Sample Reading Quizzes 1
Let's first look back at these key suggestions taken from the quiz rubric:
High-scoring Quizzes will include:
-Outstanding Insights on all aspects of the question (This means you have seen things that others haven't seen or drawn conclusions that others haven't.)
-Specific details from the text that directly apply to the quiz question
-Strong concrete references interspersed (paraphrases & quoted material)
-When needed embedded summary details for context and clarity along with critical reader insights
-An in-depth thoughtful analysis of the characters as pertains to the quiz question
-Evidence that the writer is thinking about the larger implications inherent in their analysis and reading.
-Evidence that the writer has taken the time to develop all aspects of the quiz question thoughtfully and in-depth___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reading Discussion Quiz 1
This quiz is not just about regurgitating information from the book. It is also about your insights into the character(s) and their behaviors and motivations.
Here is the (only) question:
Quiz Question: After reading Monster and The Boy on the Wooden Box you have likely found several themes that you could discuss and apply to both books despite their vast differences. Let’s think back for a minute to our class list of themes from the beginning of the semester ( see a few examples below).
Take one of the “themes of adolescence” from this list or elsewhere and apply it to both books. What similarities do you see, or differences? What stands out to you as you think of these two texts from different time periods, in different mediums and genres, with protagonists that face their own unique set of obstacles, prejudices, and a clash with a larger dominant culture?
Some sample Themes:
Self-Discovery/ Discovery in general
Curiosity
Exploration
Belonging/ Acceptance
Independence
Identity (identity development, conflict, creation)
Detachment
Feelings of Inferiority
Desire for Accomplishment
Friendship & Camaraderie
Race & Racial Issues/ Opinions
Developing Relationships
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Sample Responses:
from Meagan:
Steve Harmon in Monster and Leon Leyson in The Boy on the Wooden box both develop important relationships and strengthen already familiar relationships throughout their tribulations in these books. Both of these characters are struggling in foreign situations that test them on many fronts including opening up to others about their thoughts, feelings, and fears.
Steve and Leon are both young and both have important and influential relationships with their families, in particular with their parents. Both of these young men are witnessing their parents experiencing full vulnerability, while also experiencing that vulnerability themselves. Steve writes in his notes how seeing his "dad cry like that was just so terrible,"(115) after him visiting the prison where Steve was being held throughout his trial. This situation is not of the norm and adds a dimension to Steve and his father's overall relationship that is beyond the average father-son connection. Leon on the other hand only saw Moshe, his father, as being strong and confident. Leon describes that although his father was stricken with fear for the family's safety, "he kept his feelings hidden behind and impenetrable expression."(90) While both of these situations are vastly different we can also see the interactions are very different due to the father's personalities and the given time period. While Steve's situation was within his control, his father shows disappointment and fear that his son is somewhere that he could never of imagined. Moshe of course is also in situation he never could of foreseen, but had to remain strong for his family because nothing they did could of changed the outcome. Of course, both of these relationships developed through fear, through longing to be together once again, and love. Something that stands out from these two different time periods is what we find important in our loved ones. Leon always spoke of his father's skills "as an expert craftsman"(195) throughout the book, his father's work is what held the family together even when his father had to move away for work, his love and admiration for his father was always steady. While in Steve's situation, Mr. Harmon tells Steve about the dreams he had for Steve's future, dreams of him "playing football,"(111) as well as him "going off to college."(111) Mr. Harmon and Steve's relationship becomes more based more on words, desires, and being honest with fears while they were waiting for his trial to be over. The time period is essential, since in the 1930s/1940s men speaking of their fears and feelings wasn't as accepted as during the time period of Monster. While Leon and his father remained together for the rest of his father's life, Steve's father created distance between them that "seemed to grow bigger and bigger"(280), I also believes the time period is essential to why Mr. Harmon would leave, only more recently would it be acceptable to up and leave your family, only with the exception of working toward a better life like in Moshe's case.
