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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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The protagonist of a story is the character whose objectives and choices drive the action forward. The antagonist is the character who tries to stand in the way of the protagonist’s wants and objectives. However, the protagonist is not always morally right or “the good guy,” and the antagonist is not necessarily a villain.

• If Titus, as the narrator of the story, is the protagonist, whom would you identify as the antagonist? (topic sentence)
• Making inferences based on Titus’s first-person limited perspective, discuss what Titus, as the protagonist, wants throughout the story. Who or what is working against Titus in getting what he wants? How does this antagonistic interaction change Titus? Use evidence from the text to support your claims.