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 Escape:
1. Discuss the authoritarian roles of men versus the submissive roles of women in the FLDS, particularly in light of the following comment Carolyn Jessop, made elsewhere:
Women in the polygamist culture are looked at as property, as a piece of meat. We are not looked upon as human beings with rights. The Women are basically baby-producers. It's a difficult thing to break away from. You don't contest it.
— Nick Madigan, New York Times 6/29/05).
2. Why it is so difficult for women to break away from the FLDS? Recall Jessop's statement in the book that "there would be more legal and financial help for me if I were a refugee arriving from a foreign country." What about Jessop's sister?
3. Talk about Carolyn's own mother and her erratic behavior.
4. Discuss Merril and the kind of man he is. Also talk about the competition between Merril's wives. Wouldn't you think—at least hope—that they would have been supportive of one another?
5. Can children raised in such an isolated and sequestered culture, with few outside influences or alternatives available to them, be considered to choose FLDS "freely" when they arrive at adulthood?
6. In a society that respects religious freedom, what is the government's role with respect to FLDS—especially with polygamy, physical abuse, and under-aged marriage? Do laws to protect women and children against abuse trump Constitutional rights for religious freedom? In other words, if the state intervenes, is it protection...or is it interference in private religious and family matters? (For FLDS, religious salvation depends on a man's fathering many children from different wives.) Tricky questions.
7. Talk about religious fundamentalism in general—Christian, Jewish, or Islamic. To what degree are fundamentalists in any religion alike? What are the root causes of such strict beliefs? Does fundamentalism undermine a society (not counting threats of terrorism) or can it be a source of strength?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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