Night

I think that this book really represents the "Holocaust Story" well because it almost tells the whole story.  I only thought that it ended rather abruptly.  I like how Wiesel begins his story before the war affects his village.  We get to see how dedicated he is to his religion, and how this is reflected as a theme throughout the rest the novel.  The Holocaust events that Eli has to endure through this short time in his life not only affects his physical well-being, but also takes a mental toll.  He states that he stops believing because God has not prevented this from happening or intervening.  I think that this particular theme is especially important because religion is usually something that people hold on to, and it is what gets them through tough events.  But that it can be lost either temporarily or for long-term if someone is pushed hard enough.

Bog Child: An Alternative Perspective on the Hunger Strike

I think that Dowd did a great job trying to convey how the hunger strike not only affected the person physically doing the strike but also the family members.  From the film that we watched in class, it was obvious that every person who was considering going on the strike knew that it would affect their families, but the actual familial aspect of the hunger strike was left out. This alternative perspective allowed Dowd's audience to see how families were on the brink of being torn apart because of their want to support the cause their sons were fighting for and their love of their child--they didn't want their child to die.

Another positive aspect of this is that the perspective of the family comes at a distance.  The reader does not actually get to know the grim and graphic details of what is truly going on in that prison.  For example, when I was reading the novel I was picturing a modern prison that we would have in the United States.  After we watched H3 in class I knew that my visualization was false, and discovered that the conditions of the Irish prison was a lot worse than how inmates have it in the United States.  If the novel had included these graphic details it would probably no longer be appropriate for adolescents to read.  Because the family is the main focus of the narrative adolescents are being exposed to something that they never knew about before.  I certainly didn't know about this part of history.  I think that Dowd accomplishes what she set out to do, expose adolescents to a little told part of history.   

Parable of the Sower

Post-apocalyptic California is ruled by drug addicts and their reign of terror!
Now that sounds like a true possible future.  This is one of the aspects of Parable of the Sower that I find so compelling; no matter how unlikely some of the aspects of this novel can get, its basis is founded in reality.  I may not want some of the things to become reality, but it could really happen.  Octavia E. Butler even makes the fictitious religion in the novel sound like it could be true--as if a televangelist could start making millions of dollars off of it.  I think that this is why some people in our class would have problems teaching it in school.

When we discussed this as a group in class, many people said that they would not teach it because a large portion of the novel deals with the Earthseed religion.  My counter argument to that point of view is that this is not a real religion; Butler completely made up every aspect of it.  I don't think that there should be any problems teaching it unless the teacher became completely brainwashed and started preaching "the gospel" of Earthseed.

I also think that this aspect of the novel could be a very good teaching tool in general because it doesn't deal with a real religion.  It could be seen as a template of how religions are spread without going into any real doctrine from a religion.  I bring this up because even though religion is supposed to be kept separate from all aspects of the school day, it still remains inseparable.  For example, history classes always bring up the reformation in Europe because it had such a profound effect on the 1400s.  Also, Roman Catholicism is ever present throughout the middle ages because it was the sole ruling force during that time period (The Pope had the power).  So, this book could be used to show just how easy it was to spread the gospel during those time periods.  In Parable of the Sower we can see how Lauren spreads her religion Earthseed.  We see her reading her poems to people and answering their questions, and she soon has a base of followers.
Based on this I believe that Parable of the Sower could actually be a good teaching resource.    

World War Z: The Realism of the Fantasy

One of the most interesting aspects of this novel was that Max Brooks made it so realistic. When I saw that the premise was a world wide war against zombies I thought that this book would be extremely unrealistic. However, Brooks uses the setting--the universal outbreak/war--to examine how different societies would react to this type of emergency. The prediction that Brooks presents for the way that China would initially react to the outbreak of the zombifying (okay, okay, I made up that word) virus. The accuracy of these predictions really astounds me.

There is an aspect of this realism that I find horrifying starts with the Redekker. Although the plan that Redekker proposes to save part of the human population is probably the best plan, it is rather inhumane. It is hard for me to believe that a government would be willing to sacrifice the a large part of their population in order save just a small part. Yet time and time again numerous countries adapted the plan that started in South Africa to work appropriately for each one. Later in the novel, some of the military interviewees reveal that some of the people who were left behind by their countries survived, and they are now rebellious and are no longer patriotic to their country.  I think that their rebellions are justifiable, but I am a bit biased. It is hard for me to take sides with the government when they were so willing to just let those people die.


What makes this novel so realistic is our modern perspective.  This novel, of course, has to take place in the future, and the plans and reactions that occur are also somewhat futuristic.  However, because of the distance that is created between our current society and the the fantasy elements found in the novel it is easy to judge the decisions that government officials had to make. The fantasy has become a cautionary tale.