55 pages 1 hour read

Oliver Sacks

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1995

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Essay Topics

1.

Sacks begins the Preface talking about his own shoulder injury. Why does he begin the book this way?

2.

Temple Grandin tells Sacks that she often feels like an alien, which sparks the title of the book: An Anthropologist on Mars. Write an essay about a time you felt like an “other,” and consider why Sacks places significance on feeling like an “alien.”

3.

In the Preface, Sacks tells the reader he wishes to become a “neuroanthropologist.” What does it mean to be a neuroanthropologist, and how does this affect Sacks’s writing? Cite and analyze specific examples from the text.