The Hazel Wood

The narrative of The Hazel Wood never deviates from main character Alice’s first-person point of view. What character traits can you infer from Alice’s voice? Discuss your ideas with support from the text, selecting two to three examples of figurative language, such as metaphor, in Alice’s storytelling. Do these examples align with the character traits you determined, or juxtapose against them?

Alice is bold, tough, and sometimes cruel throughout the novel’s first half. Her love for Ella is strong and sincere, however, and only strengthens throughout the novel. Detail a list of four to five moments from the story that reveal Alice’s caring side, including moments in which she craves comfort and caring as well. Include a few examples after Alice’s return from New York to show evidence of a completed character arc.

Readers learn the plots of two Hinterland tales and receive hints and images of others throughout the novel; then, when Alice arrives in the Hinterland, she witnesses several Stories (characters in the tales). How do some Story characters both fit and break the stereotypical image of fairytale characters?