Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Throughout Peg’s time in recovery, she often feels isolated and alone. How might interaction with others be vital to Peg’s strength and motivation to recover? Cite examples from the text in your answer.

Select at least two individuals whose care was instrumental in allowing Peg to recover, and compare and contrast their approaches. In what ways do staff behaviors have a direct or significant impact on their patients’ mental health, emotional state, and recovery trajectory? Cite the text to explain your answers.

Analyze Kehret’s writing style throughout Small Steps. What types of figurative language (e.g., simile, metaphor, personification, etc.) does she employ to make the experience of battling polio more vivid to her readers? Cite specific examples from the text to support your analysis.

Music plays a large role throughout the memoir. Peg’s more significant polio symptoms begin in chorus class; Peg and her roommates at the Sheltering Arms sing every night after lights out; Peg’s occupational therapy involves learning to play the accordion; and the novel ends with Peg returning to school and attending chorus class. Consider the significance of music in terms of theme, tone, and plot using evidence from the text to support your claims.

Identify three physical items (other than Peg’s teddy bear) that take on much greater significance, and explain how their abstract meanings reflect the different stages of Peg’s recovery. 

When Peg begins to pity herself, she often compares her situation to that of her roommates at the Sheltering Arms, which immediately allows her to regain a humbler perspective and reignites her motivation to recover. Because her roommates don’t have the same support system that Peg has, what might be motivating them to recover? In what ways has their lack of support system influenced their health? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

At the end of the memoir, Peg describes the lives of her peers following her year of polio and admits to not knowing Tommy’s fate. Why do you think Peg never made efforts to inquire about Tommy’s condition following her release from University Hospital and the Sheltering Arms?

Consider the title of the memoir. What is its significance in terms of Peg’s experiences throughout her year of polio? What lessons might the title, in combination with the memoir’s material, impart about recovery?