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Teaching History Through Fiction Analysis

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Teaching History Through Fiction Analysis
In the selection, "Teaching History Through Fiction: Valuable or Dangerous" there are two different arguments on whether historical fiction should be used to teach history or not.

The Point text, "There is Value in Teaching History Through Fiction" argues that teaching history by using fiction is great at making readers and students by interested in the topic and have the topic mean something to them. In paragraph one, the text says, "...fiction can make history matter—make it irresistible—to young readers” This quote from Valerie Tripp basically explains what the writer's point was, that fiction could make history matter to the reader. To support their argument even more, the writer also added a quote from the reviewer Kathryn Hughes where
…show more content…
The writer of the Point argument also had a few well supported claims, one of them was that fiction should move people, to make them feel emotion so history should do that too. This is effective to the writer's claim because it explains a way in which fiction could be used to make history valuable or matter to readers. On the other hand, the writer also had one or two less supported claims. Such as in paragraph two where the writer used a film critic named Peter Rainer's review on the Boy in the Striped Pajamas movie as a supportive detail, which is good but then also states that the film critic also reviewed a movie called Boyhood (which is another child centered movie). …show more content…
In paragraph seven, the text says, "By manipulating the historical realities of the Holocaust for the sake of a good story, Boyne runs the risk of giving readers a distorted view of the Holocaust." This was an example of what the writer was arguing about and what they think about the book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The writer believes that the book manipulated some historic events in the Holocaust for the sake of a good story. To support their argument farther more, the writer quoted David Cesarani on the topic of how Bruno would pronounce some words, it says, "Young Bruno mishears “Auschwitz” as “Out-With” and “the Führer” as “the Fury.” As Cesarani points out, “any normal German nine-year-old would have been able to pronounce Führer and Auschwitz correctly.” This shows us that the author had changed the pronouncing of the words Auschwitz and the Fuhrer to out-with and the fury, this is impossible because Bruno is born in Germany and he should then also be able to speak German fluently. The writer also had some well supported points, one of them was a quote from Cesarani that says, "Guards patrolled the fences and prisoners did not have the freedom to move about at will. Boyne’s literary device hides the ugly truth of the concentration camps: constant roll calls, slave labor,

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