Offer your thoughts on one or more of these questions/comments. If you prefer add a comment or question on another element of these chapters.
Chapter 10
Chapters 10-17 take place during 1920-and 1921. The first few pages of chapter 10 offer a short history lesson of sorts. Look up and share some information you learn about the alien land law and/or Roosevelt’s Gentlemen’s Agreement
At the end of Chapter 10 Hana feels great pride for Taro’s demeanor in the face of racist neighbors, yet she doesn’t share her feelings of pride with him. The final line of the chapter says, “An so, never hearing the words that would have given him such joy, he went off to another day at his shop on Seventh Street.” Why not take a moment now to call or send an email or text message or simply to tell someone “thank you” or “good job” or “you make me proud” or some other simple acknowledgment of your appreciation for them as a person.
Chapter 11
What do you think of Kiku’s decision to move to the country with Toda?
Chapter 12
Why do you think the author included the segment related to the pickled radish?
Why do you think the author included the segment related to the stolen funds?
Chapter 13
Each of the characters deals with stress. Select one character and comment on how he/she deals with stress and/or how he/she could deal with stress more effectively.
Chapter 14
What are your thoughts about Kenji Nissima’s desire to be alone in the attic?
Chapter 15
Find and share an example of a sentence or phrase used by the author to build suspense or to provide forshadowing.
Chapter 16
This chapter addresses the idea of being “the outsider.” What are your thoughts on what it mans to be an outsider? What are your thoughts on contributing to other people feeling like an outsider?
Chapter 17
This chapter conveys an optimistic view of life for all of the characters. Select one sentence or phrase from the chapter that you believe most effectively yet succinctly conveys “life is good.”
Monday, 6 July 2009
07/06/09 Picture Bride English 9 Chapters 4-9
Offer your thoughts on one or more of these questions/comments. If you prefer add a comment or question on another element of these chapters.
Chapter 4
This chapter introduces the theme of the “American dream.” What message about the American dream is conveyed in this chapter?
Authors often use a style of writing that they believe suits the subject matter of the book. How would you describe Uchida’s writing style? How is Uchida’s writing style suitable and/or not suitable to the content/plot/message of the novel?
Chapter 5
One example of juxtaposition occurs within the exposition in this chapter: “ Hana had covered the table with a cloth- crocheted by her mother, but somehow the delicacy of the cloth seemed only to emphasize the utilitarian ugliness of the table.”
Try your hand at writing a one sentence description that juxtaposes two contrasting things.
Chapter 6
Yamaka and Taro are juxtaposed in this chapter. What key contrasting elements of personality does each character possess?
Chapter 7
On the second page of this chapter (page 42 in my copy) Hana feels the soft texture of her kimono and sees the beautiful peonies in the fabric design. These sensory experiences prompt what she calls a “happy memory.” The description of the happy memory is replete with sensory details- smells, tastes, sounds, textures, and actions. Research studies have shown that memories from childhood are often triggered by smell, taste, or texture.
Try your hand at recreating one of your vivid childhood memories by concentrating on sensory details.
Chapter 8
At one point in this chapter Taro shares Japanese foodstuff with Japanese agricultural workers and asks himself, “Was he really helping them become assimilated and accepted, which was for him, too, the ultimate goal?”
What are your thoughts on “the ultimate goal” or on “assimilation and acceptance”?
Personal aside/connection: On page 49 (or the second page of chapter 8) Taro observes the fields tended by the Japanese immigrants: “As they neared the farming commuities they saw endless fields of lettuce planted in neat, even rows. Taro always marveled at the sight.” As I read this segment, I recalled a weekend trip we took to central Taiwan to Fu Shou San Farm where the tea and cabbage made beautiful rows of endless well-tended green.
Chapter 9
This chapter informs our understanding of the influenza epidemic of 1919. Look up and share a fact, statistic, or example related to the impact of this virulent flu on the lives of people around the world.
Many professional authors have declared that good writing “shows” rather than “tells.” Comment on how this chapter effectively achieves this goal.
Chapter 4
This chapter introduces the theme of the “American dream.” What message about the American dream is conveyed in this chapter?
Authors often use a style of writing that they believe suits the subject matter of the book. How would you describe Uchida’s writing style? How is Uchida’s writing style suitable and/or not suitable to the content/plot/message of the novel?
Chapter 5
One example of juxtaposition occurs within the exposition in this chapter: “ Hana had covered the table with a cloth- crocheted by her mother, but somehow the delicacy of the cloth seemed only to emphasize the utilitarian ugliness of the table.”
