Preview
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter's arc, then identify the central tension Baum is developing and evaluate whether he handles it honestly and effectively.
Discussion Questions
- Baum opens with a Kansas so gray that it seems to drain the color from the people who live there, yet Dorothy and Toto do not go gray in the same way. What does the chapter suggest about how far a harsh place can shape a person, and why do the details about Dorothy and Toto keep that suggestion from becoming simple? Use the chapter's details to defend your reading.
- A reader could ask why Baum dwells so long on the grayness of Dorothy's Kansas in a book remembered as a children's fantasy. What is gained, and what is risked, by opening a wonder tale in a register this bleak? Use the chapter's details to explain.
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Critical Thinking
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