Will's Race for Home

Will uses both Caesar’s gun and his literacy to defend his land claim at the end of the novel. What is the relationship between these forms of power in the novel?

Jewell Parker Rhodes subtitles her novel A Western, deliberately engaging with and subverting a traditionally white-centric genre. To what extent does the novel address or contribute to Indigenous erasure in the Western genre?

The crossing of the Red River is a symbolic moment of development for Will. How do George and Caesar also undergo character development during the crossing?

Both George and Caesar are haunted by violent pasts, yet their traumas stem from different sources. What does the novel say about the impact of the past on the present?

Will’s Race for Home is punctuated by the keeping and revealing of secrets. Trace the progression of secrets throughout the novel and analyze the effects of these revelations.

Belts are recurring symbols in the novel; what do they represent?

Explore the parallel development between Will and the mule, Belle. How does Belle’s physical endurance and symbolic resilience mirror and inform Will’s own journey from dependence to strength? How does the relationship between boy and mule evolve over the course of the novel?

The Samuels family pursues freedom through land ownership, but the novel suggests this goal comes at a significant psychological cost. To what extent is “true freedom” fully achieved by the novel’s end?