Justification of Choice: Pre-Reading Analysis

Justification of choice: Pre-reading Analysis

1. What is/are the major historical theme/s, event/s, process/es, conditions or development/s studied in HOTA that you believe are related or relevant to this novel?

What is motivating us to read and analyze Michael Keneally's Schindler's List is a video we viewed in HOTA about the Holocaust, and Steven Spielberg’s movie by the same name as the aforementioned novel. Both videos depict the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews in World War 2. The debates and lectures conducted in HOTA also stimulated a desire to learn more in depth about details of what really occurred to individuals, as opposed to learning what occurred to the Jewish population as a whole. We believe that the Holocaust as a whole, which we studied in HOTA is the central theme, event and condition in the novel.

2. Which specific aspect of these elements do you believe relates to the course content of HOTA?

Since in HOTA we studied what occurred in the Jewish Ghettos and the number of people who died, not to mention the condition in which many Jews were living in during these times, it is our opinion that these aspects of the Holocaust relate to the course content of HOTA.

3. How would you expect such elements to impact or influence the life of central character's in the novel?

Since we have not yet read the novel, and we have no idea if it is similar to the film, we cannot be precise about these details, but since it is commonly known that the story is about a German who put himself at risk to save Jews when the rest of his people were trying to destroy them, it is probable that the living conditions of the holocaust were dangerously influencing his life since he was making unconventional decisions.

4. In what way might YOU be affected if you were living at this time, in this place, under these conditions?

We think that since we do not fit the Nazi's image of the perfect Aryans, with blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and perfect noses, it is possible that we would have been submitted to the conditions the Jews were submitted to. On the other hand, since we have no Jewish blood, we might have been safe. Whatever the conditions we lived in, we would have been greatly affected to know that people were dying because of superficial reasons. If we would not have been affected physically, it is probable that we would have been affected mentally because the only way one could explain the Nazis motivation to murder so many people, is insanity, insanity caused by living in a time of complete and utter chaos.

5. In what ways do you believe that reading this novel will deepen your understanding of the corresponding areas of study in HOTA?

We believe that we will have a more detailed explanation of what life was really like for the victims of the Holocaust. This is because history is supposed to be very factual as opposed to a novel, which will very probably bring much more personal and humane issues and circumstances to light.

Basic Literature Analysis

1. What is the historical setting of the novel?

- The novel’s action occurs during the years of the Holocaust in world war two, the latter years of the war to be more precise. The prologue of the book transports the reader to autumn 1943, where the story begins to unfold itself. The historical setting of the novel is the