The Living

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 bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. People look to Shy for leadership during a crisis.

• How strong of a leader is Shy? (topic sentence)
• Define leadership and include at least 3 specific scenes where Shy leads. Analyze the extent to which the details in these scenes fit your definition of leadership.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain one piece of leadership advice you would offer Shy.

2. Throughout the novel, Shy and the others on the cruise face nature’s wrath.

• Who proves more powerful: nature or humanity? (topic sentence)
• Incorporate at least 3 specific examples from the novel and reasoning about how each illustrates your argument.
• In your conclusion, articulate a lesson readers could take from the interaction between humans and nature in the novel.