Try your hand at writing a one sentence description that juxtaposes two contrasting things.
Chapter 6
Yamaka and Taro are juxtaposed in this chapter. What key contrasting elements of personality does each character possess?
Chapter 7
On the second page of this chapter (page 42 in my copy) Hana feels the soft texture of her kimono and sees the beautiful peonies in the fabric design. These sensory experiences prompt what she calls a “happy memory.” The description of the happy memory is replete with sensory details- smells, tastes, sounds, textures, and actions. Research studies have shown that memories from childhood are often triggered by smell, taste, or texture.
Try your hand at recreating one of your vivid childhood memories by concentrating on sensory details.
Chapter 8
At one point in this chapter Taro shares Japanese foodstuff with Japanese agricultural workers and asks himself, “Was he really helping them become assimilated and accepted, which was for him, too, the ultimate goal?”
What are your thoughts on “the ultimate goal” or on “assimilation and acceptance”?
Personal aside/connection: On page 49 (or the second page of chapter 8) Taro observes the fields tended by the Japanese immigrants: “As they neared the farming commuities they saw endless fields of lettuce planted in neat, even rows. Taro always marveled at the sight.” As I read this segment, I recalled a weekend trip we took to central Taiwan to Fu Shou San Farm where the tea and cabbage made beautiful rows of endless well-tended green.
Chapter 9
This chapter informs our understanding of the influenza epidemic of 1919. Look up and share a fact, statistic, or example related to the impact of this virulent flu on the lives of people around the world.
Many professional authors have declared that good writing “shows” rather than “tells.” Comment on how this chapter effectively achieves this goal.
05/07/09 Picture Bride English 9 Chapters 1-3
Offer your thoughts on one or more of these questions/comments. If you prefer add a comment or question on another element of these chapters.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 described Tara Tokeda and Hana Chan in just a few pages, yet the foundation for a vivid understanding of their personality is already set. How did Uchido do that? Offer specific examples to support and clarify your thought. Perhaps select a conversation or a sentence and explain how that excerpt informs your understanding of the character(s).
Put yourself in Tara Tokeda or Hana Chan’s position? Imagine the feelings s/he experienced during the travel time and/or during their initial meeting. Would you be willing to get engaged in this way? What are the benefits of this type of engagement?
Chapter 2
What inferences can be drawn from the following line: “Discarding his given name, Hisakazu, because it was impossible for a white person to remember, he had taken the name Henry and was called that even by his Japanese friends.”
What predictions can be made from events in this chapter?
Chapter 3
This chapter introduces some potentially difficult aspects of moving to a new culture. Anyone who has moved from one culture to another can attest to various benefits and difficulties encountered when moving: What are a few benefits of living in new cultural situations? What are some difficulties that may occur?
In this chapter, Yamaka says, “ I don’t want to spend all my life being a foreigner in an alien land…” Do you agree with the implications of his statement? For example, is it truly impossible for a Canadian or American person of European descent living in Asia to ever stop being considered a foreigner in an alien land? Can you offer examples supporting your view?
Chapters 1-9 take place in 1917-1918. What do you know about world history from that time period? What are a few events or highlights of that time period? Who were a few significant world figures or leaders at that time? Share the url link to a website that provides interesting information from this time period.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 described Tara Tokeda and Hana Chan in just a few pages, yet the foundation for a vivid understanding of their personality is already set. How did Uchido do that? Offer specific examples to support and clarify your thought. Perhaps select a conversation or a sentence and explain how that excerpt informs your understanding of the character(s).
Put yourself in Tara Tokeda or Hana Chan’s position? Imagine the feelings s/he experienced during the travel time and/or during their initial meeting. Would you be willing to get engaged in this way? What are the benefits of this type of engagement?
Chapter 2
What inferences can be drawn from the following line: “Discarding his given name, Hisakazu, because it was impossible for a white person to remember, he had taken the name Henry and was called that even by his Japanese friends.”
What predictions can be made from events in this chapter?
Chapter 3
This chapter introduces some potentially difficult aspects of moving to a new culture. Anyone who has moved from one culture to another can attest to various benefits and difficulties encountered when moving: What are a few benefits of living in new cultural situations? What are some difficulties that may occur?
In this chapter, Yamaka says, “ I don’t want to spend all my life being a foreigner in an alien land…” Do you agree with the implications of his statement? For example, is it truly impossible for a Canadian or American person of European descent living in Asia to ever stop being considered a foreigner in an alien land? Can you offer examples supporting your view?
