All Fours

In what ways does the narrator’s cross-country trip usher her toward change and awakening? How do her expectations for the trip compare to the reality of it, and why? In what ways does it grant her a new sense of autonomy?

How does the narrator’s relationship to her artwork link to her identity? How does she feel when she’s working and how does she feel and behave when she doesn’t have a creative project? Why does she often try to separate her home life from her creative life?

How does the narrator’s marriage to Harris evolve throughout the novel? In what ways does their evolving dynamic capture and convey the novel’s ideas about sexual freedom and marital convention?

What happened during Sam’s birth, and why does this experience continue to impact the narrator? How does she cope with her unresolved stress about it? What does confronting and resolving this trauma change for her?

How do the narrator’s sexual experiences throughout the novel relate to her self-discovery journey? Consider how she regards sex at the novel’s start and how she regards it by the novel’s end. How do each of her sexual encounters relate to her sexual outlook at those points? Cite textual evidence.

What is the significance of the book’s title? How does the title relate to the narrator’s experiences and to her growth as a woman and as an artist?

Explore the narrator’s relationship with Room 321 over time. In what ways does the room change the narrator? How does it enhance and, conversely, sometimes inhibit her evolution and exploration? Cite textual evidence.

Examine dance as a motif throughout the novel. How does the narrator relate to this art form? What does it help her understand and experience? What is its symbolic significance, and how does it teach her about her own art?