46 pages • 1 hour read
Joan W. BlosA Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Think of the scenes in the novel in which the community comes together. Does the novel show that culture unites or divides people?
Compare A Gathering of Days to nonfiction books made up of a young person’s journal or diary entries, such as The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank and Zlata’s Diary (1992) by Zlata Filipovic. What do the books have in common? How are they different?
How are the two mother figures in Catherine’s life, Mrs. Shipman and Ann, alike and different? What is their effect on Catherine?
How does the novel move from the narrow use of “stranger” to refer to the self-liberated man to a more global view of strangers?
Although A Gathering of Days is a bildungsroman, it contains many small episodes that do not directly contribute to Catherine’s emotional journey, such as the appearance of Count Zincheroff. What is the effect of such moments?
Why does Catherine dwell on the motto of The Liberator, “Our country is the world, our countrymen all mankind” (43)?
What does Catherine mean when she says of Ann, “Dear Mammann, with her faith in books and ever ready pen” (133)?
Blos shows two sides of country life: its beauty and its hardships. Pick a character from the novel; what is the effect of the two sides of country life on their trajectory?
A “gathering” can be defined as a collection or compilation. Why did Blos title the book after Catherine’s comment, “This year […] has been a lengthy gathering of days” (139)?
A Gathering of Days won the 1980 Newbery Medal, an award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, part of the American Library Association, for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. What qualities in the writing might have led the committee to give the book this prestigious award?
