Download The Cure – Teacher`s Guide

Study Guide for The Cure by Sonia Levitin
I.
INTRODUCTION
This study guide provides materials to help prepare for a lesson, unit or book club discussion about the
novel The Cure by Sonia Levitin. The Heshvan issue of BABAGANEWZ features a short story by and
interview with Sonia Levitin, so the resources may also augment a study of her work.
The Cure begins in the Year of Tranquility 2407 in the United Social Alliance, Western Sector. In this
utopian society, differences are considered deviant. Gemm 16884 cannot suppress his interest in music
and dance. He is offered two choices: to be “recycled” (put to death) or to submit to “The Cure.” He hopes
that by enduring the cure, his urges will be obliterated, and he will be permitted to return and live happily
with his mate, Gemma 16884. Gemm 16884 becomes Johannes, the son of a Jewish money lender in
1348 Strasbourg, Germany just as the Black Death begins to ravage the general community of Europe.
This novel gives the reader an opportunity to learn about freedom, creativity, individuality, dignity,
prejudice and injustice.
To help plan for the study of the novel, this guide offers:
• questions for study and discussion
• passages for close analysis
• lesson ideas
• writing activities
• projects
Combine any components of the guide to help shape your lessons on the novel. You may also want to
use the ideas in the guide as a means of offering enrichment and extra credit to students who wish to
read the novel.
II. QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
1. The novel opens with Gemm 16884’s dream. Did the dream strike you as anything peculiar? Why
does the dream become important?
2. Sonia Levitin presents life in the year 2407. What are some of the daily rituals from the futuristic
society in the novel that are the same today? Which rituals are different?
3. Gemm 16884 chooses “The Cure” rather than “be recycled.” Both are euphemisms for other
things. Discuss the meaning of the word “euphemism” and the purpose that euphemisms serve.
What are other examples of euphemisms or sanitized language?
4. Why do you think the citizens in the year 2407 all have to wear masks?
5. Read Tefillat HaDerekh, the prayer for a safe journey. (The text follows this lesson.) After reading
about the journey Johannes and his family take to the fair, why do you think “The Prayer for
Travelers” was written?
6. Why are there so many Jewish moneylenders in 1348? Why are there so few choices for a
career?
7. In The Cure, there are a few gentiles sympathetic to the Jews. Who are they? How do they help
the Jews?
8. Johannes’ father is taken advantage of in his role as moneylender. Why does he let this happen?
9. Did you think “The Cure” was going to work? Why or why not?
10. The Jews are blamed for the Black Death in 1348, but the epilogue notes that few non-Jews felt
any remorse for having burned the Jews en masse. Why do you think this happened?
11. The sections of the book about Gemm are written in third person, but the majority of the book is
written with Johannes as the narrator. Why do you think the author did this?
12. This month’s BabagaNewz theme is k’vod habriyot – human dignity. How does this theme relate
to The Cure? How do people keep their dignity when others attempt to take it away? How does the
final scene in Strasbourg reveal the dignity with which the Jewish community walked to its death?
III. PASSAGES FOR CLOSE ANALYSIS
1. Page 43:
“Our genetic engineers have been able to shrink the cerebellum to a more acceptable level. You,
however, are – well, what one might call throwback.”
How does this help explain why everyone in 2407 is so compliant, and why Gemm enjoys music?
2. Page 45:
“We now know the truth. Diversity results not in universal good but in evil. We know that music, art,
dance, poetry – all these ancient and deviant activities-only inflame the emotions. They must be
rooted out.”
How do the Elders root out these activities? What society today shares these views?
3. Page 88:
“Because I know what he would have said: that this is what some people do when a child is sick or
they cannot afford to feed it. It is the way of the world, and we cannot change it.”
How do Johannes and Margarite think they can change the world? How does Gemm try at the end of
the book?
4. Page 147
“The flames of love
Are burning bright
The groom beholds the bride
As blessings flow down from above
He rushes to her side”
How does the Wedding Song play a significant role in the lives of both Johannes and Gemm?
IV. LESSON IDEAS
1. Write “Conformity begets Harmony begets Tranquility begets Peace begets Universal Good” on
one side of the board, and “Arbeit Macht Frei” on the other. Explain what the latter means and to
whom it was referring. Compare and contrast how the Nazis and Elders used these expressions
to achieve their goals.
2. Create a timeline with the class about times of great creativity for the Jewish people, as well as
times of great prejudice and hardship.
3. Teach the song “Ani Ma’amin” that is cited on pages 182 and 244 of the novel. Ask students why
the song is included in such different contexts in the novel. Present students with words, the
translation and several different tunes for the song. Discuss which tune is the most uplifting,
haunting or inspiring. What other feelings does the song evoke? Why?
4. Research an historical topic that relates to the novel, such as the medieval roots of anti-Semitism,
the Black Death, Jewish musicians through the ages, etc.
V.
WRITING ACTIVITIES
1. Discuss a time in your life when your creativity was stifled. Write about that time in either prose or
poetry.
2. What is your vision of life in 2407? Describe how society functions, what aspects of life in 2002
remain, and what has changed.
3. Write a song that Johannes would have written to Margarite.
4. Many kinnot, or dirges, memorialize tragic events in Jewish history. Several printable examples
follow this lesson. Write a kinah that commemorates the deaths of the Jews in Strasbourg.
5. Using the timeline created in the previous set of activities, have students try writing their own
pieces of Jewish historical fiction.
6. Have students write a continuation to the novel. How would Gemm and Gemma teach their peers
about love and diversity?
VI.
PROJECTS
1. The masks described in The Cure emphasized conformity. Design a mask for yourself that best
captures your own uniqueness.
2. Create a sign announcing the Fair in Troyes. Include the types of merchandise sold there, as well
as the merchants who carry these items.
3. Plan a menu for the Seder at Johannes’ home.
4. Design a monument that could be erected in Strasbourg to commemorate the tragedy that
occurred there.