While these young men and their father's relationships differ, the relationship that developed with their mothers through these heart wrenching situations seemed very similar. Both Leon and Steve both see their mothers working through pain and agony, without hiding it or being ashamed. In Monster, the reader is able to see many different dimensions of the mother from when the cops arrive at Steve's door, to the courtroom, and her visiting Steve just as his father had. Steve witnessed his mother body shaking "with the sobs"(148) of not knowing Steve's future as well as her own. Both of Steve's parents cry in front of him at the Prison but both of these have very different effects on Steve, while he believes his father is "seeing a monster instead"(116) of his son, Steve's mother truly believed he was innocent and the situation itself was the true monster. Once Steve is announced not guilty, their mother-son relationship developed into gratitude and a more typical relationship. Leon also witnesses his mother expressing pain and fear, unlike his father. Leon's mother constantly wishes to "get back to Narewka" (173) since their very first excursion to Krawkow. He knew the pain his mother experienced leaving the life she always knew and her family along with it. One interesting development that came out of this incident is shedding of the norms of the time period. Leon tells the reader that his "mother tried to meet his [fathers] every need."(38) and the "children came second."(38) By the end of the book their is no detection of Chanah catering to Moshe's every whim. Once this family escaped the clutches the Holocaust, the children and their lives became the most precious aspect of Chanah's life. The relationship developed out of both of these scenarios is very similar which emphasized closeness, proximity wise and mentally close.
These two characters also form unfamiliar relationships with authority figures. Steve Harmon develops a relationship with his Lawyer, Miss O'Brien, while Leon develops a relationship with Oskar Schindler. To both of these authority figures the protagonists are viewed as powerless. Much of this is due to prejudices. Miss O'Brien first tells Steve "You're young, You're black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?"(79) The reader and Steve both realize that O'Brien has her doubts on whether Steve is innocent, but does not doubt the fact that he was harshly judged before any evidence was even presented. Leon's relationship with Schindler was long-standing, beginning with his father working for him and then eventually working for him himself. It was apparent that Jews were treated brutally, with no regret and denial. Schindler cared deeply for his workers, and even transferred Leon to the day shift which was "far easier mentally and physically"(161) While both of the authority figures assisted the protagonists out of horrific situations and obstacles such as prejudices, there relationships that came about were vastly different. When Steve learns he is declared not guilty he "spreads his arms to hug O'Brien" (276) but there is nothing but terror in her eyes, he suspects she sees "a monster"(278) regardless of the verdict. Leon on the other hand, had nothing but grown "admiration for Oskar Schindler"(201). While both of these characters assisted in the only way they knew how, the relationships that were developed were far different, while the outcome for both of the main characters was positive.
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From Autumn:
Both of the main characters in Monster and The Boy on The Wooden Box grapple with identity throughout their stories. Adolescence is probably the most important time in a human being’s life when it comes to developing a sense of identity and figuring out one’s place in the world, one’s purpose. Leon and Steve are both struggling to do so positively in their vastly negative environments.
Steve Harmon’s story takes place as he is on trial for murder. Here he is also forced to stay in jail during the trial. It is not clear how long Steve has been there, but the very beginning of the Prologue alludes to the fact that he has been there long enough to know what’s what, maybe a couple of months. “The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out is someone is being beaten up and screaming for help. That way even if you sniffle a little they won’t hear you. If anybody knows that you are crying, they’ll start talking about it and soon it’ll be your turn to get beat up when the lights go out.” Even here he knows what the routine is, and is getting the hang of how to survive. The paragraph directly following the one previously mentioned states just how much Steve is struggling with his sense of identity. “There is a mirror over the steel sink in my cell. It’s six inches high, and scratched with the names of some guys who were here before me. When I look into the small rectangle, I see a face looking back at me but I don’t recognize it. It doesn’t look like me. I couldn’t have changed that much in a few months. I wonder if I will look like myself when the trial is over.” As a way to cope with all the stuff he’s going through and all the things he doesn’t know, Steve decides to process it all as a movie, because films interested him even before he was arrested. He was even in a film club at school (Monday, July 6). So he decides that “[m]aybe I could make my own movie, I could write it out and play int in my head. I could block out the scenes like we did in school. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I’ll write it down in the notebook the let me keep. I’ll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER.”(Prologue) Notice how even here Steve is trying on the hat of ‘monster’. He is still so young and impressionable, and especially because a grown-up identifies him as such, it causes him to think that maybe she is right. Though Steve is not without his own idea of what his identity might be. In Wednesday, July 8, he writes in his journal that “I want to look like a good person. I want to feel like a good person because I believe I am. But being in here with these guys makes it hard to think about yourself as being different.” In the next chapter Steve is trying so hard to cling to his sense of goodness. “Who was Steve Harmon? I wanted to open my shirt and tell her to look into my heart to see who I really was, who the real Steve Harmon was. That was what I was thinking, about what was in my heart and what that made me. I’m just not a bad person. I know that in my heart I am not a bad person.” (Thursday, July 9)
