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Reading Group Discussion Questions
Hattie
Big Sky website Reading Group Guide (from the Random House website http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440239413&view=rg) Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle's homesteading claim. For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been shuttled between relatives. Tired of being Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her adventures with her friends--especially Charlie, fighting in France--through letters and articles for her hometown paper. Her backbreaking quest for a home is lightened by her neighbors, the Muellers. But she feels threatened by pressure to be a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships with folks of German descent. Despite everything, Hattie's determined to stay until a tragedy causes her to discover the true meaning of home. 1. Describe Hattie’s relationship with Aunt Ivy and Uncle Holt. What does Uncle Holt see in Hattie that Aunt Ivy doesn’t? How does Uncle Holt continue to support Hattie after she moves to Montana? 2. Hattie travels to Montana on the Great Northern Railway. She reads a pamphlet on the train that describes Montana as “the land of milk and honey.” Discuss Hattie’s first impression of Montana. How might Hattie describe this land by the end of the novel? In the last chapter, Hattie goes to Seattle. What does she expect to find there that she doesn’t have in Montana? 3. Explain what Perilee Mueller means when she tells Hattie that her resemblance to Uncle Chester goes beyond looks. How does this give Hattie a sense of family? Why are the items in Uncle Chester’s trunk so important to Hattie? There are many mysterious things about Uncle Chester. How does this mystery give Hattie the courage and determination to prove up on the claim? 4. Perilee and Karl Mueller meet Hattie at the train, and welcome her to their family. How does their relationship grow as the novel progresses? 5. Karl Mueller is mistreated by the citizens of Vida because he is German. How does Hattie’s friendship with Karl and Perilee make her a victim of bullying? How do the bullies create an atmosphere of mistrust and fear? At what point does Hattie experience the most fear? She says, “The worst thing of all is standing by when folks are doing something wrong.” (p. 164) Explain how Hattie attempts to right the wrongs. 6. Hattie says, “I guessed Charlie and I were in the same boat. We’d both signed on for something we’d envisioned as heroic and glamorous.” (p. 120) How is Hattie’s effort to save her uncle’s claim heroic? Discuss how Charlie's idea of a hero changes after he witnesses the death of his comrades. 7. Describe how Hattie changes in the year that she spends on the Montana prairie. Debate whether her idea of “home” is different by the end of the novel. Hattie says, “I’d arrived alone, and I wanted to leave that way.” (p.282) Why is this so important to her? How is she a success even though tragedy prevented her from proving the claim? 8. At the beginning of the novel, Hattie says, “My bounce around life had taught me that dreams were dangerous things.” (p. 3) Why was Hattie so afraid of dreams? How does she learn that dreams do come true? What about Charlie? Do his dreams come true? How do their dreams collide? A Readers Guide/Questions for Discussion (from the book) 1. In the first chapter, Hattie is given a “wonderful opportunity.” What do you learn about her as a person when she says yes to going to Vida? 2. When Hattie arrives in Wolf Point, she meets with Mr. Ebgard (page 25), who explains more fully the requirements of proving up on a claim. One requirement is to build a house, but fortunately for Hattie, Uncle Chester has already done that. The other tasks include setting 480 rods of fence (which is 7,920 feet; picture 587 VW Beetles in a very, very long row) and planting crops on one-eighth of the claim, or in Hattie’s case, 40 acres (picture an area nearly as big as 40 football fields). How would you have reacted to this if you had been in Hattie’s shoes? 3. On page 5, Hattie copies out a humorous poem about the trials and tribulations of rationing and other wartime deprivations. She sends it to Charlie to give him a laugh. How do you think people really felt about being deprived of such essentials as flour and sugar? How might people today respond if a war or other events necessitated rationing? 4. After Violet’s tail becomes a snack for a wolf, Hattie goes to visit with Perilee and learns that Karl is being required to register as a “resident alien.” What is Hattie’s response to this? How does her reaction compare to Perilee’s? 5. Charlie’s letters to Hattie start out full of bravado. She says he is “full of spit and vinegar” when he’s issued his bayonet (page 30). Over the course of the story, the tone of his letters changes. Near the end, he writes, “I always bragged about killing some Germans. Killing is nothing to brag about. Nothing at all” (page 232). What might have contributed to Charlie’s changed perceptions of the war? 6. At one point in the story (page 119), Hattie realizes that she and Traft may have more in common then she’d like to admit. What traits does she think they share? Do you agree with her assessment? 7. In her May “Honyocker’s Homily” (pages 161 and 162), Hattie writes about the lessons she’s learning on the prairie and how they “pertain more to caring than to crops, more to Golden Rule than gold, more to the proper choice than to the popular choice.” Discuss what she might mean by this. 8. Even though homesteaders worked long, hard hours, they still made time to write to friends and family back home. Hattie’s letters to Uncle Holt become the basis for her column, “Honyocker’s Homily,” in which she shares her story of life on the prairie. Letter writing isn’t as common today, but people still reach out to one another through the written word. Can you think of other, contemporary equivalents of letter writing? Why do you think it’s so important for us to tell our individual stories? 9. One nickname for eastern Montana is “next year country,” as Hattie tells Uncle Holt in her letter to him dated June 22, 1918 (page 204). Based on the story of Hattie Big Sky, does this seem like a fitting nickname? Why or why not? 10. When Hattie stumbles upon the men harassing Mr. Ebgard, she wonders why no one comes forward to stop them. Then she realizes: “There was no ‘anyone’ at a time like this. There was only me” (page 215). What gives her the courage to step forward? 11. After Hattie fails to prove up on Uncle Chester’s claim, Rooster Jim tells her “things have a way of working themselves out…there’s reasons for our valleys and for our peaks” (page 268). What is he trying to tell her? Do you think things will work themselves out for Hattie?
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