Chapters 1-9 take place in 1917-1918. What do you know about world history from that time period? What are a few events or highlights of that time period? Who were a few significant world figures or leaders at that time? Share the url link to a website that provides interesting information from this time period.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
04/07/09 Night Pages 93-109
Select one of the following for response or reflection.
1. After the surgery on Eliezer's foot, he and his father must face being marched to a more remote camp or staying behind to face possible eleventh-hour execution amid rumors of approaching Red Army troops. Observing that Hitler's deadliness is the only reliable aspect of their lives, Wiesel's father decides that he and his son should leave the camp. The memoir is filled with such crossroads, the painful outcomes of which can be known only in retrospect. How does Wiesel respond to such outcomes? Do you believe these outcomes are driven by destiny, or do they simply reflect the reality of decision-making?
2. In his final scenes with his father, Eliezer must switch roles with him, becoming the provider and comforter, despite advice from others to abandon the dying man. What accounts for the tender, unbreakable bond between Eliezer and his father long after other men in their camp begin fending for themselves?
3. What is the significance of the book's final image, Wiesel's face, reflected in a mirror? He writes that a corpse gazed back at him, with a look that has never left him. What aspects of him died during his ordeal? What aspects were born in their place? What do you make of his observation that among the men liberated with him, not one sought revenge?
4. Wiesel faced constant rejection when he first tried to publish Night; numerous major publishing houses in France and the United States closed their doors to him. His memoir is now a classic that has inspired many other historians and Holocaust survivors to write important contributions to this genre of remembrance. What is unique about Wiesel's story? How does his approach compare to that of other memoirists whose work you have read?
1. After the surgery on Eliezer's foot, he and his father must face being marched to a more remote camp or staying behind to face possible eleventh-hour execution amid rumors of approaching Red Army troops. Observing that Hitler's deadliness is the only reliable aspect of their lives, Wiesel's father decides that he and his son should leave the camp. The memoir is filled with such crossroads, the painful outcomes of which can be known only in retrospect. How does Wiesel respond to such outcomes? Do you believe these outcomes are driven by destiny, or do they simply reflect the reality of decision-making?
2. In his final scenes with his father, Eliezer must switch roles with him, becoming the provider and comforter, despite advice from others to abandon the dying man. What accounts for the tender, unbreakable bond between Eliezer and his father long after other men in their camp begin fending for themselves?
3. What is the significance of the book's final image, Wiesel's face, reflected in a mirror? He writes that a corpse gazed back at him, with a look that has never left him. What aspects of him died during his ordeal? What aspects were born in their place? What do you make of his observation that among the men liberated with him, not one sought revenge?
4. Wiesel faced constant rejection when he first tried to publish Night; numerous major publishing houses in France and the United States closed their doors to him. His memoir is now a classic that has inspired many other historians and Holocaust survivors to write important contributions to this genre of remembrance. What is unique about Wiesel's story? How does his approach compare to that of other memoirists whose work you have read?
Friday, 3 July 2009
03/07/09 Night Pages 63-92
Select one of the following and offer your thoughts:
1. Compare Wiesel's preface to the memoir itself. Has his perspective shifted in any way over the years?
2. In his Nobel lecture, presented in 1986, Wiesel writes of the power of memory, including the notion that the memory of death can serve as a shield against death. He mentions several sources of injustice that reached a boiling point in the 1980s, such as Apartheid and the suppression of Lech Walesa, as well as fears that are still with us, such as terrorism and the threat of nuclear war. Will twenty-first-century society be marked by remembrance, or by forgetting?
3. How does the author characterize himself in Night? What does young Eliezer tell us about the town, community, and home that defined his childhood? How would you describe his storytelling tone?
4. With the words "Women to the right!" Eliezer has a final glimpse of his mother and of his sister, Tzipora. His father later wonders whether he should have presented his son as a younger boy, so that Eliezer could have joined the women. What turning point is represented by that moment, when their family is split and the gravity of every choice is made clear?
5. At Birkenau, Eliezer considers ending his life by running into the electric fence. His father tells him to remember Mrs. Schächter, who had become delusional on the train. What might account for the fact that Eliezer and his father were able to keep their wits about them while others slipped into madness?
6. Eliezer observes the now-infamous inscription above the entrance to Auschwitz, equating work with liberty. How does that inscription come to embody the deceit and bitter irony of the Nazi camps? What was the "work" of the prisoners? Were any of the Auschwitz survivors ever liberated emotionally?
