Discussion Questions

  1. Hypocrisy is a theme that is woven through Minding the Light. Describe a few examples in the novel, such as the shallow faith of Lillian Swain Coffin, an elder to the Friends.
  2. What kinds and what degrees of hypocrisy, from the political to the religious to the personal, occur in this novel?
  3. Jane Coffin Macy had a small scene in this novel, though she played a significant role all the way through. What did you learn about her character through the eyes of those who remembered her? Daphne said that Jane made her a better version of herself. Who in your life has helped you become a better person?
  4. Jane had a saying, “Love and attention make all things grow.” Daphne told Ren that the reason she participated in the Cent School was because she wanted to grow Jane’s garden. What do you think she meant by that? How did that become a reference point for everything she did?
  5. Jane was somewhat of a landmark for Daphne, a place she always started from to get wherever she was going. For Ren and Tristram, too. Perhaps even for Lillian. What are the advantages and disadvantages of making one person such a landmark in one’s life? What burdens might it place upon that other person, and what dangers might it pose for oneself?
  6. How would you have imagined Daphne, six years prior, when Ren and Jane were courting? In what ways did she blossom and mature? Ren, too, underwent a transformation, from a detached sea captain to a loving father. In your own life, what has been the catalyst for such growth?
  7. In 1662, Mary Coffin Starbuck wrestled with her conscience about allowing slavery to be introduced on Nantucket Island, though it was legal. Fast forward to 1821. The Nantucket population is largely Quaker, and slavery has been outlawed on the island. Even still, Daphne Coffin must wrestle with her conscience about the intrinsic value of all human beings. While Nantucket offered political equality to blacks, they did not offer social equality. How would you explain the difference, or attitude and perception, and the consequences?
  8. Abraham was devoted to Ren’s welfare, even to the point of putting himself in danger. His loyalty becomes clear after we learn from Patience that Captain Reynolds Macy was the first white man whom Abraham considered to be honorable. And the scope widens when we read a comment Ren made: “A ship’s crew is color-blind if the captain says so.” How does that remark still strike a chord, as a neighbor, as a parent, as a friend? Shouldn’t we all be color-blind?
  9. What contemporary or historical parallels might there be with the attitude toward slavery in the seventeenth century or nineteenth century? Imagine if you had lived during that time. Where would you have stood on this issue?
  10. Daphne and Jane referred to their childhood home as their mother’s house. Ren was reluctant to sell the Endeavour because it was his first true home. Later, after visiting the Salem shipyard, he sailed into Nantucket to discover Daphne and the children waiting for him, and felt yet another sense of coming home. What notion and what actuality of home were cherished by Ren and Daphne? What does the concept of home reveal about a person? How would you define home?
  11. Lillian Swain Coffin is a character who makes it almost enjoyable to dislike her. In your opinion, which of her actions in the novel most shocked you? What was her motivation behind her action?
  12. Would you have written a different chapter to end Lillian’s story? Say, for example, Jeremiah Macy jilts her once again? After all, it’s human nature to want a person to get what’s coming to them. Thankfully, it’s God’s nature to not give us what we deserve.
  13. Right from the start, Ren took the evidence in front of him—that Dr. Mitchell had, indeed, prescribed and provided laudanum for Jane—and assumed he was guilty of her death. In retrospect, he forged ahead with partial information. Can you think of a time when you have acted on insufficient evidence? (And who hasn’t?) What were the results?
  14. On Main Street of Nantucket, Dr. Mitchell shouted at Ren, for all to hear, that this should be the real question that should concern him: “Who did give Jane that tainted tincture?” What made that question so particularly fortuitous?
  15. Tristram Macy did not think he could come clean and remain on Nantucket Island. Perhaps more than any other character in the novel, he loved this island and its inhabitants, but he loved his sterling reputation even more. So rather than stay in a place he loved with people he cherished, he sailed away. What are the moral consequences of basing one’s decisions, values, and actions solely on one’s reputation?
  16. Do you think Ren could have forgiven Tristram, had he confessed to him face-to-face, instead of in a letter after he was long gone? Why or why not?
  17. Do you think Ren did the right thing when he crinkled up Tristram’s letter of confession and tossed it into the fire, instead of letting Daphne read it? If Daphne had been given the chance to read the letter, how might the end of the story have been altered?
  18. Jane had a saying that Daphne and Ren adopted for their own: “Love and attention make all things grow.” When or how have you seen that saying to be true in your own life?
  19. How would you describe the Quaker concept of “minding the Light”? What does “minding the Light” mean to you?