Study Questions
1. During the Great War Eleanor Roosevelt came to understand the world as wounded: her own personal world and the world as a whole. A statue called "Grief" came to symbolize for her a way of responding to those wounds. What was the history of the statue itself? What was its importance to Eleanor?
2. In what ways did the war draw Eleanor Roosevelt into a new set of activities? How did these activities draw her beyond the limits of her previous life? In what ways did it bring her into contact with men and women who were not part of her "social circle"?
3. How did Franklin Roosevelt's affair with Lucy Mercer affect the life of Eleanor Roosevelt? In what ways did it (and did it not) change her relationship with her husband and mother-in-law? How did it influence her personal growth and understanding of the world?
4. The mother of one of the wounded soldiers Eleanor Roosevelt visited at St. Elizabeth's hospital credited Eleanor with gong to the hospital with "a spirit of love." Youngs' claims that during this period Eleanor "found her capacity for love strangely enlarged." Evaluate this statement.
5. Another way of understanding the importance of the war years in Eleanor Roosevelt's growth is contained in her statement that she was "thinking things out for myself and becoming an individual." Review the ways that Eleanor's individuality had been thwarted during the previous years and ways that it was not coming to the fore.
1. During the Great War Eleanor Roosevelt came to understand the world as wounded: her own personal world and the world as a whole. A statue called "Grief" came to symbolize for her a way of responding to those wounds. What was the history of the statue itself? What was its importance to Eleanor?
2. In what ways did the war draw Eleanor Roosevelt into a new set of activities? How did these activities draw her beyond the limits of her previous life? In what ways did it bring her into contact with men and women who were not part of her "social circle"?
3. How did Franklin Roosevelt's affair with Lucy Mercer affect the life of Eleanor Roosevelt? In what ways did it (and did it not) change her relationship with her husband and mother-in-law? How did it influence her personal growth and understanding of the world?
4. The mother of one of the wounded soldiers Eleanor Roosevelt visited at St. Elizabeth's hospital credited Eleanor with gong to the hospital with "a spirit of love." Youngs' claims that during this period Eleanor "found her capacity for love strangely enlarged." Evaluate this statement.
5. Another way of understanding the importance of the war years in Eleanor Roosevelt's growth is contained in her statement that she was "thinking things out for myself and becoming an individual." Review the ways that Eleanor's individuality had been thwarted during the previous years and ways that it was not coming to the fore.