Megan Lam

Ms Krugman
Ms. Melaugh
Annotated Bibliography
March 13, 2015
Bohjalian, Chris. The Sandcastle Girls. Toronto: Random house, 2012. Print.
The Sandcastle Girls is a novel written by Chris Bohjalian. The novel surrounds the
causes and effects of the Armenian genocide, as well as the aftermath. It is written in first
and third person, where the time period goes back and forth from the present to the past.
First person is written by a woman named Laura who is the grandchild of main characters
Elizabeth and her husband Armen, who are written in third person. Elizabeth Endicott is
an American from Boston who traveled to Aleppo, Syria with her father, Silas Endicott
and Ryan Martin, an American consul. All three traveled to Aleppo in order to aid the
Armenians who suffered from ethnic cleansing. While in Aleppo, the three live in an
American compound. As Elizabeth meets more people in Aleppo, their journey is also
told. Different perspectives of the genocide are told through the book, victims,
perpetrators, those who were brave enough to intervene to assist the victims, children
whose grandparents witnessed the genocide, etc. Learning about the different
perspectives helps the reader understand the social and political causes of the Armenian
genocide. The Turks believed that The novel revealed opinions on how and why
genocide occurs through its detailed and well-organized plot. The novel answered a few
leading research questions such as, How does the present day view the Armenian
genocide?, How are races who are looked upon, dehumanized by another race?, and
What actions did the perpetrators implement into society to carry out a plan of
genocide? The novel also proposes different perspectives of people during the Armenian
genocide, which contributes to the multiple perspectives aspects of the multi-genre
project.
Morgenthau, Henry. "Henry Morgenthau, U.S Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire."
Armenian-genocide.org. Web. 10 March 2015.
During this time, the Young Turks were the leaders of the Ottoman Empire, three people
who were able to initiate the Armenian genocide. As the title suggests, Henry Morgenthau
was the U.S ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Morgenthau formed a personal
connection with the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire where Morgenthau was able to
reveal the truth about the genocide. Morgenthau states, He made no secret of the fact
that the Government had instigated them, and, like all Turks of the official classes, he
enthusiastically approved this treatment of the detested race, the Turks affirmed the
Government had sparked the genocide and approved of the desolation of Armenians.

Furthermore, Morgenthau clearly states his stance of the genocide. Morgenthau writes the
newspapers that wrote about the genocide were not accurate and did not depict the
atrocities correctly. The atrocities was more of a stepping stone towards the genocide, the
violence during the genocide was beyond humans reach. Morgenthau briefly states the
social cause of the genocide, which was a systematic plan of the desolation of the
Armenian race. At the end of the letter, Morgenthau writes about how there wasnt
history about an abundant amount of humans dying as bad as the genocide that occurred
at the time. The letter answered questions about the effects of the genocide, such as
What killing method was used against the Armenians? and How does deportation play
a role in other genocides? Noticeably, deportation became a new method that genocides
after the Armenian genocide carried out. Deportation became a warrant to easily kill a
whole race. Furthermore, the primary source is valuable for the multi-genre project
because the reader can compare what the novel wrote about what happened versus what a
witness saw. What the Turks did in the novel was exactly what happened in during the
genocide, as hard as it may be to believe. Humans were capable of such atrocious acts
against other humans.
Photos of Armenian Genocide. Genocide-museum.am. Web. 10 March 2015.
The source displays various photos from the Armenian genocide, particularly surrounding
the lives of the victims who are Armenians. The photos precisely represents the horrors
Armenians faced during the deportation and the factors of dehumanization. Many
marches of an extensive group of Armenians were held regularly in order to massacre
Armenians through starvation, dehydration, and simple ruthless killing. Pictures of
beheaded corpses and malnourished women and children seemed to be the trend
throughout the photos. The photos can convey numerous conjectures about what
happened during the genocide. Also, the photos definitely reveal the physical state and
possible mental state of Armenians. Similarly to the other sources, the photos are able to
answer How did the perpetrators carry out their plan of a genocide? The images also
serve as a visual aid to show readers of the multi-genre project, the effects of the war.
Beecroft, Rachel. Armenian Genocide. Worldwithoutgenocide.org. 6 August 2013. Web.
10 March 2015.
In the 11th century, the Armenian homeland was invaded by the Ottoman Empire. By
1890, there was a clear ethnic division between the Muslim Turks and the Christian
Armenians. Armenians had to pay extra taxes and suffer from severe marginalization.
Eventually Armenians demanded for a constitutional government, which the Young Turks
provided in 1908. Although, the Young Turks overthrew the government to create a new
empire consisting of one language and one religion. The Turks wanted to unite their
empire and strengthen it. Which led to a systematic plan of a genocide of Armenians.

This suggests that this was a social cause because of the desire of an all Turkish
community. The Ottoman Empire decided to violate human rights by ethnic cleansing.
For many decades Christian Armenians and other minority religions were the backbone
of the Ottoman Empire. They were treated unfairly and thought of anything other than
human. Now that the Ottoman Empire was crumbling and Armenians were rebelling
against the empire, it gave the Turks the perfect excuse for a destruction of a
race/religion. Eventually Armenians were looked at as a threat. There were many
atrocities against Armenians such as mass killings, labor, concentration camps, etc.

Research 3.2
Create a
Bibliography
according to
MLA
Guidelines

Demonstrate
s ability to
create an
accurate
Bibliography
according to
MLA
Guidelines
with all
information
appropriately
presented,
including all
necessary
punctuation
and
formatting.
Overall, 0-2
errors.

Social Studies
3: Identify and
evaluate
turning points
throughout
history.*

Applying +
-Able to
synthesize and
analyze
important
information
from primary
and/or
secondary
source.
-Thoughtfully

Demonstrate
s ability to
create an
accurate
Bibliography
according to
MLA
Guidelines
with all
information
appropriately
presented,
with one or
two
punctuation
and/or
formatting
mistakes.

Demonstrate
s ability to
create a
Bibliography,
but some
information is
incomplete or
organized
incorrectly.
Overall, 6-8
errors.

Demonstrate
s ability to
create a
Bibliography,
but each
entry is
incomplete
and
organized
incorrectly.
More than 8
errors.

Overall, 3-5
errors.

-Shows
understanding
of genocide by
identifying and
explaining
important
details related
to turning
point.
-Pulls important
information
from primary

-Begins to show
understanding
of genocide by
identifying
important facts
of turning point
but may lack
detail or
thorough
explanation.
-Pulls
information

-Struggles to
show
understanding
of genocide
through
incorrect
information or
lack of
important facts
such as relating
to turning
point.

identifies larger
implications on
the world.

and/or
secondary
source[s], and
is able to
effectively
analyze quote.
-Begins to
identify larger
implications on
the world.

from primary
and/or
secondary
source but
struggles to
effectively
explain how
quote(s) shows
important
aspects of
genocide.
-May struggle
to evaluate
and/or show
understanding
of the impact.

-Unable to pull
appropriate
quotes from
primary and/or
secondary
sources.