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. Thomas grapples with losing his memories and regaining some of them.

• How do his memories affect his identity? (topic sentence)
• Incorporate at least three quotations from the novel with reasoning about how they prove your points.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain to what extent memory builds or is not important to who Thomas is, ensuring you explicitly demonstrate the connection between this and the novel's themes of Memory and Identity and Growing Up.

2. To finally escape the Maze, Thomas develops a plan, and many follow him.

• How would you evaluate Thomas's plan? (topic sentence)
• Include at least three specific details from the novel that support your evaluation and explain what each proves.
• In your conclusion, show the connection between this plan and the novel's themes of Sacrifice, Growing Up, and/or Hope.