| 1. |
Harlem Redux explores the loneliness of self-exile, the tension between the issues that drive one away and the yearning to return home. Both David and Gem were in self-imposed exile and both were driven back by circumstances. What inner pressures made them to away to begin with? What kept them away? And how different might their lives have been if they'd found the strength to return home before crises forced them to?
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| 2. |
Neither David nor Gem found the home they remembered. Both were confronted with painful relationships from their respective pasts. For David, it was his relationship with Rachel; for Gem, it was her relationship with Lilian. How did they each react to the old problems presented by these people? With reconciliation, for example, or with a resurgence of the old envy? What alternative — and better — choices might they have made?
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| 3. |
Lilian complains about the responsibilities of her life and the restrictions of her social class, but does nothing to assert her freedom. Meanwhile, Gem refuses all responsibilities, rejects all restrictions and insists on leading a carefree life. But both end up miserable: Lilian is trapped in a loveless marriage and Gem is left penniless and without a home. What is Walker saying about the need to balance obligation and personal freedom?
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| 4. |
Augustus McKay was a successful man who thunderously demanded that his children accomplish 'great things.' He meant for Lilian, Gem and David to be strong, but his powerful ambition threatened to wear them down. When does a parent's dreams for his or her children become a destructive force? Was Augustus's influence totally negative, in fact, or did it bear positive fruit?
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| 5. |
David is at home neither here nor there. He's uncomfortable on Strivers' Row, yet he doesn't belong on the poor streets surrounding it. Might he ever reconcile this inner conflict? If so, then how?
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| 6. |
Rachel has suffered many blows in her life — the most hurtful of which she says came from her own people. It was black boys who mocked her in the school yard as a child, black employers who her turned away because of her skin color ... and a well-to-do black family that used her to make itself feel important, then turned her away when she threatened to get too close. Were Rachel's experiences particular to her time, or do they still occur today? Is there still a significant amount of black-on-black abuse — ranging from snobbery to outright color prejudice— or is this a form of self-hatred that African-Americans have moved beyond?
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| 7. |
David's upbringing taught him to automatically distrust people such as Nella Harding and Adrian Snyder, but these two turned out to be his stalwart supporters. What is Walker trying to say about the prejudices we carry toward those who are different from us?
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| 8. |
David is an ex-soldier. He has seen death, up close and ugly, and there are no doubts about his physical courage. He survived the war mentally and emotionally in tact, but the lynching shakes him to the core. Why does this particular confrontation affect him so much more than his war experiences did? With regard to the lynching, what would you have done in David's place?
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| 9. |
It's no accident that Nella wants to name her new book, "Duplicity." How do the various characters in HARLEM REDUX lie or hide their respective true identities? Is there anyone in the story who is honest about who he or she is? What is Walker trying to say about the masks people wear in order to survive? About how easily we're misled by outer appearances? Or about how well we really know one another, including those closest to us?
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| 10. |
To be so light-skinned, David must have had some white ancestry. Yet he was expected to declare himself as simply black. That was in the 1920s. Nearly 100 years have passed. How much have attitudes changed? Should those who are multi-ethnic be expected to identify with only one part of their heritage? And why?
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