Compare and contrast Ethel Gathers and Ma Deary as adoptive mothers, analyzing the motivations behind and impact of their different approaches to parenting.

Analyze Sophia’s recurring nightmares and unexplained physical symptoms in Keeper of Lost Children. What role do these experiences play in shaping the reader’s understanding of her character and past?

In the novel, Ozzie Philips, a Black American soldier, experiences a greater sense of personal freedom in occupied post-war Germany than he does in the United States. Analyze how the novel uses this setting to critique the state of race relations in supposedly “victorious” America.

What is the significance of the Old South Ball at West Oak Forest Academy, and how does this event contribute to the novel’s portrayal of the school environment?

What is the significance of the tin canister and its contents in Keeper of Lost Children, and how might it be interpreted in relation to Jelka’s role as a mother?

Bureaucracy and paperwork function as a motif representing institutional power in the novel. Analyze how characters in Keeper of Lost Children attempt to enforce or reclaim power through documentation.

How are Ozzie’s experience with desegregation in the US Army and Sophia’s experience at West Oak Forest Academy presented in Keeper of Lost Children? Consider points of similarity and difference in their environments. What do these comparisons reveal about broader patterns of change or continuity in mid-20th century America?

Examine Ozzie Philips’s descent into alcohol addiction through the lens of masculinity and trauma. How does his inability to protect Katja, combined with the systemic emasculation he faces as a Black veteran in a racist society, contribute to his self-destructive behavior?