The Rock and The River

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 that serve as supporting examples.

1. A dynamic character is one whose opinions or emotions change over the course of the story.

• Which secondary character—Father, Maxie, or Stick—experiences the most notable change as a result of Bucky’s arrest and his acquittal? (topic sentence)
• In what traits or reactions do you observe change in this secondary character? Use relevant details from the novel.
• In your concluding sentences, compare this character’s change with the change that Sam undergoes after his brother’s funeral. Which trajectory of change is in a more positive direction, and why?

2. Sam is protected by both his father and his older brother from the difficult realities of racial tensions in his neighborhood.

• How does the novel reveal Sam’s naivete, and how is it Sam’s biggest liability? (topic sentence)
• Which actions begin to challenge Sam’s naivete and begin his education into the complexities of the world? Begin with the encounter in the hospital gift shop. Be sure to include the episode in which Sam watches Bucky’s beating and later witnesses his brother’s shooting. Use these scenes and others to shape your essay.
• In your concluding sentences, indicate the value or the tragedy of losing naivete. Is Sam better or worse off at the end of the story, now that he understands the complexity of race relations?

3. At the core of Sam’s education is the dynamic between talk and action, between the philosophy of his father, counseling patience, and the philosophy of his brother, encouraging confrontation.

• Which approach to social activism, patience or confrontation, appeals to Sam after his brother’s death? (topic sentence)
• How does his father’s position appeal to the intellect while his brother’s approach appeals to the emotions? Explain why neither philosophy satisfies Sam.
• In your concluding sentences, use the rock and the river parable to summarize Sam’s philosophy of meaningful change at the end of the novel.

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. The title The Rock and the River suggests that Sam is given a choice of two philosophies. Use the arguments that Father and Stick have about the Black Panther movement to explain the value and the limits of each vision. Then, using Sam’s epiphany in the car after his brother’s funeral, explain why Sam refuses to go along with the plan to kill the white officer responsible for his brother’s death.

2. The life of the Black community portrayed here is centered on the hope and resilient optimism of the Christian religion. Sam’s family attends church regularly, and his father’s nonviolent philosophy draws on Christ’s message of forbearance in the face of adversity. Stick’s philosophy, emphasizing confrontation and even violence, flies in the face of the Christian gospel. Assess the role of Christianity as it applies to the Black community in the novel. Is Christian faith the community’s best hope or its worst distraction?

The novel uses the metaphor of architecture to suggest that Sam and Stick’s generation of young Black men should face the reality of white racism. How does the Black community—or any community confronting systemic injustice—best go about building a lasting and solid foundation? How does the architecture metaphor relate to Sam’s ultimate decision to find a way to adjust to changing environments and withstand the challenge of a fluid world?