Voorheesville Public Library

QUESTIONS

Why is Mahoney obsessed with rowing on the Nile?
What kind of reporter on Egyptian society and customs is Mahoney?
What incidents and observations reveal the author’s personality?
What does she learn from accounts by earlier travelers to Egypt?
How is her experience similar to their accounts? How is it different?
How is her attitude about her travels different from those of Flaubert and Florence Nightingale?
Many of the Egyptians Mahoney encounters have stereotypical ideas about foreigners. What are some of them? Does Mahoney engage in stereotyping? About whom?
A subtitle for this book could be “people behaving badly” or “people behaving honorably”. How do the people Mahoney meets demonstrate the best and the worst in human nature?
Make a note of the passages in the book that are a meditation on permanence and impermanence.

Questions compiled by Suzanne Fisher (fishers@uhls.lib.ny.us)


	Down the Nile by Rosemary Mahoney
	QUESTIONS Why is Mahoney obsessed with rowing on the Nile? What kind of reporter on Egyptian society and customs is Mahoney? What incidents and observations reveal the author’s personality? What does she learn from accounts by earlier travelers to Egypt? How is her experience similar to their accounts? How is it different? How is her attitude about her travels different from those of Flaubert and Florence Nightingale? Many of the Egyptians Mahoney encounters have stereotypical ideas about foreigners. What are some of them? Does Mahoney engage in stereotyping? About whom? A subtitle for this book could be “people behaving badly” or “people behaving honorably”. How do the people Mahoney meets demonstrate the best and the worst in human nature? Make a note of the passages in the book that are a meditation on permanence and impermanence. Questions compiled by Suzanne Fisher (fishers@uhls.lib.ny.us)