The Great Alone Study Guide

Kristin Hannah spent the early years of her life in Southern California before her family relocated to Washington in 1968. As a child, Hannah traveled a lot; her father was always in search of adventure, and he took the family along with him in a VW bus. One year, the Hannah family made it all the way up to the Kenai River in Alaska, a region they fell in love with. Later in her life, Hannah graduated from the University of Washington and for several years she worked for an advertising agency. Later, she would graduate from the University of Puget Sound law school and become a practicing lawyer. While in law school, Hannah’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, which would eventually kill her. However, during this difficult period of her life, Hannah and her mother began working on a novel together. Although the book was never published, it sparked the beginning of an extensive career. Hannah published her first novel, A Handful of Heaven, in 1991 and would publish nine more novels over the next decade. The novel that made Hannah a literary star, Firefly Lane, arrived in 2008; it has since sold over a million copies and was turned into a Netflix series. Still, the best was yet to come because in 2015 Hannah published The Nightingale, her most critically and commercially successful novel. It sold over 4.5 million copies and is currently being adapted into a film. All of Hannah’s most successful works, including Firefly Lane, The Nightingale, and The Great Alone are works of historical fiction. Today, Hannah lives in Washington with her family.

There are several historical events that are front and center in The Great Alone. Most prominent is the Vietnam War, which the United States entered in 1965, purportedly to stop the spread of Communism. The Vietnam War split the American public more than any other conflict in the 20th century. Many Americans found the war to be unjust, and the rise of global news coverage and recording technologies allowed the American public unprecedented access to the horrors of war. Unlike after previous American conflicts, Vietnam veterans were not always welcomed warmly when returning from war. Although much of Ernt’s sense of persecution in The Great Alone is imagined, his irritation at how Vietnam veterans were treated is based in reality. Additionally, Ernt’s paranoia and aggression are both symptoms of PTSD, a condition common among those who served in Vietnam. Hannah also references other historical events, including the Ted Bundy murders and Patty Hearst’s kidnapping. Ted Bundy is one of America’s most notorious serial killers, who killed at least 20 women. Meanwhile, Patty Hearst is the granddaughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. She was kidnapped and held prisoner by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a far-left organization responsible for a number of crimes between 1973 and 1975. Hearst participated in some of these crimes, although there are conflicting narratives as to whether she did so of her own volition. Regardless, Hannah includes figures like Bundy and Hearst in her narrative to speak to the general state of paranoia that was present in America during the mid-to-late 70s.

The Great Alone wears its literary influences on its sleeve. Early in the novel, Ernt gives Leni a copy of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. The Call of the Wild is a 1903 novel that follows the adventures of Buck, an Alaskan sled dog. It is the most famous American novel set in Alaska, as well as a foundational work of literary naturalism. Literary naturalism is a movement that emerged at the end of the 19th century and one of its common themes is the harshness of nature. Other important works of literary naturalism include Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat” and Frank Norris’s McTeague. Also, The Great Alone is inspired by works of genre fiction including The Lord of the Rings and The Shining. Throughout The Great Alone, Leni regularly compares herself and Matthew to Frodo and Sam, the lead characters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy classic. Together, Frodo and Sam embark on an epic journey and rely on one another to defeat an evil lord. Leni and Matthew both love The Lord of the Rings, and it is the book that first bonds them together. Meanwhile, although Stephen King’s The Shining is not mentioned by name, it is an obvious influence on The Great Alone. The Shining is a novel about a family that goes to a remote hotel where they live alone in the winter. Throughout the winter, the father of the family goes insane and attempts to murder his wife and child. Although King’s novel is a work of horror, similar plot points show up all throughout The Great Alone. Additionally, The Great Alone is a work of historical fiction, an incredibly popular genre in contemporary American fiction. Current practitioners of historical fiction include Colson Whitehead, Delia Owens, and Anthony Doerr.