Mosquitoland

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. Mim can be condescending and judgmental, and she often makes offhand jokes and remarks that show biases against people’s physical characteristics.

• Does Mim’s likability matter to the reader’s investment in the story? (topic sentence)
• Discuss at least three details that illustrate different ways Mim might be an unlikable character. Explain two or three aspects of the story that might cause a reader to care about its outcome even if they do not find Mim likeable.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, argue why a reader is or is not likely to stay invested in this story given the less likable aspects of Mim’s character.

2. Sometimes a character’s greatest strength can also be their greatest weakness.

• How does Mim’s ability to escape into her imagination and ignore reality demonstrate that the same quality can be both a strength and a weakness? (topic sentence)
• Provide and discuss an example of a time when Mim’s ability to retreat into her imagination benefits her. Provide and discuss an example of a time when Mim’s ability to retreat into her imagination creates problems.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, briefly explain how this characteristic of Mim’s is related to the novel’s thematic interest in Escapism.

3. Mim’s letters to Isabel advance the plot and develop Mim’s character—but they also convey something about the importance of writing itself.

• What message about the power of writing does the novel convey through Mim’s letters to Isabel? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three examples of language, plot detail, or characterization that support your interpretation of this message.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this aspect of the book supports the book’s larger thematic concerns with The Search for Identity and Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story.

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. Mim often judges new acquaintances as “good” or “bad” while she is on her road trip. What are some examples of the ways her first impressions are borne out by people’s later behavior? To what extent is this realistic? In the cases of “Poncho Man” and Beck, what message is being conveyed about how to recognize predatory, dangerous people?

Write an essay in which you evaluate whether Mosquitoland conveys accurate and realistic messages about assessing strangers’ intentions. Comment on the relationship between the novel’s messages on this topic and the development of the theme of Coming of Age. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.

2. Read Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “Making a Fist.” In what sense is this poem about a road trip, and in what sense is it about human relationships? What comparisons can be made about the way the poem and the novel convey relationships, strength, and courage? At what point does Mim see her relationship with her mother similarly to the way the speaker of the poem sees her relationship with her own mother? How does Mim’s perspective change? Does the poem’s speaker mature into a new understanding of her relationship with her mother, or is her perspective static?

Write an essay comparing and contrasting the poem’s and the novel’s symbolic use of the road trip to convey messages about human relationships, strength, and courage. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout both texts, making sure to cite any quoted material.

3. Mim provides a distinct narrative voice to this novel. What are the hallmarks of this voice? How does Arnold employ diction, figurative language, imagery, and syntax to create Mim’s “sound”? How would you describe the tone of Mim’s narrative? What about its reliability? What does this voice add to the reader’s experience of the novel?

Write an essay analyzing Mim’s narrative voice and its contribution to the novel’s meaning and effect. Show how the characteristics of this voice support one or more of the novel’s thematic concerns: The Search for Identity, Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story, and Escapism. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.