My Sister, the Serial Killer

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. There is an apparent contradiction between Korede’s career in nursing and her role as an accessory to Ayoola’s crimes.

• How does Korede’s career in nursing make her activities related to Ayoola’s crimes paradoxical in one sense, but perfectly understandable in another? (topic sentence)
• Give at least two examples of how Korede’s role as an accessory to murder seems to conflict with her career in nursing.
• Give at least two examples of what, upon closer examination, makes Korede’s role as an accessory to murder a natural extension of her career in nursing.
• In your concluding sentence(s), explain how this apparent paradox relates to the novel’s thematic interest in Family Dynamics and Contemporary Nigerian Society.

2. My Sister, the Serial Killer is written as a series of vignettes.

• What does the vignette form contribute to the reader’s experience of the novel? (topic sentence)
• Give examples of at least three separate impacts that the use of the vignette form has on the reader’s experience.
• In your concluding sentence(s), connect your assertions about reader impacts to the genre expectations of thriller or crime novels.

3. Korede often speculates on the causes of her sister’s mental condition.

• From Korede’s perspective, what are the various potential sources of Ayoola’s self-centered, callous disregard for others? (topic sentence)
• Give examples of Korede’s thinking about three separate potential sources for her sister’s mental condition.
• In your concluding sentence(s), connect your discussion of Korede’s thinking to the novel’s thematic interest in Family Dynamics, Nature Versus Nurture, and The Perception of Beauty.

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. Consider Korede’s reliability as a narrator. What aspects of herself and her life does she fail to see clearly? How are these gaps in her perceptions conveyed? How does your assessment of her reliability impact your reception of her beliefs about the novel’s action and its characters? Write an essay in which you analyze Korede’s reliability as a narrator and demonstrate how this impacts a reader’s understanding of the novel’s meaning. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

2. In what sense does My Sister, the Serial Killer function as satire? How does it use irony and humor to critique society and human behavior? Is it also satirizing the crime novel genre? How do the elements of satire in this text impact the reader’s understanding of themes related to The Perception of Beauty, Nature Versus Nurture, Family Dynamics, and Contemporary Nigerian Society? Write an essay in which you analyze the novel’s satiric content and its relationship to the novel’s themes. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

3. What is the symbolic significance of Korede’s father’s knife? How is it related to the novel’s motifs of blood and patriarchy? How does the novel characterize Kehinde, and how is the knife related to this characterization? What does Ayoola’s attempt to take the knife signify, and what is its importance to her now? Why does Korede try to take the knife away from Ayoola, and what does this signify? Write an essay in which you analyze the symbolic meaning of Kehinde’s knife and its relationship to both blood and patriarchy. Connect your analysis to the novel’s thematic concerns with Nature Versus Nurture, Family Dynamics, and Contemporary Nigerian Society. Support your analysis with both quoted and paraphrased evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.