Chapter Questions

1.
2.
3.
4.
What key facts are we given about each of the farms and its occupants? What else is implied about them?
What attitude to religion emerges on the part of: a) the community b) Long Rob c) the author?
What impression do you form here of the community – its lifestyles, values, etc?
What do you consider to be the role of this
Prelude?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How did Mr and Mrs Guthrie first meet? What impressed her about John Guthrie then?
How does Will feel about his father? Why?
Chris feels herself torn between two Chrisses – in what ways does experience this conflict?
Mrs Guthrie does not share this conflict but she too suffers – how does she suffer? What is her philosophy about the land?
With reference to your answers to Questions 1, 2 and 4 and other incidents in Chapter 1, what impressions do you form of John Guthrie? What has made him like this?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Death of Mrs Guthrie- Explain how and why it happened. Then explain its effects on Chris, John and the rest of the family.
How is the situation between Will and Mollie
Douglas affected by talk in the area?
Describe Chris’ three meetings here with Ewan and her reactions to him.
L.G. Gibbon colours our attitude here to the ministry as represented by Rev. Gibbon by his choice of events and by is narrative techniques in relating them. How do you find yourself reacting to him and why?
What happens to John Guthrie and how does his illness affect Chris?

SEED TIME - JOHN GUTHRIE’S DEATH a) b) c)
Chris nursed a secret plan and comfort throughout this period. What was it?
How did her behaviour at this time cause comment in Kinraddie?
How would you explain her attitude and how it was changed by the funeral service?

a) b) c)
How can it help her with her plan?
What decision does she make and why?
How do her neighbours and relatives react?

From Chris’s point of view describe the events and feelings in her developing relationship with
Ewan up to her marriage. How does the knowledge of her pregnancy affect Chris’s emotional behaviour? How would you explain this?

1.
How does the talk about the war build up to Chae enlisting? What is Chris’s attitude to it at this point?
2.
Why is Long Rob so set against the war? Describe all that happens to him. How does he enlist after all?
3.
Char believes in the war even after he is been involved in it for some time. Why?
Describe his first leave and what he finds from his point of view.

4. a) Why does Ewan join up? How does Chris react to it?
b) Explain what happens on his first leave and how Chris reacts.
c) What is her initial reaction to the news of his death?
d) How does Chae’s visit help her?
5. This chapter serves a number of purposes apart from advancing Chris’s story. What purposes do you observe in it?

1.
Outline what happens to: Mutch, Pooty, Long Rob,
Munro, Ellison, Gordon.
2.
Who is the new minister? How relevant is his text
“They have made a desert and they call it peace”?
Why is he unpopular with the people of Kinraddie?
3. The unveiling of the War Memorial
What is the theme of the minister’s address?
What is he actually saying to the people there?
How does this message relate to the rest of the novel?
4. What comparisons and contrasts do you see between the Prelude and the Epilude?