In your workbook, draw up a timeline of the major events in the novel. Include the following details in your timeline:
What was the major event?
What circumstances led up to the event?
Where did it happen?
Who was involved?
What was the outcome?
Activity 3:
Answer the following questions about Will in your workbook:
1.
Describe Will's personality at the beginning of the novel.
2.
What circumstances have made him this way? Answer fully.
3.
In what ways does he develop during the novel and what relationships are especially important to his healing as a person?
4.
Do you think he will be able to overcome the tragedy of his life? Why / why not?
Answer the following questions about Tom in your workbook:
5.
Why is Tom so grumpy at the beginning of the novel?
6.
How is Tom changed through his relationship with Will?
7.
Why is buying the art supplies such a significant moment for him?
8.
Do you think Tom will make a good father to Will? Why / why not?
Answer the following questions about Zack in your workbook:
9.
How is Zack different to Will?
10.
Why do you think they became such good friends?
11.
What impact did Zack have on Will as a person?
12.
Do you think it was necessary for the author to 'kill off' Zack? Why / why not?
Answer the following questions about Will’s mother in your workbook:
13.
What do we know about Will's mother? Answer fully.
14.
What could have made her do the things she did?
15.
What happened to her?
16.
Does she deserve any pity from us? Why / why not?
Activity 4:
THEME 1 - THE HARDSHIPS OF WAR
In the Context of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’:
Answer the following questions in your workbook:
1.
Describe how the hardships of war impact on each of the following characters:
a) Will
b) Tom
c) Zack
2.
Parents had the choice of either keeping their children with them to face the nightly bombings, or sending them to stay with strangers in the safety of the country. Outline the pro's and con's of each option and state which option YOU would have chosen.
In the Context of Life:
The following two poems were written by men who fought in World War 1. As a class, discuss the hardships of war portrayed in these poems:
Judging from the content and tone of the poems, what psychological effect do you think that war has on the soldiers who fight in them?
How does their portrayal of war differ from Hollywood war movies?
How do you think war affects the infrastructure of a city? Where do people live? Do they still go to school / work? Are shops open? How are basic needs met?
Do these poems make you think any differently about the wars that are currently being fought around the world? If so, how?
The Sentry By Wilfred Owen
We’d found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew, and gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell hammered on top, but never quite burst through. Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime kept slush waist-high and rising hour by hour, and choked the steps too thick with clay to climb. What murk of air remained stank old, and sour with fumes of whiz-bangs, and the smell of men who’d lived there years, and left their curse in the den, if not their corpses …
There we herded from the blast of whiz-bangs, but one found our door at last, – buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles. And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping and sploshing in the flood, deluging muck – the sentry’s body; then his rifle, handles of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck. We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined ‘O sir, my eyes – I’m blind – I’m blind, I’m blind! Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids and said if he could see the least blurred light he was not blind; in time he’d get all right. ‘I can’t,’ he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids’. Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there in posting Next for duty, and sending a scout to beg a stretcher somewhere, and flound’ring about to other posts under the shrieking air.
Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed, and one who would have drowned himself for good, – I try not to remember these things now. Let dread hark back for one word only: how half listening to that sentry’s moans and jumps, and the wild chattering of his broken teeth, renewed most horribly whenever crumps pummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath – through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout ‘I see your lights!’ But ours had long died out.
Suicide in the Trenches By Siegfried Sassoon
I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum, With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.
Your Response to this Theme:
Imagine you lived in London during the bombings of World War II. Write your own poem in response to the emotions you might feel (e.g. terror / anger / frustration / courage / patriotism).
Activity 5:
THEME 2 - ABUSE
In the Context of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’:
Answer the following questions in your workbook:
1.
Which part of the book did you find most disturbing?
2.
Do you think it was necessary for the author to include the baby's gruesome death? Why / why not?
In the Context of Life:
The song My Name is Luca by Suzanne Vega is about domestic violence. Read through the lyrics to the song and then, as a class, try to understand Luca and people like her:
Why do they make excuses for their abusers or blame themselves for the abuse?
Why do they refuse help or stay in abusive relationships?
How should we feel towards the abusers?
What should we do when we encounter domestic violence?
