And Then There Were None Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, The Golden Age of Detective Fiction & Agatha Christie's Legacy and our BookBrowse Review of And Then There Were None.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Judge Wargrave has a long history of considering crime and those who commit crime. He also calls himself "a man with a strong sense of justice." As result, he seems to feel that he has the expertise and right to single-handedly identify and punish those who have committed crime but have escaped conviction by law. Do you think that any man or woman has the knowledge and the right to single-handedly deal out punishment to others? If so, when is it appropriate for him or her to do so? If not, why not? Explore these questions in a Socratic Seminar.
2. Justice Wargrave feels that some of the guests on Soldier Island are more guilty of murder than others because of the degrees to which they were responsible for the deaths that took place in their pasts. Do you agree that there are degrees of responsibility that can be assigned to those involved in a death? Write a persuasive essay that uses examples from the book, examples from real life, and/or hypothetical examples to support why you feel the way you do.

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