Lesson 3 - Non Fiction

Unit 1:  Theory

LESSON 3:  NON FICTION (1 DAY)

LESSON

Read and study notes on NON-FICTION and CONTEXT.

• Read the letter "Thanks for Not Killing My Son", by Rita Schindler.

ASSIGNMENT 

Answer the following questions on "Thanks For Not Killing My Son". 
Be sure to include enough detail to answer all parts of the question and support your answer. 

1. Schindler's argument is cast as a letter. For what audience is it meant? The youths who attacked her son? All the readers of The Toronto Star? 

2. After all her ironic "thanking," Schindler ends more literally: "I wouldn't wish on your child what you did to mine." Is her closing weak because it drops the IRONY, or strong because it caps the point? 

3. How FORMAL or INFORMAL is Schindler's TONE? Give examples. Does the tone fit the content? Why or why not? 

4 . "You could have kicked him to death, but you only left him to die, thank you," writes the victim's mother in paragraph 11. 
Explain the IRONY of Schindler's "thanking" her son's attackers. 

5. The author might have called her son's attackers "thugs," "goons" or worse. Would this openly persuasive mode be more effective than the "thanks" she gives? Defend your answer with reasons. 

6. Does Schindler attempt only to heap shame on her son's attackers, or do you also detect, for example in the closing, a desire for reconciliation? Explain.