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1. Describe the opening scene presented in the preface of "Roots." How does this scene set up the novel?

The opening vignette of "Roots" describes an unnamed woman sitting against a tree in a park setting. This vignette is revisited in the final chapter of the novel when the reader learns it is Mimi and sees the journey that has brought her to this connection to the trees.

2. How do the Hoel chestnut trees get planted? What happens to them?

Jorgen Hoel finds the chestnuts in his pocket from the night he proposed to his wife. He plants the trees at his family's farm in Iowa. Five of the trees die, but one remains.

3. Who records the growth of the Hoel chestnut tree? How is it recorded?

John Hoel, son of Jorgen, begins photographing the chestnut tree in the yard every month as it grows. It is an expensive project in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

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