70 pages • 2 hours read
The House Is on Fire
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Essay Topics
How does the fire break down “normal” societal rules? How does it reinforce them?
How does the sexism faced by the women in the novel differ due to racism? In what ways do racist and sexist oppression intersect?
Why might Rachel Beanland have chosen the Richmond Theatre Fire of 1811 to discuss the themes in The House Is On Fire? Choose one theme and discuss its relation to the novel’s historical context.
The House Is On Fire deals with both individual and systemic violence. Find three incidents of violence within the novel. How do they differ? How are they similar?
Every character in the novel must deal with some form of grief. How does it bring people together? How does it push them apart?
The narrative is shaped by the four different point-of-view characters. Why did Beanland choose these four characters to tell the story of the fire? What narrative purpose does each character serve?
How do the concerns of the people in power in the aftermath of the fire differ from the concerns of the people most affected? Are there contemporary or other historical parallels to this situation?
Think about how family relationships are portrayed in the novel. Choose a character and discuss how their familial bonds are tested or strengthened by the fire and its aftermath.
The four-day time period of The House Is On Fire focuses on a small portion of the fire and its aftermath. How does this timespan affect the way the story is told? Pick a subject (a character, the fire, a theme, etc.) and discuss it in relation to the novel’s four-day structure.
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