Photo from Amazon.Before I start the discussion, I wanted to share a few thoughts on this book. I'll admit that it was a little more of a downer than I was expecting, but in the end I felt very uplifted.
Here is why it was a downer at first - Hanna endured many of life's cruelest experience - rape, ostracized by her community, abuse, etc.. When teenage Ragnar turned on her, I was so depressed. All I could think of was "Great - that's what Soren is going to do to me someday." The daugher and granddaugher also had a pretty rough time - neither of them really finding happiness or the love they wanted. However, I think to tell someone's life story you need to include the tragedy's and disapointments that define them.
Why it was uplifting in the end - In the end, this story has left me thinking more about what I've inherited from the women who paved my way. Examining the complex relationships between Hanna's family makes me more aware of relationships in my own family. Not all of it was rosy for Hanna and her daughters, and neither is it all rosy for me.
Discussion Questions:
1. Which woman's life did you enjoy reading the most and why?
Johanna's life story was my favorite because you got to know her the most. Hanna's story was told in third-person, so it was hard to get inside her head. Anna's story revolved so much around Rickard, that I don't feel you found out much more about her than her marriage, her mother's opinon of her, and her opinion of her family. Also, Hanna's husband's love and preference for Johanna set her up to be a favorite. I wanted to see how this favorite child would break out of her mother's world and succeed.
2. Hanna's Daughters examines the changing roles of women in a country that quickly moved from a primitive farming society, to an industrial society and then an information-based society. How do you think theses changes in society make you different from your mother/grandmother/or earlier female ancestors?
I do think that I have more time and freedom to worry about finding happiness and love than my grandmother and great-grandmother did. They had to work so hard just to survive and that was what they expected. I think all the new technologies have made my home life a little easier - I buy my bread instead of baking, I don't have to milk cows or worry about a shortage of hay or for my livestock, etc.. Although, I'm not sure there is that much of a difference between my mother and I in terms of society changes. Yes, technology is different but not drastic enough to change my way of life from hers.
3. One point I love, is that the author wanted to point out that even though today's women have so many more opportunities to "succeed," we still choose to marry and raise children. She refers to this as our Social Inheritance. What do you think of that type of inheritance?
In the book, I think the family jewels symbolized this. The care of family stories and heritage passed down from daughter to daughter. In my family, we don't have family jewels that mothers pass on, but we do have the stories and the resolve to love and nurture children. I think there could be no greater inheritance than a love for family and passing that on.
4. Share one of your own questions or opinion on the book.
3 comments:
I have to say this book really got me thinking about my own inheritance. I realized I know so little about my grandparents and my great-grandparents. It made me sad to realize that I lost out on the ability to learn about my grandma from her own mouth as she died about 7 years ago. I have a great desire to learn more from my dad's mom. I've had lots of great talks with her this year, this book just increased my desire to get the scoop.
I don't know that I enjoyed any one story more than any other. I think I related to Johanna more in that I loved her home and her garden. I felt sad that in the end she was the only one unable to express herself. Hanna was so strong. I loved her push past her rape experience. I loved that she continued to live and strive to move on. I felt sad for Ragnar in that she never really seemed to let him be forgiven for the experience he was born into.
As for Anna, I know she told the story, but really didn't let you in emotionally. I had a hard time relating to her.
I had been thinking it would be interestng to read a family generational journal to see what was the same in motherhood and what varied. I am so grateful for the modern convieniences and yet sometimes I wish life didn't move so fast. I realize that I have too many things in my life. Physical and time constraints. I feel a great desire to simplify and allow myself the abitily to spend more time with my children.
I value my womanhood so much. I am so grateful to be the one home to nurture and love my kids. I'm grateful for the creative genes that increase my desire to create and live. I agree with Melissa 100%.
What are some of the traits you feel you've recieved from the generations of women who preceeded you?
I feel like the women in my life have paved the way for me to be OK with mothering on my own. Morgan works alot away from home and so did my dad and my grandpa. I think we have be blessed and cursed with an independence and strength to handle this. I say cursed because sometimes it is hard to remember to include Morgan when he is home.
Jessie, I agree with you about wishing we could simplify our lives more.
And to answer your question - I think I've inherited the desire to create beauty in my home. On both sides of my family, my grandmothers found joy in beautifying there lives and homes. My one grandmother was a big fan of music, gardening and creating her own home decor. My other grandma was a big quilter and sewer. My great-grandmother was, too.
1. I think I enjoyed Hannah's story the most, even if it tended toward the depressing. I love that her husband accepted her and her child with no reservations. Her story was what made me keep reading the book, after I found the first chapter disjointed and strange.
2. I think the changes in society affecting my ability to choose the path for my life. If you look at the difference between Hannah and Anna, Hannah was trapped into her role, while Anna had the freedom to pick any role she wanted.
3. I like that this was pointed out, because although our freedom has increased, we are all women, who inherantly want to nuture - we want to have a husband and children, because that is part of our nature. It is a good and wonderful part of who we are, and to see that even if so many other things change, that stays the same, was good to see.
4. I wish I had known my grandmothers - one lived all the way across the country, and I only saw her a few times before she died. My other grandmother got alzheimers when I was young, and although she lived with us for 7 years, I never knew who she was before the disease. I do know that one was a singer, and I'd like to think I got that from her, while the other was an elementary school teacher. Both big parts of who I am.
I think I have found that I have taken more traits from my four sisters and my mothers than I can even count. I feel blessed to havethem in my lives, as they have shaped who I am in many ways.
Although I did not like a lot of this book, since I felt like it dwelled too much on the negative in each story, I did love parts of it and am glad I read it.
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