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. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Consider the role the Dodgers play in Bad Boy.

• Why is Myers so invested in the Dodgers’ success as a young boy and teen? (topic sentence)
• Choose two passages where Myers discusses the Dodgers and analyze them with reference to your topic sentence.
• Finally, use your concluding sentence or sentences to explain how Myers’s interest in the Dodgers relates to either the nature of personal identity, the desire for community, or being Black in mid-20th century America.

2. Consider how Myers describes Florence and his relationship with her.

• How does Myers’s relationship with his mother change over the course of Bad Boy? (topic sentence)
• Choose three passages that illustrate different phases in Myers and Florence’s relationship and explain how they do so.
• Finally, use your concluding sentence or sentences to explain what Myers’s relationship to Florence says about the relationship between parents and children.

3. Consider Myers’s voice as a narrator.