The following questions are from Ch. 17-18 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Wednesday, Apr. 4th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. Warriors Don’t Cry focuses on a single year in Melba Pattillo’s life. Identify some of the internal and external conflicts she faced that year.

2. Describe how Melba’s year at Central High affected the way she sees herself and others.

3. How does Melba change in the course of the book? To what experiences does she attribute those changes? To what experiences do you

attribute those changes?

4. What does Melba’s story mean to you?  Why do you think she wrote this book?

5. What is the meaning of the title, Warriors Don’t Cry?

The following questions are from Ch. 15-16 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Wednesday, Apr. 4th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. Why are Melba’s mother and grandmother suspicious of Link’s motives in befriending Melba?

2. Consider earlier incidents in the book when Melba has to keep a secret because of prejudice and discrimination. What does Melba’s secret friendship with Link have in common with those incidents? What differences seem most striking?

3. Why does Link want Melba to tell the press that the situation at Central High School is improving. What does he hope the results of such a statement will be? How does she respond?

The following questions are from Ch. 16-19 of The Devil’s Arithmetic. Answer each question in complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Mar. 30th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

Chapter 16

1. Would you have talked to the Commandant? Why or why not?

Chapter 17

1. Why did Gitl come into Hannah’s bed?

Chapter 18

1. What did Hannah do to avoid having Rivka go into the chamber? Would you have done the same thing?
2. How did Hannah try to comfort the girls as they entered the doors?

Chapter 19

1. How did Hannah show Eva that she remembered?
2. What was Eva’s real name? How did that make you feel about that connection to the story?

The following questions are from Ch. 9-10 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Mar. 16th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. What does Melba mean when she writes that “integration is a much bigger word than I thought?” (113).

2. In your opinion, how do the quotations from the Melba’s diary relate to the story the she tells?

The following questions are from Ch. 7-8 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Mar. 9th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. How do the adults at Central High—the principal, vice principal, teachers—respond to the arrival of the African American students? What effect do their responses have on Melba and the other African American students? What effect do you think they have on white students at Central High?

2. At the end of her first day at Central High, Melba decides to include two white men in her prayers. Who are the two men? What distinguishes them from the other white men and women Melba encounters that day?

3. What do Melba’s remarks about feeling both proud and sad while being escorted into the school by federal troops (95) indicate about her sense of herself as an individual and as a citizen?

The following questions are from Ch. 9-15 of The Devil’s Arithmetic. Answer each question in complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Mar. 9th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

Chapter 9

1. What did the badchan say about the snake?

2. What did the bad taste in Hannah/Chaya’s mouth remind her of at the end of chapter 9?

 Chapter 10

1.What did Fayge do that made her cry?

2.Where did Hannah tell the others they needed to run to escape from the Nazis?

Chapter 11

1. What is a zugangi?
2. What disappeared when Hannah/Chaya had her head shaven?
3. What did Gitl make Hannah promise?

Chapter 12

1. What did Hannah/Chaya have of the man’s little girl that gave her the tattoo? Why is this important to the novel?

2. What did Hannah dream about?

Chapter 13

1. Identify and explain one theme that is a focal point of this chapter.

Chapter 14

1. Who is Rivke? What role does she play in this chapter?

2. Explain Rivke’s way of remembering her tattoo? Why is it important for Chaya/Hannah to do the same?

Chapter 15

1. In your opinion, discuss why Rivke relies upon euphemisms such as organized, chosen, processed, and drek to explain the horrors of the camp.

The following questions are from Ch. 8 and 9 of Night. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Monday, Mar. 5th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. In the concluding pages of Night, Eliezer’s father is dying a slow, painful death in Buchenwald. But Eliezer is there to comfort him, or at least to try. Does Eliezer 

see his father as a burden by this point, or does he feel only pity and sorrow for him? Compare and contrast the father-son relationship you see at the end of this memoir with the one you saw at the beginning.

2. At the end of Night, Wiesel writes: “From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me” (p. 115). What parts of Eliezer died during his captivity? What was born in their place?

3. What scenes from Night do you remember most vividly? Have they made you look at the world or your family differently?

The following question relates to Ch. 6 and 7 of Night. Answer the question in 5-7 complete sentences. The comment must be posted by Friday, Mar. 2nd by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. As the story progresses, we witness scenes in which the Jews have been reduced to acting—and even treating their fellow prisoners—like rabid animals. During an

air raid over Buna (see p. 59), a starved man risks being shot by crawling out to a cauldron of soup that stands in the middle of the camp, only to thrust his face into

the boiling liquid once he has arrived there safely. Where else do we see examples of human beings committing such insane acts? What leads people to such horrific behavior? Is it fair to say that such beastliness in the death camps is inevitable? Do Eliezer and his father fall prey to such tragedies? 

