The Power of One

If you are trekking Peekay's coming of age journey, please provide your text-to-self, text-to-text and/or text-to-world paragraphs under 'comment.' Respond to your peers' paragraphs as well. Peace! Happy reading.

Example of text-to-text connection: Peekay, from The Power of One, and Pavel, from The Boy with the Striped Pajamas, share a common connection in that they both understand the vital importance of camouflage. We don't ever learn Peekay's real name. Once he goes to his first boarding school, his name is stripped from him by the Judge and his fellow tormentors. "Pisskopp" follows him through his school year, thus stripping him of his sense of humanity. He keeps the initials and converts this to Peekay thanks to a chance meeting with an adult who helps restore his sense of individuality. Having an alter ego or pseudonynm of his choosing, helps protect him. He never reveals his true identity. Everyone accepts his chosen name and he attaches his dream of becoming welterweight champion of the world to this new identity.

Pavel, the Jewish inmate from the "farm" who works around Bruno's residence, also acutely understands the necessity of camouflage. He reveals his true self to Bruno in a tender moment when tending Bruno's wounded knee. Pavel shares that he used to be a doctor before... Bruno hasn't been fully indoctrinated by his parents and country yet. His innocence as to the true extent of how dangerous it is for Pavel to reveal his name/identity makes the scene even more poignant. Pavel is a human, with a history and a family and a life, yet these pieces of self have been stolen from him by Hitler and his Nazi regime. Because of this human sharing/relationship, it strikes Bruno especially hard to hear Pavel beaten in the hallway after he spills the wine on the young Nazi soldier.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

If you are reading Maya Angelou's autobiography, please submit your text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world paragraphs under 'comment.' Please respond to your peers' connections as well.

The Diary of a Young Girl

If you are reading Anne Frank's diary, please submit your text-to-text, text-to-self and/or text-to-world connections here! Please respond to your peers' comments as well. Peace!

Unbroken

If you are reading Unbroken, submit your text-to-text, text-to-self,text-to-world connections here! Please respond to the submissions of your peers as well! Thanks!

Text-to-text example:

Schmeul from The Boy with the Striped Pajamas and Louis Zamperini both experience dehumanization during captivity.
Louis is captured by the Japanese after his plane crashes into the Pacific and is housed in a P.O.W. camp in Japan. His daily portions of food are meager. He is periodically abused both physically and mentally. He is forced into hard labor. Despite the Geneva Conventions, he is not allowed to write to his family or receive packages.

Schmeul is in a concentration camp under Nazi controlled Europe. The soldiers shave his hair which serves to strip him of his humanity. His name is replaced by a number tattooed on his arm. His clothing is stripped away and replaced by striped prison garb (which Bruno classifies as pajamas.) He is physically beaten, called a "rat" who steals food. He is kept behind barbed wire like an animal. All this treatment combined reinforces the idea that he is less than human, a belief perpetuated by Hitler and his Nazi regime. Bruno sees the audacity of this.

Dehumanization in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

When is Maya made to feel less than human?
How about others in the autobiography?

Examples of Dehumanization in The Diary of a Young Girl

What examples of dehumanization do you see BEYOND the Franks need to go into hiding?

Dehumanization in The Power of One

What examples of dehumanization do you observe?
Who is the victim?
Perpetrator?
Why?

Dehumanization in Unbroken

What examples of dehumanization do you see in Unbroken?
Who is the victim? Perpetrator?