UNIT 1 PBA

1. UNIT 1 PBA Maja Durkovic

2. I. introduction Fiction versus non-fiction; the age-old debate. Some have a preference. Others do not. But which text allows us to interpret culture? Which provokes the empathy within us? Which one allows us to open our boarded-up minds to the lives of others?

3. II. “Why reading fiction is better for your brain than nonfiction” A) Chris Eder B) “The more fictitious a story is, the more educational value it has.” 1)”Fiction is defined by logic.” a)”… we can learn more about the logical cause-and-effect of life by reading fiction.” (Eder) b) Characters, story, setting, and plot is created based on logic.

4. i) “Somewhere up ahead, a woman screamed, and Josef took off at a run. He felt as though he was outside himself, he existed outside his own skin, and he watched himself slam into the rail and look over the side. Someone yelled ‘Man overboard!’… Josef’s father had jumped in.” (Gratz 170) ii) The entirety of this passage is based on a cause-and-effect scenario. A woman screams, so Josef takes off at a run. Josef is running and has to stop, so he slams into the boat rail. Josef’s actions in this work of fiction are followed by the logical sequence of events that would occur if this was a real-life situation.

5. 111. “6 REASONS WHY I ONLY READ NONFICTION” A) Christina R. Green B) Your personal growth and professional development can increase enormously by reading non-fiction. 1) Non-fiction fills your knowledge gaps. a) “…I’m required to know a little about everything but project a strong knowledge of whatever industry I’m representing… it also helps to read a wide variety of books and articles.” (Green)

6. b) “I told him about the children at the dump… He spoke gently to the children, but they ran away. I asked him why they weren’t in school. He told me that these children were supporting their families, selling whatever they found for a few rupees; if they went to school, their families would go hungry. ”(McCormick Yousafzai 26) c) “’We have known what it is like to be hungry, pishso,’ she said. ‘We must never forget to share what we have.’” (McCormick Yousafzai 27)

7. i) “I Am Malala” gives great examples of Pashtun culture and beliefs. Many people believe that all people in Pakistan are part of the Taliban and want to hurt others, but Malala teaches us that Pakistanis just want their home back. Others just want enough food to feed their families. “I Am Malala” is able to give us a well-rounded view of normal life and culture in Pakistan.

8. IV. “5 REASONS TO READ FICTION” A) ruggedfellowsguide.com/5-reasons-read-fiction/ B) “Works of fiction expose everything in a new light through a new lens.” 1) “Reading literary fiction develops your vocabulary, strengthens your speech, and makes you a better writer.” (ruggedfellowsguide.com/5-reasons-read- fiction/) a) Literary fiction exposes new ideas and thoughts, uses new grammatical styles, and introduces undiscovered words.

9. 2) “Most fiction novels contain real settings and perhaps even real characters but tell a made-up story, or include fictitious elements into a real-life timeline. In this way, works of fiction contain truths about our culture and history as people, which complement non-fiction accounts.” (ruggedfellowsguide.com/5- reasons-read-fiction/) a) “Some of them wore regular clothes: white shirts with the sleeves rolled up, gray slacks, brown wool caps, leather works boots. More of them wore the brown shirts and red swastika armbands of the Sturmabteilung, Adolf Hitler’s ‘storm troopers.’” (Gratz 3)

10. b) “The passenger’s clothes looked shabby, it was only when he heard his father tearing his shirt that Josef understood- ripping your garments was Jewish tradition at funerals.” (Gratz 113) i) Alan Gratz is able to use the history of Germany and Adolf Hitler’s rule in Josef’s story. The “storm troopers” were the real people under Hitler’s rule that stormed Jewish houses. Gratz used history and facts in Josef’s story to give it truth value. We can learn a lot about Jewish culture by seeing how Josef presents himself and what events he attends. Alan Gratz used Jewish history and traditions to make Josef’s story accurate to the readers.

