U N I T T WO

Skills Scope and Sequence

Readability Scores Key: Dale-Chall/DRP/Lexile

PA R T 1 : The Power of Memory

Selections and Features Literary Elements

Unit Introduction Autobiography and Biography SE p. 278

pp. 277–282 Persuasive Essay and Speeches SE p. 279

Literary Focus Autobiography and Biography Autobiography and Biography SE pp. 284–285
pp. 284–285

Memoir from Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Historical Narrative SE p. 287
James D. Houston Autobiography (review) SE p. 301
5.9/57/1020 pp. 286–302

Grammar Workshop
p. 303

Memoir from Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane Theme SE p. 305

6.4/53/910 pp. 304–320 Voice (review) SE p. 319

Autobiography Living Well, Living Good, by Maya Angelou Memoir SE p. 322

7.7/59/1110 pp. 321–327 Theme (review) SE p. 326

Biography First Impressions, from DeKooning, An American Master, Author’s Purpose SE p. 329
by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan Biography (review) SE p. 338
6.4/66/1160 pp. 328–339

Vocabulary Workshop
p. 340

Memoir Typhoid Fever, from Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt Voice SE p. 342
4.1/48/1200 pp. 341–351 Memoir (review) SE p. 350

275A

Reading Skills and Strategies
Evaluate Characterization TE p. 280
Question TE p. 282
Analyze Author’s Purpose TE p. 284
Summarize SE p. 287
Interpret Autobiography TE p. 288
Analyze Character TE p. 290
Evaluate TE pp. 294, 300
Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships SE p. 305
Make Inferences TE p. 314
Identify Problem and Solution
TE p. 316
Draw Conclusions About Author’s
Beliefs SE p. 322
Interpret TE p. 324
Make Generalizations About Events
SE p. 329
Preview TE p. 330
Make Inferences TE p. 334
Analyze Style SE p. 342
Draw Conclusions TE p. 348
Writing Speaking, Listening,
Vocabulary
Grammar and Viewing
Write a List SE p. 282 Analyze a Persuasive Speech
Create a Chart SE p. 282 TE p. 278
Discussion SE p. 282
Write a Journal Entry
SE p. 285
Word Parts SE p. 302 Write an Interview TE p. 292 Analyze Art SE p. 291
Academic Vocabulary Write a Research Report
SE p. 302 TE p. 296
Dashes TE p. 298
Write an Informational Report
SE p. 302
Subject-Verb Agreement
SE p. 303
Context Clues SE p. 319 Write a Character Analysis Oral Report TE p. 306
Academic Vocabulary TE p. 310 Discussion TE p. 308,
SE p. 319 Write an Autobiographical SE p. 318
Narrative TE p. 312
Write a Research Report
SE p. 320
Hyphens SE p. 320
Analogies SE p. 327 Write a Character Sketch
Academic Vocabulary TE p. 322
SE p. 327 Apply Tone SE p. 327
Denotation and Connotation Write a Comparison-Contrast Multimedia Presentation
SE p. 339 Essay TE p. 332 SE p. 339
Write Interview Questions
TE p. 336
Jargon SE p. 340 Write Definitions SE p. 340
Context Clues TE p. 340
Word Origins SE p. 350 Quotation Marks and Analyze Maps TE p. 342
Academic Vocabulary Dialogue TE p. 344 Analyze Art SE p. 345
SE p. 350 Run-on Sentences TE p. 346 Discussion SE p. 349
Write a Persuasive Essay
SE p. 351
Absolutes and Absolute
Phrases SE p. 351
275B
 U N I T T WO
Readability Scores Key: Dale-Chall/DRP/Lexile

PA R T 1 : The Power of Memory (continued)

PA R T 1 : Encountering the Unexpected (continued)
Selections and Features Literary Elements

Literary Perspective Looking Forward to the Past, by Carolyn T. Hughes

5.8/61/1050 pp. 352–355

Memoir Terwilliger Bunts One, from An American Childhood, by Anecdote SE p. 357

Annie Dillard
6.3/59/1040 pp. 356–364

PA R T 2 : Quests and Encounters

Literary Focus Expository and Personal Essay pp. 366–367 Expository, Personal, and Persuasive Essay SE p. 367

Personal Essay A Swimming Lesson, by Jewelle L. Gomez Narrative Essay SE p. 369

8.4/62/1190 pp. 368–374 Anecdote (review) SE p. 373

Expository Essay The Tucson Zoo, by Lewis Thomas Structure SE p. 376

9.8/64/1030 pp. 375–381 Voice (review) SE p. 380

Personal Essay Straw into Gold, The Metamorphosis of the Everyday, Thesis SE p. 383
by Sandra Cisneros Author’s Purpose (review) SE p. 389
6.8/57/930 pp. 382–390

PA R T 3 : Keeping Freedom Alive

Literary Focus Persuasive Essay and Speech pp. 392–393 Persuasion and Argument SE p. 393

Speech On Women’s Right to Vote, by Susan B. Anthony Rhetorical Devices SE p. 395

8.8/67/1110 pp. 394–400 Argument (review) SE p. 399

Speech I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, by Martin Luther King Jr. Allusion SE p. 402
6.3/56/900 pp. 401–415 Parable TE p. 408

275C
 Writing Speaking, Listening,
Reading Skills and Strategies Vocabulary
Grammar and Viewing
Recognize Author’s Purpose SE p. 352 Write a Summary SE p. 355 Oral Presentation TE p. 354
Locate Information TE p. 352

Connect to Personal Experience Synonyms SE p. 364 Write a Summary TE p. 358

SE p. 357 Write a Letter TE p. 360
Write a Dialogue TE p. 362
Write an Anecdote SE p. 364

Determine Authors’ Motives TE p. 366 Write a Description SE p. 367

Connect to Personal Experience Context Clues TE p. 374 Write a Descriptive Essay Analyze Art SE p. 372
SE p. 369 Academic Vocabulary SE p. 370 Expository Presentation
SE p. 374 TE p. 372
Literature Group SE p. 374

Draw Conclusions About Meaning Antonyms SE p. 381 Write a Reflective Essay Debate SE p. 381
SE p. 376 Academic Vocabulary TE p. 376
Analyze Figurative Language TE p. 378 SE p. 381

Analyze Text Structure SE p. 383 Context Clues TE p. 386 Write a Cookbook TE p. 384 Analyze Art SE p. 386
Analogies SE p. 389 Write a Reflective Essay Discussion SE p. 388
Academic Vocabulary SE p. 390
SE p. 389

Analyze Author’s Intent TE p. 392 Write an Outline SE p. 393 Analyze Art TE p. 393

Recognize Bias SE p. 395 Word Parts SE p. 399 Write a Persuasive Essay Debate TE p. 396
SE p. 400 Analyze Art SE p. 397
Discussion SE p. 398

Identify Problem and Solution Synonyms SE p. 414 Write a Research Report Persuasive Speech TE p. 404
SE p. 402 Academic Vocabulary TE p. 406 Analyze Art SE p. 405
Preview TE p. 402 SE p. 414 Write a Summary TE p. 412, Discussion SE p. 413
Distinguish Fact and Opinion TE p. 410 SE p. 415
Sentence Fragments
SE p. 415

275D
 U N I T T WO
Readability Scores Key: Dale-Chall/DRP/Lexile

PA R T 3 : Keeping Freedom Alive (continued)

Selections and Features Literary Elements

Comparing Literature Not Just Comics (graphic novel), by Chester Brown, Rhetorical Devices SE p. 418
“Hamlet” too hard? Try a comic book (informational text), by Teresa Humor TE p. 420
Mendez, 11.1/69/1280 and The Graphic Novel Silver Anniversary Tone TE p. 426
(web site article), by Andrew Arnold 9.9/68/1250
pp. 416–430

Speech Address on the Anniversary of Lincoln’s Birth, by Carl Sandburg Quotation SE p. 432
10.1/62/1290 pp. 431–438 Persuasion (review) SE p. 437

Informational Text : What I See in Lincoln’s Eyes, by

Barack Obama
8.0/64/1220 pp. 439–441

Speech Cinderella’s Stepsisters, by Toni Morrison Author’s Purpose SE p. 443

9.3/62/970 pp. 442–447 Parallelism TE p. 444
Analogy (review) SE p. 446

Writing Workshop Diction TE p. 454

pp. 448–455

Speaking, Listening, and Viewing Workshop

pp. 456–457

Independent Reading
pp. 458–459

Assessment
pp. 460–465

275E

Reading Skills and Strategies
Compare and Contrast SE p. 416
Analyze Persuasive Text SE p. 417
Identify Assumptions and Ambiguities
SE p. 418
Recognize Text Structure TE p. 424
Distinguish Fact and Opinion
SE p. 432
Analyze a Visual Image SE p. 439
Preview SE p. 439
Identify Problem and Solution
SE p. 443
Connect TE p. 458
Writing Speaking, Listening,
Vocabulary
Grammar and Viewing
Word Usage SE p. 429 Write a Response to Analyze Art TE p. 420
Literature SE p. 428 Oral Report TE p. 422,
Write a Letter SE p. 429 SE p. 430
Write an Expository Essay Discussion SE pp. 425, 430
SE p. 430
Write a Graphic Organizer
SE p. 430
Denotation and Connotation Write an Analytical Essay Analyze Art TE p. 433
SE p. 438 TE p. 432 Oral Report TE p. 434
Write a Biographical Sketch
TE p. 436
Write an Evaluation SE p. 438
Vivid Verbs TE p. 440
Write a Summary SE p. 441
Context Clues SE p. 447 Write a Letter SE p. 447
Apply Repetition SE p. 447
Write Research Questions
TE p. 450
Prewrite SE p. 451
Draft SE p. 452
Sentence Style and Variety
TE p. 452
Verbs SE p. 455
Write a Biographical Narrative
SE p. 455
Write Captions SE p. 457 Narrative Presentation
SE p. 456
Write a Journal SE p. 459
Write a Response to
Literature SE p. 465
275F
 U N I T T WO

Focus
Bellringer Options
Literature Launchers:
Pre-Reading Videos DVD:
Unit 2
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 21
Or ask: If you see an exciting
TV show or movie, or read an
interesting book, does it make
it better to know that it is
based on a true story? Discuss
the natural curiosity people have
about other people’s lives as well
as the appeal of learning some-
thing new from nonfiction. Tell
students that through this unit
they will learn a great deal about
reading nonfiction.

