1. A Night to Remember Notes

2. Theme: There is a difference between appearance and reality  many people thought that the boat was unsinkable, because it could take on water in many of its compartments, and the captain could just seal off the below decks to keep it from sinking.  This is not what happened in actuality. The sinking of the Titanic is a large example of irony.  we might say that the real theme of this book is  “Overconfidence can lead to disaster.”  as one of the crewmembers said “God himself could not sink this ship.”  This lead to problems like  not having enough lifeboats  people not knowing emergency procedures  the sea and the night appeared calm and beautiful.  Little did the people onboard the Titanic know that this calmness was just an illusion.

3. Theme:“Different people reacted to conflict in different ways.”  J. Bruce Ismay showed how cowardly he was.  He was part of the crew or part of the passengers when it suited him.  When everything was going well, he wanted to be an important crewmember, but when the boat was sinking, he was a passenger so he could get off  many crewmembers showed how brave and self-sacrificing they were:  they insisted that “Women and Children” should go first  many men served as protectors for unaccompanied ladies  Some chose to stay behind  In the lifeboats, some men and women showed how different people could be:  they took charge  became scared  panicked  prayed  got drunk

4. Identify how the sinking of the Titanic changed the world Positive Effects  big ships became far more careful in bad conditions  icebergs became more of a concern  wireless on all boats  enough lifeboats for all passengers  n o more class distinction: third class passengers became as important as 1 st class in an emergency  never again would there be so much attention paid to the rich:  2 world wars and an income tax made them decrease in importance.

5. Negative Effects  many survivors of the Titanic said that the bad people onboard were foreigners: i.e. Italians, Indians, Chinese, etc.  some good traits vanished – a sense of gentlemanlike conduct, where men looked out for women, was gone.  most of all, a sense of life always getting better was destroyed.  if the world’s greatest invention – the Titanic – was able to be destroyed on its very first trip, what else mattered?  Did money and fame really matter?  Were human beings as smart as they thought?

7. Answers  (1) Colonel John Jacob Astor, the American head of the Astor family  (2) Joseph Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star line  (3) Isidor Straus, a famous New York merchant  (4) James Clinch Smith, sportsman and society man of New York and Paris  (5) Henry B. Harris, theatrical manager and producer  (6) Major Archibald Willingham Butt, President Taft's military aid  (7) Frank D. Millet, noted artist  (8) William T. Stead, celebrated English editor.