Reasons Not to Study History in Fiction

Teaching history through fiction is dangerous because it may give the reader a wrong idea of the event that’s happening. If the reader is getting the wrong facts of the story, they will always remember the wrong facts of the event.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an perfect example of why teaching history through fiction is dangerous because the author gives many incorrect fact of the Holocaust. “By manipulating the historical realities of the Holocaust for the sake of a good story, Boyne runs the risk of giving readers a disortes view of the Holocaust”. (P7) This shows the author is using The Boy in the Striped Pajamas as an example of why teaching history through fiction because the story shows how a son of the commandant and a Jewish boy start a friendship.

This is important because it give the reader inaccurate facts of the story and it shows a perfect reason why you should not teach history through fiction. “Most notably, even if there’s had been a lot of Jewish children at Auschwitz, the idea that the commandant’s son & one of the those children would meet repeatedly is beyond belief”.(P15) Bruno ( the son) & Shmuel ( Jewish boy ) Bruno’s home was next to a concentration camp. They would meet multiple times to talk through a fence to each other. That would have been impossible because all Jewish children were killed on arrival. When John Boyne ( author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) puts this into a story it may readers a view of the Holocaust which is impossibly true. It hides the real facts of what actually happened on the concentration camp.

To sum it all up the evidence supports why teaching history through fiction is dangerous. By teaching history through fiction it will destory the facts of history and mislead young readers“But when the information in the movie conflicts with the historical facts in the text, students are more likely to remember the film version, regardless of whether it’s correct”.(P3) This shows when teachers use movies to teach history in class, students will remember the film and it’s story whether the information and facts are correct or not.

This is important because it explains why teaching history through movies or hollywood is dangerous because they will leave out the correct facts of the event jusy for a good movie. “The danger of “serving the story over serving the facts.” is that the young readers will not know enough holocaust history to understand what has been changed”. (P1) To add everything up teaching through movies is just as dangerous as teaching it through fiction.

On the other hand there’s always people who disagree. Some may think that teaching history through fiction is beneficial.

“Fiction, includingstories, novels, and films is a great way to teach people about history and John Boyne’s Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an excellent example”.(P1)This shows that other people may think The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is an excellent example of why teaching history through fiction. This is important because others think this is a good way of teaching fiction when really it’s terrible because it gives young readers a disorted view of the story. “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas accomplishes what should be important aims pf both fiction and history. Thus, the story is an excellent of how to teach history through fiction”.(P6) The evidence shows how on the other hand, some think it’s a good idea to teach history through fiction is not dangerous but actually helpful.

Teaching history through fiction or movies is dangerous because it gives readers and people inaccurate facts of the event. It is important that we don’t use fiction to teach history because when you give people the wrong facts of the story, just for a good book. Some people think that teachinv history through fiction is a helpful way. On the other hand most people think it’s very dangerous because all the inaccuracies and the reader may not much about the event to know what’s true or not.

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