Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why did Hersey pick six people whose stories were interconnected in some way? What is the effect of that choice?
- Why do you think Hersey chose the people he did? How do these personalities/stories work together or complement each other?
- Hersey's style is at once literary—he turns six eyewitness accounts into a narrative, after all—and journalistic. What do you make of his choices in that regard? Can something be both literary and journalistic? If so, does Hersey strike that balance well? Why or why not?
- What is your reaction to the level of psychological depth each of the "characters" gets? Do you feel that some individuals get more psychological depth than others? Could Hersey have gone further with it and still kept things journalistic?
- How would a novel about the same subject matter likely be different from Hiroshima?
- How does Hersey's narrative elicit sympathy and highlight individual emotions while still remaining true to the journalistic form?