The Right Stuff

According to Wolfe, what motivates test pilots to engage in such a dangerous occupation? Can you think of a similar example? Do you find such motivations compelling?

What is the “Military Wife’s Compact”? How does it illustrate the gender roles at work in The Right Stuff?

What role does technology play in The Right Stuff? Choose one example of an important technological innovation from the book and explain its function in the narrative.

How does the geopolitical context of the Cold War affect Project Mercury? Is Wolfe right to suggest that it largely determined the experience of the astronauts and the early American space program?

Choose one of the conflicts among the Mercury Seven detailed by Wolfe and explain how it illustrates two separate conceptions of the astronaut’s role.

Who, in your view, is the most interesting or significant of the first seven astronauts? Why?

Wolfe is often associated with a movement called “New Journalism,” which emphasizes the use of subjective perspectives to tell a story. Find a scene or episode from The Right Stuff that utilizes this method and explain why this device is unique or noteworthy for nonfiction.

Wolfe suggests that a couple of other episodes from American history are comparable to the saga of the first astronauts (e.g., the flight of Charles Lindbergh, World War II). Is there another event that shares the cultural and political significance that Wolfe imputes to Project Mercury?