For school-to-home activities, see Coming to America, 1985. Malcah Zeldis.

Unit 2 Teaching Resources Book, Malcah Zeldis’s painting shows the epic scale of the journey from the old world to the new. If you were to
write nonfiction about the journey to America, what would you focus on?
pp. 5–11.

For students who would profit

from independent novel study,
see Novel Companion, pp. 51–94.

276 U N I T 2 NONFI C TI ON

Unit Introduction Skills

0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 276 3/24/08 10:58:37 AM

Reading Skills Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills

• Analyze Text Structure (SE pp. • Analyze Art (SE p. 277)
280–281) Nonfiction • Analyze Persuasive Speech (TE
• Draw Conclusions (TE p. 278) p. 278)
• Recognize Author’s Purpose (TE p.
279)
• Evaluate Characterization (TE p. 280) Literary Elements
• Articulate Personal Response (TE Writing Skills/Grammar
• Genres of Nonfiction (SE • Analyze Motivation (SE p. 282)
p. 281) pp. 276–282)
• Ask Questions (TE p. 282) • Analyze Character (TE p. 280)
276
 U N IT T WO
U N I T T WO

Focus
Summary

Nonfiction
This introduction begins with
descriptions of different types
of nonfiction. An analysis of an
excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston
presents the genre of biography
and shows how its elements work
together to achieve the author’s
purpose. Authors’ comments on
Looking Ahead the genre of nonfiction are also
Nonfiction—writing about real people, events, and ideas—includes included.
autobiographies, memoirs, biographies, diaries, letters, essays, news
articles, and speeches. Through reading nonfiction, we find others who
share our experiences, feelings, passions, and values. Our ideas, ideals, and
causes are articulated and defended by the nonfiction writer.
Answer: Answers will vary. Some
Each part in Unit Two focuses on a Big Idea that can help you connect to
students may wish to capture
the literary works.
the grand scale of the journey as
Malcah Zeldis does in his painting.
PREVIEW Big Ideas Literary Focus Other students may prefer to focus
on something more specific.
PART 1 The Power of Memory Narrative Nonfiction:
Autobiography and Biography

PART 2 Quests and Encounters Expository and Personal Essay

For diagnostic and end-of-unit
PART 3 Keeping Freedom Alive Persuasive Essay and Speeches assessment, see Assessment
Resources, pp. 7–12 and 217–218.

I NTROD UC TI ON 277

Unit Resources
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 277 3/24/08 11:00:52 AM
Print Materials • Assessment Resources, Unit Assessment, • Visual Vocabulary CD-ROM
• Unit 2 Teaching Resources, pp. 1–260 pp. 7–12 • Listening Library CD-ROM
• Interactive Read and Write (On Level, • Assessment Resources, Selection Assess- • ExamView CD-ROM
Approaching, EL), pp. 67–116 ment, pp. 77–108 • Skill Level Up! CD-ROM
• Novel Companion, pp. 18–25 Technology
• Bellringer Option Transparencies: • TeacherWorks Plus CD
Selection Focus 16–22; Daily Language • StudentWorks Plus CD
Practice 21–36 • Literature Launchers: Pre-Reading Videos
• Literary Element Transparencies 12, 16, DVD, Unit 2
37 • Literature Online

277
 U N I T T WO
Teach
Literary Element 1 autobiography and biography.
Analyze Genre Ask: Why is
“An American Childhood” auto-
biography? (It is a true story that
tells of Annie Dillard’s experiences,
and it is told in the first person.)
A DVA N C E D Ask: What effect can
first-person point of view have
on the tone of a literary work?
(It causes the work to reflect more
clearly the writer’s feelings about
the topic.)
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS Autobiogra-
phies are written in the first-person,
or with language that tells you that
the writer is describing his or her
life. Some examples of first-person
language are I and we. What word
tells you that this is an autobiogra-
phy? (Our)
Reading Strategy 2 biography whether it is long or short. People
Draw Conclusions Ask:
What can you tell from details
about de Kooning’s profession
and character traits? (The portfolio
indicates he might be an artist, and
his desire to “give one that I’ll miss”
indicates generosity.)
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 278
278
Learning Objectives
For pages 276–282
In studying this text, you will Genre Focus
focus on the following
objectives:
What forms make up the
Literary Analysis:
Analyzing narrative nonfiction: nonfiction genre?
Analyzing expository and
personal essay. The motivations for writing and reading nonfiction are as diverse as
Analyzing persuasive essay
the writers and readers of nonfiction. Some writers seek to share the
and speeches. lives of others with readers to illustrate a lesson or to provide insight
into a particular time and place. Others look within and share their
own experiences.
Narrative Nonfiction: Autobiography and Biography
Writing About Oneself Our father kept in his breast pocket a little
A literary work that tells the story of an author’s black notebook. There he noted jokes he
own experiences can be an autobiography or a wanted to remember. Remembering jokes was
memoir. Autobiography usually refers to a a moral obligation. People who said, “I can 1
work that attempts to tell a person’s entire life. never remember jokes,” were like people who
Memoir usually refers to a work that focuses said, obliviously, “I can never remember
names,” or “I don’t bathe.”
on the author’s personal experiences during a
particular event or period. —Annie Dillard, from “An American Childhood”
Distributed By Universal Press Syndicate. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Writing About Another
De Kooning brought over a portfolio of draw-
An account of another person’s life is called a ings and began leafing through them. At last, he
seemed to settle on one. He looked at it. But then 2
are curious about the lives of famous, success- he slipped the drawing back into the portfolio.
ful, or inspiring people, from royalty, such as “No,” he said, “I want to give one that I’ll miss.”
Queen Elizabeth, to media stars, such as
Oprah Winfrey. —Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan,
from De Kooning: An American Master
278 U N I T 2 NONFI C TI ON
Listening Practice
3/24/08 11:01:09 AM
Analyze Persuasive Speech
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Have students watch a video presenta-
Speakers use a variety of tion of a historically significant persuasive
persuasive techniques: speech and analyze it for its techniques.
• Consistent eye contact
• Hand or body gestures
• Repetition of a phrase to emphasize
a major idea
• Use of logic and evidence
• Appeal to listeners’ emotions

