The importance of family

  Discuss the importance of family and the presentation of gender roles in Number the Stars and The Devil's Arithmetic 1. Discuss the importance of family in the texts—and issues that arise from feeling obligated and/or loyal to family members. 2. Discuss the presentation of gender roles in the texts. Are they stereotypical? Do the authors surprise you in their decisions about the way that gender is presented? Use specific characters and/or examples to support your answer. 3. Discuss the endings of the texts. Were the endings hopeful? Emancipatory? Static? Dynamic? 4. Discuss the significance of setting in the texts. How does setting reveal character? What function does setting serve? What does setting teach us?