Sunset Song
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
Two Chrisses
What does the novel mean by the two Chrisses, the English one of books and school and the Scots one of the land?
Keep the conversation going
- Which one wins out in the end, if either?
- Have you ever felt divided between two worlds in that way?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
What does the novel mean by the two Chrisses, the English one of books and school and the Scots one of the land?
Keep the conversation going
- Which one wins out in the end, if either?
- Have you ever felt divided between two worlds in that way?
How does the voice of Kinraddie itself, with its gossip and its "you", shape the way the story is told?
Keep the conversation going
- What does the Prelude add to your picture of the place?
- How did you get on with the Scots words and rhythms of the prose?
What did you make of Chris's father, John Guthrie, with his religion, his temper and his cruelty?
Keep the conversation going
- How did you respond to her mother's fate?
- Does the novel let us understand him without excusing him?
What does the land, and the farm at Blawearie, mean to Chris?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does she stay when she could have gone on to college?
- How does Gibbon write about work on the land?
How does Chris's marriage to Ewan Tavendale begin, and what makes their early days so happy?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of the wedding and its songs?
- What does the novel suggest about love and freedom for a woman in Chris's world?
How does the First World War reach a place so far from the front?
Keep the conversation going
- What does the war do to Ewan, and to the community?
- How did you respond to the fate of Long Rob of the Mill, who refuses to fight?
What do the standing stones by the loch mean to Chris at different moments of her life?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does she go to them in times of trouble?
- What do they suggest about time and change?
How did you respond to the Epilude and the piper playing "The Flowers of the Forest" at the memorial?
Keep the conversation going
- What does the title Sunset Song suggest about the world the novel describes?
- What is lost, and what survives, at the end of the book?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.