The Four Winds: A Novel by Kristin Hannah Reading Guide-Book Club Should Elsa have agreed to go with him? Rafe's father. . 20 Best Book Club Books for 2022 (New & Anticipated), Best Mystery & Thriller Books for 2022 (New & Anticipated), 20 Best Books with Asian American Protagonists (for Adults), Persephone by Madeline Miller: What We Know, Books to Movies & TV in 2022: 25+ Adaptations Coming Soon, Your email address will not be published. Most of the things that come up are facts that youd probably heard about in history class, but having it placed into the context of a vivid and expansive story really brought to life a time period that Ive never really spent much time thinking about. It was published in 2021. "The Four Winds" is epic and transporting, a stirring story of hardship and love that is likely to lead to a film adaptation (Hannahs previous best-selling novel, "The Nightingale," is getting a film adaptation later this year starringDakota and Elle Fanning). What does the Bible mean when it refers to the four winds? Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. Rafe is unhappy, drinks heavily and dreams of going West to pursue new opportunities. She wished shed never read The Age of Innocence. Her deep-seated insecurities make her eager to please others, and she is quick to ingratiate herself with the Martinelli family. Elsa finds that the hard work of farming agrees with her, but Rafes dreams lie elsewhere. Its a book about determination, love for ones family and for oneself, the fight to survive and the American Dream. However, Elsa dies feeling as though she has finally found her voice, and she tells Loreda to continue being brave and believing in the American dream once she is gone. After trying to convince Elsa to leave behind the farm, Rafe eventually leaves the family behind. It is Rose who supports Elsa through her years on the farm, offering wise counsel about how to deal with Rafe, how to raise children, and how to cope with grief. The chief of police. Edit: Someone in the comments mentioned that its mentioned at some point that people in that area pronounced drought as DROW-TH at that time in that case, I love that the narrator included it in the audiobook! One day, Rafe abandons them with only a note. The Four Winds Characters - eNotes.com (Photo by Kevin Lynch). How did she finally come to understand her mother and her choices through a new lens? We plant, we tend, we harvest. How does Loredas view of her father change throughout the book and why? "Hope is a coin I carry. Thank you Kristin for hours of enjoyment while listening to The Four Winds! Disowned by her parents for casting shame upon the family, Elsa marries Rafe and is taken in by Tony and Rose Martinelli, Rafes parents. Expectations for their future were sharply defined. A time of abundance. How are womens stories different? The Greatest Generation was shaped by the Great Depression and World War II. She wants to join, despite her mothers prohibition, and sneaks out at night to attend meetings. How do Elsa and her family remain unbroken even while enduring crippling poverty, food and shelter insecurity, and living in a town that is hostile to them? The book ends with her about to return to California to become the first Martinelli to go to college. If you havent read The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah yet, I highly recommend it! In 1935, the three of them embark on the ride towards California. Book club questions for The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah takes a deep dive into all the major events and character development in this epic read. The Four Winds Character Analysis | SuperSummary Why do you think Loreda doesnt take her education that seriously? Cora will do anything for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown. Do you think it would have been the same for her in New York City? What similarities? "Come in," she said. How is it the same? She is just as attached to the land as her husband, Tony, and she views it as a legacy that she can leave for her family. She is ready to strike. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows. If youre looking for another epic style story, The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd is a great choice. Rafe was set to go to college but once Elsa is pregnant with his child, those plans are canceled. I wrote it for at least a year, and Elsa was kind of a peripheral character, Hannah says. I think thats when it really became the story I was meant to tell, and the story I want people to read.. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Years later, when Loreda is 18, she bids a final farewell to Elsa and the farm as she heads back to California to attend college, the fulfillment of her mothers most important wish. We flash forward to 1934 and the farm is experiencing a severe drought. Jean and Jeb Deweyand their four childrenare fellow migrants that Elsa befriends at the ditch campsite. Loreda climbs the windmill to grieve, and when Elsa tries to comfort her, Loreda won't accept her love and sadness. The doctor says he must leave to survive, so Elsa packs up the household into the car. The strength of Hannah's prose brings the characters to life in a way that will make you unable to tear yourself away from them. The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through itthe harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Ernts fragile mental state deteriorates. date the date you are citing the material. However, he also represents resilience and strength, as he is able to find joy and levity in simple things despite the Martinellis circumstances. She begins the novel thinking that shes weak, thinking that shes uneducated, and unlovable, she says. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Motherhood changes Elsa in almost every way. Do you have sympathy for how broken he felt by the poverty and hardship? Elsa is a dutiful, hardworking woman who always does her best for her family. I found it very depressing and had to force myself to finish it, Just started The Four Winds and Im wondering where Elsa would have found a copy of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure given the times and small town she lived in. Lets discuss Loredas new found activism and how that carried on to every decision she made going forward. Overtones of America's present political struggles echo throughout the novel's events. From the number-one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them. "The Four Winds" (St. Martin's Press, 464 pp., *** out of four stars) plays out against the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that together gutted the American economy and turned beloved . The Four Winds Characters Alphabetically Listed - BookCompanion It binds us, one to another, as it has for generations. Book review and synopsis for The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, a tale of one woman's courage during the Great Depression. You can order the book on Amazon here. "The Four Winds - Characters" eNotes Publishing Prior to his work with the Okies, he tried to help organize undocumented Mexican laborers. This story, about family, love, & struggle during the Dust Bowl, captivated my interest from start to finish! Embittered by their terrible luck in California, Loreda resolves to take her mothers body back to Texas and bury her on the farm, in the land she grew to love. In this tale, Kristin has written a survival story about resilience, love, family, courage and the American Dream. With the extreme poverty conditions, theres often remarks about how its inconceivable that this is taking place in America in the 30s. