“We do not bother to teach the great virtues, though we love them and want our children to have them; but we nourish the hope that they will spontaneously appear in their consciousness some day in the future, we think of them as being part of our instinctive nature, while the others, the little virtues, seem to be the result of reflection and calculation and so we think they absolutely must be taught.” NATALIA GINZBURG, THE LITTLE VIRTUES Over the summer, my husband and I did a parenting check-in. We listed some topics that we wanted to reflect on (discipline, meal time, spiritual formation), then we went to separate rooms…
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How to Chart an Emotional Plot During Novel Study
While re-reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon, I was struck by the role of emotion in moving the plot forward. Novels are always laden with emotion, but in this book emotion drives the plot in a unique way. This is mostly due to the role of sorrow in the book. Like magic, sorrow is a named and assumed power in the story–it shapes both characters and events. Ignatia rules through sorrow, and the characters find their freedom by piercing the fog that sorrow has created around them. This reminded me of the activities I made for my Labeling Emotions unit (part of my RULER bundle). These activities ask students…
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The Little Cannot Contain the Great: Engaging the Eternal Over the Relevant (The Little Virtues, Part 4)
“The great can contain the little, but by the laws of nature there is no way that the little can contain the great.” NATALIA GINZBURG, THE LITTLE VIRTUES One helpful aspect of the big/little virtue template is its focus on priority. In her essay, Ginzburg is adamant that little virtues aren’t problematic because they are bad, rather they are problematic only when they aren’t moderated by big virtues. The trouble starts when we mis-order or equate big and little virtues. Here’s a battle between big and little virtues that I bet a lot of us feel: the call to engage the eternal, versus the call to only engage the relevant.…
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A Simple Way To Teach Symbolism Using “The Girl Who Drank The Moon”
Symbolism can be hard to teach. It’s one of those things you understand, but can’t easily put words to. When I try to define “symbolism” I find myself grasping for examples rather than definitions. In literature symbols are recurring objects that represent something (idea, emotion, truth) beyond themselves. Of course that may not mean much to students without some examples. In The Girl Who Drank the Moon there are several symbols that could garner a good discussion of symbolism. The ones I’ve chosen to focus on are paper, birds, and tigers. Symbol #1: Paper Paper comes up a lot in the book. Here are some examples: The Madwoman: Locked in…
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Mindless Production: The Littlest of Little Virtues, (Part 3)
“Not that the little virtues are in themselves contemptible; but their value is of a complementary and not of a substantial kind; they cannot stand by themselves without the others, and by themselves and without the others they provide but meagre fare for human nature.” NATALIA GINZBURG, THE LITTLE VIRTUES Here’s a bit of irony: I decided to leave the classroom and start a small run-from-home business so I could spend more time with my kids during their earliest years. But I often find myself complaining that my kids leave me little time to do my work, even though I chose this work so I could spend time with my…
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A Simple Way to Teach Theme Using “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
When you ask your students to list themes they noticed in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, they’ll surely have a lot to say. It’s got all the big ones–good vs. evil, family, loss, etc. If you’re looking to lead a discussion on theme during your novel study, I’ve got some notes that might come in handy. Here are some themes I jotted down as I read: Memory The characters struggle with both the pain of remembering and the consequences of forgetting. Ultimately, the book suggests that it’s better to remember something painful than to forget it, because remembering offers a path forward. Here are some ways this theme comes…
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That Their Love of Life Should Never Weaken: The Little Virtues, Part 2
“What we must remember above all in the education of our children is that their love of life should never weaken.” Natalia Ginzburg, the little virtues While re-reading The Little Virtues, the above sentence stuck out to me. It made me think of all the times, both at home and at school, that we fall into a trap that whispers something like this: We must diminish a child’s love of life today so that he will have a life worth loving tomorrow. We do this when we dismiss pervasive boredom, discomfort, embarrassment or frustration as “character building.” Of course discomfort is part of life and learning, it does build character.…
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A Simple Way To Teach Irony Using “The Girl Who Drank The Moon”
When using a mentor text to discuss a literary device, you want to find a really clear example of that literary device. That’s one reason why The Girl Who Drank the Moon makes such a good novel study, it contains straightforward examples of climax, suspense, foreshadowing, symbolism and irony. Once again, multiple perspectives is the vehicle for our literary device–irony. By giving the reader access to multiple perspectives, the author allows us (the readers) to understand much that the characters are unaware of. Irony lies in the differences between what the reader knows and the characters know. Here are some examples: We know families and elders are wrong about the…
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The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg
When I was pregnant with my first child, I came across an article about “The Little Virtues,” an essay by Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg. It was a breath of fresh air. I’d already gorged myself on parenting advice by reading books on eating, sleeping and first aid. But I longed for something both deeper and broader, a template that cut to the quick of parenting. I found that template in “The Little Virtues,” which begins this way: “As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not…
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How to Teach Foreshadowing Using “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
By the end of The Girl Who Drank the Moon all the loose ends have been neatly tied up. This makes it an excellent jumping off point for a discussion about foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is best understood after the fact. So an easy way to discuss foreshadowing in The Girl Who Drank the Moon is to ask students how one of the big reveals at the end of the book was suggested by details throughout the beginning and middle of the book. Here’s an example… Using Big Reveals to Discuss Foreshadowing Big Reveal: At the end of the book we learn that the Protectorate was imprisoned by Ignatia’s greed for sorrow.…
