The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

What reasons could Michael Chabon have had for placing Joe, and therefore, the Kavaliers in the city of Prague and not in some other European city that fell to the Nazis during World War II? What significance and symbols does the city provide the novel?

In many ways, Joe is likened to the heroes in his comics. Does Joe fit the description of the archetypical hero? Explain why or why not.

Surrealism is mentioned several times in the novel. What is Surrealism’s impact on or parallels with Joe and Sam’s work?

The narrator in Kavalier and Clay appears to be heterodiegetic in nature—that is, they exist outside the narration and are omniscient. Is it possible to argue that the narrator is actually homodiegetic—someone who is a part of the story even though they remain unnamed? Who might the narrator be if they exist as a character in the novel?

Bernard Kornblum mentions that Joe is the type of person whose desire for autoliberation goes beyond just testing himself; people like Joe feel themselves bound by invisible chains, and his final escape is all too foreseeable. What does Kornblum mean? What about Joe’s future is foreseeable?

What significance does the title of Sam’s novel, American Disillusionment, carry? What sort of themes could Sam discuss in his novel?

What were conditions like for gay men in New York City in the 1940s? How does the novel evoke this?

Discuss Dr. Frederic Wertham’s theory about romantic undertones between superheroes and their sidekicks and Sam’s belief that the relationship is a fatherly/mentoring one. Who, if either, is correct?