Debbie Lee Wesselmann
Questions for
Discussion
1. This book has multiple points
of view. How do these serve to explore
the theme of animal rights,
particularly as they apply to chimpanzees?
Which character view
aligns most closely with your own?
2. How do the events in the chimpanzee
society mirror those of the
human one, and vice versa? How
are they different?
3. How does the display of dominance
or subservience play a role
in the human world and the chimpanzee
world in the novel?
4. How did Zack and Dana’s experiences
with Annie shape their adult
lives? What kind of conflict does it
create between them?
5. Which was your favorite chimpanzee?
6. How does the title’s significance
go beyond the literal captivity of
the chimps in the sanctuary?
Debbie Lee Wesselmann is the
author of Trutor & the Balloonist,
which was named by Amazon.
com as one of the top ten small
press books of 1997, and The Earth
and the Sky. A graduate of Dartmouth
College and Fairleigh Dickinson University,
she lives in Pennsylvania,
where she teaches English at Lehigh
University.
John F. Blair
p u b l i s h e r
1406 Plaza Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27103
800.222.9796 fax 336.768.9194
Reading Group Guide
Captivity
by
Debbie Lee Wesselmann
ISBN # 978-0-89587-353-8
$22.95 Hardcover
Publication Date: February 2008
