Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Peace Hangs by a Thread”

In this activity, students will work in groups to conduct research and create their own anthropomorphic societies, membership in which they will assume to respond to scenarios of inter-group conflict. This activity will culminate in a final reflection in which students examine their created societies’ dynamics, connecting to the novel’s themes on Strength in Differences and Peace.

In the Underland, humans live side-by-side with giant bats, cockroaches, spiders, and rats. Each society has their own skills, rituals, beliefs, values, and manners of speech. The interactions among these societies are central to Gregor the Overlander, as conflict brews when the rats and the humans clash and compete for power, forcing the other societies to respond by allying with one or the other. Fueling these relations are the hostilities characters like Henry may have towards particular species, but in the end, Gregor learns that equality and cooperation are essential to avoid the devastation violence and war bring.

Work in groups to develop your own societies and analyze the realities of conflict, resolution, and cooperation—identifying connections to the novel’s expressed themes.