11. v. “your brain on fiction vs. fiction” A. Thomas Larson B. “Nonfiction has accomplished everything fiction has in terms of narrative, description, and insight into human character.” 1) Nonfiction develops character just as much as fiction does. a) “Stating that the language of fiction helps us understand social relationships as we do ‘in life’ is meaningless… To assume that reading ‘enlarges’ this power seems self-congratulatory to print, and sneers at oral cultures.” (Larson)

12. i) Larson says that reading fiction does have a correlation between “human compassion and intelligence,” but non-fiction can do the same thing to readers. Both are able to inspire the reader’s compassion. 2) “What’s more, it [non-fiction] extends and complicates the relationship between an author and her actual (some dead, some living) human subjects, which fiction cannot do because its characters only exist in the book itself.” (Larson)

13. a) “I still fight with Khushal. (Or rather, he fights with me and I oblige him.) We fight over who gets the front seat on the way to school. We fight over what station to listen to on the radio. He tells me that I have a big nose. I tell him he is fat. He tries to give me a punch when we pull up in front of his school. And I lock the door as he tries to get out. I may be an advocate for free speech and human rights in public, but with my brother, I admit, I can be a dictator!” (McCormick Yousafzai 182) i) Malala reveals her relationship with her brother, Khushal. She shows the readers a new side of herself and changes their image of her by the way she acts with him.

14. VI. Your understanding of culture is better influenced by non-fiction texts A. Non-fiction presents cold, hard facts about real people that make the reader want to know more. 1) “The whole country was in shock for a long time after the earthquake. We were vulnerable. Which made it that much easier for someone with bad intentions to use a nations fear for his gain.” (McCormick Yousafzai 31) 2) “So, yes, the Taliban have shot me. But they can only shoot a body. They cannot shoot my dreams, they cannot kill my beliefs, and they cannot stop my campaign to see every girl and every boy in school.” (McCormick Yousafzai188)

15. B) All facts given in non-fiction are true and not tainted by bias. 1) “The voice on the radio belonged to Maulana Fazlullah, one of the leaders of the TNSM. His followers had helped so many people after the earthquake, but he was taking advantage of the trauma to instill fear in them, too.” (McCormick Yousafzai 41) 2) “Soon Fazlullah joined forces with Tehrik-i-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistan Taliban, announced that women were banned from public places. The males in the family should enforce this order, he said, and ‘keep tight control over their families or be punished.’” (McCormick Yousafzai 46)

16. C) Non-fiction is factual when informing about real people living in their culture. 1) “They liked his talk of bringing back Islamic law, because everyone was frustrated with the slow, corrupt Pakistani justice system.” (McCormick Yousafzai 40) 2) “When I was younger and all these brothers started coming along, I had a little talk with God. God, I said, you did not check with me before sending these two. You didn’t ask how I felt. They are quite inconvenient sometimes, I told God.” (McCormick Yousafzai 12,13)

17. VII. CONCLUSION A. Both fiction and non-fiction can open up our minds. Both texts provoke empathy, and both have the ability to culturally enlighten readers. B. Non-fiction is able to exact this knowledge onto readers far better than fiction can. Non-fiction is the real world. Cultures are not fantasy and therefore cannot be made up. They only can be represented by fact. Non-fiction is only truthful while representing culture, so everything is absolute fact.

18. C. Readers are intrigued by non-fiction stories. Everything is cold, hard fact. Non-fiction never substitutes information. As readers digest each piece of this information, they are consequently informing themselves about culture. D. While non-fiction is able to inform readers about culture far better than fiction can, one thing remains the same: reading about culture makes you far more culturally advanced that the average person. In the words of Ray Bradbury, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

19. Vii. Works Cited Eder, Chris. “Why Reading Fiction Is Better For Your Brain Than Nonfiction.” Bookstr, 24 October 2017, https://bookstr.com/why-reading-fiction-better-your-brain-nonfiction. Gratz, Alan. Refugee. Scholastic Press, 2017. Green, Christina. “Why I Only Read Nonfiction (Now).” Christina R. Green, 23 January 2017, http://www.christinargreen.com/read-solely-nonfiction/. Yousafzai, Malala and McCormick, Patricia. I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition). Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016. “5 Reasons To Read Fiction.” Rugged Fellows Guide, https://ruggedfellowsguide.com/5-reasons-read-fiction/. Larson, Thomas. “Your brain on nonfiction vs. fiction.” Richard Gilbert, 27 March 2012, http://richardgilbert.me/your-brain-on-nonfiction/.