Possible approaches to Assignment #2

Autobiographical themes

1. Birth order and sibling relationships

2.The experience of having a sibling or other family member who's in trouble

3. Confessing a crime; reflecting on a moral lapse

Creative approaches

1. performing a section of the book, e.g. the telephone theme or the con job (139-146)

2. writing a gangsta rap from your own point of view or one you can identify with

3. a map of the U.S. and Pittsburgh charting the places and movements of the book

4. a ballad of Robby and John

Expository topics

1. Structural analysis of a section or part

2. An argument for or against commuting Robby's sentence

3. The symbolic meaning of weather

4. Roles of women

5. Children as sources of hope and despair--in the book and in the circumstances of the lives of John and Robby

6. The theme of time: is it imprisonment or release?

7. John's guilt: warranted or neurotic?

8. A comparison and contrast of powerful language in high and low registers.

9. My brother's keeper: Cain and Abel and John and Robbie