BON Essay Topics

The Book of Negroes English 12 Mrs. Swimm
Due: Wednesday December 14
Please chose ONE of the following, and write a literary essay. The essay must be about 1500 – 2000 words. Your essay must be formatted in MLA Format. You DO NOT need a cover page. You must cite the novel only. Your essay will be due: Wednesday December 14h.
1. Maintaining one’s identity is the ultimate act of resistance. Prove this statement to be true in your essay and use quotations from the novel to support your ideas.
2. Collect evidence from the novel that traces Aminata’s development from a child into an adult. Analyze how each event affects her character and shapes her identity.
3. Aminata observed that “I had learned that there were times when fighting was impossible, when the best thing to do was to wait and to learn”. Explore whether this statement is true.
4. “Personally, I concluded that no place in the world was entirely safe for an African, and that for many of us, survival depended on perpetual migration”. Discuss how the concept of perpetual migration was essential to the survival of Aminata and others in the novel.
5. “The men, who felt an obligation to change their situation, could go mad in the face of their own powerlessness. But the women’s obligation was to help people. And there were always little ways to help, even if the situation could not be altered”. Was Aminata better able to survive her ordeals because she was female?
6. Was it to Aminata’s psychological advantage to face the ordeal of kidnapping and enslavement while she was still a child?
7. Throughout the novel, Aminata demonstrates varying degrees of patience. Develop a thesis statement and essay to discuss how patience was pivotal in her life.
8. “We need you, Meena. The abolitionist movement needs you. We need your story and we need your voice”. What unique knowledge and experiences does Aminata have to help advance the movement? Evaluate the ways in which Aminata’s story provides the necessary evidence to support the abolitionist movement of the time.
9. “I don’t govern my life according to danger”. Prove this statement to be true by identifying and discussing the elements that governed Aminata’s life.
10. In the opening lines of the novel, Aminata reflects that “There must be a reason why I have lived in all these lands, survived all those water crossings, while others fell from bullets or shut their eyes and simply willed their lives to end” (1). Explore the extent to which being resilient, having a sense of justice and being at the right place at the right time contributed to Aminata’s survival.
11. In the chapter titled “We glide over the unburied,” Aminata believes that “a series of coincidences saved [her] life during the ocean crossing”. Was it just coincidence that permitted Aminata to survive, or were there other factors?