The Beet Queen

How does Karl change throughout the course of the novel? How does his relationship to religion change? How do his relationships with the other characters change?

Compare and contrast Sita with Mary and/or Celestine. How is Sita different from these two women? How is she similar? What are her goals? What kind of life does she envision? What kind of life does she experience?

Describe Celestine’s relationship with and opinion of Mary. Why do they remain friends? Why does Celestine continue to allow Mary to intrude in Dot’s upbringing?

Why is Wallace so attached to Dot? Why does he put so much effort into winning her approval and love? How does this reverberate with his relationship, or lack thereof, with Karl and with the larger family?

Describe Dot. How is she different from the four primary adults in her life—Celestine, Mary, Karl, and Wallace? How might she be similar? How might her future look different, or similar, to those influential figures?

What role does inheritance play in the novel? What forms does inheritance take, and how is it recognized?

How does Mary’s religious experience inform her later belief systems in supernatural objects and actions? How does Sita’s religious experience impact her stability later in life? How does Karl’s religious experience contrast with Jude Miller’s?

What do the rivalries—between Mary and Karl, between Mary and Sita, between Mary and Celestine, between Mary and Wallace—cost the makeshift family? Note that Mary is involved in each rivalry.