March: Book Two

Pick a prevalent theme and write an essay about how the medium of the graphic novel serves to support the depiction of that theme. What benefits does this medium provide when it comes to depicting this theme that words alone could not?

Analyze the parallels between March’s two timelines: How do they inform and illuminate one another? How does the past inform the present more generally in the memoir?

What tensions and cooperations exist among the various civil rights organizing groups in the novel, such as the CORE, the SCLC, and the SNCC? What does the memoir suggest about the nature and challenges of leadership?

Compare Lewis’s character from the beginning of March: Book One, where he was depicted as a somewhat somber and religious child of sharecroppers, to the “Bix Six” March on Washington member and the SNCC chairperson that he is at the end of March: Book Two. How has he changed over the course of the two memoirs? What major factors contribute to his growth?

Pick a historical figure that is only briefly mentioned in March: Book Two and research more about their story, such as Stokley Carmichael, Malcolm X, or Ella Baker. Who are they? What was their role in events that Lewis describes, like the sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and/or the March on Washington? How were their experiences of activism different or similar to Lewis’s?

The CORE organizes the Freedom Rides to test the enforcement of Boynton v. Virginia. How do the Freedom Rides illustrate issues of legal and systemic injustice during the civil rights era?

What role does media play in different environments and settings through the graphic memoir? How do different characters respond to the potential of media?

Analyze the March that forms the climax of the memoir and gives the memoir its title. What is the significance of the March, both for Lewis and the wider movement? How does it embody the main themes and ideas of the trilogy as a whole?