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1. To what degree do you think
Nadia's discomfort about her ambition is just in her head, and to what
degree do you think her community sees her as an outsider because of it?
Why is leaving home so revolutionary for Nadia? What can her academic
accomplishments give her that her home community cannot?
2.Nadia and Luke are two black teen who go to a mostly white school, on
the edge of a military base. When Luck ends up in the hospital, he
becomes conscious of how Hispanic male nurse suffers from others’
stereotypes. How does the author approach identity in relation to race?
How must Nadia change the way she interacts with people inside or
outside of her community?
3. The Mothers strives to handle teen pregnancy with compassion
and wisdom, portraying it as a life-transforming experience with
incalculable ramifications. Why do you think Nadia makes the choices she
does? How do these choices affect her life, Luke’s life, and even the
larger community?
4.After his football injury, Luke must struggle to redefine his own
sense of himself, his potential and expectations. Later in the book he
befriends a male physical therapist who shows Luke that he, too, has the
potential for ministering to the sick or injured—which is a sort of
"mothering" in itself. How does Luke’s sense of masculinity change,
before and after his injury? How does the author explore masculinity in
the depiction of Nadia’s father, a professional military man who must
learn to connect with his daughter? Do you think that, in the end, both
father and daughter have found a way to communicate and show their love
to each other?
5. The novel has a distinct nucleus, made up of "The Mothers," the
elderly women of the black church community who watch over the
small-town goings-on with a presence that evokes the tone of a fable.
Their chorus, Greek in format, shows the insularity and defiance of a
small, loving community. How do "The Mothers" embody their community? In
what ways do they impose their own experiences—their beliefs, their
upbringings, their age—on the younger generation?
6. Another focus of the book is Nadia’s relationship with her best
friend, Aubrey, as they help each other through adolescence and
motherlessness. It provides poignant commentary about the ways women
rely on one another, and about the necessity of navigating hard truths
with the people we love. How do Nadia and Aubrey change over the course
of the book—both within their friendship and outside of it? What does
this friendship give each of the girls?
7. As Nadia maneuvers the adolescent world and beyond, how does her
grief over her mother's death change her? Do you think it ultimately
strengthens her? Weakens her?
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