White Lilacs

What impact to the characters of Miss Firth and Aunt Susannah have on Rose Lee’s character? Explain how they develop her character by connecting it to at least one theme in the text.

Colors are prominent throughout the text—in clothing, flowers, locations, and more. Choose three colors in the novel and analyze their symbolic or metaphorical meaning. Be sure to connect your analysis to at least one theme of the novel.

Choose one protagonist and one antagonist in the novel. How does the protagonist change throughout the text, and how does the antagonist facilitate that change?

A bildungsroman is a novel which focuses on the moral growth and development of a young person. Is this novel a bildungsroman with respect to Rose Lee’s character? Analyze why or why not by tracing Rose Lee’s development throughout the text.

Why would Meyer choose to write a novel with such a bleak and hopeless tone? Discuss theme and at least two other literary elements in your response.

What significance does the setting have in the novel? Discuss which aspects of the novel would be similar and which would be different if the novel was set in the 1960s South. Similarly, discuss what would be similar or different if it took place in the 1920s American North.

Choose one internal and one external conflict in the novel. Discuss the two sides of the conflicts, whether they were resolved, and how that resolution (or lack thereof) impacts a theme of the novel.

Freytag’s Pyramid is a way of organizing plot structure that states a story has an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Identify each of these points in White Lilacs and explain how each point is important to the novel’s central literary elements.