37 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KelmanPigeon English
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
How does Kelman use language and dialect to convey the novel’s themes of assimilation and experience?
How is religion portrayed in the text? How do the interjections made by Harri’s Pigeon connect to the idea of religion and divinity?
Discuss the seemingly inherent disparity in the narrative from having a child narrating a story that touches on “adult” issues.
Does Kelman’s drawing from a real-life event with the case of Damilola Taylor alter the way you approach the text? How could this text be a vehicle for social change and awareness?
How does Kelman present and depict morality? Discuss how notions of “good” and “evil” are complicated or at times unclear for the narrator in the text.
Kelman explores various types of relationships in the text: friendly, familial, or romantic. Discuss three different relationships and consider how they are portrayed throughout the text. What similarities do you see or how are some relationships patterned throughout this text?
Harri often thinks about the sensations related to pain and suffering. How does he describe these feelings and experiences throughout the text? How does his awareness and understanding of pain and suffering shift over the course of the narration?
Burns and the act of burning persist throughout the entire text. Select two or three scenes that treat the nature of burns. What do they signify? How is identity linked to these actions of burning and how do they bare on the different relationships in the text?
Harri’s nonlinear narrative takes readers back and forth between Ghana and England. What do these flashbacks to Ghana reveal to the reader? How does memory play an integral role in the way Harri structures his narrative?
Harri is often preoccupied with feelings of guilt. How, as a young boy in an environment that largely lacks notions of God and faith, does he implement his sense of conscience? How does he deal with his own guilt and think about and react to what he identifies as the guilt and sin of others?
