Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Throughout the novel, Yanek struggles to survive the atrocities he experiences in the concentration camps.

• How does Yanek define survival? (topic sentence)
• Find one example from the novel where Yanek highlights the importance of surviving the concentration camps.
• Does The Desire to Survive affect his relationship with other prisoners? If so, how? Summarize this point in your concluding sentences.

2. Gratz’s novel highlights the different ways in which Nazi commandants took pleasure in dehumanizing prisoners.

• In what ways do the Nazis dehumanize the prisoners? (topic sentence)
• Find one example in the novel of dehumanizing acts in the concentration camps.
• How does Yanek respond to this Dehumanization of the Jewish People as well as other prisoners? Summarize this point in your concluding sentences.