What kind of father figure is Adam to the individual children in the story? What do you believe he's attempting to teach them through poetry?

Although Adam never had children of his own, he takes on various paternal roles throughout the novel. What kind of father figure is he to the individual children in the story? What do you believe he's attempting to teach them through poetry?

Adam takes on paternal roles by conducting classes in a basement that is relatively safe from the horrors on the streets of the ghetto, by encouraging his students to learn other languages which keeps their minds engaged and by teaching poems that are funny and joyous, thereby uplifting their spirits. He truly cared for each and everyone of them. I believe the children felt safe and cared for in his classes and that gave them some brief respite from the atrocities going on around them.

Adam was a good teacher, and a caring man. He was able to see the strengths in his students, even if those were to their detriment, like Szifra. He didn't approve but understood her reasons for "cooperating " with the Nazis. And he taught his students poetry which they took with them in their lives.

I think Adam is successful in giving his students a safe respite from their grim lives. I think by providing a bit of normalcy in his spartan classroom he gives the children something to think about other than basic survival. it is a very brave thing to do.

Adam is an excellent father figure for the children he comes across in the ghetto. Not just as a teacher, but as a caring listener. When Adam sat on the steps with the brothers who just lost their mother, he didn't say you should do this or that, he just sat with them, was one of them. He never lectured their sister on her behavior, just demonstrated what she could do. He accepted each child for who they were, student or thief.
In his poetry class, he selected poems that he thought would be uplifting, give them a few moments away from the life they were leading. And then to have them write their own poems, what a great way to learn a language and to express the feelings, and horrors they were living.

Adam is the proverbial safe harbor in a storm for his pupils. He is a thoughtful, deliberative man who finds himself in unimaginable circumstances. He cares deeply about his students and, in addition to serving as a parental figure, he is determined to mentor them and offer them hope, because he believes that they have a future. He must believe that in order to survive himself and attempt to impart to them the will to carry on until the war ends. He also wants them to take that mindset with them when they leave his classroom and spread hope to their parents, other family members, and friends. Because the late Harvey Milk astutely said, “I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.”

Adam was an excellent teacher and a good person for his students. He was teaching them poetry to keep a sense of normalcy in their lives by going to school, and also the happy poems that he shared kept a smile on their faces and some hope in their hearts during those trying and scary times.