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Summer Reading Questions,
2009
Introduction to the Liberal Arts: Exemplary Lives
1.
When we
think of "autobiography," we generally think about the events in one
person's life. Yet The Road from Coorain opens with a whole
chapter on the history and landscape of western Australia. Why do you
suppose Jill Ker Conway makes the choice to begin with place rather than
people?
2.
During her
life, Ker Conway loses both her father and her idolized eldest brother.
What are the overt as well as the subtle things she takes away from
these losses, and how do they weave throughout her life?
3.
"Colonialism" is something that Americans might study in a history book
or a political science class. For Ker Conway, however, colonialism is a
lived reality and isn't just about history or politics. What are the
various ways that colonialism affects the mindset of Australians? How
does it affect her life and mindset personally?
4.
Ker Conway
tries college twice. The first time she drops out before a semester is
even over. Only eighteen months later, she succeeds wildly. What seems
to have changed in those months that helps make her into a better,
thriving student?
5.
In what
ways do Ker Conway's chapter titles serve not only to denote some
concrete reality, but also function to generate themes for the book?
Which themes seem most important to you, and why?
6.
In
autobiographies such as The Road from Coorain, authors seem
simply to be telling their own stories, concentrating on their own
self-discoveries. Yet no story, particularly of how one moves into
adulthood, is "simple." As you think again about this book, consider the
ways in which Ker Conway is able to make choices which form her -- and
moments when choices are made for her, or about her. Which might you say
is the more powerful force in her understanding of her own life, and
why? And how does her very telling of the story highlight certain
choices while minimizing others?
7.
Besides
herself, the most dominant personality in the book is Ker Conway's
mother, whom she describes as both a nurse and a patient. Analyze the
personality traits that made her mother such an expert nurse and such an
unwilling patient.
8.
The
publisher's blurb on the very front of the Vintage edition claims that
The Road from Coorain Is "a woman's exquisitely clear-sighted
memoir of growing up Australian." Now that you've finished the book,
which of those four elements -- "woman," "clear-sighted," "growing up,"
or "Australian" -- seems predominant to you? Why?
9.
What do you
think of as "exemplary" characteristics? As you read Ker Conway's book,
were you ever surprised at some of the details she included about her
own life or the lives of others, such as her mother? More importantly
for us, can a life still be considered "exemplary" if it has flaws? Can
these shortcomings serve a purpose?
10.
Introduction to the Liberal Arts (ILA)
is going to help you hone your ability to examine the world and think
critically about how it affects you, and how you affect it. How does Ker
Conway embody the importance and function of such critical thinking? As
you're answering that, be thinking of specific examples from the book,
including ones from different periods in her life.
11.
Since
you're entering a new phase of your lives at Monmouth College, you're no
doubt envisioning not only what life will be like during college, but
what you'll be like after it. Ker Conway confronted this herself, saying
that:
I knew
I loved to study, but just what I would do there [at university] was
unclear. What would I become after three years of higher education?
Try as I might I couldn't conjure up a single image to fill in the
blank prospect of the future. I know it would involve […]
responsibility […], but my picture of myself as an adult was as
empty as the western plains. (147)
As you're
thinking about your own futures, is your personal "landscape" populated,
or empty? What are you sure will be there and what are you still
wondering about? |