Leon Leyson was barely in the beginning years of adolescence when the Nazis invaded his home country of Poland (in Chapter Two he states that he was eight years old in 1938). His description of what his “idyllic” childhood was like established a sense of normalcy that was lost in 1939. “...Narewka in the 1930s was a pretty idyllic place to grow up. From sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, the Jews of Narewka observed the Sabbath. I loved the quietness that fell as shops and businesses closed, a welcome respite from the weekday routines. After services in the synagogue, people would sit on their porches, chatting and chewing pumpkin seeds. They would often ask me to sing when I strolled by, since I knew a lot of tunes and was admired for my voice, a distinction I lost when I entered adolescence and my voice changed.” (Chapter One) But “October 1938 began with disturbing news. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, and conversations everywhere were full of stories about Germany and Adolf Hitler, Germany’s leader, or Fuhrer.” (Chapter Two) Leon’s struggle with identity was similar to the struggles that other adolescents who happened to be Jews during World War II. “...[M]y personal identity didn’t count for much compared to my identity as a Jew; and for those who seemed to hate us, it didn’t matter when a Jew lived: A Jew was a Jew, and every Jew was accountable for the death of Jesus.” (Chapter One) “Had they [Nazis] taken the time to really look at us, they would have seen human beings just like themselves: some with blue eyes, some with brown. They would have seen families just like their own: sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, craftsmen, and tailors, individuals from all walks of life.” (Chapter Five) Here it seems as though Leon’s sense of identity is somewhat more developed than Steve’s, but maybe this is because it is a memoir, and everything seems more concrete when you are looking from the future at the past. Then again, Leon writes that “[s]ince I was not yet twelve, I didn’t wear the armband identification; when I was old enough to wear it, I made up my mind not to. Even though my confidence had been shaken by what I had seen and experienced, there were times when I disobeyed the rules and thumbed my nose at the Nazis. In a way, I used their own stereotypes against them, since there was nothing about me that made it obvious I was a Jew. With my thick, dark hair and blue eyes, I looked a lot like a lot of other Polish boys. Now and then, I would sit on a park bench just to prove I could do what I wanted, resisting the Nazis in my own small way.” (Chapter Three) It seems that Leon clung to his identity all the harder when the Nazis wanted to scrub it out of him.
Steve and Leon’s struggles with identity are very different, and yet, even in their varying situations, they both do what they can to cling to themselves in this way. I theorize that Leon had a more solid sense of his identity because the attack on him, and every Jew, by the Nazis was a targeted attack. By this I mean that the attack was mainly on religion. Yes, the Nazis thought that it made the whole person evil and terrible, but to Leon, it was just his religion. It wasn’t his entire self. Steve’s struggle was the opposite. The accusation was targeted at all of him-- a murderer is usually seen as a monster through and through. The only thing that wasn’t affected by this was his love of movies. And thus, it became his new identity.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From Breann:
After reading Monster and The Boy on the Wooden Box I certainly discovered many themes that both books had in common. For example, identity, belonging and acceptance, feelings of inferiority and discrimination. Unfortunately, I am to pick only one theme and I choose the one that was most prominent, discrimination. The two books did focus on different types of discrimination and they were in different time periods. For example, Monster showed more racial discrimination in modern day and The Boy on the Wooden Box focuses more on religious discrimination during WWII era. But, it is discrimination nonetheless and while the theme of discrimination was the one that stood out the most to me, it is a broad theme in which many other sub-themes follow, such as the ones listed before (identity, inferiority, acceptance, self-discovery).
In Walter Dean Myer’s book Monster Steve Harmon is accused of being the look-out for an armed robbery that resulted in the cold murder of the store owner. Racial discrimination is no doubt a contribution to the name “monster” that the prosecutor calls Steve, but I also believe that Steve’s overall lifestyle is given more evidence of prejudice in the book. At one point, O’Brien says to Steve the jury decided the first time they saw Steve he was guilty, because “you’re young, you’re black, and you’re on trial. What else do they need to know?” (79). O’Brien, the one that is supposed to be defending Steve can’t even deny the fact that visuals have an impact in the society today. Now mix skin color with the type of people that Steve is in the court room with, King, Bobo, and Osvaldo, these people create racial stereotypes that American society stand by today. Steve doesn’t look different in the eyes of the jury not only because of his skin color but because the people he was affiliating himself with. Steve’s mother, a respectable and kind woman, even asks if she should have contacted a black lawyer, worried about a white woman defending a black convicted criminal teenager. Steve lives in Harlem, a famously ethnic neighborhood and even though his family seems quite normal he is hanging around with people of color that consider robbing places a way to make their money rather than honest work. Steve’s discrimination is more of a ramification from the past of racism and slavery in America. Perhaps racism would be much more apparent if this case took time during the civil rights era or even before then, like it does for Leon in The Boy on the Wooden Box.
