Wishtree

What is Applegate’s message about the relationship between humans and the natural world? Use plot and character analysis to form your answer.

According to Wishtree, what is the best way to overcome prejudice and bigotry? Use analysis of the book’s characters and plots, complete with direct quote citation, in order to support your answer.

What is the significance of Francesca’s character within Wishtree? How do Francesca’s choices and personal history help Applegate to form her central message?

Use direct quotes to explain the thematic significance that Applegate creates by depicting various parallels between the human world and the natural one. What are the specific and particular ways that the two realms mirror each other, and what thematic message does this parallelism form?

Is Wishtree a fairy tale? Why or why not? Use direct quotes in order to support your answer.

Write an essay that compares Red against a selected human character. What are the reasons for these similarities and contrasts? What message does Applegate form when she situates Red as the tale’s only narrator? How would the tale be different if told from the perspective of a human, and what does Red’s voice bring to the narrative that a human voice cannot?

Examine the relationship between Bongo and Red as character foils. How do their opposing characteristics forward Applegate’s overarching message?

Applegate liberally sprinkles Wishtree with similes and metaphors. Isolate a few specific similes and metaphors, and explain how they each help Applegate to form the book’s main message.