Creative Writing Reading Response ESSAY

Creative Writing Reading Response

Your third reading response will focus on the first half of Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Freedom, which
centers around the Burglund family and their immediate circle. Patty and Walter begin their marriage
as gentrifiers in old St. Paul, Minnesota. They are members of the Whole Foods generation,
minimizing their use of fossil fuels and gradually reversing urban blight in a once-grand Victorian
neighborhood. Imagine their angst when their teenage son decides to live with the aggressively
Republican family next door and immerses himself in neocon ventures as soon as he arrives at
college. Their other child, Jessica, surpasses her parents in rational thinking; Walter eventually
dodges Jessica’s phone calls because her advice will be too tough to take. One constant fixture is
Walter’s college rival and best friend, Richard Katz. Now an aging rocker, Richard still stokes a long-
standing hunger in Patty. When Walter fights to preserve a habitat for an endangered bird—even if
it means making a spurious bargain with Big Coal—this history threatens to topple the deal, along
with everything he believes about truth and illusion.
Unlike many of the short stories we’ve read this semester, this novel does not so obviously use
repeated symbols and images to convey deeper meaning, but instead leans on rhetorical elements
such as satire, motifs, irony, and structure to invite literary analysis of the novel’s depth. The
novel certainly deals with some familiar thematic elements (Gender rolls/female identity, The
‘American Dream’, adolescence and coming of age, dysfunctional family dynamics, etc.) as
well as a deep dive into what it means to be ‘free’/have ‘freedom’. You are welcome to explore any
of the above ideas, rhetorical devices, or come up with your own exploration of the text so far.
Remember: Just because you haven’t finished the novel does NOT mean you cannot do a proper
analysis with close reading and unpacking of quotes and scenes, nor does it mean you cannot already
decipher a hidden meaning or message about the book.
You will be able to write about whatever you want concerning the book, as long as you have at least
THREE direction quotes or passages that you are closely analyzing/unpacking (MLA formatting,
etc.) to offer a unique interpretation of the text in conjunction with your idea.
Here are some Questions to consider if you don’t know where to start:
1. As a young woman, Patty is phenomenally strong on the basketball court yet vulnerable in
relationships, especially with her workaholic parents, her friend Eliza, and the conflicted duo
of Richard and Walter. What did her rapist, Ethan Post, teach her about vulnerability? After
the rape, what did her father and the coaches attempt to teach her about strength?
2. Freedom contains almost cinematic descriptions of the characters’ dwelling places, from the
house in St. Paul to Abigail’s eclectic Manhattan apartment. How do the homes in Freedom
reflect the personalities of their occupants?
3. How would you characterize Patty’s writing? How does her storytelling style compare to the
narrator’s voice in the rest of the novel?
4. What feeds Richard and Walter’s lifelong cycle of competition and collaboration? Is it part of
the human condition to compete with our friends and/or to betray those closest to us? How
does Franzen convey this universal truth authentically/effectively?

Creative Writing Reading Response ESSAY

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