Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- The narrator's writing style is very different from the way the characters speak. Why is that so? What does it tell us about the relationship between the characters and the world they live in?
- Look at the last sentence of each chapter. What is similar about the way each one ends? Why do you think this is so? What does it tell us about the Baxters' life?
- The Yearling is full of long, detailed descriptions—of places, of people, of food. Why are these descriptions important enough to the book that they take up so much space?
- Rawlings explores the gender roles of society in the 1870s. What do the Baxters consider to be "women's work" and "men's work?" What about the Forresters? And how about the Huttos? What do the differences tell us about each family?
- Racism is addressed in a sidelong fashion in The Yearling. What is Ma Baxter's attitude towards the Forresters? What is everyone else's attitude towards them? Whose judgment is based on appearances, and whose on actions? What does this tell you about Ma Baxter?
- Penny Baxter is a very principled man. But do you think principles always have a place, when something is a matter of life and death? Or maybe especially then? For example, do you think Penny was right not to poison the wolves?
- How would this story have been different if all of Penny and Ory's babies had survived? Would Jody have needed a fawn? Would their lives have been as precarious? Or more so? Would Jody have grown up as quickly?