Slider’s Son

by Rebecca Fjelland Davis

  • Why would people like Widow Larson have such prejudiced ideas about Indians?

  • Why did Mary Thorson assume she could not get a fair trial, based on this prejudice?

  • Why do you think Slider said that even though Mary Thorson was obviously innocent, she could still be found guilty?

  • Do you think Orland Bjelland’s mother is prejudiced? How and how not?

  Questions for Personal Reflection and Reflection about the World

  • Why does Big Joe use the insulting term “Injun” for his own son?

  • What are some of the ignorant attitudes about Native Americans in this story?

  • How would you feel if you were forced to go to boarding school?

  • Even after the trial, at the end of the book, how does prejudice show itself? What do you think about this?

  • Why are terms used in this book, and in the 1930s, no longer appropriate to use?

  Questions about History and for Research Possibilities

  • Where did Mandan Nation live originally?

  • Where did they live in the 1930s?

  • Where are the Mandan now?

  • What can you find out about the Fort Berthold Reservation? What three nations were part of this reservation?

  • What can you find out about boarding schools for Native children? Where were these schools located? What was it like to go to boarding school?

  For Further Research and Discussion

  • What does oppression mean?

  • What other groups of people who have been oppressed in the United States?

  • Why does Slider use the term “Negro” for an African American? What other terms have been applied to African Americans? Is the way Slider uses the term meant to be an insult? Why have such terms changed through history?

  • What is similar about how Native Americans were treated in the United States and how Jews were treated during this period in Germany?

  • What can you find out about Native people who were treated in similar ways in other parts of the world? (Suggestion: look at histories of colonized countries like Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand, etc.)

  • What can we do to prevent this from happening again in our world?

  V. HITLER AND THE YEARS BEFORE WORLD WAR II

  Reading Comprehension and Interpretation

  • What was Dr. Bronstein’s attitude about Hitler?

  • What was Slider’s opinion of Hitler?

  • How did Dr. Bronstein’s attitude about Hitler differ from that of his family in Germany?

  Questions for Personal Reflection and Reflection about the World

  • Based on Dr. Bronstein’s family’s experience, how do you think people in Germany felt about Hitler?

  • Why would they feel this way?

  • Is there a chance that our country could be blind to its own problems like Germany was in the late 1930s? In what ways might this be possible?

  Questions about History and for Research Possibilities

  • Can you find information about what the rest of the world, particularly the United States, thought about Hitler’s growing power in Europe?

  • What happened in 1941 and the next few years?

  • Are there any parallels between Hitler’s growing power and the growth in power of any other world leader?

  • How was it possible for the Nazis under Hitler to have so much power in Germany? Why didn’t other reasonable Germans prevent the Holocaust?

  VI. HEROES

  Reading Comprehension and Interpretation

  • Who is Grant’s hero?

  • What is it that makes Grant want to be like him?

  • What other baseball heroes are mentioned in the book?

  • Who is Shirley’s hero? Why?

  • Who are some other heroes in this story?

  Questions for Personal Reflection

  • Do you have a hero? Who? Why?

  • What do you admire in your hero? Is there a way that you are trying to be like that person?

  • Can you find out more about your hero’s life so you can decide if you really want to follow in his or her footsteps?

  Questions for Reflection about the World

  • Why was baseball so popular during this period?

  • What has changed since the 1930s in the ways we follow our favorite sports and heroes?

  • Who are some sports heroes today?

  • Why would Hitler turn away instead of shaking Jesse Owens’ hand after he won four Olympic gold medals?

  Questions about History and for Research Possibilities

  • What can you find out about Bob Feller besides what is in the book?

  • Who were other baseball heroes from this era?

  • Who was Jesse Owens? What Olympic events did he win?

  • How did the world respond to an African American being the “fastest man in the world”?

  • How have attitudes changed about African American sports heroes?

  • Who were some groundbreaking heroes in sports in the last 100 years who were not white, and what did they accomplish?

  VII. WOMEN’S ROLES

  Reading Comprehension and Interpretation

  • What were the expectations of women and girls in this story?

  • How does Shirley feel about the traditional women’s roles in the 1930s?

  • What does Mamie believe about girls’ and women’s behavior and roles?

  • When and how did Mamie break out of her usual role, and how did the town respond to it?

  Questions for Personal Reflection and Reflection about the World

  • Why do you think Mamie is so strict about rules and roles for girls?

  • What do you think Mamie would think about Shirley’s dreams if they lived today?

  • What is Grant’s attitude about girls? Can you think of some examples of things he says or thinks as a narrator that are sexist? Why do you think he has these attitudes?

  • How does Grant really feel about Shirley’s role as a girl?

  • What do you think Grant would think about this if he lived today?

  Questions about History and for Research Possibilities

  • How have women’s roles changed since the 1930s?

  • When and why did these roles begin to change?

  • What are some events that caused this change?

  • Who are some women in history who have broken the molds they were expected to fill and changed history?

  VIII. MURDER

  Reading Comprehension and Interpretation

  • What was the first clue that perhaps a murder had occurred?

  • Why was the body hidden where it was?

  • What was the big problem with this hiding place?

  • Who did you think was the murderer as you read the story?

  • Were you surprised to find out what really happened?

  • What were some of the surprises about how the murder occurred?

  • How does Grant feel he can perhaps influence the direction of the trial?

  • What is admirable about this plan?

  • How do adults and the court officials see this plan?

  • Do you think it actually had any effect on the jurors?

  • Why was Mary Thorson acquitted?

  For Further Contemplation and Discussion

  • Is murder ever justified?

  • What other options might this murderer have had? What else could have been done?

  • Did he/she see any of these options? Why or why not?

  • What lasting effects did the murder have?

  • Did it solve any problems? Why or why not?

  • In what ways is hate destructive?

  (Author’s note: The murder in this novel is based very loosely on a murder that occurred in the 1940s in Nelson County, North Dakota. A Mandan woman, accused of murdering her drunkard husband, was acquitted by virtue of self-defense. She did indeed conceal the body in exactly
the same way that was described in this story.)

  Questions for further discussion

  • Why is it so remarkable that a Mandan Indian woman would be acquitted in the real story, in real history?

  • What other precedents have been set in history and in literature for a person of color being tried for a crime against a white person? What are some examples? What were the outcomes?

  IX. LESSONS AND PREDICTIONS

  • What are some of the things Grant learns during this book?

  • Who else learns lessons during this story?

  • What do you think will happen to Grant after this story?

  • What do you think Shirley will be like when she grows up?

  • What do you think will happen to Little Joe?

  • We cannot rewrite history, even though some parts of history make us ashamed about how people treated other people. It is important to understand history and some of those mistakes, so we don’t repeat them.

  • What are some of the things we can learn from how people treat others in this story?

  • How can this affect how we treat other people and other groups of people?

  • Are there any groups of people being mistreated right now in today’s world? What can we do about that?