86 pages • 2 hours read
Isabel WilkersonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Preface-Part 1, Chapter 3
Part 2, Chapters 4-6
Part 2, Chapters 7-9
Part 3, Preface-Pillar 2
Part 3, Pillars 3-5
Part 3, Pillars 6-8
Part 4, Preface-Chapter 12
Part 4, Chapters 13-15
Part 4, Chapters 16-18
Part 5, Chapters 19-21
Part 5, Chapters 22-24
Part 6, Chapters 25-27
Part 6, Chapters 28-29
Part 7, Chapter 30-Epilogue
Key Figures
Themes
Index of Terms
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Wilkerson describes a personal situation that at one point caused her great distress: After her divorce, her dog, a terrier, bit and was more hostile, as he had preferred her first husband. Upon a trip to a behaviorist, Wilkerson was told how alpha dogs behave to assert leadership, because she needed to assume a similar role to help the dog feel more secure. Alpha dogs, the behaviorist said, “are fearless protectors against outside incursions, but they rarely have to assert themselves within the pack, rarely have to act with aggression, bark orders, or use physical means of control” (203). She ultimately restored order by getting another dog who established dominant status. This confident leadership is lacking in popular understanding of alpha canines and wolves because our ideas are based on “large groupings of wolves placed into captivity” (205). Pack social cohesion is also dependent on the presence of an “omega” at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Similar to the artificiality of wolf pack behavior in captivity, most humans are assigned their social position “on the basis of having been born to the dominant caste or the dominant gender or to the right family within the dominant caste” (206).
A Black Lives Matter Reading List
View Collection
Audio Study Guides
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
View Collection
Goodreads Reading Challenge
View Collection
Oprah's Book Club Picks
View Collection
Sociology
View Collection