12 Analytical Essay Prompts for Anita de Monte Laughs Last

These prompts are designed to push beyond summary and into argument. Each includes a defensible thesis direction (not a full essay) and specific chapter or scene evidence you can trace in the text. All claims are drawn from the novel’s outline and the supplied excerpts.

1. Reclaiming Power Through Performance: Anita’s Dance at Tilly’s Party

Why it matters:
Anita’s dance in Chapter 2 is the novel’s first sustained act of defiance against Jack. By examining the scene, you can analyze how performative joy functions as a weapon in an abusive marriage and how the narrative uses foreshadowing to link that performance to her death.

Sample thesis direction:
Anita’s decision to dance exuberantly at Tilly’s party is not a flight from reality but a deliberate reclamation of agency that exposes the limits of Jack’s control, even as the scene’s description of spinning sequins and a molting bird foreshadows her fatal fall.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Anita decides to strip Jack of his power by transmuting rage into joy; she dances with Jomar while the room watches, and the narrator notes she “should have won an Oscar.”
Later that night, everyone remembers her laughing and dancing in her silver sequin dress before she falls out the window.
Contrast with Chapter 4 where Jack drags her from a restaurant after her mock-toast; the earlier performance fails, but at Tilly’s party the performance works because she controls the stage.
The foreshadowing of her fall (the spinning, the feathers, the mention of death) establishes that her agency operates in a tragic register.

Internal links: Anita de Monte, Haunting and Legacy

2. The Erasure of a Woman Artist: From Cease‑and‑Desist to Retrospective

Why it matters:
The novel systematically shows how Anita’s art is hidden, belittled, and legally suppressed. This prompt asks you to trace the chain of erasure—from Jack’s cease‑and‑desist letter to Tilly’s phone calls—and argue that the novel critiques institutional gatekeeping more than individual malice.

Sample thesis direction:
Although Jack Martin is the most visible agent of Anita’s erasure, Anita de Monte Laughs Last ultimately indicts the art world’s infrastructure—museums, collectors, and gallerists—as the system that makes such erasure possible, because it is complicit in rewarding those with power.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 19: After Jack sends a cease‑and‑desist, Tilly and Gerry manipulate curators to postpone Anita’s retrospective; Tilly admits she “knew it was wrong” yet still acts.
Chapter 20: Anita’s ghost watches Tilly call museums and hears the Chicago museum fold immediately: “Well … Our next show was from our collection, so we can just slide some things around.”
Chapter 24: Jack gains legal control of her estate on the tenth anniversary of her death, burying her work again.
Chapter 33: Raquel’s thesis reception marks the first time a room talks about Anita’s art, not just her death—suggesting that institutional support (Belinda Kim’s exhibition) is what finally reverses erasure.

Internal links: Erasure of Women Artists

3. Class and Belonging: Raquel’s Navigation of Two Worlds

Why it matters:
Raquel’s journey is shaped by her working‑class Puerto Rican background in elite Brown and RISD spaces. By analyzing specific moments of class friction, you can explore how the novel uses her perspective to critique the art world’s class bias and to show the psychological cost of assimilation.

Sample thesis direction:
Raquel’s arc demonstrates that belonging in the art world requires a performance of class that erodes her identity; her eventual refusal to perform (cutting her own hair, choosing a writing job over Yale) represents a claim to selfhood that Anita was never allowed.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 3: Professor Temple’s remark about her working‑class roots undercuts her curatorial fellowship; she later reflects on being the only student from a public school.
Chapter 6: The “Art History Girls” accuse Raquel of being a gold digger and a racist, forcing her to falsely admit the accusation to leave.
Chapter 15: Her mother’s visit exposes Nick’s aloofness; Toni tells Raquel she treats Nick like a prize, revealing the tension between ambition and authenticity.
Chapter 31: Raquel tells Temple, “Was I supposed to come here and pretend to have had the same life you did?” — her argument that institutional gatekeeping excludes not just artists but also students.

Internal links: Class and Privilege, Raquel Toro

4. The Foreshadowing of Anita’s Fall: Structure and Symbolism

Why it matters:
The novel opens with action that ends in Anita’s death, and the narrative circles back to that moment repeatedly. Examining how foreshadowing works (through the spinning, the burning the bridge, the falling paintings) reveals the novel’s tragic structure and its critique of inevitability.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel uses a network of falling images—paintings, sequins, bodies, bats—to suggest that Anita’s death is both an accident and a fulfillment of patterns she and Jack created, making the fall a symbol of systemic rather than individual violence.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: “Later, when word got out that I had fallen … this was what everyone would talk about.” The description of her spinning and the “molting bird” directly foreshadows the fall.
Chapter 5: In Jack’s memory, all the paintings in Anita’s first show fell from the walls when she defied him; he thinks she seemed “happy for all the fuss.”
Chapter 1 (epigraph): The Janson quote about exclusion functions as a structural pre‑echo of Anita being pushed out of the art world.
Chapter 17: Anita learns that to take physical form she must first fall, like a bat; the fall becomes a portal to agency.

