Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

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. One of the functions of a trickster figure is to create chaos within which people can question their assumptions and the sources of stasis in their lives.

• How does Nanabush disrupt the lives of key characters in Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, and how does this benefit the characters? (topic sentence)
• Give examples of three characters whose lives are stuck in a rut. Then, show how Nanabush introduces chaos into their lives and how their subsequent re-evaluations of their lives result in positive changes.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show what these changes reveal about the nature of a Trickster God.

2. John’s argument with Dan in the diner is about much more than the motorcycle.

• What is John really offended about when Dan insults his motorcycle’s age? (topic sentence)
• Give examples from three separate parts of the text that support your argument about John’s real priorities in this argument.