The Host Theme of Community

Everyone longs to fit into a community. Except for Chevy Chase. He hates Community. In The Host, you'd think Wanda would have it made. She comes from a species that lives in perfect harmony with one another. Their communities are Leave it to Beaver meets Stepford Wives then Photoshopped into perfection. It's one big conformity love fest. But Wanda wants something different. Something imperfect: human acceptance. Jeb's cave-dwelling community is a love fest of a different kind. They work together to grow food, cook, and clean—but they also bicker, fight, and argue. Now that's a community we can live with.

1. In what ways does the alien community differ from Jeb's cave-dwelling community? In what ways is it similar?
2. Being an alien living among humans, Wanda is an outsider for most of the novel. When does she feel part of the human community? Why do the humans accept her?
3. At the end of the novel, we see human communities not only exist, but they have also accepted an alien like Wanda. How will this discovery affect the cave dwellers?