EXAMINING GENRE:
Adolph Hitler and Rosa Parks
Biography
Poetry
Adolf Hitler’s Bio
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau-am-Inn on the Austrian-German border on April 20,
1889 (“Adolf”). Being found insufficiently talented at seventeen, he was denied admission
to the Vienna Art Academy (“Hitler”). Acquiring an ideology based on belief in a German
master race while he remained in Vienna, he also believed that the master race was
threatened by an international Jewish conspiracy [...] (“Hitler”). Hitler immediately
volunteered to join the German army [...] and was promoted to corporal and [...] was
assigned the task of spying on local political groups. Hitler became interested in the German
Workers Party and joined. His skills [...] helped him transform the party into the Nazi Party.
In 1923, Hitler led an attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government (“Rise”). This attempt
failed and he was sentenced to five years in prison. […] (“Hitler”). [...] Hitler wrote his book
Mein Kampf. He rebuilt the Nazi party after 1925, […] blame Jews and Communists, using
them to gain himself support (“Rise”). Against a background of political turmoil and
economic depression, the Nazi Party grew stronger (“Adolf”). On January 30, 1933, Hitler
was declared Chancellor. […] (“Hitler”). They proved no match for his ruthlessness and
genius […] Hitler had dictatorial control (“Hitler”) […] Nazis conquered and millions of
others who were considered racially impure were rounded up [in concentration
camps, such as Auschwitz,] and killed. Hitler declared war on the United States […]
Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker (“Adolf”) by putting a bullet in his brain (“What
are”).
Why Did 6 Million Have To Die?
One crazy mad man
While the world did nothing
Murdered innocents
One crazy mad man
Convinced a whole country to
Follow his Third Reich
One crazy mad man
Sent people to death camps and
Murdered six million
One crazy mad man
Frightened people to silence
And found ways to kill
One crazy mad man
When he was about to lose
Did something extreme
One crazy mad man
Put a gun to his head and
Ended his black life
Adolf Hitler
Failed painter
Decorated soldier
Manipulative fascist
Munich Putsch leader
Greedy Chancellor
Calculating Mastermind
Ruthless Dictator
Murderer
Dead Coward
EXAMINING GENRE:
Rosa Parks
Parks, Rosa Louise (1913-2005), an African American civil
rights activist, became best known for her role in a 1955
boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system. Parks
triggered the boycott when she refused to give up her seat
to a white passenger on a bus. Her action helped bring
about the civil rights movement in the United States.
Parks was arrested for violating a city law requiring that
whites and blacks sit in separate rows on buses. She
refused to give up her seat in the middle of the bus when a
white man wished to sit in her row. The front rows were
for whites only. The law required blacks to leave their seats
in the next rows when all seats in the front rows were
taken and other whites still wanted seats.
Garrow, David J. "Parks, Rosa Louise." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2010. Web. 16 March
2010.
It Happened in Montgomery
By Phil W. Petrie
Then he slammed on the brakes—
Turned around and grumbled.
But she was tired that day.
Weariness was in her bones.
And so the thing she’s done yesterday,
And yesteryear,
On her workdays,
Churchdays,
Nothing-to-do-guess-I’ll –go-and-visit
Sister Annie Days—
She felt she’d never do again.
And he growled once more.
So she said:
No sir…I’m stayin’ right here.
And he gruffly grabbed her,
Pulled and pushed her—
Then sharply shoved her through the doors.
The news slushed through the littered streets—
Slipped into the crowded churches,
Slimmered onto the unmagnolied side of the town
While the men talked and talked and talked.
She—
Who was tired that day,
Cried and sobbed that she was glad she’d done it,
That her soul was satisfied.
That Lord knows,
A little walkin’ never hurt anybody;
That in one of those unplanned, unexpected,
Unadorned moments—
A weary woman turned the page of History.
EXAMINING GENRE:
Adolph Hitler & Rosa Parks
1. Compare and contrast your experience reading
the biography vs. reading the poems.
2. Which genre (biography or poem) do you
prefer to read? Why?
3. Identify one advantage and one disadvantage
that you think may occur in multigenre texts.