48 pages 1 hour read

Paula Vogel

How I Learned to Drive

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1997

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Essay Topics

1.

Discuss the use of humor in How I Learned to Drive. Where is the play humorous, and what is the effect of humor on so serious a subject? 

2.

Why are Li’l Bit’s flashbacks presented in unchronological order, and what is the effect? Why does Vogel wait until the end of the play to show Peck molesting Li’l Bit for the first time?  

3.

Playwright Paula Vogel said in an interview with Playbill that the Peck and Li’l Bit’s relationship is too complicated to be defined simply as pedophilia. Explore the complexities of Li’l Bit and Peck’s relationship. What do they gain from each other?