Expository and Personal Essay
Formal and Informal Essays
Essays are written to communicate ideas or
opinions. They are short works of nonfiction that
focus on a single topic.
Formal essays are serious in tone, meaning the
author expresses a serious attitude toward his or
her subject matter. This type of essay comprises
most of the papers, essays, and assignments that
high school and college students write. Formal
essays can be expository (explanatory) or persua-
sive. In an expository essay—an essay examining
a work of literature for example—the writer should
take an objective tone and use quotations and
reasoned analysis to support a thesis statement.
In a persuasive essay, the writer can use a more
Persuasive Essay and Speech
Writing for Change
One type of formal essay is the persuasive
essay. Letters may be written by organizations
to encourage readers to donate money.
Advertisements are written by corporations to
encourage readers to purchase products.
Essays and articles are sometimes written to
change the way readers think on subjects from
letter writing to space travel. Speeches are usu-
ally written to encourage a certain behavior or
to win over the listener to a cause.
One type of persuasion is argument, which
relies on logic, rea-
son, and evidence
to convince the
reader. Notice that
the excerpt from
King’s speech con-
tains both argument
and sarcasm, which
is a type of emo-
tional appeal.
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 279
Beginning Students may be confused by
multiple-meaning words such as argu-
ment. Encourage them to use the context
to understand that argument in this section
means “the offering of reasons” rather than
“a disagreement.” Have them use context
with other multiple-meaning words.
U N I T T WO
Teach
subjective tone. In certain circumstances, the
writer may want to use the first-person in a per- Reading Strategy 3
suasive essay to strengthen his or her appeals
to emotion and logic with personal testimony. Recognize Author’s Pur-
Newspaper editorials—jointly authored articles
that give the opinion of the editors or publishers
pose Ask: What is the pur-
pose of Martin Luther King Jr.’s
on a topic—are often persuasive essays.
Informal essays, also called personal essays,
speech? (His goal is to persuade
are conversational in tone, use the first-person, his audience to avoid violence and
and are written on any topic that the writer focus on the issue of injustice.)
wishes to share with the reader. Many blogs,
Ask: What logical reasons does
zines, and magazines include informal essays.
The content of an informal essay usually King give? (The press will focus
relates to an experience in the writer’s life. on any violence, which will distract
from the primary issue.)
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are.
The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of
Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings
with its public servants, who happen to be sani-
tation workers. Now, we’ve got to keep attention
on that. That’s always the problem with a little
violence. You know what happened the other
day, and the press dealt only with the window- 3 Political History
breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom
got around to mentioning the fact that one thou- Sanitation Worker Strike On
sand, three hundred sanitation workers were on February 12, 1968, more than
strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to 1,100 African American sanitation
them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a
doctor. They didn’t get around to that.
workers in Memphis, Tennessee,
went on strike to demand atten-
—Martin Luther King Jr., from “I’ve Been to the
Mountaintop” tion to their rights. Memphis Mayor
Henry Loeb mostly opposed the
workers. During a march for the
Literature Online
workers that Martin Luther King Jr.
Literature and Reading For more selections in this
genre, go to glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code led, a group of marchers became
GL59794u2. violent and broke some windows
of local businesses. King delivered
I NTROD UC TI ON 279 this speech in support of the work-
ers and to encourage nonviolence.
3/24/08 11:01:59 AM
279
 U N I T T WO
Teach
Literary Element 1 Robert E. Hemenway (born 1941) has been a
Biography Ask: How does
Robert Hemenway’s purpose dif-
fer from an essayist’s? (He wants
to tell readers a person’s life story
whereas an essayist’s purpose is
to explain or persuade.)
A DVA N C E D Writers convey their
purposes through the language
they use. Sensory language, word
choice, and line length affect the
mood and the tone, or the writer’s
attitude toward the subject. Ask:
What effect does the author’s
word choice and language have
on the tone of the work? (The
tone is formal and shows that he
respects Hurston.)
A P P ROAC H I N G Have students
read the last sentence in the first
paragraph and identify sensory
language that helps them visualize
Hurston’s appearance.
Literary Element 2
Analyze Character Ask:
How does Hemenway portray
Zora Neale Hurston? (As a deter-
mined, talented person.) Ask:
What details show these traits?
Literary Analysis Model
How will literary elements help readers analyze nonfiction?
professor of English and American Studies and a
University Dean and Chancellor. His literary biog-
APPLY
Literary Elements
Nonfiction
Nonfiction is writing
about real people and
events.
Nonfiction
In trying to determine
which category of non-
fiction the excerpt
belongs to, you can rule
1 out the essay because
the author is narrating
events in the life of a
person, not expressing
ideas and opinions. You
can also rule out
speech.
280 U N I T 2 NONFI C TI ON
Reading Practice
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 280
raphy Zora Neale Hurston was a “Best Books”
pick by the New York Times in 1978.
from Zora Neale Hurston
by Robert E. Hemenway
In the first week of January, 1925, Zora Neale Hurston arrived
in New York City with one dollar and fifty cents in her purse,
no job, no friends, but filled with “a lot of hope.” She came
from Washington, leaving a steady job as a manicurist in a
5 Seventh Avenue barbershop to explore the opportunities for a
career as a writer. As a part-time student at Howard University
for the previous five years, she had been an aspiring English
major, much praised for her short stories and poems, and she
had a vague idea of studying writing in one of Manhattan’s
10 many colleges. She carried most of her belongings in her bag,
including a number of manuscripts that she hoped would
impress. Even if they did not, she was confident of her ability
to survive in the big city; she had been on her own since the
age of fourteen. Brown skinned, big boned, with freckles and
high cheekbones, she was a striking woman; her dark brown
15
eyes were both impish and intelligent, her voice was rich and
black—with the map of Florida on her tongue.
She went first to the offices of the National Urban League on
East Twenty-third Street, where she asked to be introduced to
20 Charles S. Johnson, editor of the Urban League’s magazine,
Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. A month earlier he had pub-
lished one of her short stories, and since September he had
been encouraging her to submit material to the literary contest
his magazine currently sponsored. Johnson, director of research
25 for the league, had single-handedly turned Opportunity into an
expression of “New Negro” thought. “New Negroes” were
black people who made clear that they would not accept a sub-
ordinate role in American society, and Johnson believed that
young writers like Zora Neale Hurston would help prove the 2
3/24/08 11:02:28 AM

(Hemenway tells how Hurston
left her job to go to New York and
describes her as “confident” and
“much praised” for her writing.)
Evaluate Characterization Point out is the author about the subject? What
that biographers use the same techniques seems to be the author’s purpose for writ-
of characterization as fiction writers, ing the biography?
portraying people by what they say and
do as well as describing them directly. As
students read biographies, suggest that
they answer these questions to help them
evaluate the characterization: How much
interpretation does the author include?
Are the author’s interpretations confirmed
by fact? How credible and knowledgeable

280
 U N I T T WO
Biography
30 cultural parity of the races. He urged her to stay in New York,
and as she settled in, he helped her find a series of odd jobs.
Mrs. Johnson often gave Zora carfare to make sure she could
Hurston is referred to as
“she” rather than “I,” so
Teach
you can rule out
accept the frequent dinner invitations at the Johnson house.
autobiography and
For a young girl from rural Florida and provincial Washington
memoir and determine Reading Strategy 3
35 who had been working for ten years to secure an education, this
that the kind of nonfic-
interest and help must have made all the sacrifice seem worth- tion you have just read Articulate Personal
while. She had arrived at a hard-won sense of self built around the is biography. Response Discuss how differ-
knowledge that because she was black her life had been graced in
unusual ways, and she had confidence that she could express that ent people will respond differently
40 grace in fiction. The story Johnson had printed a month earlier, to this biography, depending on
“Drenched in Light,” embodied this personal vision she brought their points of view. Consider how
to New York; it was her initial contribution to the cultural uprising Biography
that Johnson and others were calling a “Harlem Renaissance.”
an aspiring writer, a young African
Biographies can be short American, and a cultural historian
“Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s calling card on literary
or long. This excerpt is
45 New York, the tangible evidence she could point to that she was
from a book-length might respond. Ask students to
indeed a serious writer. It is also a statement of personal identity. It biography. explain their own responses and
tells of a day in the life of Isie Watts, a “little brown figure perched
upon the gate-post” in front of her Eatonville, Florida, home. Isie reasons for them.
likes to race up and down the road to Orlando, “hailing gleefully
50 all travelers.” As a result, “everybody in the country”
knows “Isie Watts, the joyful,” and how she likes to laugh
and play, beg rides in cars, and live to the fullest every
minute of her young life. Isie gets into various scrapes,
including an impish attempt to shave her sleeping grand-
55 mother, and eventually is given a ride by a passing white
motorist, despite her grandmother’s disapproval. There is
no building toward a dramatic climax, and very little plot.
The structure of the story is thematic. The point is that Isie,
poor and black, is far from tragic; rather, she is “drenched
60 in light,” a condition which endears her to everyone, Literary History
although it presents her grandmother with a discipline
problem. Isie is persistently happy, and the implication is
Harlem Renaissance The
that whites suffer from an absence of such joy. Isie’s white cultural flowering of African Ameri-
benefactor ends the story, “I want a little of her sunshine to can literature and arts during the
65 soak into my soul. I need it.” 1920s and 1930s is known as the
Hurston may have been manipulating white stereo-
types of black people here, but it is not a matter of sat- Harlem Renaissance. Major artists
ire. She remembered Eatonville as a place of great peace of this movement, largely based in
and happiness, identifying that happiness as a function New York City’s Harlem, included
3 70 of her family and communal existence.
writers Zora Neale Hurston, Langs-
Writer Zora Neale Hurston
ton Hughes, Claude McKay, and
Countee Cullen, as well as paint-
Reading Check ers, dancers, and singers.
Interpret What would you expect the rest of this
book to be about?

I NTROD UC TI ON 281

English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 281 3/24/08 11:03:05 AM

Intermediate To say that someone has
“the map of Italy on his face” is an idiom
that describes a person with Italian facial
features. Point out to English learners that
Hemenway’s phrase “the map of Florida
on her tongue” is a variation of this idiom.
However, Hemenway is not describing
the appearance of Hurston’s tongue; he
is making a statement that the tongue is
used for speaking. Ask students what Hem-
Reading Check
enway’s idiom says about the way Hurston
Students may expect the rest of
sounds when she talks. (Hurston talks like
the book to be about Zora Neale
she is from the South; or Hurston has a
Hurston’s subsequent career as a
southern accent.)
writer.

