The Birchbark House

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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The text draws attention to white settlement in several ways. The white settlers bring smallpox to the Anishinabe. The settlers also push the Anishinabe from their lands westward.

• In what ways is Anishinabe Culture threatened by White Settlement? (topic sentence)
• In addition to land and disease, consider the Anishinabe relationship with nature and their sense of Community.
• In the closing sentences, connect these points to the Anishinabe belief that the dead live in the west.

2. All the Anishinabe demonstrate a spiritual relationship with nature.

• How does Omakayas exemplify Anishinabe Spirituality? (topic sentence)
• Discuss Omakayas’s relationships with Andeg and with the bear family.
• In the closing sentences, discuss the significance of the bear as Omakayas’s spirit animal.

3. There are several non-conformist women in the novel. For example, Two Strikes Girl and Omakayas dance the rice. However, female non-conformity may be best illustrated by Old Tallow.

• What is Old Tallow’s role within the Anishinabe Culture and Community? (topic sentence)
• In what ways is Old Tallow a non-conformist, and for what purposes?
• In the closing sentences, consider Old Tallow’s relationship to Omakayas and how her non-conformity has helped Omakayas.

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. Throughout the novel, Omakayas’s relationships with her two brothers change. She finds compassion for Pinch, and she learns she can communicate with Neewo after his death. What are the causes and effects of these relationship changes on Omakayas’s development into a young woman?

2. Throughout the novel, Omakayas is missing a part of her biographical story. How does this missing story affect Omakayas’s development? Why is it important for her to know the story? How does her knowledge of the story change her?

3. Although the novel chronicles the childhood of Omakayas, it is titled The Birchbark House. Why might the author have chosen this title rather than one that refers directly to Omakayas? What is Omakayas’s relationship to the birchbark house? For her, what does it symbolize?