Internal links: Power and Control

5. Ghostly Agency in the Afterlife: Anita’s Transformation from Victim to Protector

Why it matters:
Anita returns as a ghost who can only act when her art is in the world. This prompt explores how the afterlife section redefines power—from bodily harm to spiritual influence—and how the ending shifts Anita from vengeful spirit to guardian of Raquel.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel reimagines ghosthood as a form of political agency: Anita’s power grows as her art is re–circulated, and she ultimately chooses to abandon revenge in favor of guiding Raquel, suggesting that solidarity across generations is more potent than personal vengeance.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 22: Anita learns that her bat form requires her art to be active; thoughts give spirits power to move objects.
Chapter 26: She feels “energy” when she hears her work is being looked at; she can travel to places made her happy.
Chapter 30: She decides to stay with Raquel after witnessing Raquel’s defiance: “I’ve got good hunches about things. I decided to stay with her.”
Chapter 34: At Tilly’s party, Anita chases Jack but stops herself, tired of vengeance; she later brings Raquel a mouse as a thank‑you, becoming a guardian.

Internal links: Haunting and Legacy

6. The Male Gaze and the Controlling Narrator: Jack Martin’s Perspective

Why it matters:
Several chapters are told from Jack’s point of view, giving readers access to his self‑justification and denial. Analyzing his narration reveals how the novel constructs the male gaze and uses it to critique toxic masculinity.

Sample thesis direction:
Jack’s chapters function as an unreliable narrator that exposes the logic of patriarchal violence: he frames his possessiveness as love, his guilt as haunting, and his control as artistic necessity, thereby allowing the novel to indict not just Jack but the art world that enables him.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 5: Jack recalls how Anita reminded him of a wounded bird; he says “he wanted to give a home to her” while simultaneously throwing her portfolio in her face.
Chapter 11: At the lawyer’s office, Jack agrees to portray Anita as unstable and emphasize her Santeria practice, despite knowing she planned to divorce him.
Chapter 23: In Madrid, Jack secretly knows Anita’s ghost altered his art, but he publicly accepts the acclaim while begging Tilly to make her work disappear.
Chapter 20 (contrast): Anita’s narrative shows Jack’s actions from outside; his internal monologue is never corroborated by her experience.

Internal links: Jack Martin

7. The Symbolic Significance of the Bat: Transformation and Revenge

Why it matters:
Bats appear repeatedly as Anita’s animal form. This prompt asks you to decode the symbol—drawing on the novel’s own explanation that bats must fall to fly—and connect it to themes of liminality, power, and the reversal of victimhood.

Sample thesis direction:
The bat symbolizes Anita’s transformation from a woman thrown by her husband into one who chooses to fall; by embracing the bat’s dual nature (creature of the night, able to take physical form), she reclaims agency and becomes a figure of justice rather than a pitiable ghost.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 17: The bat (Marco’s lover) tells Anita she can take physical form by first falling, like a bat: “falling to fly.”
Chapter 20: Anita transforms into a bat and attacks Tilly, destroying items; she realizes her art sustains her spirit.
Chapter 34: At the party, she stops before pushing Jack, breaking the cycle of violence—the bat’s bite is no longer fatal.
Earlier foreshadowing: in Chapter 2, Anita’s sequins are described as “like the feathers of a molting bird,” linking her to flight and fall.

Internal links: Haunting and Legacy

8. The Ending as Beginning: Raquel’s Honors Thesis and Second Chances

Why it matters:
The novel’s final chapter (Raquel, Chapter 33) shows her delivering her thesis, winning a prize, and accepting a job in New York. This prompt focuses on the ending’s thematic payoff—how Raquel’s success is tied to Anita’s recovery—and argues that the novel frames the future as a cooperative project across generations.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel’s ending refuses a simple happy resolution; instead, Raquel’s thesis reception creates a new community around Anita’s work, and Raquel’s decision to keep the Iowa photograph as a daily reminder of worth shows that legacy is an ongoing practice, not a fixed inheritance.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 33: Raquel’s thesis is “Form and Figure: Revisiting Jack Martin and Anita de Monte”; she wins the Department Chair’s Prize and a coauthored Art in America feature.
At the reception, she hears people discussing Anita’s art and life, not just her death—a shift from earlier erasure.
She declines grad school for an entry‑level writing job, believing “nothing was yet set in stone” and that second chances exist.
Linda Fitzsimmons sends her an early Anita photograph from Iowa; Raquel feels “the pure, wild energy of that woman” and decides to keep it as a permanent reminder, establishing a personal shrine.

Internal links: Identity and Belonging

9. The Epigraph as Thesis: Universality vs. Erasure

Why it matters:
The novel opens with a quotation from a real art historian defending the exclusion of non‑Western artists. This prompt asks you to treat the epigraph as a thesis for the entire book and to argue how the novel’s plot and structure challenge Janson’s logic.