281
 U N I T T WO

Assess
Wrap-Up
Wrap-Up
Guide to Reading Nonfiction
Guide to Reading Nonfiction Types of Nonfiction
Have students outline the types
of nonfiction and explain what
• When reading nonfiction, first determine • Nonfiction is writing about real people
Guide to Reading Nonfiction
what type of work you are reading. and real events.Types of Nonfiction
new insights they gained into
• Try •
to identify
When the author’s
reading purpose. Is he
nonfiction, • An autobiography
first determine • Nonfiction
tells the story of
isthe
writing about real
techniques for reading nonfiction. or she writing to explain, to entertain, or to
what type of work you are reading.writer’s own life. and real events.
persuade you?
Types of Nonfiction Ask • A memoir tells about an event in the writ-
• Try to purpose
• If the author’s identifyis the author’s
to inform or purpose.
er’sIsown
he life. •An autobiography tells the story
students to recall examples of explain,or sheforwriting
look to explain,
a thesis statement andto entertain, or to writer’s own life.
• A biography tells the story of another per-
nonfiction literature they have supportpersuade
for the thesis.
you? son’s life.
read and identify the characteristic • If the author’s purpose is to entertain, look
•A memoir tells about an event in
features of each.
• If the author’s purpose
for literary elements, such as figurative is to •
informAnor essay is a short work of nonfiction
er’s own life. on
explain, look for a thesis statement aand
single topic. An essay can be formal or
language, dialogue, and suspense.
support for the thesis.
informal. •A biography tells the story of an
Activities • If the author’s purpose is to persuade,
• Informal, or personal,son’s life.
essays are meant
determine whether the author is present-
• If the author’s purpose is to entertain,
ing an argument, emotional appeals, or a
lookto entertain. Formal essays may
primarily
•Anoressay is a short work of nonf
1. Have students identify historical for literary be intended to explain persuade.
combination of both. elements, such as figurative a single topic. An essay can be f
and biographical elements of language, dialogue, and suspense. • Persuasive essays andinformal.
speeches are intended to
the excerpt that they would like Literature Online change the way people act and think.
to learn more about. • If theForauthor’s
Unit Resources purpose
additional skills practice, goisto to persuade,
Persuasive writing contains argument that per-
•Informal, or personal, essays are
glencoe.comdetermine whether
and enter QuickPass the author is present-
code GL59794u2. suades through logic, reason, and evidence.
2. To get students started, ask primarily to entertain. Formal es
ing an argument, emotional appeals, or a
what Hemenway seems to be intended to explain or persua
combination of both.
admire about Hurston and what Use what you have learned about reading

➤ •
Persuasive essays and speeches are
she represents to him. Encour- Activities Literature Online and analyzing nonfiction to complete one
of these activities.
change the way people act and think
age students to connect with Unit Resources For additional skills practice, go to Persuasive writing contains argume
what would motivate them to glencoe.com
1. Generate andInenter
Questions small QuickPass code GL52922u2.
groups, discuss suades through logic, reason, and ev
write various types of nonfiction. the excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston and list three THREE-TAB BOOK
questions you could research that are suggested by
3. Emphasize the value of the the text.
Foldables™ study organizer for p hy y
Use what you have learned about r

➤
2. Research/Inquire Analyze the author’s motiva- ra ph y
iog ra sa
review and for reference while
reading the selections in the unit.
Activities
tion for writing about Zora Neale Hurston. Use your
analysis as the first entry in a chart that shows your Au
to
b and
Bi
of
g E s
o analyzing nonfiction to
these activities.
comple
ideas about the kinds of motivations writers might
have for writing autobiographies, memoirs, essays, Forms of Nonfiction
or speeches.
1. Generate Questions In small groups, discuss
the excerpt
3. Take Notes Try usingfrom Zoraorganizer
this study Neale toHurston
prac- See
andpage
listR20 for folding instructions
three THREE-TAB BOOK
tice identifying forms of
questions younonfiction. For each selec-
could research that are suggested by
tion, write clues you used to determine the form.
Have students make and label the text.
y
the Three-Tab Book Foldable. aph y
2. Research/Inquire Analyze the author’s motiva-
gr aph
Then have them write notes io gr
282 U N I T 2tion for writing
NONFI C TI ON about Zora Neale Hurston. Use your ob o E
under each tab of their Foldables. analysis as the first entry in a chart that shows your Au
t Bi
Reading Practice
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 282 3/24/08 11:03:51 AM

SPIRAL
REVIEW
Ask Questions Students may • Pose two or three specific questions that
wonder about Zora Neale Hurston’s can be answered by research.
family, why she had been on her • Focus in on a single relevant question
own since fourteen, and why she was that is narrow enough to be researched
determined to be a writer. Suggest that adequately.
they generate relevant questions for
research in these ways:
• Jot down things that puzzle them.
• Brainstorm for questions related to topics
of interest.
0276_0282_U2_U0_877979.indd 282

282
 PART 1 U N I T T WO
PA R T 1

The Power of Memory Analyze and

Extend
Big Idea 1
The Power of Memory
Ask students to consider their
most powerful memories and the
effect that sharing memories has
on themselves and others. Also
discuss how personal memories
can enlighten us about a time in
history. Tell students that Part 1
will deepen their understanding
of the power of memory. Encour-
age students to contemplate this
“big idea” and its relation to the
artwork.

S
Souvenir, 1891. Émile Friant. Oil on canvas. Musée de la Ville de Paris, Musée du Petit-Palais, France.
Answer: Children live in the
This painting depicts an elderly woman lost in thought while children play by the waterside.
How might memories and the power of memory become more important as one grows old? moment and do not spend much
time doting on past events. As
people grow older and more frail,
BIG IDEA they enjoy remembering the good
times they had when life was
Shared personal memories have the power to create a bond between the writer
and reader. Historical memories have the power to shape national identities. In more carefree.
the nonfiction works in Part 1, you will read excerpts from life stories that could Émile Friant (1863–1932) was a
change the way you view the world. As you read these texts, ask yourself, When French Realist painter who stud-
someone shares a personal memory with me, do I feel closer to them or
ied under Alexandre Cabanel and
understand them better? Why or why not? 1
painted mainly portraits and com-
mon people from everyday life.
283

English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
0283_0285_U2_PO1_877979.indd 283 3/24/08 12:07:43 PM

Beginning Help students who are new

to the United States to connect with and
understand the literature in Part 1 by
considering their own family histories.
Ask if students have relatives who relate
memories in an interesting way. Ask stu-
dents about their reactions to these shared
memories.

