Chapters 10&11

  1. Answer the questions to analyze both the vigil for May in chapter 9 and the celebration of Mary Day in Chapter 10.
  1. What is the purpose of the gathering?
  2. Where is the gathering held?
  3. How is the space decorated?
  4. Who attends?
  5. What refreshments are there?
  6. How long does it last?
  7. What activities are there?
  8. List three ways that both occasions are similar.
  9. List three ways the two gatherings are different.
  10. What conclusions can be reached about the way people mourn and rejoice?

2. Explain the quote at the beginning of the chapter.

3.August sensed that something wasn’t quite right, when May went out to the wall. How did she know something was wrong?

4.The Wailing Wall had been May’s outlet for sorrow. Why didn’t it sustain her through Zach’s incarceration? How might things have been different for May if she lived today instead of in the 1960s?

5.Interpret this sentence: “This had been the thing they’d been waiting for half their lives without even realizing it” (p 194).

6.Lily says that it “would be selfish to pour this into her cup” (p 201). What does she mean?

7.How has Zach changed?

8.Zach says, “We can’t think of changing our skin, change the world – that’s how we gotta think” (p 216). Can you think of examples where, in changing the world, one might decide to change their skin, if only for a little while?

9.While in mourning, the usual routines of Lily’s life have disappeared. How do routines affect our life? How has routine helped June to cope with May’s death? If the temperature had gone over 100 degrees, do you think that August would have gone on bee patrol to feed the bees?

10.When Lily wants to move back into the honey house, Rosaleen doesn’t protest. In fact, she is in favor of Lily moving immediately. Both have gotten used to having space to themselves. Discuss examples from your life where you and your mother, or a friend, have each wanted your own space, or time without the other. Has it felt like rejection? Was it rejection? How did it turn out?

11.Discuss what Zach might be thinking when he says “I know that feeling” in response to Lily saying “…Sometimes I would be hooked on that chain along with them.” Connect this to Zach’s goals for the future.