Fear of Flying

How does Jong use narrative voice, structure, and metaphor to formulate a critique of society in fictional form? How does the novel draw from earlier novels of social criticism, such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels?

How does Isadora embody a feminist argument even while often falling short of feminist ideals? How does Jong use her protagonist to dramatize the struggle to overcome internalized misogyny and other forms of social conditioning?

Analyze Isadora’s family dynamics, including her mother, father, and her three sisters. What societal values do these characters embody in their dealings with the protagonist?

To what extent is Fear of Flying an autobiographical novel? What does the author reveal or conceal about herself through this superficially analogous character?

Isadora shows a remarkable ability to self-reflect throughout the novel. Does this ability help her or hurt her? Does the nature of her self-reflection shift over the course of the novel?

In what spirit does Isadora return to Bennett in the end? How has the basis of their relationship, and of her relationship to herself, changed to make this reconciliation possible?

Is Bennett’s symbolic role as Isadora’s superego immutable? Can his position in her psyche change or expand? Can her relationship with him accommodate the id as well as the superego?

Trace the symbolism of the “zipless fuck” throughout the novel. What does this idealized, seemingly impossible type of sex mean to Isadora, and does its meaning shift? What, in Isadora’s eyes, makes it impossible? What makes it desirable or undesirable?