283

Literary Focus
Focus
Bellringer Options
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 22
Or show photojournalistic
images of people at differ-
ent times in history and invite
students to share snapshots of
favorite memories. Say: Explain
what makes a person’s memo-
ries powerful to others and
support your answer by identi-
fying powerful elements from
the images or photos. (Stu-
dents may say that a person’s
smile can inspire the viewer.)
Teach
Literary Element 1 Interior at Ciboure, 1912. Henri Matisse. Canvas.
Biography and Autobio-
graphy Explain that Maya
Angelou’s excerpt is biographi-
cal, since it tells about another
person’s life. Ask: What is effec-
tive about Angelou’s selection of
facts about Aunt Tee? (Angelou
arouses suspense by saying th e
couple’s words “won Aunt Tee’s
sympathy forever.”)
284
Learning Objectives
LITERARY FOCUS
For pages 284–285
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
Narrative Nonfiction:
objective: Autobiography and Biography
Literary Study: Analyzing
narrative nonfiction:
autobiography and
biography. How do you write about yourself or
another person?
Nonfiction writing should be factual, and a biography should tell the
facts of the life of its subject. But which facts should be told? To write
down all the facts of any life, or even of one day, is inconceivable.
The art of biography is in choosing interesting and telling facts and in
explaining them in an engaging way.
from Living Well.
Living Good.
by Maya Angelou
Aunt Tee said that what occurred dur-
ing every Saturday party startled her
and her friends the first time it hap-
pened. They had been playing cards,
and Aunt Tee, who had just won the
bid, held a handful of trumps. She felt
a cool breeze on her back and sat
upright and turned around. Her
employers had cracked her door open
and beckoned to her. Aunt Tee, a little
peeved, laid down her cards and went
to the door. The couple backed away
1
and asked her to come into the hall,
and there they both spoke and won
Aunt Tee’s sympathy forever.
Musee Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France. ©ARS, NY.
284 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Speaking Practice
0283_0285_U2_PO1_877979.indd 284 3/24/08 12:08:15 PM
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Analyze Author’s Purpose live more satisfying lives. Like Langston
Discuss the purpose an author Hughes, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and
might have for writing nonfiction James D. Houston write to portray a
about powerful memories; for example, haunting cultural experience.)
to convey a historical experience or to
entertain with amusing details. Ask: For
the excerpts on these pages, how do
the authors’ purposes differ? (Dillard
writes to entertain and connect with read-
ers while Angelou writes to help people
 Biography
The word biography comes from the Greek bio-,
meaning “life,” and -graphy, meaning “writ-
ing.” In biography the author gives the reader
an account of another person’s life. The author
will use the pronouns “he” or “she” to refer to
the subject. Biographies can be book-length,
but they can also be short pieces.
Biography does not need to limit itself to dis-
cussing a single person. Poet Langston Hughes
refused to differentiate between his personal
experience and the common experience of
African Americans in the United States. For
him, one man’s experience was the experience
of everyone. In this way, a writer may explore a
group’s experience through that of an individ-
ual or several individuals.
Autobiography
When a person writes about his or her own life,
it is called autobiography. Auto- is from the
Greek word meaning “self.” In an autobiogra-
phy, the pronoun “I” refers to the subject, who
is the author. Authors have many purposes for
sharing the stories of their lives. Some, like
Martin Luther King Jr., write to help others live
satisfying and meaningful lives. Others, like
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D.
Houston, write to give readers a personal
glimpse of an event in U.S. history.
None of these kids ever actually attacked. It was
the threat that frightened us, their fearful looks,
and the noises they would make, like miniature
Samurai, in a language we couldn’t understand.
—Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D.
Houston, from Farewell to Manzanar
Literature Online
Literature and Reading For more about literary
elements, go to glencoe.com and enter QuickPass
code GL59794u2.
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
0283_0285_U2_PO1_877979.indd 285
Intermediate Students new to the
United States may not understand cultural
allusions in some of the excerpts, such as
the reference to playing the card game
whist (bid, trumps) in the Angelou excerpt.
Have students use a dictionary to find
the meaning of Samurai in the Houston
excerpt and explain why its meaning sug-
gests why the kids were scary. (Samurai
Memoir The term memoir is sometimes used
as a synonym for autobiography. The label can
also be applied to a particular kind of autobi-
ography—autobiographical writing that
focuses on a specific period or event in the
writer’s life. It can also refer to an autobio-
graphical style that is more story-like. Annie
Dillard’s memoir captures her mother’s
unusual personality.
“Spell ‘poinsettia,’” Mother would throw out at me,
smiling with pleasure. “Spell ‘sherbet.’” The idea
was not to make us whizzes, but, quite the con-
trary, to remind us—and I, especially, needed
reminding—that we didn’t know it all just yet.
—Annie Dillard, from An American Childhood
Woman in Calico, 1944. William H. Johnson. Oil
on paperboard, 67.4 x 52.0 cm. Smithsonian
American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
Quickwrite
Write a Journal Entry Write a private journal entry
about an event in your life that you would like to
remember. Write it just for yourself without worry-
ing about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. You
do not have to show it to anyone. Later, you can
rewrite it using the “five Ws” (who, what, where,
when, why) and share it with a partner.
L I TE RARY FO C US 285
3/24/08 12:09:13 PM
were warriors, so the kids must have
looked fierce, as a warrior does.)
Literary Focus
Teach
Reading Strategy 2
2 Analyze Style Ask: What
makes Annie Dillard’s style that
of a memoir? (Use of first person
for telling about Annie Dillard’s
own life makes it autobiographical.
It is written like a story with dia-
logue and narrative details, which
makes it a memoir.)
AP P ROAC H I N G Explain that style
involves how authors write rather
than what they write. Style includes
figurative language, word choice,
tone, and sentence length.
Assess
Quickwrite
Encourage students to make a
habit of writing down details about
events they would like to remem-
ber. Advise them to jot down spe-
cific details about what they see,
hear, feel, and think. Note that
many authors use their journals as
source material for their writing.
For additional support for English
Learners, see Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, p. 20.
285
Before You Read
Focus
Bellringer Options
Selection Focus
Transparency 16
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 23
Or on the board, write: evacuate.
Ask: What would you be most
concerned about if you were
suddenly forced to evacuate
your home? (Students may
worry about leaving friends and
neighbors, being uprooted from
school, being separated from
family, leaving pets and posses-
sions, and facing an uncertain
future.) Advise students to keep
those reactions in mind as they
read this narrative about a young
girl evacuated from her home.
286 U N IT 2
0286_0287_U2P1_877979.indd 286
Literary Elements
• Historical Narrative (SE pp. 287, 288,
289, 296, 299, 301)
• Autobiography (SE p. 301)
Reading Skills
• Summarize (SE pp. 287, 289, 290,
292–294, 300, 302)
• Evaluate (TE p. 294)
286
Before You Read
from Farewell to Manzanar
Meet Jeanne Wakatsuki
Houston (born 1934)
Meet James D. Houston
(born 1933)
J
eanne Wakatsuki Houston was only seven
years old when her family, just for being
Japanese, was relocated to an internment
camp during World War II. It took her nearly
twenty-five years to talk about her life in the
Manzanar internment camp, but when she did,
she broached the subject in the form of an
award-winning book, Farewell to Manzanar,
co-authored by her husband, James D. Houston.
“[Writing was] a way of coming to
terms with the impact these years have
had on my life.”
—Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
The United States at War When Japan attacked
a United States fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the
U.S. was drawn into World War II. Many peo-
ple unfairly blamed Japanese Americans.
Despite the fact that many of them had U.S. cit-
izenship, they were distrusted and systemati-
cally discriminated against. For example,
Japanese American people in the fishing indus-
try were seen as threats to national security
because in theory, they could smuggle oil to the
Japanese navy. Wakatsuki Houston’s father was
arrested because he was a fisherman.
Memories of Internment Wakatsuki Houston
was born in Inglewood, California. When the
war began, Wakatsuki Houston’s family was
sent to the Manzanar internment camp, where
NONFI C TI ON
from Farewell
to Manzanar
Vocabulary Skills
• Word Parts (SE pp. 287, 302; TE
p. 287)
the conditions were very harsh. Manzanar was
built very quickly, so no modern conveniences
existed. Approximately eleven-thousand peo-
ple of Japanese ancestry lived there in a one-
square-mile block of wooden barracks,
surrounded by barbed wire and posted guards.
The people there worked hard to build a com-
munity by planting gardens, painting, and
forming schools and churches. Many were
full-fledged U.S. citizens and many did not even
speak Japanese. Despite their loyalty to the
United States, however, they were treated as if
they were the enemy. For Wakatsuki Houston,
the memory of Manzanar changed her life.
After her family’s release in 1945, Wakatsuki
Houston continued to struggle to overcome
prejudice and the shame of being punished
simply for being Japanese. During her college
years, she met and married James D. Houston.
She went back to visit Manzanar in 1972, a visit
she says helped her come to terms with the
experience. According to Wakatsuki Houston,
“Papa’s life ended at Manzanar, though he
lived for twelve more years after getting out.
Until this trip I had not been able to admit
that my own life really began there.”
Literature Online
Author Search For more about Jeanne Wakatsuki
Houston and James D. Houston, go to glencoe.com and
enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
3/24/08 12:33:33 PM
Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
• Analyze Art (SE pp. 291, 297, 298)
• Interview (TE p. 292)
Writing Skills/Grammar
• Research and Report (SE p. 302; TE
p. 296)
• Dash (TE p. 298)
 Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
Before You Read
For pages 286–302
Connect to the Historical Narrative
Focus
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
How would you feel if you were given forty-eight hours to pack
objectives:
a few of your belongings and leave your home? Freewrite for a
Reading:
few minutes about what you might take with you, and why.
Analyzing historical narrative.
Summary
Build Background Summarizing. In this excerpt from Farewell to
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki
Order 9066, which gave the U.S. War Department the authority to
confine Japanese Americans to special camps for the duration of
Houston recalls her experience as
the war. Some 110,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them a child during World War II. After
U.S. citizens, were relocated to ten remote, prison-like camps. Vocabulary the narrator’s father is arrested by
patriarch (pātrē ärḱ) n. the the U.S. government, her mother
Set Purposes for Reading male head of a family or group; moves the family to two different
Big Idea The Power of Memory p. 291 My brother became the
patriarch of our family after my
Japanese American ghettos. Then
As you read the story, ask yourself, How does sharing memories they are forced to relocate to Man-
father died.
help people learn more about themselves and make connec-
designation (deźig nāshən) n.
zanar, a Japanese American intern-
tions to other people?
a distinguishing name or mark; ment camp in California, where the
Literary Element Historical Narrative p. 292 The scientist gave the seeds living conditions are inadequate
A historical narrative is a nonfiction account that tells about that were not watered the designa- and the residents lack privacy.
important historical events. As you read, ask yourself, What tion “test group.”
real-life details does Wakatsuki Houston use to tell the story of alleviate (ə lēvē āt́) v. to make For summaries in languages other
Japanese Americans in an internment camp? easier to bear; relieve; lessen; than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
p. 294 The medicine promised to Resources Book, pp. 21–26.
Reading Strategy Summarize alleviate his suffering.
When you summarize, you determine the most important
subordinate (sə bôrdə nāt́) v.
ideas in a selection and then restate them concisely in your
to cause to be, or treat as, second- Vocabulary
own words. As you read, ask yourself, Do I remember and
ary, inferior, or less important;
understand the text better when I summarize?
p. 300 A mother subordinates her
Word Parts Changing the
own needs to care for the needs of prefixes or suffixes of the vocabu-
Tip: Summarize Details As you read, use a graphic organizer
her children. lary words will change the words’
to help you list details from a paragraph. Then write one or two
sentences to sum up the main idea of the paragraph. meanings. Have groups of students
Tip: Word Parts You can find the
Detail Detail Detail meanings of common prefixes,
change the prefixes and suffixes of
When I was born He started fishing; Papa was gone; such as a-, ad-, ante-, bi, de-, per-, the vocabulary words to create as
[Papa] was farming we moved to Ocean mother moved us
near Inglewood. Park, near Santa to Terminal Island.
pre-, pro-, and sub-, by looking many different words as possible.
Monica; he was them up in a dictionary. Ask students to define the words
picked up there.
on their lists. (Possible words
include patriarchal, patriarchy, des-
Papa was a farmer but became a fisher. After he was ignate, designated, undesignated,
arrested near our home in Ocean Park, mother moved
us to Terminal Island to be near other Japanese.
alleviated, alleviation, allevia-
tor, unalleviated, insubordinate,
Conclusion
insubordination, subordinated,
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON 287 subordination)
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
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Intermediate In this historical nonfiction how the information in the footnote helps
For additional vocabulary practice,
selection, English learners may struggle them understand the selection and then
see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
when they encounter Japanese words, have them use the information in the Book, pp. 29–30.
place names, and unfamiliar terms. To help footnotes to improve their understanding
students understand place names and of the text.
unfamiliar terms, remind them to read the For additional context, see Glencoe
Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
footnotes of the selection as they go. Have
students read the footnote on the first
page of the story and identify the context
that relates to the footnote. Ask students

287
Teach
Big Idea 1
The Power of Memory
Say: Keep the following ques-
tions in mind as you read: What
is the effect of the author’s
memories on the reader? What
purpose does sharing her mem-
ories serve? (Wakatsuki Houston
presents a child’s perspective of
disturbing events. Her recollections
arouse empathy and indignation.)

Literary Element 2 School Children Say Pledge of Allegiance in San Francisco, April 16, 1942. Dorothea Lange. Silver Gelatin Photograph.

