The Next Chapter:
Summer Reading Program
Your Westminster education begins even before you set foot on our beautiful campus, with this year’s summer reading — People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. The common summer reading assignment provides you with the opportunity to share an intellectual experience with your future classmates and professors. It will give you a sense of what college-level reading is like, and serve as the basis for classroom discussion and campus events this fall. Your experience with this summer’s program will set you on the road to a liberal arts education that will challenge you intellectually and personally, and help prepare you to make contributions in the rapidly changing world that you will enter upon graduation.
Your job now is to read People of the Book and to write an essay in response to one of the three questions provided in the Reading Guide. We have provided reading tips and a concise glossary that you may want to consult as you read the book. Follow the instructions for writing and submitting your summer essay that are provided on page 14. Be sure to submit it to your Inquiry instructor via Desire2Learn on or before August 12th.
We hope you enjoy People of the Book.
DR. SHANNON SMITHEY
Professor of Political Science
First Year Program Coordinator
Essay Requirements
Choose one of the three essay topics below. Your essay must be submitted to Desire2Learn on or before August 12th.
- The essay should be 2 typed, double spaced pages.
- Use 12 point font and one inch marging.
- You may write in first person, but it is not required.
- Put your name in the top left corner of the paper.
- Use examples from the book and explain how those examples illustrate the points you want to make.
- You are not required to use sources other than People of the Book. If you do use other sources, be sure to cite them appropriately using footnotes or in-text citation and a works cited page.
Essay Questions
CHOOSE ONE OF THE THREE topics below and write a two-page essay that responds to the questions posed. Be sure to use examples from the book and explain how those examples illustrate the points you want to make.
Essay Question #1
Geraldine Brooks says that in history, "when hateful forces arose in these societies and crushed the spirit of multi-ethnic, interfaith acceptance, there were these individuals who saw what was happening and acted to stop it in any way they could." In People of the Book, we see examples of violent intolerance, but we also encounter acceptance and compassion shared between people from very different backgrounds and beliefs.
- Where do you see examples of multi-ethnic or interfaith acceptance in the book?
- What drives the examples of hateful intolerance that we see in the book?
- Which force do you see as stronger in human history—acceptance or intolerance? Why?
- Does humanity have the capacity to live and let live?
Essay Question #2
One of the things Geraldine Brooks likes about writing historical fiction is finding "stories from the past where we can know something but not everything." As a fiction writer, Brooks can fill in details that are lost to history. Her character Hanna Heath describes her job as a book conservator as "technical, science and craftsmanship…. But there is something else too. It has to do with an intuition about the past. By linking research and imagination, sometimes I can thrust myself into the minds of the people who made the book" (p. 11).
- How does Hanna use her knowledge of both science and history to uncover the life of the Haggadah and the people associated with it?
- Which parts of the story are factual and which parts have to be imagined?
- What aspects of the history of the Haggadah and its people are impossible to discover?
- What might future researchers be able to learn about us from artifacts we leave behind, and what might be unknowable to the future?
Essay Question #3
The family is often described as the building block of society, and we are all influenced by the families from which we come. Those influences may be positive, but they may also be negative. The stories recounted in People of the Book are full of issues relating to family — love, support, tradition, expectation, legacy, obligation, tension, and roles within the family.
There are also many different families depicted in the book, including:
Hanna, her mother and the Sharanskys; Ozren and Alia; Isak and Ina; Lola and the Kamals; Dr. Hirschfeldt, his wife and brother; the Ben Shoushans; Father Vistorini, his church and his birth family; Doña de Serena and her family; Zahra and her father; and Isabella and Pedro
Choose 3 of the Families Mentioned in the Book
- What does each of these families teach us about the impact of families on individuals and society?
- How are the characters molded by their families?
- On balance, is family a positive or negative force for the characters?
- Which of the family dynamics in the book are familiar to you and which ones seem different from your own family experiences?
Essay Upload Instructions
Please save your work as a Word document or as a PDF. (Do not attempt to upload .pages files.)
- Go to learn.westminster.edu.
- Log in with your Westminster credentials as name@wclive.westminster.edu.
- Navigate to the course FY 000 01 First Year Program.
- In the course navigation select "Dropbox."
- Select the "People of the Book" folder from the Dropbox screen.
- Select "Add a File."
- If the file is saved locally on your device, select "My Computer." This is the most likely option.
- Drag the file into the dialog window or select "Upload." You can then navigate to where you have stored the file on your device.
- Once the file has uploaded, you can upload more, or select "Add" if you are finished.
- The dialog window will close and you will see your files listed. If you are satisfied with the listed files and 100% ready to submit your assignment, select "Submit."
- You will receive a confirmation screen if the assignment has been successfully submitted as well as an email confirmation.