Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
About This Book
In his bestselling books
Into Thin Air and
Into the Wild, Jon
Krakauer explored the extreme ambitions of men who tested themselves against
Mount Everest and the Alaskan wilderness. In
Under the Banner of Heaven,
he turns to a different kind of extremism: religious fanaticism and the violence
it spawns.
In the prologue to
Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer asks of the
brutal murders committed by Ron and Dan Lafferty: "How could an apparently sane,
avowedly pious man kill a blameless woman and her baby so viciously, without the
barest flicker of emotion? Whence did he derive the moral justification? What
filled him with such certitude? Any attempt to answer such questions must plumb
those sectors of the heart and head that prompt most of us to believe in God—and
compel an impassioned few, predictably, to carry that irrational belief to its
logical end" [p. XXI]. It is these questions about the specifics of Dan and Ron
Lafferty's motives and beliefs and the larger phenomena of religious faith
such as God's will and fundamentalist violence that make
Under the Banner
of Heaven so illuminating and so disturbing.
Krakauer draws a clear distinction between law-abiding mainstream Mormons and
fanatical Mormon fundamentalists. However, as he alternates between the history
of Mormonism in the nineteenth century and contemporary cases such as the
Lafferty murders and the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, Krakauer reveals a
religion steeped in violence almost since its inception. Murderous clashes
between Mormons and gentiles in Missouri and Illinois nearly led to civil war in
the 1840s. After Joseph Smith was killed, the Mormons were forced to settle in
the Utah Territory. At that time, Brigham Young petitioned Washington to
establish a Mormon nation so that he could unite the church's spiritual and
political ambitions and preserve the outlawed practice of polygamy. Federal
troops dissuaded Young, but the conflict at the heart of the turmoil remained:
the Mormon belief in the supremacy of God's law over the secular laws imposed
by a "corrupt" government. This faith in the divine revelation of the will of
God, which put Joseph Smith and the early Mormon church at odds with earthly
authorities, would later inspire fundamentalists like Dan and Ron Lafferty to
commit what they felt to be justified murders.
Indeed, the willingness to break secular laws in order to fulfill God's
will is the central problem
Under the Banner of Heaven explores with such
insight and thoroughness. And it is this belief that allows us to relate Mormon
fundamentalists to their Islamic counterparts around the world: the
fundamentalist's passionate, irrational, and unalterable belief in the
righteousness of his cause, even when that cause demands the most horrific
violence.
Reading Guide
- In his prologue, Jon Krakauer writes that the aim of his book is to "cast
some light on Lafferty and his ilk," which he concedes is a daunting but
useful task for what it may tell us "about the roots of brutality, perhaps,
but even more for what might be learned about the nature of faith" [p.
XXIII]. What does the book reveal about fanatics such as Ron and Dan
Lafferty? What does it reveal about brutality and faith and the connections
between them?
- Why does Krakauer move back and forth between Mormon history and
contemporary events? What are the connections between the beliefs and
practices of Joseph Smith and his followers in the nineteenth century and
the behavior of people like Dan and Ron Lafferty, Brian David Mitchell, and
others in the twentieth?
- Prosecutor David Leavitt argued that "People in the state of Utah simply
do not understand, and have not understood for fifty years, the devastating
effect that the practice of polygamy has on young girls in our society" [p.
24]. How does polygamy affect young girls? Is it, as Leavitt claims,
pedophilia plain and simple?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Anchor Books.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
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