Historical Narrative Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Answer: After the attack on Pearl
Harbor by the Japanese, people
and James D. Houston
were hostile to Japanese Ameri-

cans. Mama felt safer in an area
with other Japanese people.
Emphasize that this historical
narrative tells a true story set in a
specific historical period.
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS Tell students
that the word foreign can mean
“separate from one’s own coun-
try” or “unfamiliar.” Point out that
Houston uses both meanings
to describe Terminal Island as a
strange country that is unfamiliar
to her.
I
1 n December of 1941 Papa’s disappear-
ance didn’t bother me nearly so much as
the world I soon found myself in.
He had been a jack-of-all-trades. When I
was born he was farming near Inglewood.
Later, when he started fishing, we moved
to Ocean Park, near Santa Monica, and
until they picked him up, that’s where we
lived, in a big frame house with a brick
fireplace, a block back from the beach. We
were the only Japanese family in the neigh-
borhood. Papa liked it that way. He didn’t
want to be labeled or grouped by anyone.
But with him gone and no way of knowing
1. Terminal Island, part of the Port of Los Angeles, is at the
city’s southern tip.
288 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
what to expect, my mother moved all of us
down to Terminal Island.1
Woody already lived there, and one of
my older sisters had married a Terminal
Island boy. Mama’s first concern now was
to keep the family together; and once the
war began, she felt safer there than isolated
racially in Ocean Park. But for me, at age
seven, the island was a country as foreign
as India or Arabia would have been. It was
the first time I had lived among other
Japanese, or gone to school with them, and
I was terrified all the time.
Historical Narrative Why does Mama feel safer in
Terminal Island? 2

Literary Element Practice

0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 288 3/12/08 9:21:04 A

For an audio recording of this

SPIRAL
REVIEW
Interpret Autobiography Call time the events occurred.) Have students
selection, use Listening Library students’ attention to the first- give an example that shows the child’s
Audio CD-ROM. person point of view. As an adult, perspective.
Wakatsuki Houston is recalling events that
occurred when she was seven years old.
Readability Scores Ask: How does the point of view influ-
Dale-Chall: 5.9 ence what readers discover? (Experi-
DRP: 57 ences and thoughts are filtered through
Lexile: 1020 one person’s eyes. Readers should
remain aware of Wakatsuki Houston’s
age, experiences, and interests at the

288
 This was partly Papa’s fault. One of his
threats to keep us younger kids in line was
fisherman’s language, full of oaths and
insults. Instead of saying ba-ka-ta-re, a com- Teach
“I’m going to sell you to the Chinaman.” mon insult meaning stupid, Terminal
When I had entered kindergarten two years Islanders would say ba-ka-ya-ro, a coarser
earlier, I was the only Oriental in the class. and exclusively masculine use of the word, Reading Strategy 3
They sat me next to a Caucasian girl who which implies gross stupidity. They would
happened to have very slanted eyes. I swagger and pick on outsiders and perse-
Summarize Answer: She
looked at her and began to scream, certain cute anyone who didn’t speak as they did. states that they spoke the Kyushu
Papa had sold me out at last. My fear of her That was what made my own time there so dialect, which was considered
ran so deep I could not speak of it, even to hateful. I had never spoken anything but rough and unmannerly and that
Mama, couldn’t explain why I was scream- English, and the other kids in the second they picked on people who spoke
ing. For two weeks I had nightmares about grade despised me for it. They were tough differently. Ask: What kind of
this girl, until the teachers finally moved me and mean, like ghetto kids anywhere. Each
prejudice does the narrator
to the other side of the room. And it was day after school I dreaded their ambush.
still with me, this fear of Oriental faces, My brother Kiyo, three years older, would experience on Terminal Island?
when we moved to Terminal Island. wait for me at the door, where we would (Bullying by other Japanese
In those days it was a company town, a decide whether to run straight home Americans)
ghetto owned and controlled by the can- together, or split up, or try a new and
neries. The men went after fish, and when- unexpected route.
ever the boats came back—day or None of these kids
night—the women would be called to ever actually attacked.
process the catch while it was fresh. One in It was the threat that
the afternoon or four in the morning, it frightened us, their
made no difference. My mother had to go fearful looks, and the For additional practice using the
to work right after we moved there. I can noises they would reading skill or strategy, see Unit 2
still hear the whistle—two toots for make, like miniature Teaching Resources Book, p. 28.
French’s, three for Van Camp’s—and she Samurai, in a lan-
and Chizu would be out of bed in the mid- guage we couldn’t Visual Vocabulary
For centuries, the
dle of the night, heading for the cannery. understand.
The house we lived in was nothing more At the time it
Samurai (samoo rı̄́)
were a class of
Literary Element 4
than a shack, a barracks with single plank seemed we had been fearsome warriors.
walls and rough wooden floors, like the living under this reign Japan abolished its Historical Narrative
cheapest kind of migrant workers’ housing. of fear for years. In
class system in the Answer: Because the Asian
1860s.
The people around us were hardworking, fact, we lived there Americans would sympathize with
boisterous, a little proud of their nickname, about two months. Japan and become spies or
yo-go-re, which meant literally uncouth one, Late in February the saboteurs
or roughneck, or dead-end kid. They not navy decided to clear Terminal Island
only spoke Japanese exclusively, they spoke completely. Even though most of us were
a dialect peculiar to Kyushu,2 where their American-born, it was dangerous having
families had come from in Japan, a rough, that many Orientals so close to the Long
Beach Naval Station, on the opposite end

2. Kyushu is the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

Historical Narrative Why did the navy think it was

3
Summarize How does Wakatsuki Houston describe the dangerous to have Asian Americans close to the Long 4
other Japanese at Terminal Island? Beach Naval Station?

J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON 289

Approaching Level
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Emerging Have students contrast the two locations. (Ocean Park was comfort-
images that Houston uses to describe able and inviting, whereas Terminal Island
Ocean Park and Terminal Island. For exam- was ugly and empty.)
ple, read aloud the descriptions of the two
houses: “a big frame house with a brick
fireplace, a block back from the beach” and
“a shack, a barracks with single plank walls
and rough wooden floors.” Discuss with
students how these images help them
understand the differences between the

289
Teach
Reading Strategy 1 enough to be living with Mama, plus
Summarize Answer:
Executive Order 9066 gave the
War Department the authority to
move Japanese Americans, who
were perceived as threats, to mili-
tary areas in the western states.
A P P ROAC H I N G Say: Summarize
the changes that took place in
the family after Papa was impris-
oned. (His sons took over Papa’s
role as head of the family, work-
ing together to make important
decisions.)
Political History S
Terminal Island In 1942 the
island at the southern tip of the
Port of Los Angeles, was a fish-
ing village of about 3,000 people,
mainly Japanese Americans. After
the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941,
many of the men were taken away,
and the other residents were the
first group forced into internment
camps. The town no longer exists.
Reading Practice
0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Analyze Character The descrip-
tions on this page flesh out the
character of the narrator’s mother.
Have two students act out the incident
of Mama and the china. Ask: Why does
Mama break the china rather than sell
it to the dealer? (Mama resented the
dealer’s taking advantage of her misfor-
tune and was proud and strong-willed
enough not to let him have her china at
a bargain price.) Tell students to make a
290
of the island. We had known something
like this was coming. But, like Papa’s
arrest, not much could be done ahead of
time. There were four of us kids still young
Granny, her mother, sixty-five then, speak-
ing no English, and nearly blind. Mama
didn’t know where else she could get
work, and we had nowhere else to move
to. On February 25 the choice was made for
us. We were given forty-eight hours to
clear out.
The secondhand dealers had been
prowling around for weeks, like wolves,
offering humiliating prices for goods and
furniture they knew many of us would
have to sell sooner or later. Mama had left
all but her most valuable possessions in
Ocean Park, simply because she had
nowhere to put them.
She had brought
along her pottery, her
silver, heirlooms like
the kimonos Granny
had brought from
Japan, tea sets, lac-
quered tables, and
Visual Vocabulary
one fine old set of
A kimono (ki mōnō) china, blue and white
is a loose robe or porcelain, almost
gown tied with a sash, translucent. On the
traditionally worn as
day we were leaving,
an outer garment by
Woody’s car was so
Japanese men and
women. crammed with boxes
and luggage and kids
we had just run out
of room. Mama had to sell this china.
One of the dealers offered her fifteen
dollars for it. She said it was a full setting
for twelve and worth at least two hundred.
He said fifteen was his top price. Mama
started to quiver. Her eyes blazed up at
him. She had been packing all night and
trying to calm down Granny, who didn’t
understand why we were moving again
and what all the rush was about. Mama’s
290 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
290
chart listing the various family members
and what the reader knows about each
(for example, Kiyo is protective). Remind
students to keep adding characters and
traits to the chart as they read.
nerves were shot, and now navy jeeps were
patrolling the streets. She didn’t say
another word. She just glared at this man,
all the rage and frustration channeled at
him through her eyes.
He watched her for a moment and said he
was sure he couldn’t pay more than seven-
teen fifty for that china. She reached into the
red velvet case, took out a dinner plate and
hurled it at the floor right in front of his feet.
The man leaped back shouting, “Hey!
Hey, don’t do that! Those are valuable dishes!”
Mama took out another dinner plate and
hurled it at the floor, then another and
another, never moving, never opening her
mouth, just quivering and glaring at the
retreating dealer, with tears streaming
down her cheeks. He finally turned and
scuttled out the door, heading for the next
house. When he was gone she stood there
smashing cups and bowls and platters until
the whole set lay in scattered blue and
white fragments across the wooden floor.
The American Friends Service3 helped us
find a small house in Boyle Heights, another
minority ghetto, in downtown Los Angeles,
now inhabited briefly by a few hundred
Terminal Island refugees. Executive Order
9066 had been signed by President
Roosevelt, giving the War Department
authority to define military areas in the
western states and to exclude from them
anyone who might threaten the war effort.
There was a lot of talk about internment, or
moving inland, or something like that in
store for all Japanese Americans. I remem-
ber my brothers sitting around the table
talking very intently about what we were
3. The American Friends Service is a Quaker charity that
provides assistance to political and religious refugees and
other displaced persons.
Summarize Summarize the information Wakatsuki
Houston provides about the factors that affected Japanese 1
Americans as the war progressed.
3/12/08 9:21:13 A

