A Study Guide for Geraldine Brooks's "March"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Geraldine Brooks's "March," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535828093

Book preview

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March

Geraldine Brooks

2005

Introduction

Geraldine Brooks and her husband moved in the 1990s to a small town in Virginia that appeared to have been part of the battlefield of the Civil War. Brooks found bullet holes in the nearby church and unearthed a Union soldier's belt buckle in her yard. The town had been predominantly abolitionist and Quaker but was situated in a Confederate state. The clash of interests in the area along with its history sparked Brooks's interest in the war, especially in the ideals for which each side fought.

Her study brought her to Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women (1868) and an interest in the part of the story that was left out: John March's experiences in the war. In her novel March (2005), Brooks envisions what happens to Mr. March after he leaves his family to serve as a chaplain for the Union army. As she imagines the story of the March family, Brooks adds a more somber tone to her depiction of the idealistic father and the harsh truths he must face about the institution of slavery and the fight to abolish it. The novel traces twenty years in March's life, chronicling his journey from innocence to experience as he discovers the darkness at the heart of humankind and in his own soul.

Despite Faulkner's roots in the South, he readily condemns many aspects of its history and heritage in Absalom, Absalom!. He reveals the unsavory side of southern morals and ethics, including slavery. The novel explores the relationship between modern humanity and the past, examining how past events affect modern decisions and to what extent modern people are responsible for the past.

Author Biography

Geraldine Brooks was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1955. She attended Sydney University and in 1983 earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York. While living in Sydney, she worked as a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Brooks served as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal during the late 1980s and 1990s, covering stories in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, and in 1990 during the Persian Gulf War. During this time, she was able to study the world of Muslim women, an experience that inspired her first non-fiction book, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995). The book was highly praised for its realistic portrait that provides impressive insight into the lives of these women. Her second non-fiction work, Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over (1998), is a memoir of her childhood in Sydney, Australia, and of the important effect that international pen pals had on her sense