I've drafted a discussion guide for The Year We Were Famous - your suggestions are welcome!
Discussion Guide
THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS
by Carole Estby Dagg
WALKING IN CLARA’S SHOES
Clara and her mother Helga each had only seven pounds of equipment, including the weight of the satchel. What would you pack in a small satchel for a seven-month trek? What challenges did they have in 1896? What aids do we have now that were not available to Clara and Helga?
Clara worked her way through high school as a servant in someone’s home in Spokane. Would you be willing to do the same? How would working as a servant for your room and board affect your relationship with your high school classmates?
Is there any cause for which you would walk 4,000 miles?
How do the people Clara meets change her understanding of her parents and perception of the world and her possibilities?
POLITICS, THE ECONOMY, and MEDIA COVERAGE
In the Panic of 1893, people were losing homes, unemployment was above 10% for six years in a row, and 7 of 10 banks failed in Spokane. How is that situation like today? How is it different?
President McKinley ran his presidential campaign while seldom leaving home. Compare that to the presidential campaigns of today. (pp. 178-180)
The liquor lobby was reportedly against giving the vote to women because it might lead to prohibition. Does big business affect elections and legislation today?
How many generations back do you have to go to find the first woman in your family who might have voted in 1920?
Compare the articles that appeared in the New York World and the New York Times when Clara and Helga arrived in New York City. Can you think of current-day newspapers that are similar in tone to each? (copies of the news articles are available from the author)
SOCIETY and CHANGING ROLES
Helga knew her neighbors thought her place was at home but left the family for days at a time to attend suffrage meetings in Spokane and for a year to walk across the country to prove women could do it, as well as to win money to save the family’s farm. Can you think of other people who have gone against public opinion to effect social change?
Compare Mary (Mrs. William Jennings) Bryan and Ida (Mrs. William) McKinley, the wives of the two presidential candidates. In what ways do they represent traditional and changing women’s roles? (pp. 162-163 and 178-180)
Clara and Helga knocked on the doors of strangers for a place to stay and were even admitted to the president-elect’s home. Could they have done that today?
Compare the Native American Clara met on the Umatilla Reservation and those in Eastern Utah. (pp. 64-48 and 112-115).
Susan B. Anthony wrote:”Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” How do the bicycle and the bicycle skirt symbolize the New American Woman of 1896?
WRITING ACTIVITIES
Examine the pictures that appeared in the New York World before and after the walk. Make up your own story which would explain Clara and Helga’s transition from proper Victorian ladies in black silk dresses to the gun and dagger-toting adventuresses. (PDFs of photos available from the author.)
Pretend you are a journalist interviewing Clara and Helga and write a newspaper article describing their trek.
Interview your parents or grandparents for the most exciting or funniest event in their lives.
Essay prompt: Why I would/would not like to have lived in 1896.
Make up a short story about one of the postcards from Clara’s time, or pretend you are writing home about your adventures in the space available on a postcard:
Cayuse Indian babies in cradle boards
Boys on platforms across coal chutes in the breakers
Mrs. McKinley in rocking chair
Nellie Bly
(PDF images available from the author)
Take one of these newspaper quotes and expand it into a fully developed scene:
“They [Native Americans they encountered in Utah] took our small satchel and went through it, but oddly enough the only thing they could make use of was our curling iron. This puzzled them very much and we had to demonstrate its use.”
Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4
“At one time we got into a cloudburst, and it was only by holding onto shrubs that we escaped with our lives”
Minneapolis Tribune, June 2, 1897, p. 4
“…the only man who molested them was a Le Grand, Ore., dude…they shot him in the leg. They were not arrested for it.
New York World, December 25, 1896, p. 3
Re-write a scene as a script and act it out.
Make up a short story inspired by Emily Dickinson’s ‘Fame is a bee.’
Re-write one scene from Helga’s POV instead of Clara’s.
Find examples of how Clara’s background on the farm and her love of reading affect her word choices and images.
GEOGRAPHY/ART
Draw a map of their route, noting where various episodes took place.
Create a cover for the book.
Choose a quote from the novel and draw a sketch or cartoon to illustrate it.
MUSIC
Compose a song about Clara and Helga’s trek.
