Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sister Maria vs Ms. Caroline
As I was reading over Liesel's behavior during the time of the reading tests in her class, I noticed that Sister Maria resembled Scout's teacher, Ms. Caroline, from TKM. Although they are a couple decades apart in the timeline, both teachers believe there should not be a child who could read when they are at an educational status to normally be incapable of doing so. In TKM, Ms. Caroline believes Scout should follow the curriculum of her class and learn the basics of reading like everyone else. Scout tells her teacher that she is already fairly capable of reading, and Ms. Caroline becomes furious since she cannot fathom the idea of a child being too smart for her class. In The Book Thief, Liesel has always been regarded as the dumb one in her class due to her social status. When it is time for the reading tests, Sister Maria purposely overlooks Liesel, assuming that she cannot read. Liesel's friend Rudy notices Sister Maria's action and tells her that Liesel should take the test as well as the rest of the class. Sister Maria argues that Liesel is not able to read yet, though Liesel is determined to show her teacher how much her midnight lessons have helped her. Liesel's determination annoys Sister Maria because it goes against her belief that someone in the kind of social and educational status as Liesel should not be capable of raising that status.
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I agree that Sister Maria and Ms. Caroline do share a strict and judgemental quality. They both seem rather insecure as teachers, because they feel the need to reinforce ridiculous generalizations, and openly overrule any personal opinions of students. By doing so they seem to feel better about themselves because they have reminded the class of their power over them, their sense of hierarchy. But one difference I will note is that Ms. Caroline had preconceptions about an entire grade before she even knew them, whereas Liesel had been in school for some time and had yet to improve greatly in reading/writing. Why would Sister Maria expect anything more than the usual from Liesel? She might have even been trying to save Liesel from further embarassment. Discriminating against her, and yet accepting her for nothing more than what she has proven to be. Once again the topic of undermining an authority arises. This is beginning to be a theme in the adults of our literature...
ReplyDeleteI have to agree, although I believe Ms. Caroline personally is against ideas that conflict with her own where as Sister Maria is more forced to by the Fuhrer and the school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that both teachers have fairly similar desires to prove they have full control and power over the class, but I think that Sophie is absolutely correct when she says that on one hand, Sister Maria was almost helping Liesel by kind of saving her from embarrassment in front of the entire class. She's also right when she says that Sister Maria has no reason to expect more from Liesel than her usual inability to read.
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