1. Check journals & share with partner. Please share paragraphs with each other and compare chosen panels. What stands out in your partner's panel? Comment on the perspective, the background and the text (if any)
2. Let's create an outline of the Holocaust using the following terms. List dates, countries involved, significant events.
- Rise of Nazi party
- Nazification
- The Ghettos
- The Camps
- Resistance
- Rescue and Liberation
- Aftermath
3. The graphic novel. Review FOCUSS & other vocabulary handout
Discussion
Chapter One
1. This is a graphic memoir. A graphic memoir tells
a person’s life through text and drawings. Why does Art Spiegelman use mice
instead of people to portray the characters in the story? What do the mice
represent?
2. On page 13, Spiegelman tells us that his
father’s second wife Mala was a survivor
too, like most of his parents’ friends. Why does Spiegelman call Mala a
survivor? What does he mean?
3. What kind of relationship does Art Spiegelman
and his father, Vladek have? Use specific pictures and text to support your
answer.
4. Why is the chapter called “The Sheik”?
5. Why does Vladek choose Anja over Lucia? What do
you think of his choice?
6. Why does Vladek ask Art not to write about Lucia
in his book? Why doesn’t Art listen to his father? Do you think it is right for
Art to break his promise?
Chapter Two
1. Why does Ms. Stefanska go to jail? What role did
Anja play in Ms. Stefanska’s going to jail?
2. On page 33, Vladek says that he left Anja and
their new baby to go to Bielsko to run his new factory and find an apartment
for them to live in. How does Anja respond? Have you or members of your family
ever had to separate in order to start a new job or new life? How did it feel
for the people who moved on? How did it feel for the people who were left
behind?
3. When do Vladek and Anja realize that the war is
coming? How do they know? Use specific pictures and text to support your
answer.
4. What happens after Vladek and Anja return from
Czechoslovakia? What are they afraid of?
5. Why does Vladek consider taking Anja and Richieu
to the town of Sosnowiec? Do they eventually go to Sosnowiec? Where does Vladek
go?
6. Why doesn’t Vladek tell the doctor in the
hospital about his glass eye? What does this say about Vladek’s character?
