The Refugees

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. “Black-Eyed Women” is the only overtly supernatural tale in the novel. The main character is literally haunted by the ghost of her brother, but she is also figuratively haunted by her trauma from her experience as a boat person.

• What other characters in The Refugees are haunted in a similar manner? (topic sentence)
• Select one of these characters and analyze how trauma informs their character development.
• In your concluding sentences, consider how this particular character’s development links with the theme Haunted by Trauma: PTSD and Narrative Exposure Therapy.

2. Several of the major characters in The Refugees experience the effects of old age for the first time.

• How do these characters, in general, cope (or fail to cope) with aging? (topic sentence)
• Select one of the characters and analyze how the aging process affects their relationship with their adult children.