Recall a time when an adult gave you advice based on their own life experience. Why was this story memorable? Can we truly learn from others’ experiences or do we need to learn lessons for ourselves?

Oral History: Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.

World War Z Structured as an oral history Does not follow linear storyline Our main character is an interviewer who wants to preserve the stories and memories of those who lived, fought, and won the zombie wars that took place all across the globe At first glance, the interviewer seems invisible, but pay close attention to when he decides to interject. His presence may or may not shape or alter how we feel about certain interviewees and their stories.

World War Z Pgs. 1-22 Why does the interviewer initially set out to conduct his interviews? Who has a problem with his completed project and why? How does he react to this? Identify the first two interviewees (Who are they, where do they come from, and what do they do?). Based, on the story that they tell—are they sympathetic characters? Do we feel for them? Why or why not?