revision- Maestro
Please look at the questions below and plan out as many essays as you can, think about appropriate quotes and learn them!
CHARACTER BASED QUESTIONS
1. Moving to Darwin exposed Paul to a range of influences which had a profound impact on him. Do you agree?
2. “We never lose…we only learn.” Is Keller’s statement true of Paul’s life?
3. What does Paul learn about love from his various relationships?
4. How does Peter Goldsworthy bring his characters and settings to life in Maestro?
5. Compare and contrast the different cities that are the settings of Maestro? How do they affect Paul’s life?
6. Paul’s relationships with his friends impact on his development. Discuss.
7. “First impression? Misleading of course. As always” (p3). How far is this true of the characters in Maestro?
8. What role do Paul’s parents play in shaping his attitudes to life?
9. After Keller’s death, Paul says “…a Great Man died, whatever the crimes he felt he had committed. Do you agree?
10. How does Paul grow through the course of the novel?
11. Goldsworthy’s use of music conveys ideas about character that are critical to understanding the novel’s focus. Discuss.
12. Goldsworthy has used the retrospective first person narrative to enhance our understanding of Paul’s character. Discuss.
13.The reader, in the end, sees Paul and Keller both as egotists and equally unattractive characters. Discuss.
14. ‘You’ve been like a father to me. Taught me everything I know.’ Is everything that Paul learns a consequence of knowing Herr Keller?
15.“If we were discussing the same man, how different our two versions. Or perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps they were not the same man, in a sense” (p.140). ‘The Keller in Austria and the Keller in Darwin are two different people.’ Discuss.
16. ‘Paul’s relationships with his friends reveal different aspects of his character and growing maturity.’ Discuss.
17.‘Paul’s sexual awakening interferes with his career as a musician and his understanding of Keller.’ Do you agree?
18. “It is you who are ignorant” (p.71). ‘Paul is on a journey to self-knowledge and experience.’ Discuss.
19. The life lessons that Paul learns from Herr Keller are more important than the music lessons. Do you agree?
20. ‘I was to be allowed no dreams, it seemed.’ Does Herr Keller destroy Paul’s dreams?
21. Does Paul only have music lessons from Herr Keller?
22.Paul Crabbe’s adolescent years consist of one betrayal after another. Do you agree
THEME BASED QUESTIONS
1. Never again would there be so much to be discovered, to be touched, and tasted for the first time.” How does Goldsworthy evoke the “foolish, innocent world” of childhood and adolescence in Maestro?
2. ‘This is a novel about love in all its forms.’
3. Maestro shows us that maturity is gained only through suffering. Discuss.
4. What do we learn about Australian lifestyles in Maestro?
5. What role does music play in the development of Paul’s character?
6. ‘In this sense Keller was bad for me, the worst possible teacher: revealing perfection to me, and at the same time snatching it away’ (p.148a). Do you agree with Paul?
7. ‘Can I know that mine was a foolish, innocent world, a world of delusion and feeling and ridiculous dreams – a world of music – and still love it? Endlessly, effortlessly.’ (p.149a). What has Paul learnt about life, love and music for him to reach this conclusion at the end of the novel?
8. ‘You’ve been like a father to me. Taught me everything I know.’ Is everything that Paul learns a consequence of knowing Herr Keller?
9. How do considerations of time and place affect the characters in Maestro?
10. We can never really leave the past behind us. To what extent does Maestro prove this to be true?
11.‘I remember you often used to say: silence is the purest music.’ How do silences convey meaning in Maestro?
12. Paul says that Keller was ‘the worst possible teacher’. Do you agree?
13. ‘Never again would there be so much to be discovered, to be touched and tasted for the first time.’How does Goldsworthy evoke the ‘foolish, innocent world’ of childhood in Maestro ?
14. Maestro explores how difficult yet important it is to forgive. Discuss.
15. The adult world is just as interesting as the child’s world in Paul’s memoir. Do you agree?
16. Maestro is a story of betrayal and cowardice. Is this how you see the novel?
17. Does Goldsworthy suggest that it is immaturity that prevents us from seeing true value?
18. “What is the difference between a great and a good pianist? … Not much” (p.113). ‘Paul can never achieve greatness.’ Do you agree?
19. ‘Maestro demonstrates that pride and arrogance stop people achieving success.’ Do you agree with this statement?
20. ‘In Maestro, Peter Goldsworthy asserts that there are two types of music: the ordinary and that which is worthy of being called “art”.’ Discuss.
21. Maestro demonstrates that the truth can hurt. Discuss.
22. Maestro suggests that it is impossible to suppress emotions. Discuss.