The following questions are from Ch. 5-7 of The Devil’s Arithmetic. Answer each question in complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 24th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. In the beginning of Chapter 5, what is the first thing Hannah did when she woke up? Why?

2. Explain what Hannah saw when she looked at herself in the mirror. Include both physical details and her thoughts.

3. What were some details that Hannah shared with the girls that they could not believe?

4. What do you think the bandchan meant by what he said to Hannah?

The following questions are from Ch. 1-4 of The Devil’s Arithmetic. Answer each question in complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 17th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. What did Hannah’s mother want her to remember?

2. Why does Grandpa Will act the way that he does?

3. Describe what Hannah saw when she opened the door at the end of the chapter? Predict where you think she is.

4. Describe Hannah’s first day with Gitl and Shmuel. How would you have felt and reacted to what was occurring? What would you have done to see if you were dreaming or not?

The following questions are from Ch. 2-4 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 17th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. In 1954, when Melba is just thirteen, a white man tries to r**e her. How do the adults in Melba’s family respond to the incident? Why do you think they decide not to call the police? What do they fear? How do those fears keep the family from bringing the attacker to justice? How do they affect the way Melba sees herself and others?

2. How did Melba’s parents and grandmother respond to the news that she had been chosen to attend Central High? What did they fear? Why do you think they allowed her to attend despite those fears?

3. Superintendent Virgil Blossom and other school officials chose Melba and the other eight African American students to desegregate Central High from dozens of applicants. What did these students have in common? What qualities may have prompted school officials to decide on these particular students?

The following questions are from Ch. 3-5 of Night. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 17th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

The following questions are from Ch. 1 and 2 of Night. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 10th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. In the first few pages of the book, Eliezer describes his family: He goes to school, he has three sisters, and his parents run a shop. How is his life similar to yours? How is it different?

2. Early in the book, after Moishe the Beadle escapes his execution, no one, not even Eliezer, believes his tales (p. 7). Even when the Germans arrive in Sighet and move all the Jews into ghettos, the Jewish townspeople seem to ignore or suppress their fears. “Most people thought that we would remain in the ghetto until the end of the war, until the arrival of the Red Army. Afterward everything would be as before” (p. 12). What might be the reasons for the townspeople’s widespread denial of the evidence facing them?

3. Talk about how the Nazis’ program of persecution against the Jewish people in Sighet was carried out in gradual steps (p. 9). First, the German officers moved into private homes. They closed the synagogues. They arrested leaders of the Jewish community, forbade the Jews from owning any valuables under penalty of death, and forced them to wear the Star of David on their clothes. Jews no longer had the right to frequent restaurants, to travel by train, to attend synagogue, or to be on the streets after 6 o’clock in the evening. Then, they were forced to leave their homes and move into designated ghettos. And from the ghettos, the Jews were deported to the concentration camps. How do you think the Jews felt as the persecution escalated? Why do you think they followed the Germans’ rules? Should they have stood up? Would you have reacted differently?

The following questions are from Ch. 1 of Warriors Don’t Cry. Answer each question in 3-5 complete sentences. All comments must be posted by Friday, Feb. 10th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

1. Melba writes, “Black folks aren’t born expecting segregation. . . . Instead the humiliating expectations and traditions of segregation creep over you slowly stealing a teaspoonful of your self-esteem each day” (6). How does Melba learn those expectations and traditions? What does she know about segregation by the time that she has reached the age of eight? What has she learned by the age of twelve?

2. What does Melba’s account suggest about the way racism affects everyone in a society—those who are considered privileged as well as those who are victims of racism? What does it suggest about the way racism threatens democracy?

The Holocaust is a historical event that should never be forgotten. Not only is it important to know its historical information, it is very important to know the stories of the victims and the survivors. The United States Holocaust Museum ia an excellent resource providing the untold stories of the Holocaust.

Click on one of the links below and read the individual’s story. In a 3-5 sentence paragraph, write what you learned about the individual as well as why you chose this story to read.  

Please post your comment by Friday, Feb. 10th by 6:00 p.m. (at the latest).

Links:

Children and ID cards

Personal Histories