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. Serial killers are frequently at the center of some of the most popular stories in pop culture. Why do you think serial killers consistently captivate the public imagination? Why are we, as a society, obsessed with these gruesome tales?

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to talk about media that they’ve seen/read/listened to lately that revolves around serial killers, and have them discuss the reasons they were interested in that story. Did they feel a sense of intrigue and/or disgust? A mixture of both? Have students discuss the differences, if any, between documentaries and/or non-fiction media having to do with serial killers (“true crime”) and fictional stories about murderers.

• “Why Americans Are So Fascinated by Serial Killers”: a History.com article discussing why serial killer stories dominate pop culture
• “Criminologist Reviews Serial Killers From Movies & TV”: a Vanity Fair video featuring a criminologist examining famous serial killers in popular media

2. Fatherhood, and particularly the relationship between fathers and sons, is an often complicated subject commonly explored in literature, film, TV, music, and comic books.