Santa Barbara City College Grief is the Thing with Feathers Novel Discussion
Question Description
Part 1:
Explore the central metaphor of the novel:
I am personally a fan of corvids (which includes crows, ravens, blue jays, magpies) because they show signs of taking care of each other. They are infinitely interesting birds. Who or what is the crow in the novel? What is he (?) doing? Did someone invite him in or did he decide himself to appear?
Locate a passage in the short novel (give us the page number) and comment on the role of the crow itself, the presence or purpose of grief, or any other motif you can identify that seems relevant to the crow or to the novels themes.
Part 2:
The title of the novel alludes to a poem by Emily Dickinson, which I have posted here. Besides the main twist of replacing “hope” with “grief,” how does the novel borrow from the poem? To answer this question, identify a specific passage in the novel (cite the page number) and offer some commentary on the passage. How is Dickinson’s poem relevant to your comment?
Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
Ive heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
* I Don’t have the Novel !
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