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. This upbringing, along with her guilt over the circumstances of their marriage, often render Elsa incapable of expressing her feelings properly, and she tends to avoid confrontation. Were different voices and tones used effectively? How does she change? I also thought it was charming that at the heart of the story is a mother-daughter relationship. In 1921, Elsa Wolcott is a 25-year-old unmarried woman who is not particularly pretty and too tall for most men. It is likely that readers of The Four Winds, which arrived on Feb. 2, wont be able to imagine this story told any other way, so strong a character is Elsa as she fights for survival and finds her own strength in a tale that reaches from the Dust Bowl to the migrant camps of Californias Central Valley in the mid-1930s. In the 1930s, communism and socialism were on the rise, partially in response to the grinding poverty, joblessness, and despair. Rafe Martinelli is Elsas husband. The Four Winds is set in the Texas panhandle as the Depression and the Dust Bowl environmental disaster. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. Why do you think theyve gone unreported for so long? He took off his cap, twisted it in his hands. While Rafe runs away from those responsibilities, Elsa faces them head-on. Already a member? Why? Why is land so important to that dream? Elsa is likewise drawn to Jacks forceful personality, but she sees his ideas as dangerous. However, she puts her duties as a mother ahead of all else, and she knows that she must leave in order to protect Ant. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. Loreda longs to leave as well, and she prefers her father's dreams to her mother's dreary, joyless work ethic. What books influenced you when you were growing up? Comparing the devastation of the farm to the hardships of the camps, what do you think was harder for Elsa and the family? They have a complex relationship that develops and changes as the story progresses in ways that will challenge you to think about your own relationships. Book Club Questions for The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah At first she'd tried to scale the walls of her daughter's adolescent, irrational anger; she'd volleyed back with words of love, but Loreda's continuing, thriving impatience with Elsa had done worse than grind her down. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Both Elsa & Loreda, are very strong personalities, which eventually find common ground & are able to come together in family love & unity! As an avid reader I found this book compelling and informative. I mentioned this in my review but its eerie how the hardships presented in The Four Winds remain today and even more so due to the pandemic. Review: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - Book Club Chat Rosalba: Martinelli: Rafe's mother. The main characters in The Four Winds include Elsa Martinelli, Loreda Martinelli, and Jack Valen. By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Do they intend to exclude Elsa, whom they perceive as just a workhorse? Thirteen-year-old Leni, caught in the riptide of her parents passionate, stormy relationship, has little choice but to go along, daring to hope this new land promises her family a better future. Hope is a coin I carry. publication in traditional print. How do the characters in the book react in the face of poverty? Instead, they are staying to take a governmental payment to grow grass as part of a soil conservation plan to help save the farmland of the Great Plains. Fighting for any kind of social equality or radical change often requires great personal sacrifice. During the Dust Bowl, while many families went west in search of work and a better life, most of them stayed behind on their parched farms. The Four Winds is divided up into four sections, each detailing events from (roughly) that year. A solitary child unused to the company of others, Elsa learns the power of having a support network, a lesson reinforced by Jean Dewey and other migrants in the squatters camp. She had to believe there was grit in her, even if it had never been tested or revealed. (9) This sentence highlights Elsas essentially hopeful nature, even though she doesnt believe in herself. But we women of the Great Plains worked from sunup to sundown, too, toiled on wheat farms until we were as dry and baked as the land we loved. (1) The stories of women have largely gone undocumented throughout history, and this era is no different. What do we know now that people didnt know then? However, Tonys tenacity eventually proves fruitful, as the land recovers with the help of the new farming techniques instituted by the Conservation Commission. She sees early on that the land is dying and tries hard to convince her family to leave for California, though much of this desire is based on the fanciful notions that Rafe has instilled in Loreda about living in a big city and becoming famous. Unlike Rafe, who never seemed to care about Elsas desires or interests, Jack is respectful of her boundaries, and when the two become intimate, he ensures that Elsa enjoys herself as well. During the COVID- 19 pandemic, Americans were faced with many of the same challenges of the Great Depression. Elsas character arc follows a well-worn path, although no less engaging for its familiarity. She becomes a farmer with her husband's family, though he leaves them, and they struggle with the unending drought. Or do you think theres something deeper involved? How does one become American? WHEAT GRAPHIC BY MARCO GALTAROSSA FROM THE NOUN PROJECT. The harsh realities that await the family in the San Joaquin Valley further strain Loredas relationship with her mother, whom she lashes out at in order to relieve her own dissatisfaction and guilt over their circumstances. Along the way, Elsa develops a greater consciousness of the plight of laborers in Depression-era America, joining them in protests against the larger political and economic engines that exploit people and land alike, leading to the Dust Bowl in the first place. What do you think the idea of owning land and working the land means to people? His efforts seem largely inspired by the memory of his mother, a single woman who died in a factory fire after her employers locked the factory doors to prevent employees from taking smoke breaks.
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