Essay prompts Good Dirt Charmaine Wilkerson

Good Dirt: Essay Prompts for Deeper Analysis

Essay Prompts for Good Dirt

These 12 prompts are designed to move beyond summary and into sustained argument. Each includes a reason to care, a defensible thesis direction, and chapter-level evidence from the novel. Use the internal links to explore characters and themes further.

1. Ebby Freeman’s Transformation: From Flight to Confrontation

Why it matters: Ebby’s arc from fleeing her trauma to actively facing it drives the novel’s emotional core. Tracing this change reveals how the author links personal healing to the recovery of family history.

Thesis direction: Ebby’s journey—from dyeing her hair and escaping to France to finally telling her father what she witnessed—shows that true resilience requires not forgetting the past but integrating it into one’s identity.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 6: Ebby flees Connecticut to escape “the public identity created by an award-winning photo” and feels she must “forget, not just remember.”
  • Chapter 86: Ebby confesses to Ed that she heard the intruders and froze during the hide-and-seek game.
  • Chapter 104: On Baz’s birthday, Ebby resolves to “name her loss and defy its destructive power.”
  • Chapter 106: Ed’s museum speech publicly acknowledges the jar’s history; Ebby supports the exhibit.

2. Old Mo as a Symbol of Legacy and Trauma

Why it matters: The jar is not merely an heirloom; it is a vessel for generational memory, stolen heritage, and the violence that shatters both pottery and family.

Thesis direction: Throughout Good Dirt, the stoneware jar Old Mo functions simultaneously as a symbol of Black resilience and a trigger for Ebby’s unresolved grief, proving that objects can hold both liberation and pain.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 7: The jar is introduced as “the great strength… its true worth was underestimated” and is broken the same day Baz is shot.
  • Chapter 25: Ed uses the jar to rekindle his relationship with Soh, highlighting its role as a connector of people.
  • Chapter 101: Ed reveals he secretly saved and repaired the jar, using insurance money to restore it.
  • Chapter 111: Old Mo is displayed publicly; visitors can touch it, and Ebby smiles at Avery’s arrival.

3. Henry’s Secret and the Causal Chain of Abandonment

Why it matters: Henry’s decision to flee the wedding stems from a secret he overhears. Tracing this causality illuminates how silence about the past can destroy relationships.

Thesis direction: Henry’s failure to tell Ebby what he heard at the bridge game—and his subsequent abandonment—demonstrates that protecting one’s own family from blame can become a more damaging betrayal than the original crime.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 31: Henry overhears a man mention the broken jar—a detail never made public—and decides to stay silent.
  • Chapter 65: Henry confesses to Ebby that he “ran away instead” of telling her.
  • Chapter 66: Ebby admits to Henry that she heard the intruders demand “Old Mo” and never told the police.
  • Chapter 81: Henry confronts Harris, who criticizes him for letting fear dictate his actions.

4. Contrasting Public Image and Private Grief

Why it matters: The Freeman family must navigate a world that views them as symbols of Black achievement while they internally wrestle with Baz’s murder. Examining these contrasting scenes exposes the burden of “respectability.”

Thesis direction: Wilkerson contrasts the Freemans’ public composure—maintained through appearances and philanthropic work—with their private rituals of grief to argue that survival often requires a mask that can itself become a source of pain.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 12: Ebby feels “like a spectacle” when a tour guide praises her family’s history; her grandmothers stress the importance of appearances.
  • Chapter 26: Soh reflects on needing to be “above slapping that superficial fool” because society expects Black women to be dignified.
  • Chapter 48: Ebby and Avery suppress emotion while dealing with the police inquiry, linking their composure to their racialized upbringing.

5. Soh and Ed’s Relationship: The Weight of Unspoken Grief

Why it matters: The marriage between Soh and Ed is tested not only by Baz’s death but by secrets and miscommunication. Analyzing their dynamic reveals how grief can either fracture or deepen a partnership.

Thesis direction: Soh and Ed’s marital strain stems less from Baz’s death itself than from their separate, unvoiced burdens of guilt—Ed over the move to Connecticut and Soh over her own suicidal thoughts—showing that healing requires mutual vulnerability.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 23: Ed receives a late-night call from Ebby and senses she is hiding something; he acknowledges he also has a secret.
  • Chapter 83: Ed witnesses Soh slap Henry, which disturbs him because she is “not typically violent.”
  • Chapter 98: Ed reveals the hidden wooden piece to Soh, and she feels “a surprising lightness.”
  • Chapter 105: Soh admits she once aimed her car at a tree but stopped for Ebby.

6. Storytelling and Oral Tradition as Resistance

Why it matters: From Gramps’s jar stories to Ebby’s writing project, Good Dirt positions narrative as a form of defiance against erasure. This prompt examines how stories preserve identity across generations.

Thesis direction: Through the repeated act of telling and retelling family stories—about Old Mo, Willis’s escape, and the hidden inscription—Wilkerson argues that oral tradition is not merely sentimental but a critical tool for resisting historical erasure and reasserting agency.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 7: Gramps tells Ebby and Baz the story of the jar’s underestimated worth.
  • Chapter 55: Willis’s journey to the port city and his realization that freedom is possible.
  • Chapter 89: Willis decides to pass the jar down and fill it symbolically; the hidden message remains.
  • Chapter 112: The story of Afam reinforces the importance of remembering original names.

