Barking to the Choir

What theme is articulated by Boyle’s engagement with the homies’ malapropisms? Why does this book take its name from a malapropism? What is the message Boyle conveys through his recurrent parsing of these malapropisms? Use direct quotations to support your perspective.

Choose one homie Boyle depicts for an extended period (three paragraphs or more). Using direct quotations from the text, write an essay that explicates how Boyle’s depiction of this homie articulates one of the work’s central themes.

Boyle spends considerable energy upending both social and Christian norms. Identify a few of the subversive elements in Barking to the Choir. Explain what, exactly, Boyle’s subversive message is. Within your selected passages, what normative narrative(s) or ideas are Boyle undermining or reversing, and why?