Entry Questions
Think of the three brothers as a whole – the “we” of the title. What characterizes them as a whole? How do they operate as one unit? Have you felt that you form a unit with your siblings, cousins, friends, etc.? Did you see yourself reflected in their complicity?
The Story
Bicultural siblings Manny, Joel, and Jonah have formed a union that allows them to move through a bittersweet childhood. Their mother and father have a volatile and at times abusive relationship that affects the stability of the family, often leaving the boys surviving for themselves. Growing up under these circumstances the brothers develop different types of masculinities and desires.
How would you describe the different approaches to gender between the father, the older siblings, and the youngest son?
The Author
Yours is a book about family. You have said that in this family, everyone is deeply in love with everyone else. At the same time, they fail each other, they hurt each other. How does this idea relate to the overall dynamic you strive for in your fiction?
Well, that’s what we do, right? We love and we fail and we hurt and we love some more. You know, in my own life, when I would talk to people about my childhood, when I would try and describe my home, I would always try and describe everything, the humor, and the pain and the passion; I could go on for an hour. Often, people would listen with well-intentioned interest, and then start giving me back this pop-psychology language, saying I had a dysfunctional family. What a simple, tidy adjective: dysfunctional. I kind of hate that word. I wanted to write a book about a family so complicated, so in love, and so flawed, that folks would resist easy categories.
-Justin Torres, Granta
Recommended Excerpts from the novel We the Animals
The Director
*How the filmmaker shows their integration with nature and the youngest child’s inner world?
Presentation(s) by:
Discussion in Trios
Pick ONE of the following questions and elaborate three points that you would like to share together
.How do you interpret the grave-digging scene and the way it leads to flying? What does the idea of flying imply?
.Discuss how do the brother see themselves vs how others see them?
.How does the film tie queerness to imaginative creations?