for us. One of the most disturbing is the question of how a parent (Christine) should react when confronted with the knowledge that her/his child kills without regret.Many of the other characters also invite analysis. If we think of good and evil as a continuum, where should we place Christine, Rhoda, Monica, Emory, Leroy, the Fern sisters, and the Daigles?Place these characters on the continuum of good and evil. Explain the criteria you used to place each character or pair of characters and support your ranking with references to specific passages.As you engage in a conversation, examine the reasons that allow us to understand the different placements for the characters to explore how evidence can be interpreted differently depending on the assumptions we make.Part 2: In the follow-up posts, engage in a discussion of how Jen Baker’s article helps us to understand the different approaches to classifying the characters. What do Baker’s contributions allow us to consider about the novel’s conflicts and individual characters?
