Genesis Begins Again

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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Genesis Begins Again is full of recurring symbols including hair, music, the list, and the brown paper bag.

• Choose one symbol as the focus of your essay and state your argument for why it reflects Genesis’s struggle with her identity. (topic sentence)
• Analyze no fewer than 3 moments that your selected symbol appears in the text (ideally, moments at the beginning, middle, and end of the novel). How does Genesis evolve alongside the symbol throughout the novel?
• In your conclusion, explain how the symbol relates to the Harmful Effects of Internalized Colorism as well as Genesis’s experience of Bullying and Self-Acceptance.

2.The talent show is a major event—arguably, the climax—in the narrative arc of Genesis Begins Again.  

• What effect(s) do/does the talent show have on Genesis and her character development? (topic sentence)
• Why is the talent show important to her? What does it represent?
• In your conclusion, describe how the talent show is a crucial moment in Genesis’s journey toward Self-Acceptance and in overcoming Bullying.

3. Genesis Begins Again is told from Genesis’s first-person perspective.

• Why do you think Williams chose to write the novel using Genesis’s first-person perspective? (topic sentence)
• How does this perspective affect how you experience the novel? How does it affect how you view Genesis?
• In your conclusion be sure to connect how the first-person perspective enhances or otherwise affects the core themes of the novel, particularly The Relationship Between Bullying and Self-Acceptance and The Harmful Effects of Internalized Colorism.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Genesis’s father plays a major role in how Genesis views herself. Describe the positive and negative impact her father has on her life. Would you argue that her father has changed at the end of the novel? Why or why not? In your response, analyze how Poverty and Addiction shape the character of Genesis’s father, citing at least 2 examples from the text where poverty/addiction shaped the course of his life. Be sure to mention of how Genesis’s father’s relationship with Genesis adds to her traumatic experience of Internalized Colorism.

2. A foil in literature is a character who contrasts with another character, typically the protagonist, in order to accentuate certain traits of the protagonist. In what ways does Troy act as a foil to Genesis? To unpack this question, examine the way Troy and Genesis feel about their Blackness—how do they both, in their own ways, deal with Colorism (or not)? In your response, determine if Troy still serves as a foil to Genesis by the end of the novel.

3. In what ways does Farmington Hills differ from Detroit? How does Genesis’s being from Detroit affect how her classmates treat her? In your response, consider how The Effects of Poverty and Addiction have changed the course of Genesis’s life and her day-to-day existence. How does this affect the way she bonds (or not) with her new classmates at Farmington Oaks Middle?