Storyteller, Truth, and Perspective in Everything Sad Is Untrue

About This Lesson

Through guided close reading and annotation, students closely analyze a passage from Everything Sad Is Untrue to explore the concepts of the storyteller, truth, and perspective. By reflecting and participating in discussion, students will practice and apply their literary analysis skills to examine how the passage reveals the complexity of truth in storytelling and how the perspective of the storyteller influences the narrative. 

Essential Questions

• What does it mean for something to be “true”? 
• In storytelling, who decides what is true? And why does it matter?
• How can the stories we tell connect us to or separate us from ourselves and others?

Facing History Learning Outcomes

• Critically and ethically analyze thematic development and literary craft in order to draw connections between the text and their lives.

Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Introduce Passage and Context

Begin the lesson by revisiting the essential questions with the class. Then reintroduce Scheherazade by reminding students that she is the storyteller of The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folktales. She tells a series of stories to captivate the Persian king Shahryar, delaying her execution night by night, ultimately saving her life. 

Briefly introduce the passage from “This is how the thousand nights” to “In a different tale” (pp. 58–59) and explain that students will be doing a close reading to explore how the author uses storytelling to illuminate complex ideas about truth and perspective.

Activity 2: Engage in Close Reading and Annotation

Distribute the Student Handout: Close-Reading Lesson 2 and direct students to the relevant passage: pages 58–59, from “This is how the thousand nights” to “In a different tale.” Ask students to read the passage silently, encouraging them to use the annotation guide and to underline or highlight phrases that stand out to them, particularly those related to perspective, truth, and the role of the storyteller.

Activity 3: Participate in Small Group Discussion

Divide the class into small groups and provide them with the following discussion questions:

What does this have to do with Aziz as she awaited her father, you might ask. 
How does this unconfuse anything?
The answer is that now you know two true things.
One, every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive.
And two, the story of Aziz could have gone a million different ways.

Throughout the rest of the section, Daniel imagines and describes several different versions of the story of Aziz. 

• How might the statement “Every story is the sound of a storyteller begging to stay alive” apply to the broader story of Everything Sad Is Untrue? 
• What perspective does the statement offer on why humans tell stories to one another? What other perspectives are there?

1. What is your “golden line” from this passage? Share one or two sentences that resonate with you and explain why. 
2. On page 59, Daniel connects the story of Scheherazade and the story of Aziz:
3. What does Daniel mean when he says that “the story of Aziz could have gone a million different ways”? What might this statement suggest about the concept of “truth” or reality in storytelling? 
4. How does the passage highlight the importance of who tells the story and how it is told? Consider Scheherazade’s role in controlling the narrative with the king.
5. To what extent do you feel connected to Daniel based on the stories he tells in this section? Are there stories or moments that make you feel disconnected or separate from him? Discuss your reflection.
6. How does this passage challenge or extend your personal ideas and assumptions about why we tell stories? What new perspectives does it offer on the role of storytelling in your own life?
7. What questions or ideas about belonging does this passage raise for you?

After the discussion, ask each group to share their insights with the class.

Activity 4: Write a Personal Reflection

Have students individually reflect on the following prompt in their journals: 

Reflect on a story from your life or a story that you know well. How has the way it was told (or who told it) shaped your understanding of the truth of it? How might the story have changed if someone else had told it? You may choose to use the book to reflect on this question.

Challenge students to consider how their reflection connects to the passage they analyzed or the book as a whole.

Activity 5: Debrief in a Whole-Class Discussion

Bring the class back together to discuss the following prompt: 

• How might storytelling offer a way to explore the concept of “truth”? How can a storyteller’s perspective influence the way we understand the world?