The Indomitable Human Spirit

I didn't choose to read Night and Dawn by Elie Wiesel on my summer break. However, because I'm tutoring a student who does have to read these books for her summer English assignment, I'm reading them as well. As I re-read Night, the harrowing memoir of Wiesel's journey from his small Hungarian town to various concentration and labor camps, I couldn't help but connect his experiences with the recent tragedy of the Aurora, Colorado shooting. In both cases, some victims' lives were lost while others' were spared. Both invite us to grapple with the intense wickedness as well as the exceptional compassion of which humans are capable.

Using literature as a platform for discussing these complex themes with students, can help them make sense of the emotions that arise during times of tragedy. Some notable works about the resilience of humanity:

Memoir
Night by Elie Wiesel (@ElieWiesel)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (@JeanetteWalls)

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (@IshmaelBeah)

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer (@DavePelzer)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou)

Infidel by Aryaan Hirsi Ali

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (@MaxineHong1)

Stitches by David Small

The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara

Slave by Damien Lewis and Mende Nazer

Other Nonfiction

Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose

Fiction
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Little Bee by Chris Cleave (@ChrisCleave)

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (@Lisa_See)

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (@jesmimi)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (@askLaurie)

No Safe Place by Deborah Ellis

Sold by Patricia McCormick (@McCormicWrites)

Speaking of Patricia McCormick, I'm off to read my next beach book club selection Never Fall Down, another tale of a young boy extirpated from his town, separated from his family, and forced to work in a labor camp. I have a feeling my summer of reflecting on the triumph of the human spirit isn't over yet.