Thank You for Smoking Papers & Assignment Topics

Essay Topics/Writing Assignments

These 20 essay questions can be used as essay questions on a test, or as stand-alone essay topics for a take-home or in-class writing assignment. Students should have a full understanding of the text in order to answer these questions. They ask for a thorough analysis of the text.

1. Self-interest is the primary motivation of most of the character in Buckley's novel. Write an essay on the role of self-interest in the narrative, focusing on three parts:

Part 1) Twice over the course of the novel, Nick Naylor sleeps with a woman, believing that she is genuinely interested in him, only to find out that she is after personal gain. Discuss these two instances and the self-interest that drives both women? How is Nick instrumental to their separate goals?

Part 2) Nick does not trust BR at the beginning of the novel,...
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