Summer Reading Program

Reader's Guide - Honky by Dalton Conley

General Discussion Questions, Journal Entry Ideas, & Essay Ideas:

1. Dalton Conley begins by asserting that he is “not your typical middle-class white male,” and that his childhood was like “a social science experiment” (xiii). What is the value of such an experiment? How much do you think Conley’s parents’ decision to live in the projects was a matter of choice and how much was it out of their control? How much choice does any family ultimately have, black or white? How does Conley’s unique experience shed light on the values and assumptions of more conventional middle-class whites?
2. Conley says that “race and class are nothing more than a set of stories we tell ourselves to get through the world, to organize our reality” (xiv). What does it mean to treat race and class as subjective rather than fixed and objective categories? In what ways does Honky bear out Conley’s thesis? How do his experiences help him understand the tangled issues of race and class?
3. Conley vividly describes the poverty and violence of the projects in which he grows up, a place where he is ashamed to bring his white friend Michael and where his own life has been threatened. And yet when the family decides to move, he is reluctant to leave Avenue D behind. Why is he so attached to that world? What are the positive qualities of his neighborhood and the people who live there?
4. In the “Author’s Note,” Conley argues that while his book lacks the scientific rigor of an ethnography, it compensates with the depth of insight that comes from living in a social setting, “rather than swooping in from afar to gather data for a time before going home to dinner and one’s real life” (205). What are the most significant insights that Honky offers? In what ways is Conley’s firsthand experience more valuable than scientific data?
5. When Conley wonders about why his life has turned out as it has, he writes, “I can believe what I want to believe. This is the privilege of the middle and upper classes in America—the right to make up the reasons things turn out the way they do, to construct our own narratives rather than having the media and society do it for us” (110). In what ways do the media and society construct the narratives of blacks and other minorities in America? What are those narratives? What purposes do they serve for the dominant ethnic group? What effects do they have on minorities?
6. In one of the strange ironies of race relations that Honky explores, Conley longs to be called “nigga” by his black friends. “Every time [Marcus] applied the word to me I relished the sound of it, as I might savor an exotic delicacy” (123). What does being called “nigga” signify to Conley? What does it mean that he can’t say the word himself? What might account for the transformation of this hateful racial epithet into a term of approbation among blacks?
7. In what ways does Honky illustrate, rather than merely assert, the privileges that even poor whites like the Conleys can enjoy in the United States? Why is Conley, unlike most of his neighbors in the projects, able to get a first-rate education and a prestigious job?
8. What role, if any, does the background and education level of Mr. and Mrs. Conley play in their ability to secure advantages for their family? Is skin color the only factor that influences a person’s socioeconomic status?
9. Honky is about race and class, but it is also a memoir about family and about growing up. How do Conley’s mother and father shape his character? In what ways do his friends influence him? What about his personality made his time in the Lower East Side more difficult than it needed to be? Is it surprising, given his childhood, that Conley should end up as a sociologist and writer? What qualities of Conley’s personality suit him to this choice?
10. Although Honky is concerned with telling a story rather than making an argument, what larger conclusions might be drawn from the book?

 

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