Beartown

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. Many of the characters in Beartown experience growth and development over the course of the novel, often through processing trauma and taking a moral stance in the face of peer pressure.

• Pick one of the characters in the novel. How do they grow, change, or mature? (topic sentence)
• Identify three different moments in the book that show a character’s change or progression. Be sure to explain how the character’s actions in that moment show a change from who they were in the beginning of the novel.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate how these character developments reflect the themes of the novel.

2. Foreshadowing is a technique in which an author hints at what is to come in the story such as future events, connections, or outcomes. Backman, uniquely, foreshadows many of the novel’s plot points early in the text, causing the novel to come full circle in highly emotional moments once the reader has come to know the characters.

• How and why does Backman use foreshadowing throughout Beartown? (topic sentence)
• Detail three places in the book in which foreshadowing is present. Discuss what is being foreshadowed and why Backman uses foreshadowing. Be sure to consider the emotional impact each moment has on the reader.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate how the foreshadowing impacted your reading experience.

3. The Beartown community is obsessed with hockey to the point that they turn on each other when their success at the sport is “threatened” by Maya’s revelation.

• What does hockey mean to the people of Beartown? (topic sentence)
• Choose three moments in the text that showcase how important hockey means to the community. Explore how these moments reinforce the role hockey has on the local culture.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate how passion can turn into obsession and what obsession means in contexts like Beartown.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Loyalty is defined as the strong feeling of support or allegiance to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. What are the different kinds of loyalty present in the Beartown community? How does loyalty evolve or change over the course of the novel? As you compose your essay, incorporate at least three quotations to support your claims with correct page citations.

2. How does Beartown portray, reinforce, and/or subvert beliefs about gender? What roles do Maya, Ramona, and other female characters play within the novel, and what roles do males like Kevin and Benji play? Are there any characters who reject traditional gender norms?  As you compose your essay, incorporate at least three quotations to support your claims with correct page citations.

3. Power can be social, physical, or economic. Who holds power in Beartown? When, and how, does power shift? You may explore power changes by focusing either on characters or major novel events. As you compose your essay, incorporate at least three quotations to support your claims with correct page citations.