Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. A coming of age story is one in which a protagonist progresses from youth into adulthood.

• How is this a coming-of-age story for Frank Abagnale? (topic sentence)
• In what instances do you see Frank growing into adulthood? Use details and examples from relevant scenes in the book to support your answers.
• Finally, in your concluding sentence or sentences, briefly explain the overall arc of Frank’s character.

2. Frank wears several uniforms in this novel as he slips in and out of different professions.

• What do the uniforms symbolize? (topic sentence)
• How does Frank use uniforms to carry out his schemes and his goals? Choose three instances in the memoir to support your answer.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, connect your discussion of uniforms to the theme of Social Scripts and Performance.

3. Frank sees himself as a man with a code of ethics.

• Does Frank see himself as a criminal? (topic sentence)
• Using three examples from the text, support your argument and think about how Frank’s own code of ethics and the ways in which he interacts with individuals (both male and female) and corporations.
• Finally, in your concluding sentence or sentences, connect your argument to either the theme of Gender Privilege and the Use of Women or the theme of Identity and Self-Construction.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Frank opens the memoir with a scene in which he looks at himself in a mirror, and one of the story’s closing chapters also includes a mirror scene. In the opening mirror scene, Frank sees himself as a Pan Am pilot, and, in the later scene, he is forced to confront what he looks like as he emerges from a French prison. What might the mirror symbolize for Frank? How do these mirror scenes invite us think about Frank’s identity? In your essay, make an argument about Frank’s understanding of his own identity and connect it back to the theme of Identity and Self-Construction. Use details from the text to support your argument.

2. Throughout the memoir, Frank has significant and—to him—insignificant encounters with many women, including Rosalie, Monique, and Cheryl. How does he treat these women and the stewardesses he uses to get more information about airlines? What is Frank’s understanding of women and how does this understanding connect to the theme of Gender Privilege and the Use of Women? Choose at least three instances from the text to support your argument.

3. Who is Frank Abagnale? Is he a criminal? Do his crimes have victims? Does this matter to him? Write an essay in which you think about Frank’s portrayal of his crimes and make an argument about how he wants his readers to see him at the end of the novel. Provide at least three examples from the text to support your argument.