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Discussion
Questions
1. Water has been a prominent element
in Sarah's life—in her grandfather's profession,
in her mother's fear, and of course, on and around
the ship as Sarah makes her crossing. What does water
symbolize for each of these people? What lies behind
Sarah's mother's phobia, and how is that relevant
to their relationship? What enables Sarah to conquer
her own fear of the water? What does she mean when
she says, "I realised I was water" (p. 134) or "I
feel that my mind is becoming the ocean floor" (p.
135)? At times on the trip it seems that Sarah is
drawn to the water, at other times overwhelmed by
it. Which sentiment do you think prevails?
2. Sarah's parents want her to marry
Mr. Downing. Arranged marriages of this sort were
common in the nineteenth century; if Sarah had acceded
to her parents' wishes, could she have been happy?
What would a marriage with Mr. Downing have been like?
Did her parents have her best interests at heart?
In what ways was Mr. Downing the antithesis of Richard?
of Sarah?
3. What does the "fish" in Sarah's
stomach represent? To the reader? To her? Why does
she seem to refer to it as one would refer to an unborn
child?
4. Sarah and Richard are first cousins.
How do you feel about their romance? Should cousins
be allowed to marry, as they were at this time? Were
her parents right or wrong to condemn their union?
Is Sarah brave to stand up for the life she chooses,
or is she deluded not to see the complications that
a marriage with Richard might cause? What will happen
to Sarah and Richard if they do marry?
5. The unmarried women come to form
a sort of family in their berth below deck. How does
this compare or contrast with Sarah's real family—or
with any of the women's real families? What constitutes
a family? What have these women lacked in their past
family lives, and will they find it in the New World?
Do they find it on the ship?
6. What significance does Sarah's
grandmother's hair have? Why did Sarah's mother give
it to her—what was she trying to convey? How does
seeing the hair change Sarah's understanding of her
grandmother and the other women in her family? Why
does the hair seem alive to Sarah? Why does she try
to get rid of it, and why can't she do so?
7. Why are Sarah and the other unmarried
women so fascinated with the story of McGovern, the
sailor who jumped overboard with the horses and now
supposedly lives underwater? Why did he care about
the horses' lives as much as his own, and why does
Sarah care so much about the animals on the ship?
Why does she free the birds at the end of the book?
8. Discuss the Albatross Man and
his strange transformation. When Sarah speaks of him,
she seems to do so almost longingly. What does the
Albatross Man represent for her and for the other
passengers? In Samuel Coleridge's "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner," the slaying of an albatross brings
a curse upon the ship and the ancient Mariner. How
does the fate of Coleridge's Mariner compare with
that of The Salt Letters' Scotsman? Why does
literature accord the albatross such power? When the
Albatross Man says he will take the unmarried women
to paradise, what does he mean? What happens between
him and Beth?
9. Why can't Sarah finish the letter
to her mother? What do you think she wants to say?
The substance and tone of the letter change as the
voyage goes on. Why? How does Sarah herself change
during the voyage? When she writes to her mother,
"I am frightened," what is she frightened of? What
power does the written word have that differs from
that of the spoken word?
10. Unmarried women in the nineteenth
century were treated far differently than were married
women. How have things changed since then, and how
have they stayed the same? Why did people regard unmarried
women as a "lesser" class? Was this a form of protection,
or prejudice? (Or both?) How successfully do you think
the women in this book coped with such treatment?
Do unmarried women still face discrimination? If Sarah
had stayed in England, how would her life have turned
out? Will her life be better in Australia?
11. Sarah says, "If it is truly possible
to live under water then perhaps we will be safer
there" (p. 68). Several characters in the novel leap
or step overboard into the ocean: McGovern, Charlotte,
Matron's husband. Why are they compelled to do so?
What does the ocean represent for them? Why is Sarah
so intrigued by the plants and animals she sees under
the ocean's surface? How does the mysteriousness of
the ocean compare with her home environment in England?
12. Sarah says, "The effort of forgetting
when there is so much to remember makes me feel that
this is a journey I can only make once" (p. 89). What
does she mean by that? How is memory fallible? Why
would a person choose to forget?
13. Is Sarah a reliable narrator
when it comes to Richard? What does he represent for
her? How has he changed her life? How would her life
in England or the New World be without him?
14. Does Sarah reunite with Richard
at the end of the book, or is this a hallucination
induced by her illness? Where has he been during the
trip?
15. The ship and its passengers might
be viewed as a microcosm of society. How does the
placement of unmarried women and poor families in
steerage, with wealthier passengers in cabins up above,
compare with the social hierarchy at that time? with
society now? At the dance for unmarried women, the
Scottish women start a fight with the English women;
Sarah eavesdrops on an Irish family in the berth near
hers and remarks, "English girls would never be treated
in the same manner as a poor Irish family" (p. 126).
What influence do ethnic and national differences
have on notions of class? In the new colony of Australia,
where all the passengers will be foreigners, will
these differences matter? Why?
16. Toward the end of the novel,
we learn that Matron is haunted by her own ghosts.
How does the tragedy in her past correspond with her
behavior toward the unmarried women? Does she see
the unmarried women as her children, or as versions
of herself? Why is she so hard on them? How do you
feel about the fact that she abandoned her two sons
in Australia? What responsibility does she have to
them? To the memory of her infant girl and husband?
To the unmarried women? How does loss affect a person's
behavior?
17. Several people in the novel are
touched by madness: Sarah's grandmother, her mother,
the Albatross Man, and Sarah herself, among others.
What defines insanity? Is it an escape, a coping mechanism,
a loss of control? How much is sanity or insanity
brought on by circumstances, how much by personality?
Can madness be inherited? What causes Sarah's illness
at the end of the novel?
18. The passengers on the ship dream
impatiently, and fearfully, of the New World. Were
their expectations realistic? What would they have
found there? What drove people—and still does—to
start over in new and unknown places? How has the
world changed today, with few wild frontiers left
to explore?
19. Why does the author choose to
set her story in this particular historical setting?
How is she able to use the time period and the circumstances
to emphasize certain themes? What are those themes?
Could this story have been told in a modern context?
To what other books might you compare The Salt Letters?
To what other literary characters might you compare
Sarah?
Praise
for The Salt Letters
"A beautifully written dreamscape
sliding deftly through past, present, and future."
—Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth
Blue
"The Salt Letters is a mesmerizing
novel which brings to life a nearly-forgotten bit
of history with an immediacy that is both harrowing
and poetic."—Lauren Belfer, author of City
of Light
"The Salt Letters is an astonishing
debut from a writer who appears born to the rhythms
of prose, moving through painstaking research to the
poetry of water, the grittiness of salt."—Emma
Tennant, author of Sylvia and Ted
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