67 pages 2 hours read

Maggie Smith

You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Essay Topics

1.

How do Maggie Smith’s form and structure contribute to the meaning of the text? How and why does the text resist the expectation of closure that comes with more traditional modes of storytelling?

2.

Compare Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. What is each woman’s experience with grief and loss? How does writing help both women process their experiences?

3.

How does Smith manage and confront uncertainty? How does her need to control the future connect with her childhood?