Essay Questions

Why does Alike change her clothes on her bus ride from the club?

Alike changes her clothes as she is on her way home where she lives with her parents and sister. She was dressed more masculinely at the club, but chooses to put on clothes that will appease her mother. It represents her inability to express herself fully as she is afraid of the consequences of coming out to her family, and especially to her mother, as a lesbian.

What is significant about Alike choosing to go to Berkley?

Alike has just been struck by her mother multiple times after coming out as a lesbian to her. She chooses to leave high school early in order to enroll in a writing program in Berkley, California, before beginning college early. It is significant that she "chooses" this path because in most circumstances like hers it would be seen as her path was chosen for her as her mother drove her away. By choosing, she is asserting the fact that no one decides who she is or what makes her whole, not even her mother. Instead, she is creating her life the way she desires to do so, on her own terms.

What is important about Alike's teacher telling her that her work needs to go deeper?

Alike has a natural talent for writing, and she shows her poetry to her teacher, who likes it but knows there is more inside of Alike. The reason it is important that she tells Alike she must go deeper is that for poetry to have its most potent effect it must expose the reader to the depths of the person who wrote it, and Alike has yet to reveal herself in her work. This is her issue in her life as well, as she has yet to be able to fully express the depths of who she is.