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45 pages 1 hour read

John Grisham

A Painted House

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001

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Essay Topics

1.

Examine the opening chapter. How does Grisham situate the reader in the setting of Black Oak, Arkansas, in 1952? Consider diction, description, voice, mood, and tone.

2.

How would you characterize the narrative voice that Grisham crafts for the seven-year-old Luke? Does Luke sound like a child his age? Why or why not? Why does Grisham render Luke’s voice the way he does?

3.

The novel includes many examples of prejudice along the lines of class, race, and gender. Stacey’s mean-spirited questioning of Luke in Chapter 19 is a particularly striking example. What commentary does the novel produce about the causes and impacts of prejudice? Do any of the characters have prejudices that shift over the course of the narrative?

4.

War is a motif running throughout the novel. Ricky’s service in Korea is the present example, but both Eli and Jesse Chandler were also affected by their time serving in World War I and World War II respectively. What is the symbolic function of war in this narrative?

5.

All the Chandler men—Eli, Jesse, and Luke—aspired (or aspire) to become professional baseball players. For the two older men, these dreams were taken from them, yet both encouraged the next generation to pursue this dream. What commentary does the novel produce about intergenerational ambitions and the possibility of achieving them?

6.

Consider the allusion to Noah’s Ark and the flood. Which other biblical allusions does Grisham include? Possibilities include references to snakes, gardens, and David and Goliath. Choose a biblical allusion to explore. What’s the author’s purpose in including this reference? How does it inform your understanding of the novel?

7.

Grisham portrays several scenes of baseball, including a nearly 10-page description of a baseball game in Chapter 11. Why does Grisham take this much time in the narrative to describe this game? What work does this scene do in terms of developing the novel’s characters or themes?

8.

In Navigating Patriarchal Violence, this guide touches on the deeply toxic masculinity that Hank embodies and performs. How would you characterize the masculinities that Pappy and Jesse Chandler model for Luke? How, if at all, do these masculinities differ from Hank’s?

9.

Given the Chandlers’ complicated relationship with painted houses, why don’t Pappy and Gran stop Luke from painting the house? How and why have their outlooks changed by this point in the novel, if at all?

10.

John Grisham is best known for his fast-paced legal thrillers. How do the pacing and tone of A Painted House differ from those of a legal thriller? Are there any narrative approaches to crafting a thriller that Grisham employs in this novel?

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