QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Throughout the novel, March and Marmee,
although devoted to one another, seem to misunderstand each other
quite a bit and often do not tell each other the complete truth.
Discuss examples of where this happens and how things may have
turned out differently, for better or worse, had they been
completely honest. Are there times when it is best not to tell our
loved ones the truth?
2. The causes of the American Civil War were
multiple and overlapping. What was your opinion of the war when you
first came to the novel, and has it changed at all since reading
March?
3. March’s relationships with both Marmee and
Grace are pivotal in his life. Discuss the differences between
these two relationships and how they help to shape March, his
worldview, and his future. What other people and events were
pivotal in shaping March’s beliefs?
4. Do you think it was the right decision for
March to have supported, financially or morally, the northern
abolitionist John Brown? Brown’s tactics were controversial, but
did the ends justify the means?
5. “If war can ever be said to be just, then this
war is so; it is action for a moral cause, with the most rigorous
of intellectual underpinnings. And yet everywhere I turn, I see
injustice done in the waging of it,” says March (p. 65). Do you
think that March still believes the war is just by the end of the
novel? Why or why not?
6. What is your opinion of March’s enlisting?
Should he have stayed home with his family? How do we decide when
to put our principles ahead of our personal obligations?
7. When Marmee is speaking of her husband’s
enlisting in the army, she makes a very eloquent statement: “A
sacrifice such as his is called noble by the world. But the world
will not help me put back together what war has broken apart” (p.
210). Do her words have resonance in today’s world? How are the
people who fight our wars today perceived? Do you think we pay
enough attention to the families of those in the military? Have our
opinions been influenced at all by the inclusion of women in the
military?
8. The war raged on for several years after
March’s return home. How do you imagine he spent those remaining
years of the war? How do you think his relationship with Marmee
changed? How might it have stayed the same?
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When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague
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