The Only Road

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

1. One aspect of Jaime’s characterization is that he takes a lot of personal responsibility for the events of the novel, starting with Miguel’s death.

• To what extent is Jaime actually responsible for the things he thinks are his fault? (topic sentence)
• Give examples from three different places in the novel that support your interpretation of whether Jaime is or is not actually responsible.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this tendency of Jaime’s relates to the novel’s thematic concerns with The Drug Trade’s Impact on Central American Families and Children and The Experience of Migration.

2. Jaime and Ángela encounter several different immigration officers as they journey north.

• How do the different officers’ approaches to their job demonstrate the different reasons people might have for becoming immigration officers? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three examples of different officers’ behavior and explain what each example might demonstrate about why the officer got involved in immigration enforcement.