Ideas and Prompts for Week Six: "Beccah"

Hi, everyone. Sorry this week's prompts are later than usual. Those of you who have posted to your blogs about "Beccah" have already identified the most intriguing questions about this set of characters:

1. What is going on with Akiko, Beccah's mother? How do we explain her behavior? Is she psychic, "crazy," traumatized? Some combination of the three?

2. How does Akiko's behavior affect Beccah? In other words, how would you characterize this mother-daughter relationship?

3. How might this story be different if told from another point of view?

4. Why do you think Nora Okja Keller leaves Akiko's history--in particular about Beccah's father--a mystery? In other words, why might the author have decided to make it difficult for you, the reader, to understand and interpret Akiko's behavior?

See you tomorrow! :)
Dr. K.