Discuss how author Wally Lamb portrays masculinity across generations. Consider Claude, Kent Kelly, Orion Oh, and Andrew Oh. How do different models of masculinity shape these characters’ expressions of aggression, vulnerability, and accountability?

How does creativity function differently for various characters in the text? Does art heal, expose, destabilize, or protect? How does the novel position artistic expression within structures of power?

Analyze the novel’s treatment of religion. How do Ruth, Andrew, Annie, and Orion represent different relationships to faith? In what ways does Lamb critique institutional religion while distinguishing it from personal belief?

Consider the novel’s structure and use of multiple narrators. How do the shifting perspectives contribute to the novel’s ethical explorations? Does access to interiority invite empathy for morally compromised characters, such as Ruth or Kent?

Examine the significance of the prenuptial agreement. How does the document function within Annie and Viveca Christopholous-Shabbas’s relationship as a site in which love, class, and power compete? In what ways does the prenup contribute to the thematic concern of Power and Vulnerability in Intimate Relationships?

Select one recurring literary device—such as rhetorical questions, frame narration, analogy, symbolism, or allusion—and analyze how Lamb uses it to deepen the novel’s exploration of power, trauma, and accountability. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

We Are Water contains language and perspectives that reflect racism, sexism, and antigay bias. To what extent does Lamb’s inclusion of offensive or prejudiced viewpoints serve a critical purpose? How does the novel distinguish between depicting harmful ideology and endorsing it?

Consider We Are Water as a work of contemporary domestic fiction. How does the novel use the family unit as a lens for examining broader social issues? In what ways does Lamb expand or complicate the conventions of domestic realism?