A Burnt-Out Case Lesson Plan

Facts and Fiction

Kind of Activity:

Mixed Media

Objective:

Students will research Greene's visit to an African leproserie to examine how real-life experience informed his fiction.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1

Structure:

Like his character, Querry, Greene himself took a trip to the Catholic-run Iyonda leproserie in what was then the Belgian Congo, yet he states in a note at the beginning of the novel that A Burnt-Out Case is not a roman à clef, or a real story overlaid with fictional elements.

First, have students read Greene's introductory note, which is addressed to Michel...