The Last White Man: A Novel

What is the role of mortality and death in the novel? Both Oona and Anders experience the death of close family members, and other characters die either at the hands of violent mobs or through substance use disorder. What does it mean that Anders and Oona enjoy spending time at graveyards among the dead?

Examine moments when Anders speaks about or interacts with people of color through this lens of white fragility. How does white fragility show in his interactions before and after his change?

Hamid claims that a major purpose of the novel is to demonstrate the ways in which race is a social construct. What are some specific ways in which the novel demonstrates this? What are some specific ways in which you have witnessed or experienced race as a construct in your own life?

Oona and Anders struggle with finding their identity even before they change. After the change this instability increases. Why do you think they struggle so much to know who they are? How does this connect to the ways others perceive them through the lens of race?

The novel opens with a literary allusion to Kafka’s Metamorphosis, which many critics have described as an allegory. In what ways is Hamid’s novel allegorical? How does this strengthen the thematic elements of the novel?

The influence of media, and especially online or social media in promoting conspiracy theories, has become a trending topic in American society. Discuss the ways in which the novel explores its influence, focusing especially on the character of Oona’s mother. How does she manage to break free of its influence? What does her desire to share with her granddaughter their white legacy suggest?

The entire novel is told from the point of view of the omniscient narrator. This narrator reports on the actions and thoughts of the characters rather than taking a moral or political position, often describing what is happening in a way that adds to the narrative’s ambiguity. What is the effect of having this type of narrative approach?

Why does Oona and Anders’s daughter not want to hear about her legacy of whiteness from her grandmother? What does this suggest about the coming world with the granddaughter’s generation?