The Smell of Apples

Do the interchapters support or distract from the story of Marnus and his father? How do the interchapters reveal the long-term impact of racism? Is the grown-up Marnus heroic for his willingness to die for a country we see as toxic? 

Compare the evolution of Marnus and Ilse. Account for how the same cultural system and the same parents could have shaped two such strikingly different children.

In the scene in the Coloreds hospital when Marnus visits Doreen’s boy, analyze how Behr controls irony—that is, how we see what Marnus does not see, and how that creates the scene’s power.

Aunt Karla is relegated to the margins of the narrative because of her fallout with her sister, Marnus’s mother. Analyze the argument she offers in the heartfelt letter that Marnus’s mother throws away unopened. How does that letter impact Ilse’s evolution? 

Using the music that so shapes her life—opera and jazz—analyze the character of Leonore. Are we to sympathize with her? Is she best seen as heroic, tragic, pathetic, or hypocritical?

Analyze the pivotal scene in which Marnus fails to land the big shark. How does the scene help define the true nature of the father and son dynamic? How does it prepare us for the final revelation of the father’s molestation of Marnus’s friend?

The narrative uses the geography of South Africa itself to indict European colonization. Compare and contrast the natural landscape of the country itself with the evidence we are given about how Afrikaners despoiled the land.

Analyze how this coming-of-age narrative is a cautionary tale—that is, a story told in the hopes that the readers might learn lessons lost on the characters and in turn improve their lives.