Parallel Journeys

Nonfiction | Biography | YA | Published in 1995

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Study Guide

Before You Read Beta

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-19

Chapter 20-Postscript

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools Beta

Discussion Questions

Essay Topics

Eleanor Ayer tells Alfons’s and Helen’s stories through their books. Alfons published two books A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika and The Burden of Hitler’s Legacy, and Waterford published Commitment to the Dead: One Woman’s Journey Toward Understanding. Read one of their books and discuss how it corresponds with Ayer’s portrayal. How does reading the full book of the key figure add to the story?

Alfons has been in two documentaries, The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler and Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth. Watch one of the films and put it in conversation with how Alfons and the Nazis appear in Parallel Journeys.

Discuss the structure of the book. In other words, how does Ayer organize her story to emphasize the parallel narratives of Alfons and Helen?