A Fierce Radiance
Reading Group Guide
Questions for Discussion
1.
A Fierce Radiance is set in New York, at the onset of World War
II. Talk about America during wartime. How was the war a part of the lives of
Claire and Charlie Shipley, Jamie Stanton, Edward Rutherford, Bill Shipley, and
other Americans? Did any of your relatives serve in the war? What about on the
home front—do you know how your relatives' lives were affected during that
time?
2.
Contemporary Americans are also living during a time of war. How have
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq impacted Americans today? Contrast the two
times. Do you think Americans today feel as part of the war effort as they did
in the 1940s? Explain.
3.
Wartime New York City is brought vividly to life in the novel. What were
your impressions of the city? How do those impressions compare to your ideas of
what the city is like today? What place did your family call home like during
World War II? How does it compare to its contemporary version? Do you think
we—as a society and a nation—have lost anything in the decades between then and
now?
4.
What is your opinion of Claire Shipley? Do you think she was
like other women of her time? How did her background influence her choices,
including her work? How did her career shape her outlook on the events that
were happening around her? Claire was a woman trying to succeed in a man's world, and
she exploited her femininity when she needed to. Do you think this was
this a sign of power, or of weakness?
5.
Outside of her son, the most important men in Claire's life were her
father, Edward Rutherford, James Stanton, and Henry Luce. What did each of
them mean to her? How did her relationship with each change over the course of
the story?
6.
Claire was a photojournalist for Life magazine. Have you ever
seen an issue of that publication? What role did Life play in the
national consciousness? Do we have anything like Life today?
7.
Think about Claire's job as a photojournalist and the directives from
her boss, Henry Luce. Did she see herself as part of the war effort, or as an
objective bystander covering events? What is the role of a journalist today?
Might our outlook of the Second World War be different if Claire and her
colleagues covered it following today's journalistic standards? What are the
pros and cons of objectivity?
8.
Before reading A Fierce Radiance, did you have any idea that
penicillin and other antibiotics were discovered less than a hundred years ago?
How did these medical miracles change our lives? Have any members of your
families been saved by antibiotics? Are we too reliant on drugs like
antibiotics as well as antibacterial household products today? Will these drugs
always be as effective as they have been? How do you think can we extend the
potency of the drugs we have available to us?
9.
Do you think 21st-century Americans take their good health
and advanced medical care for granted? Could you imagine living or raising a
child when the simplest of conditions—a flu, a scraped knee, a cat scratch, a
blister from tight shoes—could lead to death? How do you think you would cope
living with such knowledge? Have we as a nation, forgotten the transformation
that the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines have made in our lives?
10.
The Rockefeller Institute followed the motto "for the good of
humankind." The doctors, scientists, and researchers worked tirelessly in the
name of science, not wealth. Does this kind of selfless humanity still exist?
Should everything be done for profit? Why, or why not? Do you think we as a
nation have lost our sense of shared commitment, and of the "common good"?
11.
Claire argues with her father that selling antibacterials is not like
selling rivets. He disagrees, to which she responds: "You don't think there's
well, a human right for people to be able to receive an antibacterial at two
cents a dose if that's what it costs to produce? Okay, at a dollar to allow for
a hefty profit, but surely not as much as two hundred dollars for one shot?"
How would you answer this? Companies often do spend a great deal of money in
research and development, which they want to recoup. But how much profit is
enough, or are there no limits, no matter what the cost to other human beings?
12.
With the lives of millions of soldiers at stake, the government claimed
the patents on penicillin's means of production to ensure that no single drug
company could either have a monopoly on this essential "weapon of war" or
divert government funding into other more lucrative research of their own. The
government demanded that the companies share their research for the benefit of
the nation. Do you think this was a good or necessary thing to do? What might
have happened if the government had decided to let the free market take care of
production?
13. Before doctors can use new
medications, they need to do an enormous amount of medical testing. In A
Fierce Radiance, some of the subjects were given drugs without knowing the
possible side effects. Some of these were interned Japanese Americans. Should
they have been told what could happen if they received the medication? Rutherford
felt that using these relatively few internees as test subjects was a necessary
byproduct of saving the many. Although the new medication caused side effects,
it also saved the lives of seriously ill internees. Others felt these
"Japs"—whom they viewed as possible enemy sympathizers or combatants—didn't
deserve to have their lives saved. What do you think?
14. If a member of your family
did something that you thought was horrifying—as Claire thought when she
learned that her father had allowed the new medication to be tested on Japanese
internees without their knowledge—would you be able to forgive that person?
Would you even try?
15.
The government lackey, Andrew Barnett, tells Claire that there is no
morality during war. Do you agree with this? Is "winning at any cost"—if it
includes murder and letting a killer go free—a victory?
16. Do you think that Claire
and Jamie will be together after the war?
17. What did you take away from
reading A Fierce Radiance?
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