Bear

Elena insists that she had recurring dreams about a bear as a child, but Sam doesn’t remember Elena telling her this. What is the dreams’ significance to each girl? Why is it important that the memory of the dreams stuck with Elena but not Sam?

How do Sam’s experiences regarding her mother’s former boyfriend affect her? What parallels exist between Sam’s feelings about him and her feelings about the bear? Why does Elena’s experience of the bear differ from Sam’s? Use textual evidence to address this topic.

Though mentioned only tangentially, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forms the backdrop of the novel. How does this impact the novel’s characters and the central conflict?