Summer Reading Program

Reader's Guide - Honky by Dalton Conley

Chapter Twelve: “Moving on Up” (pages 129-36)

Content Questions:

1. How is the financial situation improving for the Conleys at this point?  What has his mother done, and what has his father chosen to do?
2. Where did Conley’s mother take the family to celebrate the sale of Soho Madonna?  What was the trip like?

Discussion Questions & Journal Ideas:

1. Compare and contrast Alexandra’s school experiences with Conley’s own.  What differences might be a result of where they went to school?  Personality differences?  Gender?
2. Describe the kinds of differences Conley notices between Colombia and his neighborhood in NYC.  How does this trip affect him?
3. What does Conley mean when he says that his father’s attitude towards work “marked our class position more than any other psychological dynamic within the family” (135).  How does his father’s attitude towards his job differentiate them from others in the neighborhood?

 

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