Hole In My Life

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. Freedom is a constant theme in the novel: freedom from control, freedom from fears, and freedom from drugs. Compare Gantos’s early years of freedom with his imprisonment.

• How does the experience of imprisonment compare to his earlier thirst for adventure and danger? (topic sentence)
• Using examples from the text, describe Gantos’s attempts to achieve freedom in his early years and compare it to his feelings during his incarceration.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how Gantos might describe freedom now and reference events or details in the text that support your point.

2. One predominant color that Gantos uses in his narrative is yellow.

• What meaning is associated with yellow in the novel? (topic sentence)
• Explain why Gantos uses yellow to describe his own appearance, and what the color comes to represent in that context.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize the probable intended effect on the reader through this color choice, and include whether Gantos uses yellow to represent something positive or negative.

Full Essay Assignments

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

1. At the end of the novel, Gantos recalls a Halloween that was canceled due to escaped prisoners. Why does Gantos find the memory comforting? Why does he choose to prioritize that story above the violent stories he is more accustomed to witnessing in prison?  

2. Before his sentencing, Gantos tries to visit Lucas, one of the clients who once bought hash from him, but learns from his wife that Lucas has been arrested as well. She accuses Gantos of not thinking about how selling drugs affects the people he sells to, which stuns him. Is Lucas’s wife correct in her assertion? How does Gantos approach the topic of guilt? In what ways does his feeling of guilt change in the memoir?

3. Throughout the memoir, Gantos often brushes off negativity or a bad decision and adopts a rosy outlook for his future. At what key points in the narrative does Gantos use this optimism to avoid taking responsibility for his actions? How does this optimism compare with Gantos’s optimism after his prison sentence?