Be More Chill

Why do you think that the author chose to divide the story into three parts? What is the effect of the third part’s being so short?

Celebrity culture and mass media impact the perspectives of many characters in this novel. Choose one character, and describe how they are or are not impacted by the expectations created by popular media. 

Jeremy Heere encounters many forms of technology other than the SQUIP, such as a television, a cell phone, and a Game Boy. Describe how one other type of technology impacts his life, and analyze whether its impact is positive or negative.

Using a feminist perspective, analyze how the novel depicts female characters. Does it perpetuate or deconstruct misogynistic stereotypes and rhetoric?

The novel poses the question of whether human behavior is essentially just biology, based on chemicals, instincts, and evolutionary principles. Do you think that the novel supports this view or is critical of it? Why or why not?

Would you argue that the SQUIP is a person or just a machine? How does it seem to be like or unlike a human character in the story?

How does Vizzini use stylistic aspects of the text, such as capitalization, font, spacing, and spelling, to enhance the storytelling? What is the impact of these stylistic and formatting choices?

Compare and contrast this novel with the musical adaptation. What does the adaptation change about the story? Do these changes affect the overall theme of the work?