Who Are You?

In class we’ve been talking about character. We’ve analyzed the actions, speech, and thoughts of characters in an effort to understand who they are as people. If the author provides it, we look at the character’s background information–where they live and the culture they’ve been brought up in–and we determine to what extent it has shaped him or her. The reason for doing this in English class is to talk about the role the character plays in the analysis of the story, but in the grander scheme we want to know how we relate to the character.

This examination of people and what makes them tick isn’t unique to the classroom. We do it all the time in life. When we meet someone new, we ask them where they are from, who their family is, what they do for a living, or where they go to school. Our understanding of other people draws on how we relate, or do not relate, to them ourselves.

Born This Way

But what if you were told who you are? What if you were told what kind of job you could have or who you could marry? What if there was no escape from the assignment of your place in society and all that the distinction entailed? To many this might sound like a pitch for a new dystopian young adult novel, but for some people it has been reality.

We watched the video above in class about the caste system in India. It talked about how people were born into one of four tiers of society or they were born an untouchable–outside of society–and that is where they stayed. While the video provided evidence of how India has made changes to dismantle the caste system, our Listenwise selection focused on the experiences of a woman who was born into the untouchable caste and how it negatively affected her life even after moving to America.

As Americans we enjoy a lot of freedoms in the United States that allow us to change our personal stories or make them up as we go along. However, like any society we also have our downfalls. We stereotype people and try to make them fit into labeled boxes that make us feel more comfortable. However, the people of any culture are too complex to be bound and too unique to stick a label on. Instead, it’s better to keep an open mind and seek to gain new understandings about the experiences of others. You’ll have the opportunity to practice as we read The Bridge Home and connect with other classes around the world.

In the comments below, I want you to answer this question:

In your opinion, are there more similarities or differences between India’s caste system and America’s social classes?

Use the ACE question answering strategy and evidence from the video and recording above to support your answer.

The Global Read Aloud Starts this week! We had a great time reading Refugee last year, and I predict that this year will be just awesome. Before we get started with this year’s title, I want to know what your favorite thing about last year was. It’s been a year so here is a list of things we did last year:

• guest readers
• blog posts
• connecting with the class from Canada
• timeline project
• class discussions

It could be that your favorite thing was just the novel itself. Use the ACE question answering strategy (remember that it is a three sentence minimum) and tell me what you liked best in a comment below.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Photo Credit: timp37 Flickr via Compfight cc

When I was a kid in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Choose Your Own Adventure books were popular. What set them apart was a format that allowed the reader to play a role in the direction of the plot. Written in the generally forbidden second-person perspective (uses the pronoun you), the reader takes on the role of the main character and every few pages makes a choice that guides the next step in the story. As I remember (I, personally, only ever read one of these books), the fun in reading them was the ability to make a choice, to be in control of the outcome.

Making Hard Choices

As readers sitting in relative comfort far removed from the events, it’s easy for us judge the actions of the characters in the story. I am definitely guilty of this! While reading Josef’s account of his father, I felt shocked at the descriptions of his behavior while aboard the St. Louis and then his unthinkable decision to try and end his own life by jumping overboard. I was outraged by the idea that he had made such a selfish choice and abandoned his family to muddle through uncertainty on their own. But, really, how could I possibly judge him? I have no idea what he suffered as a prisoner at Dachau. I can try to empathize with the story he shared with Josef about how he watched helpless men die right in front of his eyes. I can relate his story to the others I have read about Jewish men and women who survived the Holocaust and concentration camps and those who didn’t. But I cannot ever really understand what that experience was like, nor do I want to. I presume that in his mind his choices were to return to a country bent on the horrific annihilation of his people or die. I can’t imagine making a choice like that.

For refugees, making choices isn’t a game–it’s often life or death. Everyday desperate people, like Mahmoud’s family, make the dangerous decision to put their lives in the hands of smugglers in order to get from one country to another on their journey to safety. Abdullah Kurdi, a Syrian refugee, made that choice in 2015 when he, his wife, and their two young sons boarded a boat traveling from Turkey to the Greek island, Kos. The boat capsized on the water and the life jackets they were wearing were fakes. Only Abdullah survived.  A picture of their three-year-old son, Aylan, laying lifeless on the beach put a tiny, helpless face to the the refugee crisis and the terrible choices refugees are forced to make.

What Choices Would You Make?

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has created a Syrian refugee simulation which allows you to step into the role of a Syrian refugee (like a high-stakes Choose Your Own Adventure story).  You will have to make some very hard choices in your pursuit of safety in Europe. I encourage you to try the simulation multiple times making different decisions to see if it influences your outcome.

Syrian Journey: Choose Your Own Escape Route

Your Assignment:

After you have spent some time trying to make choices as a Syrian refugee, I want you to comment below with a reflection of your experience. What surprised you about the experience? What was the hardest thing you had to do? Could you make these same decisions in real life? Your reflection should be multiple sentences and include specific examples from the simulation experience. Use your best writing skills.