59 pages • 1 hour read
The Four Winds
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book Club Questions
General Impressions
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of gender discrimination.
Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.
1. How does this novel compare to other historical fiction novels of Hannah’s you have read—for instance, The Women, The Nightingale, or Winter Garden? If this is your first time reading Hannah, are you eager to read more?
2. What did you know about the Dust Bowl before reading this? Did this knowledge prime your reading and expectations in any way? How did your reading experience accord with these expectations?
3. Compare this novel to classic books about the Dust Bowl—for instance, John Steinbeck’s 1939’s The Grapes of Wrath or the much lesser known Whose Names Are Unknown by female author Senora Babb, on which Steinbeck’s novel drew heavily. As novels focusing on women, do Babb’s and Hannah’s novels resonate with one another or with you in a unique way?
Personal Reflection and Connection
Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.
1. Considering Elsa’s final fate and the information the Epilogue provides about Loreda, do you think this book has a happy ending? Why or why not? If you were to use a different word for the ending than “happy,” what would it be? How do you feel about novels that end ambiguously or even sadly?
2. Elsa and her family feel out of place in the West until they meet other migrants with whom they build a supportive coalition. What important coalitions of people exist in your personal, work, or cultural life?
3. What characters did you relate to most, and why? Consider main characters like Elsa and Loreda as well as minor characters like Rose and Tony.
4. Have you ever been at a major crossroads in life, as Elsa is when she decides to leave Texas and go west? Do you find Elsa’s decision at this point understandable? How does the ending of the novel affect your answer?
Societal and Cultural Context
Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.
1. The characters fleeing the effects of the Dust Bowl can be considered climate migrants. How does this novel depict the phenomenon of climate migrants? What lessons does it offer with respect to climate migrants and climate refugees in the 21st century?
2. What registers of discrimination do Elsa and her family experience in the West? How does the inequality she and the other migrants experience affect their daily quality of life? How is the class struggle they experience as white farmers differ from other forms of systemic prejudice in the early 20th century?
3. How does the novel depict capitalism and communism? What views do the characters have of these two economic systems? Are any of their views symptomatic of their historical moment? How do these depictions interact with a theme like The Fragility of the American Dream, and are these thematic explorations resonant today?
Literary Analysis
Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.
1. How does the fact that the narrator is a woman affect the novel and its themes? What types of marginalization does Elsa face in the book, and how does this affect her character arc?
2. What are the potential meanings of the title, The Four Winds, and how does this meaning relate to the narrative? Consider for instance the cultural and historic symbolism of the four cardinal directions, or the common association between winds and change.
3. How does the novel characterize the two sets of parents—Eugene and Minerva Wolcott on the one hand and Tony and Rose Martinelli on the other? What aspects of early 20th-century American society and culture does each of them embody?
4. How do the historical events Loreda and Anthony experience affect them? What different models of growing up do each of their character arcs take?
5. Compare the many types of “dreamers” in this novel and discuss how their relationship to dreaming affects their character arc and the novel’s themes. For instance, you might consider Tony’s dream to own land, Elsa’s college dreams, Rafe’s romanticized and frustrated dreams, Jack’s dreams for workers, and the American Dream.
Creative Engagement
Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.
1. After Rafe abandons his family, the novel never returns to his story. Considering what we know of his character, what do you imagine happened to him after he leaves the narrative action?
2. The novel ends with Loreda achieving the dream her mother never got to: to attend college. Imagine a sequel that explores Loreda’s time in college and her potential role in upcoming major historical events, like World War II.
3. There is a long history of musical artists writing songs about class struggle. For instance, Kendrick Lamar’s “Money Trees” is about the consequences of the relentless pursuit of material wealth, and Dolly Parton's “9 to 5” is about the difficulty of accruing wealth and respect as a working woman. Make a playlist that embodies the spirit of the novel’s revolutionary working class, like Jack or Elsa as she is at the end of the novel.
Need more inspiration for your next meeting? Browse all of our Book Club Resources.
Unlock all 59 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Kristin Hannah
