I Hunt Killers

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 play over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Jasper “Jazz” Dent has an unlikely friendship with Howie Gersten. Analyze their friendship in terms of the major themes of the book

• What makes Jazz’s and Howie’s friendship so unusual? (topic sentence)
• Discuss the similarities of Jazz and Howie through the thematic lenses of identity and genetic legacy.
• Conclude your essay by explaining how Jazz and Howie both defy the odds in bucking the fate of their DNA.

2. Author Barry Lyga uses third-person limited perspective strategically throughout I Hunt Killers, switching from Jazz’s perspective to that of the Impressionist throughout the book.

• How does this perspective switching help build suspense throughout the book? (topic sentence)
• Provide details from the text that show how this technique serves to keep information from the reader or provide it at key moments.
• Conclude your essay by discussing how the suspense would be broken if the text were written in a single consistent perspective.

3. Doug Weathers is the local reporter in Lobo’s Nod, willing to capitalize on the gruesome deaths to build a name for himself.

• How does the motif of fame play into the narrative? (topic sentence)
• Provide examples from the text that are influenced by the fame of one of the characters.
• Conclude your essay with a discussion of how fame exposes the morbid side of human nature.

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. The 1953 play The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a motif referenced throughout the book. How does this motif help support the major themes of I Hunt Killers, particularly themes of identity? Consider that Jazz plays the role of Reverend Hale in his school’s performance of The Crucible. In the play, Reverend Hale is considered a reasonable and pious man, who is brought to Salem to hunt the witches who have supposedly pervaded the town. The concluding lines of I Hunt Killers are actually from The Crucible, with Jazz shouting Reverend Hale’s lines: “There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!” (361). What is the significance of concluding the novel with this line?

2. Jazz refers to Gramma Dent as “hateful, spiteful, and crazier than a wind sock in a tornado, but family” (89). How is this quote emblematic of all family ties in the novel? Consider how toxic family ties keep the Dent family (and potentially other families) bound together. Consider how Jazz describes his Gramma Dent’s home in a way that mirrors the insidious way family legacy, for better or for worse, is transferred through the generations.