Dreamland Burning

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. Examine the tension in the novel between what is legal and what is right.

• What message does the novel convey about whether illegal actions can sometimes be morally right? (topic sentence)
• Provide 3 instances in which the characters in the novel perform an illegal activity that is morally right.
• In your concluding sentences, explain why you think these characters broke the law and whether they did it because it was moral or because it benefitted them in some way.

2. Examine the two narrators in the story to determine if they are reliable.

• Are Will and Rowan reliable narrators? Why or why not? (topic sentence)
• Give 3 examples to support your claim as to whether Will and Rowan are reliable narrators.