Handout Questions for Class on 3/12

Ernie's War

1. Do you think that our perception of future wars would have changed if they had been reported in the same way that Pyle reported WWII (as opposed to newscasters and video footage)? How so?

2. Given European Americans’ background how do you think that they felt having to fight in Europe, some in their home countries. How about German Americans? Do you think that there was any immigrant population in the United States that did not feel conflicted?

3. Pyle uses this knowledge of what is important to his readers to pick his topics and to more intimately connect the readers to the individual soldiers, rather than just the abstract concepts that they represent. Where do you see evidence of this in his writing and how is it effective? How does he bring out a sense of patriotism and duty in his readers through his writing?

4. What do you think that this added complexity means in the context of America’s thoughts at the time about the war? Does it reflect a tension that the soldiers and citizens at home felt too?

An American Story

1. Considering that Americans were fighting to liberate concentration camps in Europe, how did they not see the hypocrisy in sending their own citizens to internment camps based on ethnic differences?

2. How did the media use its influence to misinform Americans about the experience of Japanese-Americans in internment camps? How much is the media driven by government motives?

3. Given that FDR was already thinking about internment camps as early as 1936, do you think that they would have happened eventually? Was Pearl Harbor just an excuse for a previous agenda?

4. The many groups oppressed by white Americans throughout our history have responded in different ways to their persecution. As we saw in Killing Custer, the Native Americans chose to fight back against the government. However, many of the Japanese-Americans taken to internment camps seemed to take their situation in stride and make the best of it using humor and beautification. Why do you think they chose this reaction? Was it more effective than resistance?

The Riddle of the Zoot

1. Do you think that Malcolm would have developed this ideals anyway, had his youth not been spent in an urban, hipster environment?

2. Given the similar racial messages and cultural experiences that tied both youth populations to the suits that they wore, why do you think that in general many Mexican Americans men enlisted in WWII, while most African American men avoided it?

3. How are the balances of power reflected in the zoot suit, both from the “white” perspective and from the standpoint of the African and Mexican Americans wearing the zoot suit?

4. How does this resistance fit into the era of the citizen soldier and how do you think that it helped or hurt Black “progress” on racial hierarchy? What do you think these Black readers felt towards Pyle’s columns?