In the Shadow of War

Use these questions to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. You will be reading a short story titled “In the Shadow of War.” What books, movies, or other stories do you know that are set during a war? What elements do the stories have in common? What themes do they explore? How does a wartime setting affect the characters in the stories?

Teaching Suggestion: Before students address the prompt, you might brainstorm a list of fictional war stories together as a class. After students have responded to the prompt, consider asking them to share the war-related themes they identified. You might ask them to keep these themes in mind as they read “In the Shadow of War” to see if the story explores any of them and, if so, how the events of the plot convey the themes.

• This article published by the Illinois Library Association describes how war literature has evolved over time and how it reveals the moral ambiguities of war.
• UNICEF’s collection of poems by young people affected by war expresses many common themes about the effect of war on civilians.

2. What caused civil war to break out in Nigeria in 1967? What two groups fought each other? How did food become a weapon of war? How long did the civil war last, and how did it end?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt can help students build background on the setting of the short story. The desperate situation of the Biafran people is reflected in the actions of the mysterious veiled woman who risks her life to provide food to starving women and children hiding from government troops.

• This video from the BBC gives a brief history of the Nigerian civil war.
• This article from National Geographic explores how hunger and starvation are common elements of war and how food can be used as a weapon of war.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the story.

Have you ever known someone who experienced war—maybe an older relative, a neighbor, or someone in your community or school? What has this person shared or not shared about their experience? Why might someone choose to share or not to share such experiences?

Teaching Suggestion: You might have students respond to the prompt individually at the beginning of class and then revisit it as a three-minute wrap-up with the whole class.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who may feel uncomfortable responding to the prompt with personal experiences, you might have them focus on a character from a familiar book, movie, or TV show (e.g., The Hunger Games).