Half Broke Horses

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the American West was rapidly transforming from an era of pioneering to increased modernization and industrialization. How did the onset of industrialization affect pioneer homestead communities? What are some of the hardships that pioneer communities would have experienced prior to modernization? Would industrialization have relieved these hardships? Why or why not?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question invites students to consider the novel’s historical setting. The increasingly industrialized Midwest and Western states of the US serve as the backdrop of Walls’s narrative. Lily notes how her father tries to resist this modernization; however, she believes that embracing technological progress such as automobiles and airplanes is important in adapting to the modern lifestyle. This question also provides an opportunity to introduce the themes of Learning How to Fall and Half-Broke Horses.

• The Library of Congress offers information on “Rural Life in the Late 19th Century.”
• The University of California Los Angeles shares a historical overview of farming homesteads on the American frontier.

2. Consider the difficulties that women experienced in turn-of-the-century America. How would social class affect women’s roles and expectations? How would this make raising daughters difficult during the early and mid-20th centuries?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question will help to orient students with the perspective of gendered norms in the novel. Lily Casey breaks many of the barriers in place for women during the late 19th and early 20th century: divorcing, refusing to remarry initially, seeking employment, participating in gambling activities, and completing many of the chores on the farm. While she tries to instill her values within her daughter Rosemary, Lily is also aware that there are expectations for women to find suitable partners with stable income and housing. These expectations in turn weigh on Rosemary’s conscience, a detail which becomes more evident in Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle. Students might benefit from a brief brainstorming session in small groups to generate a list of the different areas of women’s lives to consider with this prompt, such as family, employment, household needs, daily life, appearance, finances, personal fulfillment, and independence.

• In this article, the State Historical Society of Iowa provides information on the ways in which children’s lives in the Midwest have changed over the course of the 20th century.
• “Setting the Scene: Women of the 1890s,” a discussion from the National Park Service, offers ideas about the changing role of women in this time period.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Consider the benefits of failure. In what ways can failure be positive? How is it negative? How have you experienced benefits or positive lessons from personal failures? Explain.

Teaching Suggestion: This Personal Connection Prompt invites students to consider the theme Learning How to Fall in connection with their own experiences. In the novel, Walls develops the theme’s literal meaning (e.g., falling safely from a moving force) and metaphorical meaning (i.e., how to pick oneself up after encountering a difficult situation), both of which are critical to Lily’s development as a character. This Personal Connection Prompt connects with this guide’s Discussion/Analysis Prompt. Due to the potentially sensitive nature of the topic, students might benefit most from a private, independent response such as a journal entry.