Heartbreak Hotel
by Anne Rivers Siddons
List Price: $6.50
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0061042781
Publisher: HarperCollins
Maggie Deloach has everything going for her. She's one of the most popular
girls on Randolph University's campus, beloved of the faculty and the
student body. She belongs to the best sorority and is pinned to the most
eligible fraternity boy, Boots Claibornes. From an impeccable lineage,
Maggie was brought up to behave like a perfect Southern belle. Maggie
knows the rules and is willing to play by them, which all but guarantees
her a future of smooth sailing, with no surprises, and no disappointments.
But this is Alabama, in the summer of 1956, and the world is about to
be rocked by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Maggie runs into a
young newspaper reporter, Hoyt Cunningham, who begins to open her eyes
to the momentous societal changes that are happening all around her. Responding
to her obvious intelligence, Hoyt challenges her to become a part of the
veritable revolution that is sweeping the nation. A visit to the Claiborne
family estate in the delta brings Maggie face to face with the cruel injustices
of segregation and racism. Her newly-awakened moral indignation drives
her to write an incendiary article in Randolph's college newspaper that
forever changes the way people think of Maggie, and how she thinks of
herself. As the nation rocks to Elvis Presley tunes and the winds of change
blow across the South, Maggie is launched onto a wrenching journey of
self-discovery that threatens to shatter her whole world.
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1. Maggie says of the imprisoned black man, "he was something in a trap and he couldn't get out, and he hated the people who'd trapped him, but at the same time he'd do anything on earth they wanted him to, just so they didn't punish him. And I recognized that, I knew what he was feeling, I understood that." What does she mean? What does her initial empathy for the black man lead her to conclude about her own life? How does she succeed in getting out of the "trap" for herself?
2. What role does Aiken play in Maggie's life? How does Maggie's impression of Aiken change through the course of the novel? What are the different types of friendships Maggie has with other women? Which proves to be the most instrumental in her life, and why?
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