Consider the theme of Socioeconomic Differences and Access to Critical Care. Why might Wiseman have chosen the novel’s particular cultural socioeconomic backdrop to tell a story about the 1918 epidemic?

How does the backdrop of World War I shape the novel’s events and characters? What is the relationship between the war and American Patriotism, and how does that relationship change (if at all) once the war ends?

Much of the prejudice against German immigrants in the novel flows from the fact that Germany was among America’s enemies in World War I. What other factors—historical, ethnic, racial, religious, etc.—drive anti-immigrant sentiment in the novel? Is it possible to generalize about Immigration, Racism, and Anti-Immigrant Bias, or is the nature of the prejudice different in each case?