In addition to the theme of discrimination in Monster the book The Boy on the Wooden Box shows serious themes of discrimination. Leon is also seen as a monster through the eyes of others that are different from him, just like Steve Harmon. The difference is, Leon is seen as a monster because of his religion and the time he lived in was when the law of the land was to “torture and exterminate Jews,” (94) loosely from religious beliefs but mostly because of a mad-man/ dictator (Hitler) using them as a scapegoat for other problems. Leon starts seeing both the past and present of Jewish discrimination when his Christian playmates threw rocks at him and called him “Christ killer” (1) even though Jesus lived centuries before him and Leon had no part in what happened to him. Leon recognizes the aftermath of his religion when he says “A Jew was a Jew. And every Jew was accountable for the death of Jesus,” (1). This quote is very similar to what O’Brien says to Steve, about being young and black being all the people need to know. Both children openly recognize that their neighborhood, skin color, religion, or past have nothing to do with their own personal identities. Leon realizes this right when he is called “Christ killer” and later when he says, “had they taken the time to really look at us, they would have seen human beings just like themselves,” (57). Steve seems to recognize this when he says he wants O’Brien to “look into my heart to see who I really was, who the real Steve Harmon was,” (92). Leon experiences a different kind of incarceration than Steve, he is sent out of his own home, into the ghettos, and to concentration camps for being Jewish, not for any direct actions. Steve on the other hand, whether he was an accessory to the crime, was put into another sort of hell (jail) because of his actions.
In conclusion, discrimination is a theme in both Monster and The Boy on the Wooden Box that differs in the type of discrimination, the intensity of it, and the time periods in which it occurs. But, the discrimination is similar in that it leads to a self-discovery of each Steve and Harmon as not being monsters but rather living in a time and society in which they are deemed one. Both boys are uprooted from their daily life and sent away from their homes, and both continue to live in a society that hasn’t completely extinguished discrimination. The connection between the past and present, the discrimination of Jews and blacks, is seen when Leon makes it to America after his horrors and is told “the back seats are for negroes” (125). Leon flashes back to when the Jews were made to sit in the back and he realizes that even in the country he has come to love there is prejudice and racism against another race. Fast forward fifty years and we have Steve Harmon living in the aftermath of those prejudices. Despite all of the times the world has tried to discriminate it seems to be a constant theme and a precedent we humans still haven’t quite learned from.
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from Jessica:
Throughout Walter Dean Myers Monster and Leon Leyson’s The Boy on the Wooden Box the common theme of friendship and camaraderie can be applied. Almost every adolescent wants to be liked, popular, and have many friends to choose from. As teenagers are rarely secure with themselves, friends become almost a shield to hide behind. What is there to hide from, you might ask? It could be many things one wants to hide from; loneliness and the devastating realization of “I don’t know who I am”. With friends, one typically feels as if they belong which gives a sense (even if it’s false) of security. Rarely adolescents act who they truly are in front of their friends but use them as a distraction from the fact that they themselves don’t know who they are. In Monster, we see Steve Harmon struggling with his identity. Locked away surrounded by thugs he is without a friend in the world. The only non threatening person he is able to communicate with is his lawyer. Obviously he cannot hug her or have the luxury of small talking with her due to his situation but naturally we watch Steve crave feeling camaraderie. At the end we see “Steve turns toward OBRIEN, but she stiffens and turns to pick up her papers” (276). Steve longs for his brother when he says “I wish Jerry were here. Not in jail,. but somehow with me.” (204).
With regards to Leon Leyson we see camaraderie several times in reference to Leon’s brother Tsalig, Oskar Schindler, and the young non-jewish boys whom Leon played with when he was young. Children inherintly want to develop friendships; they are not born to discriminate or see color or race, but are taught. This learned behavior proves to be confusing and conflict with natural desires to have relationships. In The Boy on the Wooden Box we see can see an example of this. “Before long I had a few special friends, and we loved making up games. Once of our favorites was to ride the streetcars…The fact that I was jewish and they were not didn’t seem to matter….All that mattered was that I shared their sense of mischief and daring” (36-37). Later, as tension rises we see them same children who at one time wanted to be friends with Leon become cruel. “Gradually the boys with whom I had shared so many adventures, who had never cared that I was Jewish, started ignoring me; then they began mutturing nasty words when I was near” (52-53). Perhaps these children would lose more “non-jew” friends if they did not snub their nose to Jews like the rest did; perhaps if they had to choose between two “friends”, one with an aggressive military was the better of the two. I wonder in my heart if any of those particular boys believed in their hearts that Leon was all the terrible things they were told Jews were? While this was certainly a blow to Leon, luckily we are resilient by nature and he was able to form more friendships. These friendships were more easily formed due to the sheer amount of suffering (not to mention living conditions) of the Jews once the Holocaust began. We also see this with Tsalig whom Leon is particularly fond and close to. We see him craving his brother's affection and attention "more and more I tried to model myself after him, and I was pleased whenever anyone looked and the two of us and commented on how much we looked and even walked alike. (45). Leon was not able to play with non-Jews at this time but he still found camaraderie and avoided loneliness by embracing his brother and other he met along the way.
