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 over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Pet includes both characters who fulfill traditional gender expectations and characters who do not.

• What message does this book convey about gender expectations? (topic sentence)
• Provide evidence from the lives of at least three characters that supports your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the book’s message about gender expectations relates to the book’s thematic concern with Binaries as Fiction.

2. The book’s portrayal of the revolution contains allusions to our present society.

• What is the purpose of these allusions? (topic sentence)
• Offer evidence of at least three allusions to our present society.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, connect these allusions to a larger message that Pet is trying to convey.

3. All of the human characters in Pet are Black people.