Crooked House

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. Three Gables, the setting for most of the novel’s action, is described as a “crooked” house.

• What does the setting of Three Gables symbolize about the Leonides family? (topic sentence)
• Explain the meaning of the nursery rhyme that the book’s title alludes to.
• Give at least three examples from different places in the text that support your interpretation of the setting’s symbolism.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the setting’s symbolism supports one or more of the novel’s thematic concerns: Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed, Toxic Familial Relationships, and The Importance of Reputation.

2. Josephine frequently makes comments about how a good detective story should develop.

• How do the metafictional comments Josephine makes contribute to the novel’s wit? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three examples that illustrate different ways her commentary contributes to the novel’s wit.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on the appropriateness of the novel’s wit to its subject matter.

3. Taverner considers Charles a useful investigator because he can get close to the family and yet remain a neutral outsider.

• To what degree is Charles really a neutral party in this investigation? (topic sentence)
• Give three examples of characterization that support your claim about Charles’s degree of neutrality.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, discuss how Charles’s thinking is influenced by both his emotions and his thinking about The Importance of Reputation.

Full Essay Assignments

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

1. What is Crooked House’s stance on evil? What is “evil”? Is it innate or learned? Are all people capable of evil or is evil something unusual? How do the various characters and their actions support the novel’s position? In what way is this question related to the novel’s thematic concern with Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed and Toxic Familial Relationships? Write an essay in which you analyze what Christie’s novel is saying about evil. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.

2. One aspect of Christie’s work that is often commented on by critics is her critique of the upper- and upper-middle-class English society of her time. How does the relationship between Brenda and the Leonides family contribute to this critique? Does the portrayal of servants in Crooked House contribute to or undermine this critique? How does the novel’s thematic concern with The Importance of Reputation relate to Christie’s commentary on class? Are the Toxic Familial Relationships in this novel exacerbated by the family’s social status? How is the “crookedness” in the family related to the English class system? Write an essay in which you analyze the novel’s commentary on class. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.

3. Early in the novel, Edith rips out a bindweed plant and grinds it into the ground with her shoe. What does her commentary reveal about the plant, and how is this symbolically related to Sophia’s later observations about the Leonides family? How do the characters and their actions support Sophia’s observations and the symbolic meaning of the bindweed? How do Edith’s actions in this early scene foreshadow the novel’s ending? Write an essay in which you analyze the symbolic value of the bindweed. Show how this symbolism supports the novel’s thematic concern with Toxic Familial Relationships. Support your assertions with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the novel, making sure to cite any quoted material.