70 pages • 2 hours read
Michael ChristieGreenwood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A 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
Greenwood uses a nested structure to tell its stories across a long span of time. Compare and contrast this to the novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which uses a similar nested narrative structure but begins in the past instead of the future. How do Christie’s and Mitchell’s approaches to nested structure support the ideas they want to convey in their respective novels?
The novel explores the value of a family legacy, arguing that an inheritance may include immaterial objects, like values. Track the Greenwood family’s values across generations. What values are sustained across the four narratives? What values differ?
Harris is a complex character with clear motivations, functioning as both an ally and an antagonist to his brother, Everett. Considering that Harris makes his fortune in the logging industry, what does it mean for the novel’s environmentalist message that Christie depicts Harris as a sympathetic character?
Willow abandons her fortune in order to live according to her principles as an environmentalist. Is Jake’s decision to hold on to Euphemia’s diary—and her potential fortune as a descendent of R.J. Holt—consistent with Willow’s reasoning? Why or why not?
Christie speculates on the future of the environment by creating a destructive event called The Great Withering for his novel, which magnifies the effects of the historical Dust Bowl storms in the 1930s. Analyze how The Great Withering is depicted in the novel. How does it function as both a plot element and a metaphor? What are the narrative implications of structuring the final chronological timeline around a speculative event rather than a factual one?
Lomax functions as a henchman to antagonist R.J. Holt, yet he is given a larger role in the narrative than his employer. Why might Christie have chosen to represent the henchman over the antagonist? What impact does the antagonist’s absence from the narrative have on the novel’s conflict?
Christie alludes to the Odyssey not only by presenting it in the early stages of Everett and Temple’s romance but also by having Everett find his way back to her after many years in a way that resembles the epic poem. Compare Everett and the lead character of the Odyssey, Odysseus. How else does Everett resemble Odysseus outside of his romance with Temple?
Analyze the novel’s final chapter. Why does the novel break its nested structure in its final pages to shift from Jack’s timeline to Euphemia’s diary entry? What do Euphemia’s words suggest about the role of hope in the novel?
In Greenwood, each generation of the titular family rebels against its predecessor. Are these rebellions complete, or do any of the Greenwood descendants find a middle ground between rebellion and obedience? What does the novel suggest is the relationship between rebellion and legacy?
Analyze Greenwood’s environmental message. Does the novel present a unified argument about environmental preservation and the protection of forests? If so, how and why is this argument depicted across the multiple narratives? If not, how and why does the novel’s environmental message shift across sections?
