556: Essay #1

Study questions to prepare for in-class writing:

You will write on one of the following questions (I'll give you three to choose from) when you come to class on Tuesday. Answer with reference to the stories of two characters in the book. You will be allowed to bring your book and an 8X11" piece of paper with nine different quotations (and page numbers) only. Please adhere to the spirit of an in-class writing exercise, in which cheating consists of seeking an advantage over your classmates, by, for example, writing out the answer to a question before hand, sneakily bringing it to class, and then copying it over during the class period. If I'm not mistaken our moral universe doesn't prevent people from being ice.


  1. Juxtaposition: Throughout the book, Boo juxtaposes the poverty of Mumbia's slums against the prosperity of modern India. What's is she trying to make us feel or think? (The two characters device doesn't apply to this question)

  2. Virtue and justice: “How … do children intent on being ice become water?” (254). “Contraction of our moral universe” (253). Comment on the moral lives of Annawadians.

  3. Individualism vs solidarity: “Poor people didn’t unite” (237). "Why don’t more of our unequal societies implode?" (248).

  4. Infrastructure of opportunity: "Whose capabilities are given wing by the market and a government’s economic and social policy? Whose capabilities are squandered? By what means might that ribby child grow up to be less poor?" (247-8).

  5. Misplaced blame: “The poor blame one another for the choices of governments and markets” (254). Show where Boo sees that.