Carol Ascher's powerful and poetic novel, The Flood, takes place in 1951, the year of the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. Eva Hoffman and her family, Austrian Jewish refugees, have found a precarious safety in Topeka. When the rising Kansas River inundates the town, the Hoffmans open their home to a rural family, and Eva learns the complexities of prejudice and courage -- both within and outside her family.
Questions for discussion:
- Why do people often believe that their group is better than another group?
- Can schools be both "separate" and "equal"?
- Consider the role of differences (skin, language, beliefs) in creating prejudice.
- What are possible reasons why jews and blacks have often identified with each other?
- Consider what a just society might entail.
Carol Ascher's essay "Why I Wrote The Flood"
