The Sparrow

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

Christopher Columbus’s legacy has become increasingly fraught with controversy as more critical voices, some from among the Indigenous community, have spoken out about the fallacy of “discovery.” Describe the debate over Columbus and explain specifically what each side of this debate argues.

Teaching Suggestion: When Russell began researching The Sparrow, 1992 marked the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. The author took inspiration from the debate over Columbus’s legacy when writing The Sparrow, wondering if the Jesuits could have understood the effects of their interventions on Indigenous peoples and communities. Instead of setting this investigation in the past, she reframed it as a futuristic novel in which a crew—led by a Jesuit priest—encountered an entirely new race of beings on a distant planet. Helping students to understand that Columbus’s legacy of colonization (and its devastating effect on Indigenous nations) was and is a contentious subject will help to lay a foundation for this novel. If students have little background or knowledge on the topic, they might work in pairs to briefly research each side of the debate, then share and compare learned content. These and similar resources may be helpful in supplying additional context.

• This 1991 Los Angeles Times article considers the controversy over Columbus.
• Heike Paul writes about “Christopher Columbus and the Myth of ‘Discovery’” in her book The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies.

Short Activity

The “Doctrine of Discovery” was issued a year after Columbus arrived in the Americas. It is a papal bull—an official statement from the leader of the Catholic Church—giving Spain the right to claim new territory in the name of the Catholic Church. It became the foundation for European attempts to colonize the Americas. Read over this excerpt from the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History.

Then, respond to the following questions:

1. What role did Catholicism play in colonization?

2. How might this doctrine be applied to space travel? Should it be?

3. Whom does this document ignore?

Discuss your responses as a class.

Teaching Suggestion: The Catholic Church played a major role in imperial and colonial endeavors, ones that often ignored the will of the Indigenous people and enslaved Africans that they purported to serve. Small groups might work together to read aloud and annotate the doctrine excerpt before responding to the questions. This activity will help to establish historical context and will allow students to ponder the ramifications of “discovery” throughout the novel.

• Dieter Dörr takes a legal approach to the history and context of the “Doctrine of Discovery” in his article “The Background of the Theory of Discovery,” which was published in the American Indian Law Review. (Research access may be required to view.)

Differentiation Suggestion: For a different approach, students might read this article from OSU’s Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspectives on Bartolomé de las Casas, a missionary in the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, to get a more individualized understanding of missionary work and its effects. (Content Warning: Graphic portrayals of Spanish violence against Indigenous peoples.)

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Do you think Columbus could have known what negative effects his actions would cause? How can similar mistakes be avoided in the future?

Teaching Suggestion: An independent, private journal response may be most suitable for this question. Students should keep replies in a notebook or other readily accessible location so that they can be referenced at various points in the reading of the novel.