Heartwood

Discussion Questions

• Were details in the story true to the time? The places? How or how not?
• Did you relate to particular aspects of the locales? Did any scenes or settings especially impact you?
• How did the setting impact the characters, or how did the characters impact the setting?(Setting can be the landscape, period, clothing, occupations, even mental and social conditions.)
• Compare how various characters, whether John, Tobias, Cassandra, Celia or J. Hadley Erhart, experienced the worlds they came from. Compare their experiences in the worlds they eventually moved through or to.
• What things did the places that people came to occupy reveal about them?
• How are hats important in this story?
• Were any passages especially meaningful?
• Did the story bring to mind any experiences from your life, or those of ancestors?
• What insights into rural people, places or traditions did you gain?
• What did this story reveal or enlarge about life experience in rural America? About our heritage?
• Did Heartwood simplify, romanticize or stereotype life in rural America?
• What character motivations or goals propelled the story?Which conflicted with one another?How were those conflicting ambitions or goals resolved or not resolved?
• If it can be said that in all stories the character(s) of concern change, who changed in this story? How? What was the turning point?
• Did characters come to realize anything through the story? What?
• Did you understand Cassandra’s motivations? Believe them? Tobias Meier’s?
• Was Tobias entirely sympathetic? Too sympathetic?
• Did you understand and believe John Blesh’s motivations?
• Discuss how Tobias and Cassandra confronted the unexpected realities of their marriage.
• What was Tobias really after in the story?
• Does J. Hadley Erhart bridge or perhaps rectify differing ideas or perspectives in the story?
• Does he in any way contradict stereotypes about people of his world?
• Motifs are recurring images, symbols or ideas that contribute to a theme in a story. Did you notice any? What did they relate or mean to you?
• Discuss the book’s title. What might it refer to beyond the nonliving, central wood of a tree?
• PJ Piccirillo unfolds the narrative from the alternating perspectives of Tobias, John, and Cassandra. In what ways did this enhance your reading of the story?
• Did the multiple points of view in any way enlarge or obstruct the story in itself?
• Did this book bring to mind other literary works you’ve read?Other art you’ve experienced?
• Did this book enhance your understanding of the value of literature?
• Did you discover anything about yourself reading Heartwood?