46 pages • 1 hour read
Mitch AlbomFor One More Day
Fiction | Novel | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
The early chapters of the book tell us a lot about Chick’s relationships with members of his family. His relationship with his father especially is closely bound up with his ideas about masculinity and manhood, but these in turn affect the way he behaves toward his mother, and later his wife and daughter.How do Chick’s attitudes toward gender change by the end of the book?
In nearly every chapter of the book, Chick flashes back to his childhood, remembering an episode involving his mother. How do these anecdotes serve the main narrative?
Though family relationships are the main focus of For One More Day, many of Chick’s struggles have to do with his search for fulfilling work and his efforts to fulfil his childhood dreams. What does Chick believe about work, and what for him makes a career fulfilling or worthwhile? How do his beliefs differ from those of other characters, and how do they evolve over the course of the book?
In For One More Day, Chuck’s mother leads him through three visits with people she had known in life. Through these visits, he gradually learns a lesson about his life up to that point. The structure of the narrative bears a close resemblance to the famous Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. Read the story (or even watch one of the many movie versions of it) and compare and contrast that story with For One More Day.
How does the revelation of the writer’s identity at the end of the book change your perceptions of the book as a whole? Why do you think the author chose to wait until the very end of the book to reveal this detail?
Both Chick and the narrator repeatedly describe Chick’s story as unbelievable, and the narrator explains that she decided to write the story in the first person “because I’m not sure you would believe this story if you didn’t hear it in his voice.” (7) Do you see Chick’s story as necessarily supernatural or fantastic? Why or why not? How do Chick’s and the narrator’s assertions contribute to the story?
Based on Chick’s relationships with his parents and family, how would he define love at the beginning of the book? Does his understanding of love change by the end of the book? Trace this shift by identifying key moments of transition.
Though the book does not contain many details about individual baseball games, baseball is an undeniably important part of the book. What role does baseball play in the book? How does Chick’s relationship with the game itself change?
After Chick’s life-changing experience, he gets a job coaching team sports. What advice do you think he would give a young person who hopes to become a professional athlete? What do you think he sees as the positive and negative aspects of this career path? Write your essay in the form of a letter.
Imagine that you are Maria, the narrator, and you are preparing to give a eulogy at Chick’s funeral. What would you say about him, and how would you like people to remember him? Write a speech from Maria’s perspective outlining his greatest achievements and the impact he had on his friends, family, and community. Remember to include details from the period after the book takes place, and feel free to use your imagination!
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By Mitch Albom
