What is the author saying about the roles we perform in the world? Do you ever feel you are performing a role rather than being yourself? How does that compare to what some of these characters are doing? Consider the distinction between performance, reinvention, and transformation in respect to the different characters in the book.ħ. One could say that Stella’s whole marriage and neighborhood life is a kind of performance.

Reese takes on a new wardrobe and role, but it isn’t a costume.

Barry performs on stage in theatrical costumes that he then removes for his daytime life. Kennedy makes a profession of acting, and ultimately her fans blur the line between performance and reality when they confuse her with her soap opera character. Many of the characters are engaged in a kind of performance at some point in the story. How does the history of this town and its values affect the twins and their parents how does it affect “outsiders” like Early and later Jude? Do you understand why Desiree decides to return there as an adult? What does the depiction of Mallard say about who belongs to what communities, and how those communities are formed and enforced?Ħ. The town of Mallard is small in size but looms large in the personal histories of its residents. What impact do their relative privileges have on the people they become? How does it affect their relationships with their mothers and their understanding of home? How does it influence the dynamic between them?ĥ. Kennedy is born with everything handed to her, Jude with comparatively little. In the creation of an individual identity or sense of self, how much influence do you think comes from upbringing, geography, race, gender, class, education? Which of these are mutable and why? Have you ever taken on or discarded aspects of your own identity?Ĥ. Consider the various forces that shape the twins into the people they become, and the forces that later shape their respective daughters.

When did you notice cracks between the twins begin to form? Do you understand why Stella made the choice she did? What did Stella have to give up, in order to live a different kind of life? Was it necessary to leave Desiree behind? Do you think Stella ultimately regrets her choices? What about Desiree?ģ. What series of events and experiences leads to this division and why? Was it inevitable, after their growing up so indistinct from each other?Ģ. Later, they are not only separated, but lost to each other, completely out of contact. Stella and Desiree Vignes grow up identical and, as children, inseparable.

The vanishing half book summary