7. Avery’s Perspective: Rivalry, Insecurity, and Self-Discovery

Why it matters: Avery is more than a foil; her arc—from strategic pursuit of Henry to independent study in Paris—mirrors the novel’s theme of identity formation beyond romantic relationships.

Thesis direction: Avery’s journey from calculating competitor to self-aware woman choosing psychology over law illustrates that true growth requires letting go of envy and embracing one’s own path, a parallel to Ebby’s own recovery.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 16: Avery admits she “positioned herself to provide an uplifting alternative” and researched Ebby’s trauma.
  • Chapter 46: Avery decides to ask Ebony for help despite pride.
  • Chapter 53: Avery studies the Melusine legend and questions whether she is “second-best.”
  • Chapter 97: In Paris, Avery rents an apartment and researches graduate programs, moving forward.

8. Foreshadowing Through the Recurring Jar Dream

Why it matters: Ebby’s dream of the jar crashing is a powerful narrative device that connects her subconscious trauma to the novel’s climax. Examining its recurrence reveals how memory intrudes on the present.

Thesis direction: Ebby’s recurring dream of the jar shattering functions as a psychological echo that foreshadows the revelation of hidden truths, demonstrating that unresolved trauma repeatedly breaks into consciousness until it is confronted.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 6: Ebby dreams of “a jar crashing in her father’s study—a sound that preceded Baz’s death.”
  • Chapter 22: Ebby dreams of Baz’s death again in France, signaling that her past has caught up.
  • Chapter 65: Henry’s confession about the jar ties the dream to the real event.
  • Chapter 71: After Henry leaves, Ebby finally dreams of “enduring love stories,” not the jar, marking a shift.

9. “Good Dirt” and Clay as Metaphors for Malleability and Resilience

Why it matters: The title and the recurring imagery of clay—from Kandia’s pots to Moses’s hidden carving—suggest that identity and destiny can be reshaped, even under oppression.

Thesis direction: Throughout Good Dirt, clay functions as a metaphor for the possibility of transformation: just as a potter re-centers a lump on the wheel, characters like Moses, Kandia, and Ebby re-center their own lives through acts of creation and narrative.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 14: Kandia works clay with her mother and sisters; it is a sacred caste skill.
  • Chapter 27: Kandia makes a goat figurine for Moses, hoping “his destiny could still be molded.”
  • Chapter 44: Moses finds peace by centering clay and remembering his mother’s words.
  • Chapter 115: In the epilogue, Moses trains young turners, including girl apprentices, shaping the next generation.

10. The Intertwining Timelines: Structure and Meaning

Why it matters: The novel toggles between 1803–1877 and 1999–2019. This structure is not arbitrary; it builds thematic parallels and shows how the past lives in the present.

Thesis direction: Wilkerson’s dual-timeline structure deliberately juxtaposes historical episodes of enslavement and resistance with contemporary characters’ struggles, arguing that the traumas and triumphs of the 19th century directly inform—and can be healed by—the choices of the 21st.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 14 (1803) and Chapter 27 (1806): Kandia’s captivity and motherhood parallel Ebby’s loss.
  • Chapter 33 (Moses learning to write) connects to Chapter 106 (Ed’s speech about the inscription).
  • Chapter 73 (Willis staying despite Fugitive Slave Act) resonates with Ebby’s decision to return home.
  • Chapter 114 (Mo’s Selfie Bank) shows the jar’s story reaching a new generation.

11. The Ending: Public Display of Old Mo and Community Healing

Why it matters: The museum exhibit marks a turn from private grief to shared legacy. Analyzing this scene allows students to evaluate how the novel proposes healing through collective memory.

Thesis direction: The public exhibition of Old Mo, complete with a touchable artifact and a “Selfie Bank,” redefines the jar from a stolen or hidden object into a community-owned story, suggesting that healing from trauma requires moving beyond shame to embrace visibility and connection.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 106: Ed delivers a museum speech, revealing the jar’s history and hidden inscription.
  • Chapter 108: Ebby posts about the jar on social media; Robert moves in with her.
  • Chapter 111: Old Mo is displayed publicly; visitors touch it; Avery arrives and nods at Ebby.
  • Chapter 114: The exhibit is a hit; a sign says “The Mind Cannot Be Chained,” and Ebby nods.

12. The Role of the Ending: Baz’s Birthday and the Calendar Reminder

Why it matters: The novel’s final chapters circle back to Baz’s birthday, using the anniversary as a moment of reckoning. This prompt examines how the ending resolves—or refuses to resolve—guilt and hope.

Thesis direction: The annual calendar reminder for Baz’s birthday becomes a device that forces Ebby to re-encounter her guilt each year; the ending offers not a tidy resolution but a commitment to “name her loss” and choose perseverance, leaving open the possibility of ongoing healing.

Evidence leads:

  • Chapter 104: Ebby receives the calendar reminder; she resolves to “defy its destructive power.”
  • Chapter 105: Soh reflects on her own anniversary rituals and admits her survival depends on Ebby.
  • Chapter 106: Ed’s speech on what would have been Baz’s 35th birthday frames the jar’s story as educational.
  • Chapter 114: Ebby sees a photo of three students with a sign quoting the jar’s inscription, nodding to the enduring legacy.

Further Resources