Raising Hel Book Club Discussion Questions

1. Why doesn’t Hel leave Ed earlier? What enables her to do so?

2. Why did Hel leave her hometown? What was she looking for?

3. Why did Hel choose Ed over John on the bus to the Washington, DC protest?

4. Why did student activism die down after Sterling Hall was bombed?

5. How is Hel’s duplex a crucial element of the story?

6. Why does Hel join the Ragged Collective?

7. Who are Hel’s mentors? How does each mentor Hel?

8. Thorpe argues that a feminist process must undergird a feminist product. What does she mean by that? Is she correct?

9. Why doesn’t Hel accept the offer to join the women’s book club (and read The Female Eunuch)?

10. What role does Iris play in Hel’s development?

11. What did you think of the pagan/Wiccan elements of the story? Was this tradition
unknown to you before reading this book?

12. Today Cybele would probably not take Hel on as a therapy client because they were previously known to one another. But how could Cybele help Hel face her life in ways that another therapist may not have been able to do?

13. What were some of the early issues of the women’s movement as represented by Hel and the Ragged Collective? What progress has been made? What is left to be done?

14. Why were Raisa and Bridget in the story? What did their characters represent about women’s lives?

15. Was Gareth an appealing romantic interest to you? Why or why not? Why did Hel find him appealing?

16. Why was achieving a career in science still a rarity for women of the early seventies? Both Thorpe and Raisa found success in science. Why were they able to break the gender barrier?

17. What struck you as most important about what women achieved in the early second wave of the feminist movement?

18. In the quest for a woman to build her own life, what is the relationship between community and independence?