Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text throughout your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Zachariah gives Charlotte a knife at the beginning of the novel, and it reappears throughout.

• Why is the knife significant? (topic sentence)
• What is important about the scenes in which the dirk appears? Choose three to discuss in your essay.
• Finally, in your concluding sentences, connect this knife to the theme of Challenging Gender Roles.

2. A seahawk forms the ship’s masthead, and Charlotte includes images of the ship in the Appendix.

• What role does the boat itself play in this novel? (topic sentence)
• How does the ship’s role in carrying the crew to America inform the novel?
• Finally, in your concluding sentence, compare and contrast the Seahawk at the novel’s beginning with it at the end, thinking about the theme of Transformation and Growth.