32 pages • 1 hour read
Rivers SolomonAn Unkindness of Ghosts
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Why does Aster leave Flick’s foot for Lieutenant to find? In what way is her sense of risk different from Giselle’s?
Space is an objectively hostile place, naturally unsuitable to sustain life. How does Solomon use space as a metaphor for the conditions of people who have been uprooted from their homes?
In what ways do women serve as bonding elements for the people in the lower decks? How is their power disrupted by the forces of the upper-deckers?
Why doesn’t Aster assist the upper deck woman lost in the field? What ideologies are in place that allow this woman to casually demand assistance from someone whose labor is indentured?
In what ways is life on the Matilda like life in contemporary America? In what ways is it different?
What is the nature of Theo and Aster’s relationship? How is power shared between them, and what is the nature of that power?
What is Aster’s relationship to the past, especially given her Insiwa neurological inclination toward order and inwardness?
Who are the “ghosts” referred to in the title? How do they manifest, and how does Aster interpret them?
How are Giselle’s destructive actions informed by her trauma? In what ways does trauma affect the actions of other characters on the ship?
Is the Earth to which Aster finally returns a livable place? In your opinion, what will become of the people of Matilda?
