How Beautiful We Were

Thinking about the different models of protest/attempts at change that are exemplified in the text, make an argument for which is the most effective. Remember to define what you think “effective” means in this context. Potential examples are dialogue, education, electing new government officials, raising awareness, property destruction, and violent protest.

Show how one or both of the village stories are allegories for the book as a whole. The leopard story first appears on page 30, and the second song/story, about the monster and the fish, appears on page 138.

As the Kosawa villagers fight for safety, they have to decide who their actual enemies are. Discuss the role of accountability and blame as it relates to the various parties that Kosawa has to face. These may include the laborers, the Leader/Sick One/Round One, Austin, government officials, the Sweet One/the Cute One, Mr. Fish, America, or His Excellency.

Is this a feminist text? If yes, how so? If no, why not? How do gender roles impact Kosawa’s fight for liberation?

Considering the way the novel ends, with Kosawa gone and the younger generation participating in the consumption of oil, what is the moral (or what are the morals) of the story?

Discuss the role that education plays in the book. Possible questions to ask include: Is education liberation? Is education necessary for liberation? What are the limits of education?

Argue for the literary purpose of anonymity in the book. For example, the country that Kosawa is in is purposefully left unnamed and fictionalized. The children remain largely anonymous, as do many other characters who are given nicknames, such as the Cute One or the Sick One.

In one of Thula’s letters to her friends, she writes about Austin talking at the village meeting: “He’d been to many places and seen the extent of human depravity, he said, but he still didn’t know what he could attribute it to—greed seemed too trite a reason” (209). Use the whole book as evidence to hypothesize about possible reasons for the “extent of human depravity.”