Return to Sender

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.

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Both Tyler’s and Mari’s actions and words show that they have matured over the course of the year.

• Of the two, who experienced greater personal change and why? (topic sentence)
• What are three events that contribute strongly to that character’s coming-of-age experience? Cite scenes at the novel’s beginning, middle, and end and explain how they demonstrate the character’s maturation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, quote a line of dialogue or interior monologue from the character that demonstrates coming-of-age; summarize how the line reveals change.

2. In Return to Sender the sections limited to Tyler’s viewpoint are each headed with a potential name for the farm, like “Watched-Over Farm” and “Farm of Many Plots.”

• What kind of information can the reader glean from reading these potential farm names? (topic sentence)
• Choose three chapters in which the farm name befits the events of the chapter particularly well. Discuss the events briefly and offer two to three points of support to explain the strong connection.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, determine which chapter of the three you chose has the strongest connection to the novel as a whole, and explain your rationale for the choice.

3. One of Mari’s strongest traits is her hopefulness.

• Who is another character who demonstrates this quality, and how is it revealed in the novel?
• Find and discuss two to three scenes in which this character’s hopefulness impacts surrounding characters.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, determine which theme (Recognizing a Higher Justice, Giving and Receiving within and between Families, or Inclusion and Acceptance) most directly connects to your chosen character’s hopefulness; explain your reasoning.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least 3 main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Readers find figurative language and imagery throughout the novel, but those literary devices are employed particularly effectively in discussions of the farm and in Tyler’s and Mari’s memories. Return to passages of farm description or memories and locate examples of metaphor, sensory imagery, and other figurative language. Explain how your examples contribute to the atmosphere of the scene in which they appear and to characterization.

2. Authors employ foreshadowing to provide readers with plot hints or parallels to upcoming events, resulting in a cohesive plot with logical connections. In Return to Sender, for example, Ofie’s and Luby’s overreliance on American customs and use of English (and Papá’s insistence that they speak Spanish more consistently at home) foreshadows their challenging move to Mexico at the novel’s end. What other events in the book foreshadow later plot points? Choose three paired events to discuss, using book evidence to detail how foreshadowing creates a larger sense of connection in the plot.

3. The plot of Return to Sender occurs over the course of a year, from summer 2005 to summer 2006. How are seasonal events important to the narrative? What plot points rely on the changing of the seasons? How does Tyler’s and eventually Mari’s love of the farm highlight these seasonal changes and the flow of the year? Support your ideas with evidence from the novel.