51 pages • 1 hour read
Where'd You Go, Bernadette
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Essay Topics
Analyze one or both of the houses Bernadette creates in Los Angeles. What do Beeber Bifocal and/or the Twenty Mile House reveal about Bernadette as a character: her personality traits, values, and ideals?
Compare and contrast Elgin Branch’s project, Samantha 2, with Manjula, Bernadette’s “virtual assistant.” What roles do they play in their users’ lives? What role do their makers’ motives play in shaping their functions?
Religion plays a complicated role in the characters’ lives. Choose one character who undergoes a significant religious experience and explore what it means to that character, and how it affects that character’s behavior toward others.
Antarctica represents different things to different characters, though there are also unifying themes. Choose one or more characters and analyze what Antarctica represents to them.
The epistolary technique employed in Where’d You Go, Bernadette allows the reader to see the same events from multiple points of view. Choose and analyze an example of an event or series of events retold from different perspectives.
Bernadette has a lot to say on the topic of Seattle and its shortcomings. What do Bernadette’s complaints reveal about her own values, fears, and priorities?
Examine the role of work (profession, career, or vocation) in one or more characters’ lives.
Bee narrates portions of the novel directly. How reliable is Bee as a narrator?
What does Straight Gate, the Branches’ home in Seattle, represent to different members of the family? How do their perceptions of it differ?
What is the effect of making real institutions, such as Microsoft or TED Talks, a part of the narrative?
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