Sample thesis direction:
Anita de Monte Laughs Last takes Janson’s claim that exclusion serves “universality” and inverts it: the novel demonstrates that universality is a mask for power, and that the only way to achieve a genuine universal is to restore the voices that were erased, as Raquel does for Anita.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: The epigraph from Janson defends excluding non‑Western artists “for general cultural history.”
Throughout the novel, Anita’s work is hidden because it does not fit the minimalist canon; Jack benefits from the very universalism Janson champions.
Chapter 21: Raquel finds that the library catalog of Anita’s work is the only record; she confronts the institutional erasure built into art history curricula.
Chapter 33: Raquel’s thesis makes a direct link between Anita and Jack, claiming influence where Temple saw none, thereby challenging the canon.
The novel’s structure—alternating between Anita and Raquel across time—insists on a dialogic, rather than universal, understanding of art history.

Internal links: Erasure of Women Artists

10. The Romance Plot as Trap: Anita’s and Raquel’s Relationships with Controlling Men

Why it matters:
Both Anita and Raquel become entangled with men who use romance to control their careers and bodies. This prompt invites a comparative analysis of Jan and Nick (and perhaps Tilly as a matchmaker), examining how the novel uses parallel relationship arcs to show a persistent pattern.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel structures Anita’s marriage to Jack and Raquel’s relationship with Nick as mirroring narratives in which the men systematically erode their partners’ autonomy; Raquel’s ability to walk away from Nick represents the break that Anita could not achieve, suggesting that generational learning is fragile but possible.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 4: Anita sacrifices a Florida residency after Jack gives her Bulgari earrings; she later realizes she put him before herself.
Chapter 5: Jack throws her portfolio, accusing her of stealing his ideas; the fight escalates to physical violence.
Chapter 13: Nick orders for Raquel, citing her weight insecurity; he never invites her family to the Hamptons, revealing class bias.
Chapter 25: Nick cuts Raquel’s hair without consent, leaving it brutally short; Raquel later methodically cuts more herself and walks out.
Chapter 31: Raquel ends the relationship after Nick refuses to leave Tilly’s gallery; she tells Temple she “wanted to change things” rather than accommodate.

Internal links: Power and Control, Jack Martin, Nick Fitzsimmons

11. Spiritual Practice as Resistance: Santería and the Limpia

Why it matters:
The novel integrates Cuban spiritual traditions—Santería, the orisha Yemayá, the ceiba tree, and the limpia—into both Anita’s afterlife and Raquel’s contemporary life. This prompt explores how the supernatural functions not as escapism but as a form of cultural resistance and healing.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel uses Afro‑Cuban spirituality to counter the white, secular art world: Anita’s power is rooted in Yemayá and the ceiba tree, while Raquel’s limpia after Nick’s abuse restores her sense of self, suggesting that spiritual practice provides an alternative epistemology to Western institutions.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 9: After falling, Anita returns to Varadero Beach and realizes she has returned to Yemayá, the sea goddess.
Chapter 11: Jack’s lawyer decides to portray Anita as unstable by emphasizing her Santeria practice; the novel shows that Jack and the legal system weaponize her faith.
Chapter 27: After Nick cuts her hair, Betsaida takes Raquel for a limpia; the card reading tells her to “trust her gut.”
Chapter 29: The limpia leaves Raquel feeling lighter; she later recognizes the ceiba tree as a liminal portal in the novel’s final chapters.
Chapter 34: Anita stops her attack on Jack, achieving a kind of spiritual peace that aligns with forgiveness.

Internal links: Identity and Belonging

12. Causality and the Chain of Influence: How Jack Martin’s Work Changed After Anita’s Death

Why it matters:
Raquel’s thesis argues that Anita’s art influenced Jack’s work, especially in the years after her murder. This prompt asks you to analyze the evidence of that influence (the softer shapes, the circular forms, the ball‑bearing piece) and to consider how the novel constructs artistic influence as a political claim.

Sample thesis direction:
The novel presents artistic influence not as a neutral transfer of style but as an act of appropriation that the art world recognizes only when it serves the male artist; Raquel’s recovery of Anita’s influence is a revisionist argument that rewrites minimalism’s history.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 18: Raquel discovers that after Anita’s death, Jack’s work shifted toward circular forms; Belinda Kim reveals the murder was hidden from academic records.
Chapter 23: Jack’s Reina Sofia exhibition has softer shapes that he knows Anita’s ghost altered; he panics when Tilly shows him the body‑art auction.
Chapter 30: Anita in the afterlife sabotaged Jack’s ball‑bearings installation by rearranging pieces; Raquel notices the figure in the void.
Chapter 31: Raquel shows Temple a photocopy of Anita’s Cuban cave sculpture and says, “This is Cuban … This is Anita de Monte. From 1981.” Temple admits he has never seen it.
Chapter 33: Raquel’s thesis is coauthored with Belinda Kim for Art in America, institutionalizing the claim of influence.

Internal links: Nick Fitzsimmons, Anita de Monte, Questions and Answers