Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

What statement does the book make about the nature of perspective and truth? To what extent is truth malleable? To what extent is it rigid?

The character of Liz Cambers in the book feels a deep connection to the play due to her mother’s abandonment of her as a young child, and she attempts to work through her feelings related to that experience through the play. To what extent do these issues appear to be resolved for Liz by the end of the book? In what way(s) are they still left open?

Irena Sendler tells the girls, when they finally meet her, that she has always and will always give the same answer to their question of why she did it. However, this does not seem to be entirely true. Why do you feel Irena chose to do what she did?

Many characters in the book defy easy categorizations of sympathy: e.g., Schmuel abuses the orphans and is clearly corrupt, but he also works with Irena to ensure that as many children escape deportation as possible. Choose one such character and explore his or her moral complexity. Do you feel the character is a fundamentally good or bad person? Does he or she defy categorization of any kind? Why?

What statement does the book make about the nature of personal identity? Explore the concept through the lens of a specific character, using his or her experience to create a definition for the concept of identity.

Similarly, what statement does the book make about the nature of family? Choose one representation of family present in the book to explore the complexity of the idea of “family.” What does it mean to be a family? What obligations do we have to our family?

At various points, the actions of the Nazis are described as criminal. However, it is important to remember that their actions were, for them, legal. What are the limitations of the rule of law? Use the events presented in the text to discuss to what extent or under what circumstances, if any, the rule of law should be considered to be an inadequate measure for society.

What is the role of class and wealth in the book? In what ways do we see parallels between the role of class in World War II-era Warsaw and the modern-day United States? How does class affect the events of the book?