The following questions are taken from your blog posts…
On Papi
I wonder how others felt while reading about the father character (Papi). Did you feel uncomfortable? What sort of emotions did you have towards Papi?
On the Narrator
What do you think about the narrator’s opinions and feelings towards Papi? Why do you think the story would be different if the narrator was an adult talking about her childhood instead of having a child as a narrator?
Both narrators [of Papi and Cartucho] are compelling, but not super reliable. Did anyone else pick up on this? Can you draw any other parallels between Papi’s narrator and others explored in the course thus far?
Why is the narrator left unnamed? Does this aid the political allegory that is noted in the lecture or is there a different reason?
How did you feel about the narrator’s childlike storytelling; did it remind you of anything, or was there anything especially notable to you about it? Why so?
If you were the narrator’s therapist (either as a child or when she’s older,) what advice would you give her? Be as silly or serious as you’d like.
On Truth and Imagination
Is there a marked ‘truth’ to this story? Where does fact stop and fiction begin? Or rather, how should we read this book – as a fantasy-driven metaphor about a child’s psyche or a literal retelling of things past (or both, perhaps)?
At what point during this novel did you realize that a large portion of the events depicted was taking place solely in the narrator’s mind?
Throughout the novel the narrator retells the story as a mix of make-belief and real events. Which got me wondering, do you think the “made-up” aspects of the story was a way for the narrator to deal with the trauma of having her father be an absent figure in her life?
On Mourning and Loss
I want to know what you thought about the way this girl mourns her father’s death. I mean, she literally swallows her dad’s tooth that she steals from his corpse to have a piece of him? How she mourns is strange, and with the swallowing of the tooth, Jon mentions that she consumes Papi and becomes her. Do you think Papi is a person, an imaginary character, or a role?
My question for you is, have you ever lost someone or something? (can be a short-term loss too) when you lost this, did you imagine things to fill the holes of their absence, like Papi’s daughter?
On Culture and Politics
How does the author use the role of Papi to draw on more significant sociocultural issues in the Dominican Republic, such as class, gender, and power dynamics?
What does Papi‘s depiction of addiction and drug abuse indicate about how people deal with their own issues and how those struggles affect others around them?
What aspect of Dominican culture was most striking to you in Indiana’s imagining? How did it strike you?
On Mami
What do you think was the role of Mami, what did she represent? Why do you think we started with Papi and ended with Mami?
How do you think attachment played a part in the narrator’s and papi’s dynamic? Where do you think Mami played within the narrator’s attachment style as well?
Other
How have you noticed the theme of fatherhood evolve or change throughout the readings this semester? Considering this is one of the more modern readings on the list, how do you think it speaks to modern fatherhood and its expectations?
Do you think Papi’s absence would have less effect on the daughter if he wasnt beloved by the town? Would she have struggled less without constant reminders about him and this “idealized” image of Papi?
How did you interpret the story? What kind of message do you think Rita Indiana was trying to get across in publishing this novel?
What aspects about their relationship were the most interesting to you? And do you think the narrator should have been other than the little girl?
Do you think if Papi was not a superstar in his hometown, but still neglected his daughter to the same extent, would the daughter still feel so excited to see him everytime he came back?
Say you were the narrator of this book, and you were given a chance to rewrite it 20 or 30 years down, would you change anything about it?
Do you think Papi is magical realism? What parts of the book make you think so (or don’t)?
