The Bark of the Dogwood - Reader's Guide

The Bark of the Dogwood - Reader's Guides

Reader's Guide 1

Discuss the use of symbols in the book: Helen Keller; Dixie; the references to dogs in the book, including the opening quotation at the beginning of the novel; the feather pen; etc.
How do the epigrams function at the beginning of each chapter?
Who is actually writing the book? Whose voice are you hearing?
Why does the main character choose to write about the homes he knew and grew up in as a child rather than the more obvious plantations and mansions of the South? How does this work for him? Against him?
This book is actually a “novel within a novel.” How is this writing technique achieved?
Discuss the difference in writing styles between the New York portion of the book and the Southern portion.
How does the author foreshadow in the New York sections what will be happening in the Southern sections? Discuss the “art imitates life” and “life imitates art” usage in the book. When does this turn from one to the other in the book?
Discuss the main character’s views on race, Southern culture, New York, and food. Do you think the main character is racist, liberal, or that he is struggling with his feelings on these and other issues in the book?
How many tie-ins can you find to the title? Where does the title come from? Why did the author title the book what he did?
Discuss the main character’s inability to communicate with the outside world. How does this manifest itself? How does he overcome it? What final attempt does he make to admit who he is and call things by their rightful names?
In chapter one Strekfus relates a story about taking an aptitude test when he was young. How does his rationalization of the answers to this test mirror the form, journey of discovery, and plot of the book?
Discuss the use of stereotypes in the novel. How does the author use stereotypes and how do certain characters dispel the myths perpetuated by them?
What is the significance of the town name, Infanta, in the book?
Discuss the use of religious references throughout the book.
Why did Althea perform the heroic feat that she did at the climax of the book? How did she view Strekfus and how did he view her? Would they have had the same relationship in another time and place?

Reader's Guide 2

Discuss how the combination of people, places, and things come together to produce “memory” for the main character.
The main character in the novel is middle-aged. How does this affect his attitude, writing, memory, and relationships with others? Could he have written this novel if he were in his twenties?
Discuss racism in the South versus racism in the North, both during the Civil Rights era and now as it figures in the book.
Why does the main character relate to the housekeeper so well? What is it about the way society/people/authority treats them that is similar? What is different?
Discuss the biblical reference to “the sins of the fathers” and how this figures into the book. How does this relate to the fact that the main character is childless and plans to remain so?
Why does Strekfus give us the story about the Chihuahua in chapter ten? What is he really talking about? How is the dog a symbol? Is there more than one symbol?
What is the significance of some of the names of the streets that the houses are located on? Enolam? Christopher Circle? Danville? I.O.O.F?
How does the main character’s obsession with Wagner tie in with his background and use of motifs in the book?
What significance does the “butterfly/moth” story have in chapter six? What significance has the fact that Sharon/Bunny’s father raises butterflies and moths?
How is the fact that Althea gives Strekfus a stuffed “bunny” symbolic?
Why is Strekfus’s boss, Sagaser, initially threatened by the main character’s stories? Do you think he is no longer threatened by the end of the book?
Discuss the uses of blackmail in the book. At one point, Strekfus has the perfect opportunity to use blackmail. How does he differ from his mother in this respect?
Discuss the cross-dressing theme in the book.
Discuss the idea of “six degrees of separation” in the book; the concept that we are all connected in some way.
Discuss the use of snakes throughout the book. How does this tie into Truman Capote? What was Capote’s fascination with snakes?
Discuss the religious myth concerning a dogwood tree—that the cross for Jesus was allegedly made from a dogwood tree; that after the crucifixion God decided dogwoods would never again grow large enough to build a cross from—hence their usual small stature. How does this tie into the book?
The beginning of the story and a good portion of the “short stories” in the book are set in Alabama during the Civil Rights era. What portions of the story are particular to that time and place? What aspects are universal?
Where does the main character’s name come from? First name? Middle? What does the last name sound like? Is this a typical Southern name? Why or why not? Discuss the use of names in the book and how the members of Strekfus’s family were named.
Discuss the housekeeper’s name. Why did the author pick this for her? What does the name mean in another language and/or what language does it originally come from? How is the character of “Sharon” linked, name-wise, to the housekeeper?
The main character of Strekfus is abnormally intelligent and perspicacious for his age. Why is this?
Do you think the character of Strekfus has a split personality? If so, how does this manifest itself?
How are Roman Yapigacy and Strekfus related? How would we guess this?
How many anagrams can you find in the book? What clue does the writer give you that these exist in chapter twenty-nine, page 494?
Some of the characters reappear in different places in the book without obvious references made to this. Who are they and how many can you find? How do the anagrams figure into this?
How many literal and oblique references to Truman Capote and his writings can you find in the book?

Reader's Guide 3

What purpose does the “Sharon” character serve?
Discuss the “coming of age” aspect of the novel. What similarities, if any, do you see with the following books: Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, Other Voices, Other Rooms?
Discuss the idea of things being circular. Examples: In the beginning of the novel, one of the characters has written an introduction which is later suggested by Strekfus toward the end of the book (page 555: “You can write the introduction to my book.”) Also, there are recurring motifs and people in the book. At one point Strekfus gives some fern fronds to a small black girl. Both the fern and the girl make an appearance later in the book. What do they represent? How do they parallel each other? What is the significance that the “fern” is still alive and growing?
Discuss the idea of “gifts” in the book: the main character states “My whole life has been a gift” at the end of chapter thirty; the gift of the fern in chapter eight, the phonograph that Althea is given in chapter six; the fact that the author gives the reader a “gift” of information in chapter thirty, finally cluing him in to how the characters are related, etc.
Discuss Strekfus’s fantasy life and why and how it came about. Does he ever entirely give this up? Do you think the stories are a continuation of this?
Discuss the aspect of child abuse in the novel. How did time and place make this possible? Would this level of abuse be possible today?
Discuss Strekfus’s parents’ peculiar habits: the fact that they don’t allow Strekfus to finish his food; that they don’t allow him playmates, that they seem overly concerned with what people think.
Discuss the use of plants throughout the book. Why is their presence significant?
At one point in the novel the main character gives Althea a recording of Spartacus. Why is this significant? What is the story of the ballet and how does it relate to Althea’s situation?
How are the characters of Strekfus and Randolph similar? How are they different?
Do you think the character of “Sharon” knew the horribly family secret that occurred in Strekfus’s past? Was she consciously or unconsciously trying to get him to discover “who he is?”