Animators (Whitaker) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Animators...then take off on your own:

1. In what way do Mel and Sharon feel like outsiders at Ballister? What role does their sense of being different play in bringing the two together? How has each of their lives left them unprepared to face the environment at Ballister?

2. Sharon says of Mel in the very first chapter: "She was the first person to see me as I had always wanted to be seen. It was enough to indebt me to her forever."

1. What does Mel see in Sharon?
2. Does "what" Mel see in Sharon remain the same during the course of the novel—or change?
3. What does Sharon see in Mel?
4. Have you ever had a friend who truly saw into the center of you?

3. Describe Sharon's and Mel's personalities. How do they differ from one another, and how do their differences play out during the novel?

4. How do each of them conceptualize or understand art? Do they view art in the same way?

5. Author Kayla Rae Whitaker says that in her own life she was obsessed with cartoons—like her characters in The Animators. In an interview, she told The Guardian, "I am drawn to stories where children make dark discoveries about human nature." Shen went on to say,

My book is about the process of witnessing that darkness before you have the words to describe what you see and what you feel. Where do people pick up their shadows? And I think cartoons so often can tread on those shadows, without ever falling on top of them.

How do you see that role for cartoons—revealing to children the darker parts of humanity without causing trauma—play out in Whitaker's novel? Is the role beneficial? By the way, that concept was proposed in 1976 for children's fairy tales in Bruno Bettelheim's now classic, The Uses of Enchantment.

6. Talk about Teddy's role in Sharon's childhood and, now, her adult life. Why is he featured so prominently on her list (and why does Sharon keep the list from Mel)? Why is Teddy distressed about his role in Sharon's film?

7. What are the cracks that begin to widen in Sharon and Mel's relationship?

8. What propels Mel's downward trajectory?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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