1)Skimis a bildungsroman –a novel focused around the education and development of a single character. As readers, what would we say is significant in Kimberly Keiko Cameron’s development? What does she learn over the course of the graphic novel? Using Skimand a scholarly article, compose an original argument specifying how reading Skim as a bildungsroman is important for our understanding of her character.
2)David Chariandy’s Brotherfeatures a number of characters that struggle to understand, and come to terms with, traumatic events in their lives. Using textual and scholarly evidence, compose an original argument about the connections between trauma, memory, and community. Some questions you may consider: how can a community be the simultaneous site of pain and pleasure? In what ways do our memories live on through others? Finally, can our relationship to others be a form of learning?
3)Both lead characters inBrotherand Skimrely on, and experience, the nature around them. Kimberly Keiko Cameron isolates herself in the snow-covered Toronto night, while Michael and Francis escape to the green wilderness of the Rouge Valley. What do these natural environments symbolize in these texts and why are they significant to our understanding of the plots or the characters?