The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. In Chapter 4, Green says that “[A]esthetic beauty is as much about how and whether you look as what you see. From the quark to the supernova, the wonders do not cease. It is our attentiveness that is in short supply, our ability and willingness to do the work that awe requires” (33).

• What does Green mean by this quote? (topic sentence)
• Give evidence from three different essays in this collection that supports your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this quote relates to the collection’s thematic concern with The Power of Hope and Love.

2. In this collection, Green mentions his home city, Indianapolis, several times.

• How does Green’s attitude toward Indianapolis reflect his ideas about what is best and what is worst in human nature? (topic sentence)
• Give evidence from three different essays in this collection that supports your argument.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how Green’s attitude toward Indianapolis relates to one or more of the collection’s thematic concerns: The Power of Hope and Love, The Pros and Cons of Guilty Pleasures, Building the World Together, and The Dangerous Uncertainties of Life.

3. In his frequent mentions of great innovators, Green generally emphasizes the context of their innovations.

• What point is Green making by highlighting the contributions of others to the work of great innovators? (topic sentence)
• Give three examples from different sections of the text that support your interpretation.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this aspect of the text supports the collection’s larger thematic concern with Building the World Together.

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. What relationship does Green posit between love and hope? Does one lead to the other, or are they mutually reinforcing? Do they depend on one another in some way? Write an essay in which you analyze the relationship between hope and love revealed by the essays in The Anthropocene Reviewed. Show how this relationship illuminates the collection’s thematic concern with The Power of Hope and Love. Support your assertions with evidence from throughout the text, citing any quoted material.

2. What structure characterizes the essays in this collection? How would you describe Green’s style? How do tone shifts and language choices contribute to this style? What kinds of topics does Green choose, and how does he manage to convey larger ideas through these topics? Does he use analogy, symbolism, allegory, or some other technique?

Demonstrate your understanding of Green’s style and structure by writing your own Anthropocene-Reviewed-style essay. Choose a topic that would be at home in this collection. Write an essay on this topic that mimics Green’s characteristic structure, style, and tone. Using techniques similar to Green’s, connect your topic to one or more of Green’s themes: The Power of Hope and Love, The Pros and Cons of Guilty Pleasures, Building the World Together, and The Dangerous Uncertainties of Life.

3. The Anthropocene Reviewed mimics the reviews people might write about movies, books, and other cultural artifacts. What is Green’s purpose in choosing this structure for the book? What patterns do you notice in the number of stars different phenomena are assigned? Do they group ideas in any way? Are the specific star assignments meant earnestly or ironically? Does the mimicry of reviews as a whole function earnestly or ironically? Is there any element of either parody or satire in this collection? Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical purposes of mimicking “star” reviews in this collection. Support your analysis with evidence drawn from throughout the collection.