One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow

Beyond its role as a physical obstacle, what role does the Wyoming landscape play within the story? How does it contribute to each primary character’s arc?

How do key crises like the flash flood and chimney fire develop the dynamic between Cora Bemis and Nettie Mae Webber? What does each event reveal about the characters?

Analyze Beulah Bemis’s character, specifically her pantheistic worldview and her role as a spiritual guide within the story. How does she align with or subvert traditional cultural values of the era? How does her ideology advance the plot?

Examine the symbolic relationship between the two-headed lamb, the coyote Clyde kills, and Substance Webber’s restless spirit. How does the novel use these three elements to explore its themes and characters?

Argue for or against the proposition that Clyde Webber’s redefinition of masculinity is primarily an acceptance of traits or beliefs commonly perceived as feminine, particularly in this era. Refer specifically to his interactions with the different female characters and how they influence his decisions.

Analyze the novel’s recurring motif of seeds and planting, and explain how this relates to the central characters’ internal struggles.

Though largely absent from the narrative, Ernest Bemis is a pivotal figure. Analyze how the novel constructs his character in absentia, using his crime, his lenient sentence, and his carved Christmas gifts to explore the novel’s themes.

Compare the functions of the two significant objects that arrive from the outside world: the president’s china and Ernest’s carved gifts. How do these objects represent competing value systems, and what do the characters’ reactions to them reveal about the community’s shifting priorities?