1. Why does Carey choose to let Parrot and Olivier narrate their
own stories? What makes their narrative voices so distinctive and
engaging? What would be lost if the novel were told from a single
perspective or by an omniscient narrator?
2. In what ways are Parrot and Olivier uniquely positioned to
represent the huge social changes that were sweeping across Europe
and America during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth
centuries?
3. As he arrives in America, Olivier remarks that "the coast of
Connecticut was the most shocking monument to avarice one could
have ever witnessed, its ancient forests gone, smashed down and
carted off for profit" (p. 144). What other instances of American
greed does he observe? What is the irony of a French aristocrat
being appalled by the greed given free rein by American
democracy?
4. Carey''s prose style in Parrot and Olivier in
America is vivid, richly metaphoric, and often
extravagantly sensuous. When Parrot and Mathilde make up after a
fight, for example, Parrot writes that her "hands were dragging at
my clothes and her upturned face was filled with cooey dove and
tiger rage. Her mouth was washed with tears. I ate her, drank her,
boiled her, stroked her till she was like a lovely flapping fish
and her hair was drenched and our eyes held and our skins slid off
each other and we smelled like farm animals, seaweed, the tanneries
upriver" (p. 148). What are the pleasures of such writing? Where
else in the novel does the writing reach this pitch of overflowing
metaphor?
5. What does Olivier find to be the most appealing
characteristics of America''s fledgling democracy? What does he
find most baffling?
6. Olivier is loosely based on Alexis de Tocqueville, the French
aristocrat and author of the classic Democracy in
America. In what ways does Olivier resemble Tocqueville?
In what ways does Carey depart from the historical figure to create
his own character?
7. How do Parrot and Olivier initially regard each other? What
are the major turning points that lead to their unlikely
friendship? Why is their friendship possible only in America?
8. At the end of the novel, Olivier argues that America''s young
democracy "will not ripen well," that it will suffer the "tyranny
of the majority" (p. 378), and that the American people prefer
their leaders to be just as undereducated as they are. He goes on
to tell Parrot: "You will follow fur traders and woodsmen as your
presidents, and they will be as barbarians at the head of armies,
ignorant of geography and science, the leaders of a mob daily
educated by a perfidious press which will make them so confident
and ignorant that the only books on their shelves will be
instruction manuals…" (p. 380). Parrot attributes Olivier''s harsh
judgment to being heartbroken and having suffered as - a child of
the awful guillotine'' (p. 380). But to what extent have Olivier''s
predictions come true? In what ways can this passage be read as a
sly commentary on recent presidents and the sorry state of the
press in America?
9. How are Olivier and Parrot differently affected by the
leveling of class distinctions in America? Does Parrot benefit from
being in America?
10. Why does Amelia break off her engagement to Olivier? Does
she make the right decision? Is Olivier better off without her?
11. Of the banker Peek''s mortgage loan to Mathilde, Parrot
says: "For Peek had played Shylock with her, himself lending her
the capital and loading her to breaking point with every type of
extra fee, compulsory insurance, brokerage, advance payments on
taxes I am still sure that he invented" (p. 272). How surprising is
it to see this version of today''s housing boondoggles played out
in in the 1830s? What is the significance of these schemes having
such a long history?
12. After he discovers that Mathilde, Eckerd, and Watkins have
burned down their house for insurance money, Parrot exclaims: "You
are scoundrels, all of you." To which Mathilde replies: "We are
artists. We have a right to live" (p. 314). Is Parrot right to call
them scoundrels? Or is Mathilde''s point of view the more
sympathetic one?
13. What are some of the funniest moments in Parrot and
Olivier in America? What makes Carey''s writing so
humorous?
14. What does the novel add to our knowledge of the early period
of American democracy by seeing it through the perspectives of
Parrot and Olivier? In what ways does the era described in the
novel mirror our own?