Student Led Discussion

Led by: Teresa Fernandez

Date: 4.20.15

Chapters: 1-5

What does the setting establish?

Camden: The setting establishes a reflective mood. Her home is lost and she misses it.

Scott: Her home is old and burned down and the setting sets that old feeling.

Teresa: It sets a very desolate mood.

Lexi: Her past is dead and the setting establishes views as a ghost.

Scott: It has a sense of a bad memory but also that she misses her old home. So it's still good in a way.

What is the general mood of the book?

Lexi: Very dramatic and soap opera-y.

Teresa: Definitely soap opera-y and seems to have a possible romance novel type of feel.

What do you think caused Manderley to burn down and how does the main character feel about it?

Teresa: She is relieved that she can leave that memory behind but she also wishes that she could somehow remember it positively.

Lexi: I think that because of the dramatic feeling of the book already that perhaps Manderley was burned down to cover up some sort of murder or tragedy.

Camden: Maybe we are introduced to the murderer already.

Teresa: Maybe somebody wanted revenge and burned down Manderley because of that.

What do you think of Van Hopper?

Teresa: She introduced our character whom we don't know very quickly. She makes it seem as if we are not supposed to know who she is at all.

Lexi: She seems to have a connection to the woman we don't know in some way. 

What do you think about her relationship with De Winter?

Scott: It seems more of like a backhanded comments type of relationship.

Teresa: No, I think he's very chivalrous and is more of a brotherly type figure.

Camden: I also don't think it's a backhanded comment type of relationship. It would be more like Beatrice and Benedick if it was like that.

Lexi: She goes into much detail about his appearance but doesn't give us any real information at all. It's almost like she's just infatuated with the idea of him.

Camden: The book almost makes De Winter sound kind of like a murderer.

Lexi: Yeah, it definitely seems like there's something about him we don't know yet and maybe he has a direct connection to the burning down of Manderley. 

What were you expecting out of this book?

Teresa: I was honestly expecting paranormal with all the ghost talk.

Camden: I feel like it's going to be heading in the paranormal direction with all this talk about old and decrepit things and ghosts.

Lexi: It seems as though her past can't leave her alone and maybe there will be something paranormal with that.

Scott: She seems to really miss Manderley and it does haunt her but I don't think they're going to make it a literal haunting.

What about the symbolism of flowers?

Lexi: Flowers allude to her missing Manderley which is now dead and gone. De Winter talks about how he hates picking flowers because they are the first to die and maybe its referencing to how she continues to pick at her memories and eventually she is going to kill any chance of them being truly lef tbehind and her moving on.