My Name is Luca By Suzanne Vega
My name is Luca I live on the second floor I live upstairs from you Yes I think you've seen me before If you hear something late at night Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was (3x)
I think it's 'cause I'm clumsy I try not to talk too loud Maybe it's because I'm crazy I try not to act too proud They only hit until you cry And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore (3x)
Yes I think I'm okay I walked into the door again If you ask that's what I'll say And it's not your business anyway I guess I'd like to be alone With nothing broken, nothing thrown
Just don't ask me how I am (3x)
They only hit until you cry And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore (3x)
Your Response to this Theme:
Make a poster encouraging victims of abuse to speak out and get help.
Activity 6:
THEME - FRIENDSHIP
In the Context of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’:
Answer the following questions in your workbook:
1.
Name all of Will's friends and give two details about each.
2.
What point do you think the author makes about friendships?
In the Context of Life:
Look at the picture of these unlikely friends and then complete the ‘Response to Text’ exercise.
Your Response to this Theme:
In your workbook, describe an unlikely friendship such as the one in the picture. (± 150 words)
Activity 7:
THEME - OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
In the Context of ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’:
Answer the following questions in your workbook:
1.
What challenges did each of the following characters overcome:
a) Will
b) Tom
2.
Who / what helped them to overcome these challenges?
In the Context of Life:
Read the shortened account of Solomon Radasky, a Holocaust survivor:
PORTRAIT OF A SURVIVOR – SOLOMON RADASKY
I am from Warsaw. I had a nice life there; I had my own shop where I used to make fur coats.
Out of the 78 people in my family, I am the only one to survive. My parents had 3 boys and 3 girls: My parents were Jacob and Toby; my brothers were Moishe and Baruch, and my sisters were Sarah, Rivka and Leah. They were all killed.
The deportations started on July 22, 1942. My other 2 sisters and 2 brothers went to Treblinka. After that I never saw anybody from my family again.
At Majdanek they took our clothes and gave us striped shirts, pants and wooden shoes.
We had to walk to work barefoot. After a few days some people could not take it anymore, and they fell down in the road. If they could not get up, they were shot where they lay. After work we had to carry the bodies back. If 1,000 went out to work, a 1,000 had to come back.
The soldier took us to the railroad tracks, he put us on a train and the next morning we left Majdanek. I had been there 9 weeks. We were on this train for two nights and a day with no food or water. In my 9 weeks at Majdanek I had not changed my shirt or washed myself. We were eaten up with lice, and many of us were swollen from hunger.
When we got off the train, we saw that we had arrived at Auschwitz. There was a selection and some of us were machine gunned in a field there. They did not take them to the gas chambers.
I was taken to get a number tattooed on my arm. I got Number 128232. The separate numbers add up to 18. In the Hebrew language the letters of the alphabet stand for numbers. The letters which stand for the number eighteen spell out the Hebrew word "Chai," which means life. After I was tattooed, I was given a potato.
After I got out of quarantine, I was put to work building railroad tracks. A young guy came up to me and said, "I know you." I asked him, "Who are you?" He said his name was Erlich and that he knew me from Majdanek. I asked him what this place was. He said it was the hospital barracks, Block 20. He told me, "It is very bad here. Dr Mengele comes two times a week to make selections. But this is Tuesday and he will not come again this week. I will let you know what is going to happen." I had not eaten since Monday. He gave me bread.
I was working for over a year with the boys at the same job, digging sand. Every day we loaded up a wagon with the sand and pushed it 16 kilometres. Twice a day we carried sand to Birkenau to cover the ashes of the dead from the crematoria.
I saw when the transports came. I saw the people who were going in, who to the right and who to the left. I saw who was going to the gas chambers. I saw the people going to the real showers, and I saw the people going to the gas. In August and September of 1944 I saw them throw living children into the crematorium. They would grab them by an arm and a leg and throw them in.
I left Auschwitz for Gross-Rosen and 9 days later the Russians liberated it. That cost me 5 months!
Gross-Rosen was murder. The guards walked around with iron pipes in their hands. We were put in a shed with two thousand men. In the daytime we had to stand up, and at night we slept head to foot. The only food we got was a slice of bread and a cup of coffee at night. I thought I was going to die there.
Early at 4 a.m. on 1 May, 1945, near Tutzing, we heard heavy traffic on the highway. We pushed to look out of the two little windows of the train. A jeep drove up with two soldiers. One was a short man, an MP. He spoke good German. He asked who we were. We said we were from the concentration camps. Everybody started hollering and crying.
The American soldiers said we were free.
To read the full account of Solomon Radasky, go to:
