The Wanderer 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. Discuss the importance of family in the novel.

1) How does Sophie's status as an orphan affect her sense of family? Is she, in some ways, not part of the family? How do her parents and Bompie make her part of their family?
2) How does family help build identity? How does family help the characters have a sense of themselves and their place in the world?
3) How does Sophie lose her birth family even more because of her repressed memories? How does the loss of these memories, in addition to the death of her...
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