The Falls Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of The Falls.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Introduction

Is a relationship borne of a tragedy destined to the same fate? How much power does a place have over its inhabitants? Can a family, once unraveled, become whole again? These are the questions at the heart of The Falls, as Joyce Carol Oates unfolds the story of a family who must free themselves of the past in order to find solace and redemption.

It is June 1950, and Ariah Erskine is on the brink of a new life. Niagara Falls is to be the site of an idyllic honeymoon, yet she finds herself married and widowed in the space of a day when her husband throws himself into the raging waters of The Falls. In a state of confusion, convinced her disastrous wedding night has played a part in her husband's decision to kill himself, "The Widow Bride of The Falls," as Ariah comes to be known, keeps a relentless, seven-day vigil in the mist waiting for the recovery of his body.

At Ariah's side throughout her ordeal is confirmed bachelor and pillar of the community Dirk Burnaby, a man whose own family understands first hand the treacherousness of The Falls. Dirk finds himself unexpectedly drawn to this plain, strange woman he has been asked to look after, and he falls in love with her though they barely exchange a word. When Ariah leaves Niagara Falls, it is Dirk who pursues her across the state to reveal his passion for her.

Marrying Dirk once again brings Ariah to Niagara Falls to begin a new marriage and a new life. As the years pass, Ariah and Dirk create a seemingly perfect existence for their family. But the tragedy that began their life together shadows them, eventually eroding their happiness with distrust, greed, and even murder.

In the end, it is Dirk and Ariah's three children who are forced to deal with their parents' legacy of dark secrets, unresolved emotions, and cruel truths. Chandler, Royall, and Juliet Burnaby each seek their answers in a different way. What they discover not only helps them come to terms with their loss, but their mother as well.

Against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls in the mid-twentieth century, Joyce Carol Oates explores what happens when the richly interwoven relationships of parents and their children are challenged by circumstances from outside the family -- and also from within. Displaying the "impossibly lush and dead-on imaginative powers" (Los Angeles Times) and "mastery of storytelling" (Newsweek) for which Oates has been praised, The Falls illustrates how a place can be as alive as the people who inhabit it.



Discussion Questions

1. Compare Ariah's respective relationships with Gilbert and Dirk, and her reasons for marrying each man.
   
2. Ariah is deeply impacted by her brief marriage to Gilbert -- their lack of love for one another, their disastrous wedding night, his suicide. How do the physical and psychological circumstances of her first marriage echo throughout her marriage to Dirk?
   
3. What attracts Dirk to Ariah when he meets her during her seven-day vigil at The Falls? If they had met under different circumstances would Dirk have fallen in love with her?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper Perennial. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.