Literary Analysis Questions (possible essay questions)

1. Discuss the hardships and similarities and differences in the lives of a key character in each of the two novels.

2. In each of the novels, characters have an intimate connection with nature (the forest and lake in Tracks and the flowers in The Bluest Eye). How is this connection with nature symbolic of the overall messages of each text?

3. Both novels are about a group of people who suffer in the American system. Discuss ways in which these stories can be considered triumphant and celebratory of the cultures, rather than just depressing and evidence of failed lives.

4. How do family relationships both help and harm the characters in the two novels we read?

5. Both Pecola and Pauline seem to want to become white? Discuss this similarity in their characters and what it suggests.

6. The concept and reality of a home is very important in both novels. What does home mean to the characters, why is it hard to succeed at having, making or keeping a home, and what does this suggest more generally?

General Concepts & European Americans

1. What is Manifest Destiny and how does it reveal much about a general American pattern?

3. Discuss the concept of the "other" and how it relates to our class.

4. How did ethnocentrism play a big part in the harsh treatment of several races?

5. Discuss exploitation as a fundamental principle of the building of America.

6. How did the industrial revolution change life for many Americans in the 19th century?

7. What do boarding schools reveal about white attitudes about groups of "others" (like Indians).

8. Discuss the irony of Christian beliefs in light of discriminations we have seen thus far.

9. How do each of the novels show both the horror of American history and the triumph of the American spirit?

African Americans

1. Who is Harriet Jacobs and why is her story interesting?

2. Who is Frederick Douglass and why is he important?

3. Who was Douglass' harshest master and how did he "beat" him?

4. Give a description of a typical day in the life of a plantation slave.

5. How is plantation slave life different from urban slave life?

6. Was the North really "the promised land"? Give examples.

7. Why does Angela Davis argue that no one suffered more than women slaves?

8. How was religion used to justify slavery and how does this reveal contradictions?

9. Who are Sambo, the Coon, and the Pickaninny, and what do they reveal about white attitudes and assumptions?

10. Why did black actors wear black face and play into stereotypes?

11. Who was Margaret Garner and how is her story significant?

12. How is American culture still based on stereotypes?

13. How did Jim Crow come about? What does it mean?

14. Why did White actors wear blackface and exaggerate black features?

15. What does Morrison's novel show us about possibilities for black people in America?

Native Americans

1. Discuss the new economy and include information on the “five civilized tribes.”

2.  When did the census bureau declare the frontier no longer existed? (1891)  

3. How does Jackson consider the Indians and how does this change his life?

4. What does the battle of Horseshoe bend reveal about Jackson's own savagery? (and that of his men)

5. How does Jackson deal with pre-existing treaties?

6. Why does the trail of tears happen?

7. What happens on the trail of tear and how does it change the lives of Indians?

8. How did the allotment system affect the lives of many Native Americans?

9. Discuss how many Native people in the early 20th century felt alienated and between two worlds.

10. How does Christianity affect Native Spirituality? 

11.   Compare and contrast the popular views of Indians with the actual behavior of Indians. Is the image consistent with the Indians’ behavior?

12.  How did European American think of, treat, and characterize Native Americans?

13. Discuss the power dynamic between Indians and Whites?

14. Who is the Trickster figure and why is he/she important?

15. How does the Trickster show up in Erdrich's novel?

Mexican Americans

1. When did Mexicans (or Spaniards) first visit and settle in America?

2. What were missions (name several and describe them)?

3. What does Mestizo mean and to whom does it refer?

4. How were Indians in the Southwest treated (compared to Indians back East for instance)?

5. When did Mexico gain independance?

6. Who had power in Mexico and who was powerless in that cutlure?

8. What was the Alamo and what happened there?

9. What happened at San Jacinto? (and Who led this attack?)

10. According to their own military leaders, what were American soldiers like during the Mexican American war? What did Mexicans think of the American soldiers?

11. What happened to Mexicans left on the other (now the US) side of the border after the war?

12. What current States did our country gain as a result of the Mexican American war?

13. What did most Mexicans do to try to survive in this country?

14. What are mutualistas?

15. Explain the significance of water and water rights in the Southwest.

16. What does the town of Milagro reveal about Mexican American culture generally?

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