GRADE 11
Summer Reading List for Summer 2011

THE KILLER ANGELS

By Michael Shaara

HIROSHIMA

By John Hersey

Study Guide

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Major Characters: General Robert E. Lee: Commander of the Confederate Army General James Longstreet: becomes Lee’s second in command after the death of Stonewall Jackson
Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain: the main Union voice in the novel

Setting: Battle of Gettysburg

Questions to ponder as you read:
1. One of the major conflicts in the novel is the disagreement between Confederate generals
Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet on how they should fight the battle. What does each man
think the army should do and why? What is significant about Longstreet’s plan?
2. Author Michael Shaara changes some of the historical facts about the battle—for instance, he
puts Chamberlain in the middle of the Union line during Pickett’s Charge, when in fact
Chamberlain was more than a mile south at the time. Why do you think Shaara does this?
3. The main characters on the Confederate side are all generals: Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet,
George Pickett, and Lew Armistead. But the main character on the Union side is a colonel,
Joshua L. Chamberlain. Why would the author choose to use Chamberlain instead of the
Union generals?

Hiroshima by John Hersey

Major Characters: Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura: a widow raising three children on her own
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki: 25 year old surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital
Fr. Wilhelm Kleinsorge: German Jesuit priest living in Hiroshima
Toshiko Sasaki: 20 year old clerk who works to take care of her parents and siblings
Dr. Masakazu Fujii: owns a small, private medical clinic
Rev. Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto: Methodist pastor who works to many of the nameless and wounded to safety

Setting: August 6, 1945; Hiroshima, Japan

Questions to ponder as you read:
1. Discuss the role of nature in Hiroshima. In what ways do naturally occurring events, such as
the weather, affect the city in the wake of the atomic bomb?
2. Do you think Hersey favors some of the six characters, or presents some of them in a better
light than others? Why or why not?
3. Does Hersey’s Hiroshima focus on the physical damage done to the city and its people at the
expense of examining the psychological horrors faced by the victims?

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