Discussion Questions: Unfortunately only a handful of students participated in today’s socratic seminar. I really need for the class discussions to have more students share their thoughts, minds, opinions, etc. In order for a discussion to be meaningful, it is vital that everyone participates!
Choose one (1) of the following prompts/questions, and write a strong, academic response. Make sure you provide proper evidence from the novel to support your claims. Responses need to be complete, so the minimum length of your response is 500 words. I will use the weekly writing rubric to assess your responses. For more information on the rubric, visit the homepage of this site and click on Weekly Writing Rubric.
1. Think about the female characters. What do you know about them? Then compare Safie with all of the other female characters. How does Mary Shelley portray most of her female characters? And how does that compare with how she portrays Safie? Use textual evidence from the novel to support your answer.
2. Is wisdom/knowledge/fame always a good thing? Can it go too far? Use textual evidence from the novel to support your answer.
3. Most students come to this book with a fair amount of background knowledge, but misconceptions exist relating the identity of “Frankenstein”? Who is the real monster in this story? Is he the doctor? Is he the monster? Does the monster have bolts in his neck? Is the monster inherently ugly or ugly by nature of his creation? Use textual evidence from the novel to support your answer.
4. What did Victor’s creation truly want? And how does this affect his actions/emotions? Big Questions: In what ways is this similar to the experiences of you (i.e. high school students)? Use textual evidence from the novel to support your answer.
5. How do the philosophies of Jacques Rousseau and John Locke play a role in Mary Shelley’s story?
An Exploration of Science Fiction & Fantasy 