74 pages • 2 hours read
Wesley KingOCDaniel
Fiction | Novel | Middle GradeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
To what extent is writing a form of therapy or a form of escapism in OCDaniel?
How far does understanding a condition help alleviate it? Discuss in the context of Chapters 20 and 21.
Is the aspiration to be typical always a bad thing? Support your answer with examples from the text.
“Football provides a substitute for genuine communication between fathers and sons, rather than a context for it.” Discuss in connection with the role of sports in OCDaniel.
Why does King emphasize the role of fathers more than that of mothers in OCDaniel?
Analyze Sara’s role in the narrative. How do other people treat her, and how does she treat other people? What role does she play in Daniel’s character transformation?
While causing some psychological suffering, the pressure “to be seen” has an important role in the emotional development of teenagers. Discuss in the context of the dance in OCDaniel.
To what extent is it desirable, or possible, to “cure” conditions like OCD?
Is Daniel right to “bring the normal world back” at the end of his novel? How far can a more radical rejection of ordinary life be justified for those whose differences alienate them from it?
Discuss self-deception versus self-expression in the context of notes, books, and writing in OCDaniel.
