57 pages • 1 hour read
James McBrideMiracle at St. Anna
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
In the first chapter, a soldier named Huggs dies before making any other appearance in the novel. Different characters, however, reflect frequently on his death. What does this inclusion offer about how the characters suffer the trauma of war?
What function does Arturo play in the text? What does it signify when Angelo can summon him with greater ease or increased difficulty?
Does the text suggest that things happen due to fate or coincidence? Choose an unlikely event in the novel and analyze it to offer a basis for your argument.
Identify two groups who are relegated to “other” status in the novel (whether due to race, nationality, or political ideology) and analyze how they interact with each other. What does this interaction suggest about how these groups are indoctrinated into or are able to resist hegemonic ideas?
Peppi is described as smarter than everyone around him, while Train is regularly characterized as being less intelligent than others. What does the novel suggest is the importance of these characteristics when it comes to functioning ethically? To surviving? To finding happiness?
Compare the moments before Bishop’s death with the rest of his characterization. Is this moment presented as a tragic one or as potentially hopeful?
What does the novel suggest is the benefit of finding joy amid brutality? Compare the party at Bornacchi with Peppi’s reaction to the party thrown with German money when considering your answer.
Analyze two or three discussions of what it means for Black soldiers to fight to defend a racist nation. How does the novel balance descriptions of social progress with the question of whether this makes Black soldiers complicit in reifying racist structures?
What role does Hector’s ethnicity play in the novel? How does his identity overlap and contrast with the Black characters in the text?
Compare and contrast how one of the white characters views what counts as a “fair” white officer with how one of the Black characters frames what counts as a “fair” white officer.
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By James McBride
