Unbound (King)

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Unbound:

1. How would you describe the condition of women—rich or poor—in China prior to the Communist revolution? Talk about the ways in which the communists changed the lives of Chinese women.

2. If you've you read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, does Lisa See's book provide a backstory for the real historical events in Unbound?

3. How did you feel about the fact that these marchers underwent bombing by Americans? What was the American position toward Mao Zedong?

4. What aspects of Long March did you find most horrific—the terrain, the weather, the constant attacks? What deprivations were hardest to read about?

5. If you had been one of the women, would you have been able to leave your newborn behind?

6. Is there one particular woman, whose story...or voice... you find more compelling than the others?

7. What roles did the women play during their march? What did you find most admirable? To what do you attribute their remarkable feat of endurance—what is the foundation of their strength?

8. Care to make a comment on the fact that by the end of the trek, all 30 women were still alive...while only 1 out of 10 men survived? Any comparisons to those of us living in the 21st century—would any among us have the commitment or strength to endure such hardship?

9. In what way does King show that the problems (suspicion and paranoia) that plagued the later Communists were already present during the 1934-35 march?

10. Talk about the terrible irony of the Cultural Revolution and how it affected the lives of these 30 women?

11. What have you learned about Chinese history that you were unaware of before reading Unbound? Have you gained a different perspective on China, its history, government, and people after having read the book?

12. Author Dean King has said that in the book he...

wants the reader to walk down the trails with these women, to witness the challenges they faced, to cross the rivers, to climb the mountains, nursing one another and nursing the men.

Does King achieve that goal? Does he bring this brutal trek alive for readers, sitting in the comfort of our armchairs?

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

top of page