Dystopia
The novel is set in this time period.
What is the 'Era of Tolerance'?
Hillary's true baptismal name, the name her grandfather forbids her to use, which means 'well-pleasing to God' in Greek.
What is Euphrosyne?
A central tension in the novel: Hillary must choose between adopting the safe identity imposed on her or reclaiming this.
What is her true Orthodox identity / her real name Euphrosyne?
in chapter 1 this item symbolizes continuity and also protection because it watches over her and fills the air with sounds that help Euphrosyne sleep as a substitute for the sound of her little sister snoring.
What is the clock?
The icon of St. Nicholas belongs to this character at first.
Who is Nicole, Euphrosyne's mom?
A dystopian society uses this to control its citizens — and in ICON, the government promulgates it via the textbooks, mandatory therapy sessions, and the 'Era of Tolerance' curriculum.
What is propaganda?
This librarian befriends Hillary, secretly protects banned Christian books, and is eventually fired for altering patron records to hide them.
Who is Mimi (Mary Russel)?
This theme is shown through the government's control of textbooks, library books, churches, and therapists — all tools used to reshape how people think and believe.
What is religious persecution / thought control / loss of freedom?
The novel is structured as dated journal entries. This narrative technique is called what, and what effect does it create for the reader?
What is an epistolary / diary format?
In the Orthodox tradition depicted in the novel, this specific liturgical act — performed by the congregation and by Euphrosyne instinctively — involves bowing and touching lips to a sacred image as an act of reverence.
What is veneration of icons?
True or False? In a dystopia members of society have complete privacy and freedom to roam where they please without interference from the government.
This government therapist who pretends to want to help Hillary adjust to her new life but is actually monitoring her family and reporting to authorities.
Who is Dr. Snead?
Even though Mimi, Father Innocent, Alex, and even Grandma show Hillary kindness, none of them can fully replace what she has lost, underscoring this painful theme in the novel.
What is grief / orphanhood / or loneliness?
In Chapter 6, Dr. Wilcott keeps Euphrosyne's icon face-down on his desk. This act symbolizes what?
What is the suppression of religion?
Icons are traditionally painted in layers of color moving from this to this.
What is dark to light?
This secular replacement for Christmas symbolizes the cultural erasure in the dystopian world.
What is Winter Holiday?
To gain this man's trust, the protagonist is instructed to ask to see a map of this place
Who is Fr. Innocent and what is Sinai?
The state weaponizes words like tolerance, safety, equality, and healing all of which plays into this major theme in the book.
What is propaganda / the corruption of language?
The blood that remains dried on the icon of St. Nicholas throughout the novel — never fully cleaned off — functions as a persistent symbol of what?
What is martyrdom?
He says this: “I thought Christians weren’t supposed to worship things like this...Graven images. Isn’t that kind of like idolatry?”
Who is Mr. Wilcott?
This government organization enforces anti-religious policies and is responsible for closing churches and removing Christian books from libraries.
What is the Department of Religious Tolerance (DRT)?
This character shares this name with her father but he is much younger and his new name is this.
Who is Alex also known as Carter Wesson?
The following scene exemplifies this theme in the book. "Number Three has a stubborn look on his face. “I’m John,” he says. “Fourteen.” “Are you sure, John?” Dr. Wilcott says. “Yes,” says John. “All right then. Miley, we already know your name. How old are you?” he says, turning away. John doesn’t get any water."
What is resistance / courage?
In Chapter 7, during the vision at liturgy, the 'tall priest in red robes' smells like this substance. Why does he smell this way and who is he?
What are pine needles? What is because she knows him through his icon which is in the forest? Who is St. Nicholas?
Toward the end of the novel, Euphrosyne is given strength to endure her ordeal until the end by what phenomena?
What is her vision of being surrounded by saints in church and receiving the apple from her patron saint?
These are the 5 characteristics of a dystopian state.
What is propaganda, surveillance, restriction of freedom, dehumanization / oppression, and illusion of a perfect society?
His first name appeared as this on her dad's cell phone and he was served this roll in the church.
Who is Mark and what is reader?
Chapters 6 and 7 of the novel present this theme and the Orthodox theological idea that the living and the dead worship together. The bright strangers at liturgy, St. Euphrosynos giving the apple, and Shamar as guardian angel all point to a world far larger than what is visible — and to the idea that Euphrosyne is never truly alone.
What is the Communion of Saints and the Invisible Church?
After Hillary dies in the novel's second half, she discovers she can feel but not touch things, and a teenage guardian angel named Shamar accompanies her. This narrative shift transforms the novel from this genre into this genre.
What are Dystopian and Fantasy?
Father Innocent picks up a paperback at Mimi's trailer: Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory — a novel about a hunted priest. Its presence there is an example of what literary technique, and why is it fitting?
What is allusion / intertextuality — it mirrors ICON's own themes of a persecuted underground faith?
This anti-Christian political movement that is gaining popularity and at the heart of the purge claims the 'only sin is judging other people' while persecuting Christians.
What are the Neo-Emersonians?
She received an apple from him in a similar way that he received one from this place in a vision.
Who is St. Euphrosynos the Cook and what is paradise?
The novel's title works on two levels throughout the story and every human being possesses this trait. Euphrosyne's story asks what it means to be defaced — renamed, surveilled, diminished — and whether the original image can be restored. Father Innocent's final words about the two icons bring this theme to its fullest expression.
What is Imago Dei — The Human Person as Icon?
In Chapter 1 of the novel, the author utilizes this narrative structure.
What is a dual timeline narrative also known as an analeptic/proleptic structure?
The following quote is a literary reference to which book? "Mimi stirs on the floor. The dog hears her and wiggles out of my arms to jump off the bed and lick Mimi’s face instead. “Uggh, Wart, quit. You’re so gross,” she says, pushing the dog’s snout out of her face. I giggle. “Wart?” I ask. “It’s a literary reference,” she mumbles, rubbing her eyes."
What is The Once and Future King by TH White?