Severance

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Shen Fever PSA”

In this activity, students will choose a theme from the novel and connect related quotes, images, symbols, motifs, and allusions; then they will create a satirical PSA or propaganda poster highlighting a social message or slogan related to the novel’s themes.  

In this activity, create an original PSA or propaganda poster that highlights a key theme and message from the novel.

• Your PSA or poster should include a clear slogan or message related to one of the novel’s themes.
• Incorporate supporting imagery, quotes, symbols, motifs, or allusions from the novel.
• Your PSA may relate directly to Shen Fever, or you may choose to focus on other elements from the novel, such as issues of fair and safe labor, worker’s rights, or conservation issues.

Plan to present your poster to the class with your rationale and/or display it for public viewing.

Teaching Suggestion: To better understand the medium and format for the assignment, students may benefit from analyzing existing public service ads for theme, message, and use of imagery and symbolism, such as United States WWII PSA posters related to the war effort; separately, students may investigate satirical posters, cover images, or other messaging in online images before beginning the assignment. Formal presentation or physical or digital display may be suitable to display student work.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students with organizational or executive functioning learning differences, graphic organizers or step guides may be beneficial. For multilingual learners, preselected and/or prehighlighted passages related to their chosen theme may help with time management and ease transition from comprehension to analysis. To include more learning styles and skills, options for group work and visual or performance art forms such as video PSAs or storyboarding might be permitted. For additional reflection and analysis, students may write an artist’s statement explaining their choices and processes while creating their PSA.

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. Specific products and commercial venues feature prominently within the work, often in specific association with a character. For the focus of the essay, choose a product or venue and an associated character.

• How does this product or venue capture or symbolize an aspect of the character with whom it is associated? (topic sentence)
• Explain the relationship between this product and a related character’s identity, inner conflict, and/or character traits. Analyze and discuss at least 3 examples or pieces of evidence from the text in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain what this character’s relationship to this product or venue reveals about broader themes.

2. Habits and routines serve a dual function within the novel.

• How do habits, routines, or rituals present characters with both a means to survive and a means to die?  (topic sentence)
• Using at least 3 specific examples from a variety of locations in the text, analyze and discuss the ways in which characters use routines to survive the decaying world and how these routines become traps as well.  
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize the message Ling Ma conveys about the routines we use and accept in our everyday lives.

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. Choose a key symbol or motif that is evident both before and after the Shen Fever epidemic begins. In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, trace the development of this symbol or motif throughout the novel. What is the significance of this device to the characters? How does its meaning evolve? What deeper themes or messages does it support?  

2. Memory and nostalgia play a central role in the novel. What attitudes does Ling Ma express through the characters’ relationships with the past? How do both memory and nostalgia connect characters? How does memory function as both a tool of survival and a danger? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze and discuss the significance of memory and nostalgia in the novel. What might this story reveal about the impact the past has on the present?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Bob’s group tattoo themselves with lightning bolts?

A) They bond over their love of the Harry Potter series.

B) They have nothing better to do after Manhattan falls.

C) They agree on a philosophy of striking fast and first.

D) They want to distinguish themselves from the fevered.

2. Why is Bob the leader?

A) Bob knows the others respond to knowledge and hierarchy and provides both.

B) Bob threatens the others indirectly by hinting he has a weapon.

C) Bob has carpal tunnel, which shows the others that he is used to delegating hard tasks.

D) Bob conveys a sense of hope through his religious messages, which is appealing to the others.

3. How might shark fin soup sum up Candace’s experience of life in New York City?

A) Like the shark fins Candace inherited from her mother, New York belongs to immigrants.

B) Shark fin soup and 1980s themes make Candace nostalgic for an older New York.

C) Over shark fin soup, Candace breaks up with Steven to date Jonathan, who hates what New York represents.

D) Shark fin soup is superficially glamorous, highly anticipated, and ultimately disappointing to Candace.

4. What does Bob’s use of the word “releasing” in regard to killing the fevered reveal about his character?

A) He believes in mercy and the afterlife.

B) He is misleading, hiding violence with softer euphemisms.

C) He is out of touch with reality.

D) He understands Shen Fever better than others.

5. For Balthasar, what does the popularity of The Very Hungry Caterpillar represent?

A) It represents the greed and individualism driving American consumerism.

B) It represents the total atomization and loneliness in American culture.

C) It represents a poor understanding of conservation of endangered species.

D) It represents an American tendency to oversimplify children’s literature.

6. What connects Candace’s experiences with both Hong Kong and New York City?

A) Both cities enable shopping.

B) Both cities are known for their food.

C) Both cities have a vibrant nightlife.

D) Both cities are organized in concentric circles rather than a grid.

7. What is uncanny about the way Bob and the group refer to the Facility?

A) They make it sound like a prison.

B) They praise it, despite never having seen it.

C) They believe it is the safest place in the world.

D) They idealize it, like it is a promised land.

8. What purpose do Ashley’s descriptions of her childhood home serve?

A) They illustrate the difference between memory and reality.

B) They illustrate the difficulty of going home.

C) They contrast directly with Candace’s lack of childhood nostalgia.

D) They represent comfort in a time of great anxiety.

9. Why does Jonathan’s reasoning for leaving Manhattan not sway Candace?

A) Candace feels most at home in Manhattan and cannot leave.

B) Candace knows leaving will not exempt one from consumerism, money, or work.

C) Candace stays out of spite, though she hates Manhattan.

D) Candace feels she has a good job and does not want to start over again.

10. What is the similarity between Candace’s relationship with Jonathan and her relationship with Spectra?

A) Both are a comfortable routine brought about by convenience.

B) Both result from her failed relationship with Steven Reitman.

C) Both represent the American Dream.

D) Both support her lifestyle and dream to become a photographer.

11. What is Jonathan’s parting request of Candace?

A) He asks her to join him, even though he knows she will refuse.

B) He asks her to take care of herself.

C) He asks her to quit Spectra before she contracts Shen Fever.

D) He asks her to update NY Ghost.

12. How is the Tree of Heaven that Candace documents related to deeper themes?

A) It represents the breakdown of Manhattan since no one is trying to trim trees anymore.

B) Like Shen, it is an invasive species from China resulting from shipping and consumption.

C) Like Candance, it is a hard-working species and thrives on neglect.

D) It once was prized for its beauty but is now rejected due to its smell.

13. What is the strongest irony of the group’s arrival at the Facility?

A) It is not a hospital or prison or warehouse, it is a mall.

B) The mall is abandoned and so is Chicago.

C) It is just one of many malls, and they are just there to do Bob’s work.

D) The mall is a disappointment to Bob because it is run down and lightless.

14. What do Bob’s nocturnal walks and ramblings indicate to Candace?

A) Bob is so obsessed with control he would rather problem solve than sleep.

B) Bob is extremely stressed out and remorseful for imprisoning her.

C) Bob is more upset by the state of the world than his philosophizing indicates.

D) Bob is likely fevered, since he does not remember them when she asks.

15. Where does Candace go when she escapes?

A) She goes toward Jonathan’s first Chicago apartment.

B) She searches Chicago’s business district for other survivors.

C) She heads toward Lake Michigan to watch the sun rise.

D) She finds herself on the interstate toward Salt Lake City.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What existential crisis does the existence of the fevered force Candace to confront?

2. What is the significance of Candace’s choice of destination at the end of the novel?