Steve Harmon was not received in friendship by his lawyer, was not visited by his friends or brother and would place himself in danger if he tried to form new friendships in jail. Perhaps this is why Steve needed to create his film. He had no other outlet, no other means of escaping his own personal hell?
Friendship may be seemingly insignificant but to our protagonists it gives hope. It is a refreshing light to them when times seem very bleak. They are not alone, there is some good in a world full of bad or despairing situations. Specifically, with prejudice, racism and horrific prognosis friendship and camaraderie give a hope that there can be change and that they are not alone. Without this, it is very likely our protagonists would have lost their hope and possibly even their will to live. Instead, in both situations each perservered and overcame, which is a beautiful and powerful thing.
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from April:
One theme that we see throughout both of the books Monster by Walter Dean Myers and The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson is belonging and acceptance. Both Leon and Steve are going through a life-changing event where neither of them feel like they belong.
In the book Monster, Steve is on trial for being an accomplice to murder. One of the very first things he writes is, "Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. It is a strange movie with no plot and no beginning." (3). Steve does not feel like this is his life. He doesn't want to believe that he belongs here. After the trial has started Steve writes in his journal, "I think they are bringing out all of these people and letting them look terrible on the stand and sound terrible and then reminding the jury that they don't look any different from me and King." (60). Steve is slowly losing his acceptance of himself as an individual. He is starting to identify with terrible people. In the book The Boy on the Wooden Box, we begin to see Leon lose his sense of belonging when he sees his father get beaten. "Until that instant when I saw my father beaten and bloody, I had somehow felt I was safe. I know how irrational that must seem, given what I saw happening around me; but until that evening I had thought I had a special immunity, that somehow the violence wouldn't touch me." (57). This is the moment when Leon realizes that things are changing. That Jews are losing the battle of being accepted. Even before this happens, Leon begins to lose his feeling of belonging when "gradually the boys with whom I had shared so many adventures, who had never cared that I was Jewish, started ignoring; then they began muttering nasty words when I was near; and finally, the cruelest of my onetime friends told me that they would never again be seen playing with a Jew." (53). Right at the beginning of these two books, we see that both of the main characters lose their sense of belonging and acceptance.
Even though these books both have good outcomes, we see a difference here in how this theme plays out. In Monster, Steve receives a verdict of not guilty, but he is still having trouble with finding acceptance. Steve writes in his journal, "After the trial, my father, with tears in his eyes, held me close and said that he was thankful that I did not have to go to jail. He moved away, and the distance between us seemed to grow bigger and bigger....My father is no longer sure of who I am." (280, 281). Steve can see it in his eyes that his dad doesn't know who he is anymore, he has lost some of the acceptance from his father. He ends the novel by saying, "What did she see?" (281). He knows that she doesn't believe him to be innocent, she may not have accepted that he really didn't do this. Unlike Steve, we learn that Leon has found belonging and acceptance in The Boy on the Wooden Box. It didn't happen right away. After the war was over and Leon and his family learned that they couldn't stay in Krakow, they moved to a camp for Jews. They stayed at this camp for a while. Leon made friends, got healthy, and even continued his education while there. Even though his life was turning around he "...never felt like the camp was home..." (178). Even though life was looking up, he was still lost in his sense of belonging and acceptance. Even after Leon makes it to the United States and goes to school, serves for the U.S. and is in a good career of teaching. He says, "As much as I had moved on and made a life for myself, it wasn't until I met my future wife, Lis, that I felt I could truly heal." (193). This is the first time that Leon opens up about his experiences in WWII. Upon talking about them, I believe he feels that people can know who he truly is and he feels that he is being accepted for who he is and not having to hide that side of him.
Both of these boys go through a tragic life changing event where they lose the sense of belonging and acceptance that they had before these events happened. We follow them through these events as they are struggling with what is happening to them. Luckily, we see that Leon learns to figure out belonging and acceptance. Steve is still struggling with this. We can only hope that he is able to find where he belongs and that people can accept who he really is.