Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng: 12 Analytical Essay Prompts

This page offers 12 analytical essay prompts for Kylie Lee Baker’s Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. Each prompt is grounded in the novel’s specific characters, scenes, and themes. Use the linked character and theme pages for deeper context.

1. Cora’s Transformation from Echo to Agent

Why this prompt matters: The novel charts Cora’s shift from passively echoing her sister’s life to actively confronting injustice. Tracing this arc reveals Baker’s argument about survival.

Sample thesis direction: Cora’s journey from believing she is “an echo, quieter and quieter” to publicly shouting “I am a fucking bat eater” demonstrates that reclaiming a slur is a necessary step toward reclaiming agency.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Cora describes herself as “an echo” who never makes a mark on the world ([Evidence ch.3]).
Chapter 11: Cora first feeds the hungry ghost, acknowledging her guilt for neglecting death rituals.
Chapter 24: Cora shoves her attacker into traffic and yells “I am a fucking bat eater” ([Evidence ch.25]).
Chapter 25: Cora offers half an orange to a ghostly hand and eats the other half, now acting from choice rather than fear.

2. Causal Link Between Delilah’s Murder and the Supernatural Haunting

Why this prompt matters: The novel treats Delilah’s ghost not just as a metaphor but as a direct consequence of Cora’s failure to perform proper burial rites.

Sample thesis direction: Delilah’s transformation into a hungry ghost is caused by Cora’s refusal to burn joss paper or pray, suggesting that unresolved grief creates spiritual debt that demands physical repayment.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: Delilah is killed by a white man who calls them “bat eater” ([Evidence ch.2]).
Chapter 3: Auntie Zeng urges Cora to burn joss paper for Delilah; Cora throws it away.
Chapter 10: Cora discovers Delilah’s ghost eating her coffee table; she feeds it an orange and realizes she “did this to Delilah” ([Evidence ch.11]).
Chapter 18: Delilah’s ghost devours Paisley and Ryan when the feast is interrupted, showing the cycle of hunger fed by neglect.

3. Contrasting Relationships: Auntie Lois vs. Auntie Zeng

Why this prompt matters: The two aunts represent opposing responses to trauma—forced Christian forgiveness versus inherited Chinese spiritual practice.

Sample thesis direction: Baker contrasts Auntie Lois’s demand for public forgiveness with Auntie Zeng’s ritual offerings to argue that authentic healing requires acknowledging loss rather than suppressing it.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 4: Auntie Lois forgives Delilah’s murderer in church and drags Cora out when she breaks down.
Chapter 3: Auntie Zeng burns joss paper indoors and presses Cora to perform rites for Delilah.
Chapter 22: Auntie Zeng arrives with lights to ward off the false Delilah and guides Cora through Ghost Month rituals.
Chapter 25: Cora lives with Auntie Zeng and builds an altar for the dead, finally choosing her aunt’s path.

4. Contrasting Scenes: Church Confession vs. Ghost Feast

Why this prompt matters: Both scenes involve ritual and food, yet one ends in shame and the other in violence, exposing the limits of religious institutions.

Sample thesis direction: Cora’s confession in Chapter 4, where she accidentally hands the priest a corpse photo, is inverted by the ghost feast in Chapter 18, where the intended offering is stolen by the living, showing that neither sacred nor secular rituals can contain grief.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 4: Cora tries to pray but feels unheard; the priest screams at the photo.
Chapter 18: Yifei prepares biangbiang noodles for Delilah; Paisley and Ryan eat the food, causing Delilah to attack ([Evidence ch.19]).
Chapter 8: Cora hallucinates Father Thomas and feels “unforgiven” after cleaning the crypt.
Chapter 24: Cora leads hungry ghosts to Gracie Mansion and sets it on fire, a final rejection of institutional authority.

5. Theme of Anti-Asian Racism During the Pandemic

Why this prompt matters: The novel dramatizes how COVID-19 amplified xenophobia, linking individual attacks to systemic violence.

Sample thesis direction: Baker uses the recurring slur “bat eater” and the serial killings of Asian women to show that pandemic-era racism is not a collection of isolated incidents but a coordinated system that institutions refuse to address.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 1: The attacker uses “bat eater” before shoving Delilah ([Evidence ch.2]).
Chapter 4: A white man pulls down Cora’s masks and spits in her face.
Chapter 9: A brick is thrown through a Chinatown restaurant window after racist jokes ([Evidence ch.10]).
Chapter 23: Cora discovers police cover-ups and copycat killings on the “American Dreamers” forum.
Chapter 25: An Atlanta spa shooting targets Asian women, paralleling the novel’s murders.

6. Symbol of the Bat

Why this prompt matters: Bats appear as both literal creatures and rhetorical weapons, carrying shifting meanings from plague to protest.

Sample thesis direction: Bats in the novel evolve from evidence of racist slurs (the “bat eater” label) to symbols of resistance (Cora’s reclaiming of the term), mirroring Cora’s own transformation.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 2: Cora pulls a bat from a drain at Yuxi He’s crime scene; the word “bat eater” triggers nausea ([Evidence ch.3]).
Chapter 5: Harvey kills a bat trapped in a vent; the crew buries it on train tracks ([Evidence ch.6]).
Chapter 11: Ai Wu’s blood paints a bat on the wall; live bats are stuffed in her body.
Chapter 24: Cora yells “I am a fucking bat eater,” reclaiming the insult ([Evidence ch.25]).

