Leaving Atlanta

How does Jones’s choice to tell this story from the perspectives of children impact the reader’s understanding of the story’s central tragedy? How might the narrative have been different if Jones had used adult narrators or protagonists?

Each protagonist in the novel—Tasha, Rodney, and Octavia—represent different facets of Atlanta life and of the experience of the Atlanta Child Murders. What can the reader learn about issues regarding race, class, family, and the influence of media based on these three children’s experiences?

Corporal punishment, particularly as a mode of discipline meted out from fathers to sons, plays an important role in the novel’s plot development. Do you think that the author establishes an opinion on the subject? If so, what is Jones’s viewpoint?