For those of you that haven't or couldn't attend book club lately, we'll be publishing the previous months' discussion questions here. I hope eventually to post discussion questions for all of the books we've covered since I took over a couple of years ago, maybe even beyond. It will take a while. Until then, we will be posting discussion questions a couple of times a month. Here are the questions from our February 2020 title, The Water Dancer. We hope these questions spark discussions of your own.
The Water Dancer
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Summary:
A boldly imagined work of magic and adventure from the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me.
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage–and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child–but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn’t understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram’s private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey into the covert war on slavery that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind–but to do so, he must first master his magical gift and reconstruct the story of his greatest loss.
This is a bracingly original vision of the world of slavery, written with the narrative force of a great adventure. Driven by the author’s bold imagination and striking ability to bring readers deep into the interior lives of his brilliantly rendered characters, The Water Dancer is the story of America’s oldest struggle–the struggle to tell the truth–from one of our most exciting thinkers and beautiful writers. - author's website
Discussion Questions
Why do you think Coates uses terms like “Tasked” and “Quality” instead of “slaves” and “masters,” among other terms? What do you think the novel gains from this altered language?
Hiram says that the Tasked are "Blessed, for we do not bear the weight of pretending pure." How does Coates define morality in the novel? In what ways does Hiram’s notion of morality differ from that of the Quality, or even Corinne?
What about the morality of "war," as the underground seem to term it? Of "freedom?"
What do you make of Howell Walker's apology? To what extent does Coates humanize Howell? Why do you think he does this?
What roles do the concepts of motherhood and fatherhood play in the novel? How does Hiram define family?
Sophia tells Hiram, "But what you must get, is that for me to be yours, I must never be yours." What is Coates saying about the particular struggles of black women in this novel? How does Hiram's relationship with Sophia change over time?
Characters like Corrine risk their lives to work for the Underground, while also allowing Hiram and some of its other members to come to harm for the greater good of the organization. What might Coates be trying to say about the relationship between white people and racial justice with these characters?
What does Coates seem to be saying about how different groups of people view each other? Similarities in interpretation? Differences?
Discuss Harriet's role in the story. Did you know immediately who she was? What impact does the inclusion of a historical figure have on the narrative?
Do you find Coates' portrayal of Harriet to be particularly accurate one? Were there any other characters that seemed particularly well pulled from history for the novel?
What is the significance of water throughout the book? Why do you think Coates chooses it as a medium for Hiram's power?
There are some that say the use of water as a portal in novels is overdone. Do you agree? If Coates were to have changed the mechanism, how do you see this affecting the storyline? What would you have used?
Coates is best known for his works of nonfiction; The Water Dancer is his first novel. Why do you think he chose to explore the themes of slavery and the Underground Railroad through fiction? What is gained when the book isn't tethered to historical fact? What is lost?
For those of you that did extra research and looked into the real stories of the individuals Coates based the book on (I know you did), how do they compare? Were any particularly moving?
Additionally on the extra search front: Mami Wata is the name of the "goddess" occasionally referred to in the book, although mostly not by name. Etymology argues the name's origin and the deity herself seem to be a mix of various different water deity traditions and origins. Have any of you heard of her before and/or understood what they were getting at? How do you see it applying to the book?
She also seems to have shaped some of the discussion of mothers, memory, caring, and other topics. In what way do you see discussion of a water/snake/fertility/... goddess having affected the story?
What does The Water Dancer add to our understanding of how enslaved people suffered? What does the novel add to our understanding of the agency, resilience and strength of enslaved people during that time
How are the themes of The Water Dancer relevant to modern discussions of race, privilege and power?
Also in the discussion of race, privilege and power, what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what is no longer relevant or has reemerged as relevant in terms of this novel?
The title for this session changed fairly late in the game and I knew there were going to be people that had forgotten the change or somehow missed the memo despite it being in all of our published advertising. I also knew there would be those that read both. Therefore I included the following questions to keep them in the conversation. The other title was the popular Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James:
Based on our discussion tonight, how do you think the two compared? Was there anything that stood out in one over the other? Was there anything you particularly wanted to discuss about the other title?
The two books have very different storytelling methods, one being very episodic and the other more linear with many flashbacks. Was one more effective or was there a rhyme and reason for the two to be told that way? What was the effect?
Discuss the two authors' differing use of mythology.
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