7. Symbol of the Jade Bracelet

Why this prompt matters: The bracelet functions as a physical marker of identity and a test of spiritual truth.

Sample thesis direction: The jade bracelet’s inscription—first the character for hope, later revealed to be hope rather than strength—signals that Cora’s salvation lies not in power but in acceptance of uncertainty.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 3: Auntie Zeng gives Cora a jade bracelet for protection; Cora wears it throughout.
Chapter 10: Cora reads “hope” on the bracelet when Delilah’s ghost offers it ([Evidence ch.11]).
Chapter 22: Auntie Zeng points out the bracelet says “hope” instead of “strength,” revealing the ghost is not Delilah.
Chapter 23: Cora takes her aunt’s jade necklace and leaves to confront the truth.

8. Structure: The Frame of Note to Readers and Author’s Note

Why this prompt matters: The opening accessibility note and closing author’s note bookend the narrative, connecting the ebook’s design to the novel’s themes.

Sample thesis direction: By beginning with a note on adjustable font size and ending with a meditation on publishing during a pandemic, Baker frames the story as both a work of horror and an act of access, insisting that storytelling must accommodate vulnerable readers.

Evidence leads:

Note to Readers: Lists accessibility features, emphasizing reader control.
Chapter 1–25: The main narrative resists easy consumption through graphic violence and trauma.
Author’s Note: Baker compares pandemic sacrifice to Japanese American internment and expands the dedication to include lost hope.
The physical act of reading (adjusting text) mirrors Cora’s struggle for agency over her own story.

9. Foreshadowing: The Knocking Motif and USB Password

Why this prompt matters: Recurring details like knocking sounds and the password 325 build toward the final revelation, rewarding attentive reading.

Sample thesis direction: The three-two-five knocking pattern that Cora hears in dreams and in Auntie Zeng’s wall foreshadows the USB password, tying subconscious trauma to concrete evidence of a conspiracy.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 13: Cora’s apartment is disturbed; she finds gray fingers in the fridge.
Chapter 22: Cora hears knocking (three, two, five) from the wall, the same pattern as her dreams.
Chapter 23: Cora enters password 325 and accesses Officer Wang’s files of murder photos and audio recordings.
Chapter 14: The USB is introduced as password-protected; Cora steals shredded evidence from the police station.

10. The Ending: Reclaiming Agency Through the Orange Offering

Why this prompt matters: The final ritual in Chapter 25 mirrors the earlier orange feeding but now performed with intention, showing Cora’s growth.

Sample thesis direction: Cora’s choice to offer half an orange to a ghostly hand and eat the other half herself in Chapter 25 transforms a gesture of guilt into one of shared sustenance, asserting her right to live alongside the dead.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 10: Cora feeds an orange to Delilah’s ghost in panic and guilt ([Evidence ch.11]).
Chapter 25: Cora again offers an orange, but this time she eats half herself, reclaiming agency.
The ritual occurs after Cora has survived COVID, lost Harvey and Yifei, and learned to pray sincerely.
Auntie Zeng builds an altar for the dead, and Cora begins to find small pleasures.

11. Theme of the Hungry Ghost and Unresolved Grief

Why this prompt matters: The hungry ghost is not just a monster but a manifestation of Cora’s refusal to mourn.

Sample thesis direction: The novel uses the Chinese concept of hungry ghosts to literalize Cora’s grief: Delilah’s insatiable hunger mirrors Cora’s own emotional starvation, and only communal ritual—not avoidance—can satiate both.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 3: Auntie Zeng explains the Hungry Ghost Festival and the need for offerings.
Chapter 7: Yifei shows a scar she claims is from a hungry ghost; Cora rejects the supernatural.
Chapter 10: Delilah’s ghost is eyeless and gaunt, eating furniture ([Evidence ch.11]).
Chapter 18: Delilah devours Paisley and Ryan after the feast is stolen ([Evidence ch.19]).
Chapter 24: Hundreds of hungry ghosts—the murdered women—follow Cora through the subway.

12. Systemic Injustice and the Police Cover-Up

Why this prompt matters: The novel indicts not just individual killers but the institutions that enable them.

Sample thesis direction: Through Officer Wang’s USB, the silenced forum posts, and the mayor’s deprioritization of the case, Baker argues that the serial murders are not a failure of policing but an implicit policy of letting Asian women die.

Evidence leads:

Chapter 13: Cora steals shredded documents from Officer Wang’s office.
Chapter 18: Cora and friends piece together ten suspect profiles and evidence of a neo-Nazi group called The Allegiance.
Chapter 23: Cora opens the USB to find 374 photos, audio of Captain Mezzasalma deprioritizing the case, and screenshots of copycat posts.
Chapter 24: Cora leads ghosts to Gracie Mansion and sets it on fire as a political act.
Chapter 25: The leaked USB fuels public protests, but justice remains incomplete.

For more discussion, see the Questions and Answers page or explore individual themes.