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Toni MorrisonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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. Throughout the novel, male and female characters search for love. Choose one character and trace their journey with The Nature of Love.
2. Throughout the novel, Claudia searches for identity. Many things inform her search: her family and friends, celebrities, toys, etc.
3. There are varying states of Black Respectability and Family in the novel. For example, Claudia views her family as more respectable than Pecola’s family but less respectable than Maureen’s. Choose one family to examine.
Full Essay Assignments
Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.
1. The narrator of The Bluest Eye states that romantic love and physical beauty are “[p]robably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought” (122). Choose a character from the novel and consider the intersection of love and beauty in their character arc. Are love and physical beauty destructive to this character? Why or why not? Cite evidence from the text to support your ideas.
2. Cholly Breedlove has an alcohol addiction, hits his wife, and sexually abuses his daughter. Yet, at the novel’s end, the narrator says, “Cholly loved [Pecola].” There is a literary sentiment that any great villain must draw sympathy from the audience. Does Cholly accomplish this goal? Are there ways in which he is both despicable and also sympathetic? Do you agree that he loves Pecola in some way? Analyze Cholly’s character development using textual evidence to support your claim.
3. Morrison does not divide the novel into numbered chapters, opting for a cycle of the seasons instead. What purpose does this play in the novel? How do the contents of each chapter align with its corresponding season? Why do you think Morrison uses seasons instead of numbered chapters? Cite evidence from the text to support your ideas.
By Toni Morrison