36 pages • 1 hour read
Jeff VanderMeerAnnihilation
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014A 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
Annihilation is both a short novel and the first book of a trilogy. Why do you think the author chose to break up the works into three separate parts rather than present them as one longer book? What does the novel gain from this? What might it lose?
Annihilation was made into a major motion picture in 2018. In what ways are the film and novel similar, and in what ways are they different? Do they share any themes and motifs?
The author, Jeff VanderMeer, has said that the setting for the novel was inspired by a real natural habitat in Florida that he frequently hikes. How might this information affect the way you read the novel? In what ways is the novel science fiction and in what ways is it simply realistic?
The narrator has expertise in transitional environments. She lives and works in cities but primarily enjoys being in natural habitats. Which kind of environment do you prefer and why?
Was the narrator justified in killing the surveyor? Why or why not?
Do you think the narrator’s husband is still alive, perhaps living on the island as he says he plans to do? Or do you think he might in fact have been turned into the dolphin, as the narrator seems to suggest? Or perhaps has he met some other fate? Support your answer with examples from the text.
What is the Crawler, and what exactly does it represent? Why is the lighthouse keeper somehow contained inside of it?
Why do animals such as the boar and the moaning creature in the reeds seem to choose not to attack the narrator and other members of the expedition? What do you think that they want from the narrator?
The narrator sees a light at the end of the tower stairs that looks to her like the light she saw soon after crossing the border into Area X. What might this light represent?
Very little is revealed about the Southern Reach, the organization that seems to be responsible for sending the expeditions into Area X. What could the Southern Reach be searching for in Area X? Will the Southern Reach ultimately prove to have good intentions or evil ones? In a similar way, was the psychologist purely evil, or could she possibly have had positive or neutral intentions?
