Reference
Andrea Marterella
10th Grade, World Literature
9th through 12th, Journalism
Pine Grove Area High School
Twenty-four Eyes written by Sakae Tsuboi is a wonderful piece to include in your upper middle and high school Literature classrooms. I found the work to be interesting in plot line and easily accessible to American school students; however some clarification will be necessary with Tsuboi’s use of flashback and metaphor. The piece itself, I feel, seems to express specific literary techniques all-the-while being true to Japanese literary techniques as well which demonstrates to our students- issues of war know no cultural bounds.
I enjoyed the progression of Mrs. Oishi’s class from beginning to end and found myself crying at the end. I’m not sure if it was the teacher me or the reader me coming out while reading the novel. Tsuboi’s writing truly makes one engrossed in the book (or shall I say Akira Miua’s translation?)
The novel is appropriate for reading levels Gifted 7th through basic 12th Grade. The reasoning for Honors 7th is predominantly the vocabulary and possible issues with historical context.
I would like to know how much historical information my students actually know about 20th Century Japan before I begin teaching the piece. I feel that the novel can be used in my classroom and have coordinating historical context and literary analysis reports to go along with basic comprehension, vocabulary, and literary term application and questions. Additionally, I believe many of my students could relate to the military plot line, since most of the students in the district are from military families.