This Is How It Always Is

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What does the term “popular culture” mean? Why are people influenced by the opinions of popular culture? What roles do the media, marketing, art, entertainment, and fashion play in this influence?

Teaching Suggestion: Characters in This Is How it Always Is are greatly impacted by the popular culture debate about biological sex. Armed with more knowledge about how popular culture influences individuals, students will have greater empathy for and understanding of the characters, conflicts, and perspectives in the book. To prepare students for more in-depth discussions about current popular culture controversies, it may be beneficial to follow this Short Answer with a discussion of controversies that have occurred over the last decade. Students might attempt preliminary answers to this prompt; if so, you might ask them to revise after reading the resources below.

• This article from Philosophy Now offers definitions and examples of popular culture, and it discusses how popular culture forms and influences.
• This article from Psychology Today explores how television both positively and negatively influences our attitudes and beliefs.
• This article from Brilliantio analyzes how popular culture influences society and discusses the media, fashion-trends, shifting perspectives on gender roles, language, and celebrities as role models.

2. How have gender roles and society’s understanding of them changed in the United States over the past 50-100 years? What events influenced these changes? What challenges do many individuals still face in regards to gender roles and identity?

Teaching Suggestion: Among other themes, This Is How It Always Is considers the real-life ambiguities that conflict with rigid ideas about gender. Students will be better prepared to understand this aspect of the novel with background knowledge about how concepts surrounding gender have developed and changed over time. It might be helpful to encourage students to answer these questions first without research, and then, after they have a more concrete background, to analyze their own responses; this will help them develop stronger awareness of their own thought-processes and understanding of the topic. The first resource offered below may be more accessible to students, while the second offers more nuanced perspectives for advanced learners.

• This article from Khan Academy explores the role of women in the 1950s in regards to conformity, domesticity, war, and the American dream.
• This article from American Psychologist provides an in-depth analysis of the content and origins of gender stereotypes and how they have changed from 1946-2018.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Consider a time when someone made an assumption about you that differed from your own concept of yourself. This could be related to ethnicity, race, religion, age, health, intellect, gender, or another topic associated with identity. What happened in this situation? Where were you, and who was involved? How did the assumption make you feel, and why?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt asks students to reflect on the challenging social situations they have experienced, which may help them connect and relate to the struggles of characters like Poppy. It is probable that students will answer this Personal Connection Prompt more thoughtfully and openly in writing than in class discussion, although they may also benefit from a follow-up discussion in which those who wish to share are invited to do so.