Holocaust+Literature+Pairing+for+Young+Adults

= Pairing Project, Part One = Samer Umran, Jennifer Couzens, Heather Yzenbaard

Night: by Elie Wiesel
 * Basics: ** Wiesel, Elie, and Marion Wiesel. //Night.New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.//
 * Links ** : We were not able to find this text available as a PDF in the public #|domain.

**Possible Connections**: Elie Wiesel's, //Night,// was one of the first texts to be recognized as classic Holocaust literature. It's a candid autobiographical account of Wiesel's capture, struggle, and survival of the Holocaust. Wiesel carries the burden of survival. His writing offers a gravely serious historical perspective from a witness to the inhumanity of the Holocaust and death camps like Auschwitz. Wiesel tells readers in the preface of his new translation that he writes to make the past horror known, and never forgotten. He does not want his past to ever be repeated.

Our group plans to pair this classic with //The// // Book Thief, // by Markus Zusak. Discussion of the two will certainly consider the perspective of a witness account verses the fictional writing in //The// // Book Thief //. We will consider the sociocultural conditions of the two texts by looking at the themes of both and possible change of perspectives within the fictional text determining a possible change in perspective or a reinforcement of the horrific realism within Wiesel's personal story. Wiesel's story focuses primarily on his experiences as a journey that not only molds his views of the world and spirituality, but also sheds light on an event in history that sparked the interests of social psychologists around the world. As far as teaching is concerned, some students might find the theories on "mob mentality/ heard mentality rather interesting. This could be one strategy to employ as a teacher with students who would have a difficult time trying to relate to the text. Having multiple angles and perspectives on any piece of literature will always create more opportunities for every student to succeed in extracting useful lessons. The young adult literature may help to expand the understanding of time and events surrounding the Holocaust. // Night // is limited since it tells mainly about one person's experience from just days before his capture and transport to the death camps. There are a great number of supplemental sources available for those eager to expand on their knowledge of the origins, history, and aftermath of the Holocaust. Like a fictional plot line Wiesel's real life story shows a character that struggles with tragedy and an extreme loss of innocence as a young man.

Like a fictional plot line Wiesel's real life story shows a character that struggles with tragedy and an extreme loss of innocence as a young man. Since //Night// is an autobiography we get the deep internal, unspoken thoughts of the narrator. We see Eliezer’s internal struggle with the missed opportunities to escape #|the Jewish slums, the ignored warnings, and his own feelings of emotional numbness to the inexplicable experience in the death camps. Eliezer recognizes the various levels of inhumanity among the Nazi soldiers. He notes the soldiers that were judged too humane were removed from their position. We will certainly see similar themes of death, survival, guilt, and tragedy in //The// //Book Thief.//

In the beginning of the novel, Wiesel is seen trying to gain access to an eternity within divinity. Throughout the novel however we see him leaning further away from his own beliefs as a means of survival. As the narrator, Eliezer shares his internal struggle with his faith in God. He tells us that he sees other struggling also, for example a Rabbi from Poland told him, “It’s over. God is no longer with us.” The connection I would like to make here is not simply with the novel // The Book Thief, // but with all situations where our humanity somehow becomes disconnected from our own survival. One question that could be posed to all age #|groups of students could be: "Why do you think no one stood up to Hitler, or the SS?" = Research Focus: Pairing Classics with Young Adult Works =

//**Easing the Pain of the Classics**//, By Katie Porteus
This article discusses ways of teaching classic English literature to young adults. It notes that such books were written for well-educated adults with leisure time, not for young adults with busy schedules and other interests. It also notes that reading classics is good preparation #|for college reading, expands vocabulary and increases cultural literacy. Methods for making the classics more relevant to teens are given including pairing a classic novel with a contemporary one, such as //Lord of the Flies// by William Golding with //Gone// by Michael Grant. Other pairing includes Shakespeare's //Romeo and Juliet// and //Saving Juliet// by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

Easing the Pain of the Classics Katie Porteus Young Adult Library Services. 7.4 (Summer 2009) pg. 16.

Link: [|Katie Porteus]

**//Pairing Adolescent Fiction with Books from the Canon//**, By Janice Mori Gallagher
This article suggests practical ways to activate and build appropriate cognitive schema for understand the classics via the adolescent novel. In the push to integrate the curriculum, pairing of books surfaces as another way to make learning meaningful. Pairing books allows both teachers and students to feel a sense of progression. They suggest pairing an adolescent novel with a more difficult novel, using it as a springboard to success and then move into a classic or advanded novel to allow for greater connection and association to literary elements.

Pairing #|Adolescent Fiction with Books from the Canon Janice Mori Gallagher Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Sep., 1995), pp. 8-14 Link:Janice Gallagher


 * Telling the Tale Sharing Elie Wiesel's "Night" with Middle School Readers**

This article specifically discusses teaching //Night// in a middle school classroom but it also focuses on how to address teaching Holocaust literature in general. The author/teacher walks the reader through their own journey in learning about the Holocaust and the literature associated with it. The author was able to travel to the areas that were a part of the Holocaust and it helped him connect with the Holocaust literature he had read. The next step was to find a way to get students to connect to the material in that same way. The author also discusses the importance of continuing to teach Holocaust literature because we have to continue to share what happened. We can't just forget about it because it happened in the past. If we forget about something that happened in the past we open ourselves up to experience again. This is why Elie Wiesel wrote //Night// and this is why the author of this paper continues to teach Holocaust literature.

Telling the Tale: Sharing Elie Wiesel's "Night" with Middle School Readers Alexander A. Hernandez The #|English Journal, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Nov., 2001), pp. 54-60 Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Link: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/stable/pdfplus/822346.pdf?acceptTC=true


 * Reading Group and Teacher's Guides **

Further information and resources are available to teachers and reading groups. They provide questions on comprehension and discussion topics that are designed to enhance the reading of Elie Wiesel's Night.

[|Alexander Hernandez]

= **Process** = The next step of this project will be to have everyone in the group read our young adult novel piece, //The Book Thief.// The next step is to work on the second part of the pairing project. One person can describe the connections between our classic novel, //Night//, and our young adult novel, //The Book Thief.// Then the remaining three members of our group could each find one source that will help us design a mini-unit based on our paired texts. Since the second part of the pairing project is due on February 27th it would be ideal to have all of the assignments completed by February 23rd so that there is time for revision.