7. Eliezer's gold crown makes him a target for spurious bargaining, concluding in a lavatory with Franek, the foreman, and a dentist from Warsaw. Discuss the hierarchies in place at Auschwitz. How was a prisoner's value determined? Which prisoners were chosen for supervisory roles? Which ones were more likely to face bullying, or execution?
8. Eliezer expresses sympathy for Job, the biblical figure who experienced horrendous loss and illness as Satan and God engaged in a debate over Job's faithfulness. After watching the lynching and slow death of a young boy, Eliezer tells himself that God is hanging from the gallows as well. In his Nobel lecture, Wiesel describes the Holocaust as "a universe where God, betrayed by His creatures, covered His face in order not to see." How does Wiesel's understanding of God change throughout the book? How did the prisoners in Night, including rabbis, reconcile their agony with their faith?
1. Compare Wiesel's preface to the memoir itself. Has his perspective shifted in any way over the years?
2. In his Nobel lecture, presented in 1986, Wiesel writes of the power of memory, including the notion that the memory of death can serve as a shield against death. He mentions several sources of injustice that reached a boiling point in the 1980s, such as Apartheid and the suppression of Lech Walesa, as well as fears that are still with us, such as terrorism and the threat of nuclear war. Will twenty-first-century society be marked by remembrance, or by forgetting?
3. How does the author characterize himself in Night? What does young Eliezer tell us about the town, community, and home that defined his childhood? How would you describe his storytelling tone?
4. With the words "Women to the right!" Eliezer has a final glimpse of his mother and of his sister, Tzipora. His father later wonders whether he should have presented his son as a younger boy, so that Eliezer could have joined the women. What turning point is represented by that moment, when their family is split and the gravity of every choice is made clear?
5. At Birkenau, Eliezer considers ending his life by running into the electric fence. His father tells him to remember Mrs. Schächter, who had become delusional on the train. What might account for the fact that Eliezer and his father were able to keep their wits about them while others slipped into madness?
6. Eliezer observes the now-infamous inscription above the entrance to Auschwitz, equating work with liberty. How does that inscription come to embody the deceit and bitter irony of the Nazi camps? What was the "work" of the prisoners? Were any of the Auschwitz survivors ever liberated emotionally?
7. Eliezer's gold crown makes him a target for spurious bargaining, concluding in a lavatory with Franek, the foreman, and a dentist from Warsaw. Discuss the hierarchies in place at Auschwitz. How was a prisoner's value determined? Which prisoners were chosen for supervisory roles? Which ones were more likely to face bullying, or execution?
8. Eliezer expresses sympathy for Job, the biblical figure who experienced horrendous loss and illness as Satan and God engaged in a debate over Job's faithfulness. After watching the lynching and slow death of a young boy, Eliezer tells himself that God is hanging from the gallows as well. In his Nobel lecture, Wiesel describes the Holocaust as "a universe where God, betrayed by His creatures, covered His face in order not to see." How does Wiesel's understanding of God change throughout the book? How did the prisoners in Night, including rabbis, reconcile their agony with their faith?
Thursday, 2 July 2009
02/07/09 Night Pages 45-62
Select a quotation or excerpt from this part of the book; comment, reflect, connect, react.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
01/07/09 Night pages 21-43
Here are a few questions to consider. Perhaps pick one or two and offer your comments:
1. Who is Dr. Mengele? What role does he have at Auschwitz?
2. Why did Elie’s father wish that Elie had gone with his mother instead?
3. Comment on this metaphor, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever."
4. The sign over their next camp, Auschwitz, read, ‘Work is Liberty’. What is so ironic about this slogan?
5. Why did Elie regard Auschwitz as better than Birkenau?
6. Who are Yossi and Tibi? What happened to their parents?
7. Who is Idek? What did he do to Elie? Who tried to comfort Elie; why?
8. What did Franek, the foreman do in order to get Elie’s gold crown?
1. Who is Dr. Mengele? What role does he have at Auschwitz?
2. Why did Elie’s father wish that Elie had gone with his mother instead?
3. Comment on this metaphor, "Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever."
4. The sign over their next camp, Auschwitz, read, ‘Work is Liberty’. What is so ironic about this slogan?
5. Why did Elie regard Auschwitz as better than Birkenau?
6. Who are Yossi and Tibi? What happened to their parents?
7. Who is Idek? What did he do to Elie? Who tried to comfort Elie; why?
8. What did Franek, the foreman do in order to get Elie’s gold crown?
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