Dust Storm at Manzanar (California), July 3, 1942. Dorothea Lange. Silver Gelatin Photograph.
Manzanar, located in the Owens Valley in California, is a high altitude desert with
brutally hot summers, freezing cold winters, and constant dust storms. How might the harsh
climate have impacted the lives of the prisoners at Manzanar?
going to do, how we would keep the fam-
ily together. They had seen how quickly
Papa was removed, and they knew now
that he would not be back for quite a
while. Just before leaving Terminal Island
Mama had received her first letter, from
Bismarck, North Dakota. He had been
imprisoned at Fort Lincoln, in an all-male
camp for enemy aliens.
Papa had been the patriarch. He had
always decided everything in the family.
With him gone, my brothers, like councilors
in the absence of a chief, worried about what
Vocabulary
patriarch (pātrē̄ ärḱ) n. the male head of a family
or group
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 291 I N STR UCTION
Advanced On the board, write: Papa
was the patriarch, a new and unexpected
route, and their fearful looks. Tell students
to use word parts to decode the mean-
ing of patriarch, fearful, and unexpected.
Remind them that the suffix -arch indicates
a kind of ruler, the suffix -ful means “full of”
or “having”, and the prefix un- means “not.”
Then, have students use this knowledge of
word parts to define the words matriarch,
Teach
S
Answer: The harsh climate at
Manzanar made the prisoners’
lives much more difficult. Many
were inadequately prepared for
the cold and had to wear ill-fitting
Army surplus clothing. Prisoners
woke up each morning covered
in dust, and keeping clean was
a constant struggle. The author
describes the scene as “pure
chaos.”
should be done. The ironic thing is, there
wasn’t much left to decide. These were
mainly days of quiet, desperate waiting for
what seemed at the time to be inevitable.
There is a phrase the Japanese use in such
situations, when something difficult must be
endured. You would hear the older heads,
the Issei,4 telling others very quietly,
“Shikata ga nai” (It cannot be helped).
“Shikata ga nai” (It must be done).
Mama and Woody went to work pack-
ing celery for a Japanese produce dealer.
Kiyo and my sister May and I enrolled in
the local school, and what sticks in my
4. Issei (ē̄śsā́) literally means “first generation” and refers
to Japanese natives who immigrated to the United States.
291
3/19/08 1:30:28 PM
unhelpful, successful, and unhealthy. Allow
students to consult a dictionary if they
need to find the meaning of the root word.
291
Teach
Reading Strategy 1 with us in Papa’s boat from time to time
Summarize Answer:
Public attitudes were changing in
California; it was obvious that the
Japanese would be interned.
Literary Element 2 hostility from a Caucasian. Looking back,
Historical Narrative
Answer: Ignorance and preju-
dice frequently lead people to
suspect the innocent and to exert
violence against them. Explain that
political factors such as the desire
to win popular support and elimi-
nate business competition also
influenced the decision to intern
Japanese Americans.
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS Have an
English learner read aloud the
definition of scapegoat from a
dictionary.
Political History S
Manzanar Manzanar was the
first internment camp run by the
War Relocation Authority. It was
constructed within six weeks on
the site of a former farming com-
munity. Construction began in
March of 1942, and by July the
camp’s population was 10,000.
Writing Practice
0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Interview Tell students that
many historical narratives are
based on interviews. Review
the basics of interviewing with students:
• Explain the purpose of the interview to
the interviewee and arrange a conve-
nient time to conduct the interview.
• Prepare a list of open-ended questions
to ask.
• Listen carefully and take notes.
• Be respectful and polite.
292
memory from those few weeks is the
teacher—not her looks, her remoteness. In
Ocean Park my teacher had been a kind,
grandmotherly woman who used to sail
and who wept the day we had to leave. In
Boyle Heights the teacher felt cold and
distant. I was confused by all the moving
and was having trouble with the class-
work, but she would never help me out.
She would have nothing to do with me.
This was the first time I had felt outright
it is easy enough to explain. Public atti-
tudes toward the Japanese in California
were shifting rapidly. In the first few
months of the Pacific war, America was on
the run. Tolerance had turned to distrust
and irrational fear. The hundred-year-old
tradition of anti-Orientalism on the west
coast soon resurfaced, more vicious than
ever. Its result became clear about a month
later, when we were told to make our third
and final move.
The name Manzanar meant nothing to us
when we left Boyle Heights. We didn’t
know where it was or what it was. We went
because the government ordered us to. And,
in the case of my older brothers and sisters,
we went with a certain amount of relief.
They had all heard stories of Japanese
homes being attacked, of beatings in the
streets of California towns. They were as
frightened of the Caucasians as Caucasians
were of us. Moving, under what appeared
to be government protection, to an area
less directly threatened by the war seemed
not such a bad idea at all. For some it actu-
ally sounded like a fine adventure.
Summarize How does the author summarize the
1 prejudice against the Japanese in America at this time?
Historical Narrative What do these details suggest
2 about the dangers of scapegoating a group of people?
292 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
292
• Ask follow-up questions.
• Thank the person.
Have students interview someone whose
relatives experienced the World War II
era. Have students focus on the relatives’
reactions to Pearl Harbor and the intern-
ment camps. Then, have students write a
brief essay discussing what they learned
in the interview, including quotes from
the interviewee.
Our pickup point was a Buddhist
church in Los Angeles. It was very early,
and misty, when we got there with our
luggage. Mama had bought heavy coats
for all of us. She grew up in eastern
Washington and knew that anywhere
inland in early April would be cold. I was
proud of my new coat, and I remember
sitting on a duffel bag trying to be
friendly with the Greyhound driver. I
smiled at him. He didn’t smile back. He
was befriending no one. Someone tied a
numbered tag to my collar and to the duf-
fel bag (each family was given a number,
and that became our official designation
until the camps were closed), someone
else passed out box lunches for the trip,
and we climbed aboard.
I had never been outside Los Angeles
County, never traveled more than ten miles
from the coast, had never even ridden on a
bus. I was full of excitement, the way any kid
would be, and wanted to look out the win-
dow. But for the first few hours the shades
were drawn. Around me other people played
cards, read magazines, dozed, waiting. I set-
tled back, waiting too, and finally fell asleep.
The bus felt very secure to me. Almost half
its passengers were immediate relatives.
Mama and my older brothers had succeeded
in keeping most of us together, on the same
bus, headed for the same camp. I didn’t real-
ize until much later what a job that was. The
strategy had been, first, to have everyone liv-
ing in the same district when the evacuation
began, and then to get all of us included
under the same family number, even though
names had been changed by marriage. Many
families weren’t as lucky as ours and suf-
fered months of anguish while trying to
arrange transfers from one camp to another.
Vocabulary
designation (deźig nāshən) n. a distinguishing
name or mark
3/19/08 1:30:59 P
 We rode all day. By the time we reached
our destination, the shades were up. It was
outdoor chow line
snaked around a half- Teach
late afternoon. The first thing I saw was a finished building that
yellow swirl across a blurred, reddish set- broke a good part of
ting sun. The bus was being pelted by the wind. They issued Big Idea 3
what sounded like splattering rain. It us army mess kits, the
wasn’t rain. This was my first look at round metal kind that Visual Vocabulary The Power of Memory
A soldier in the field
something I would soon know very well, a fold over, and eats from a mess kit,
Answer: The passengers were
billowing flurry of dust and sand churned plopped in scoops of which is a metal relieved to have the journey’s
up by the wind through Owens Valley.5 canned Vienna sau- container that holds
tense silence broken by the
eating utensils and
We drove past a barbed-wire fence, sage, canned string opens into a plate narrator’s innocent enthusi-
through a gate, and into an open space beans, steamed rice with two asm. Even the greeters outside
where trunks and sacks and packages had that had been cooked compartments.
too long, and on top laughed, temporarily bridging a
been dumped from the baggage trucks that
drove out ahead of us. I could see a few of the rice a serving of gap between the greeters and the
tents set up, the first rows of black bar- canned apricots. The Caucasian servers arriving group.
racks, and beyond them, blurred by sand, were thinking that the fruit poured over
rows of barracks that seemed to spread for rice would make a good dessert. Among
miles across this plain. People were sitting the Japanese, of course, rice is never eaten Reading Strategy 4
on cartons or milling around, with their with sweet foods, only with salty or savory
backs to the wind, waiting to see which foods. Few of us could eat such a mixture. Summarize Answer: The
friends or relatives might be on this bus. But at this point no one dared protest. It author is showing that the Cauca-
As we approached, they turned or stood would have been impolite. I was horrified sian food servers lacked an under-
up, and some moved toward us expect- when I saw the apricot syrup seeping standing of traditional Japanese
antly. But inside the bus no one stirred. No through my little mound of rice. I opened
cuisine. The author also shows
one waved or spoke. They just stared out my mouth to complain. My mother jabbed
the windows, ominously silent. I didn’t me in the back to keep quiet. We moved on that almost every aspect of life at
understand this. Hadn’t we finally arrived, through the line and joined the others Manzanar was difficult for the resi-
our whole family intact? I opened a win- squatting in the lee7 of half-raised walls, dents to deal with: even the food
dow, leaned out, and yelled happily. “Hey! dabbing courteously at what was, for they ate was poorly planned.
This whole bus is full of Wakatsukis!” almost everyone there, an inedible
Outside, the greeters smiled. Inside concoction.
there was an explosion of laughter, hyster- After dinner we were taken to Block 16,
ical, tension-breaking laughter that left my a cluster of fifteen barracks that had just Political History S
brothers choking and whacking each other been finished a day or so earlier—
across the shoulders. although finished was hardly the word for Restitution Explain that
it. The shacks were built of one thickness Japanese Americans who were
We had pulled up just in time for dinner. of pine planking covered with tarpaper. interned during World War II lost
The mess halls6 weren’t completed yet. An They sat on concrete footings, with about an estimated $500 million in real
estate property (houses, farms,
5. Manzanar was built in Owens Valley, near Death Valley, 7. Lee is shelter or protection, especially on the side of
and businesses) and other posses-
about two hundred miles north of Los Angeles. something facing away from the wind. sions, jobs, and civil rights. In 1988
6. In the army, a mess hall is the place where meals are eaten.
Summarize Summarize the information given in this pas-
President Ronald Reagan signed
The Power of Memory Why does the author remember sage about the food at Manzanar. What point is the author 4 Public Law 100-383, which offered
3 the people in the bus and the greeters laughing? making here?
about $20,000 in restitution to
each internee.
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON 293

Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 293 I N STR UCTION 3/12/08 9:21:20 AM

Emerging Write on the board the remind students to use action verbs in
phrases pelted by rain, churned up by their own writing.
the wind, whacking each other across the
shoulders, and seeping through my little
mound of rice. Ask students to describe
the sights and sensations they imagine
when they read the phrases. Then, explain
that the underlined words are action
verbs. Point out that vivid action verbs help
readers visualize scenes and events, and

293

Teach
Reading Strategy 1 units, sixteen by twenty feet, about the
Summarize Answer: They
had to share a compartment with
strangers, who complained when
someone stayed up past 9 p.m.
They left to harvest sugar beets
in Idaho for poor wages so they
could have a room of their own.
Literary Element 2 space we had for sleeping. Bill and Woody
Autobiography Remind
students that Wakatsuki Houston’s
point of view colors this histori-
cal narrative. Ask: How does the
child’s point of view come across
in the narrator’s response to the
barracks? (She doesn’t mind the
barracks because she can sleep
with her mother, and she enjoys
joking about the dustiness with
her siblings.)
Reading Practice
0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Evaluate According to the
narrator’s evaluation of the situ-
ation, young couples such as Bill
and Tomi had it the worst at the camp
because of the lack of privacy at a time
when they were just getting used to being
a couple. Discuss what is most important
to people at different stages of life and
how people at various stages would be
affected differently by the internment. (For
example, it was important to the narrator
294
two feet of open space between the floor-
boards and the ground. Gaps showed
between the planks, and as the weeks
passed and the green wood dried out, the
gaps widened. Knotholes gaped in the
uncovered floor.
Each barracks was divided into six
size of a living room, with one bare bulb
hanging from the ceiling and an oil stove
for heat. We were assigned two of these
for the twelve people in our family group;
and our official family “number” was
enlarged by three digits—16 plus the
number of this barracks. We were issued
steel army cots, two brown army blankets
each, and some mattress covers, which my
brothers stuffed with straw.
The first task was to divide up what
contributed a blanket each and partitioned
off the first room: one side for Bill and
Tomi, one side for Woody and Chizu and
their baby girl. Woody also got the stove,
for heating formulas.
The people who had it hardest during the
first few months were young couples like
these, many of whom had married just
before the evacuation began, in order not to
be separated and sent to different camps.
Our two rooms were crowded, but at least it
was all in the family. My oldest sister and
her husband were shoved into one of those
sixteen-by-twenty-foot compartments with
six people they had never seen before—two
other couples, one recently married like
themselves, the other with two teenage
boys. Partitioning off a room like that
wasn’t easy. It was bitter cold when we
arrived, and the wind did not abate.8 All
they had to use for room dividers were
those army blankets, two of which were
barely enough to keep one person warm.
8. The fact that the wind did not abate means that it did not
lessen in force or intensity.
294 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
294
to be with her family.) Finally, ask students
to evaluate which age group they think
suffered the most at the camp and sup-
port their evaluations.
They argued over whose blanket should be
sacrificed and later argued about noise at
night—the parents wanted their boys asleep
by 9:00 p.m.—and they continued arguing
over matters like that for six months, until
my sister and her husband left to harvest
sugar beets in Idaho. It was grueling9 work
up there, and wages were pitiful, but when
the call came through camp for workers to
alleviate the wartime labor shortage, it
sounded better than their life at Manzanar.
They knew they’d have, if nothing else, a
room, perhaps a cabin of their own.
That first night in Block 16, the rest of us
squeezed into the second room—Granny,
Lillian, age fourteen, Ray, thirteen, May,
eleven, Kiyo, ten, Mama, and me. I didn’t
mind this at all at the time. Being youngest
meant I got to sleep with Mama. And
before we went to bed I had a great time
jumping up and down on the mattress. The 2
boys had stuffed so much straw into hers,
we had to flatten it some so we wouldn’t
slide off. I slept with her every night after
that until Papa came back.
We woke early, shivering and coated with
dust that had blown up through the knot-
holes and in through the slits around the
doorway. During the night Mama had
unpacked all our clothes and heaped them
on our beds for warmth. Now our cubicle
looked as if a great laundry bag had
exploded and then been sprayed with fine
dust. A skin of sand covered the floor. I
looked over Mama’s shoulder at Kiyo, on
top of his fat mattress, buried under jeans
and overcoats and sweaters. His eyebrows
9. Grueling work is very difficult, exhausting work.
Summarize Summarize what happened to the author’s
sister and brother-in-law. 1
Vocabulary
alleviate (ə lē vē āt́) v. to make easier to bear;
relieve; lessen
3/19/08 1:31:13 P

Posted notice informing people of Japanese ancestry of imminent relocation rules due to fears
of treason and spying during early years of WWII, April 1, 1942. Dorothea Lange. Silver Gelatin
Photograph.
If you saw a sign like this posted today, how would it make you feel? Explain.
were gray, and he was starting to giggle.
He was looking at me, at my gray eye-
brows and coated hair, and pretty soon we
were both giggling. I looked at Mama’s
face to see if she thought Kiyo was funny.
She lay very still next to me on our
mattress, her eyes scanning everything—
bare rafters, walls, dusty kids—scanning
slowly, and I think the mask of her face
would have cracked had not Woody’s
voice just then come at us through the
wall. He was rapping on the planks as if
testing to see if they were hollow.
“Hey!” he yelled. “You guys fall into the
same flour barrel as us?”
The Power of Memory Why does the author remember
3 moments of humor during her stay at Manzanar?
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 295 I N STR UCTION
Intermediate English learners may need
help in understanding Houston’s use of fig-
urative language. Write on the board these
metaphors: a skin of sand and the mask of
her face. Explain that metaphors are not to
be taken literally; instead, they are implied
comparisons that create vivid images. The
floor was covered with a layer of thin and
smooth sand, which is compared to skin as
a thin and smooth outer layer of the body.
“No,” Kiyo yelled back. “Ours is full of
Japs.”
All of us laughed at this.
“Well, tell ’em it’s time to get up,”
Woody said. “If we’re gonna live in this
place, we better get to work.”
He gave us ten minutes to dress, then he
came in carrying a broom, a hammer, and
a sack full of tin can lids he had scrounged
somewhere. Woody would be our leader
for a while now, short, stocky, grinning
behind his mustache. He had just turned
twenty-four. In later years he would tour
the country with Mr. Moto, the Japanese
tag-team wrestler, as his sinister assistant
Suki—karate chops through the ropes from
outside the ring, a chunky leg reaching
from under his kimono to trip up Mr.
Moto’s foe. In the ring Woody’s smile
295
3/19/08
The mother’s face is blank and firm, hiding
her true feelings like a mask would keep
people from seeing one’s true emotions.
Teach
Big Idea 3
The Power of Memory
Answer: Humor relieves tension
and depression and keeps people
connected. By giggling at the dust
and heaps of clothes, Kiyo and
the author have fun and bond in
an otherwise depressing situation.
Discuss how children might view
the internment experience differ-
ently from adults, as well as what
role humor would play in this kind
of situation.
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R SThe term bar-
racks may be unfamiliar to English
learners. Define the term, and have
students revisit the text to identify
details that will help them visualize
the barracks.
S
Answer: Students may say that
the sign would make them feel
scared, angry, segregated, and
upset.
With this evacuation order, General
John DeWitt informed families
such as the narrator’s that they
had less than a week to leave
1:31:34 PM
San Francisco.
295
Teach
Reading Strategy 1 see these tin can lids?”
Character Say: Describe the
relationship between Mama
and Woody. (Mama depends on
Woody for help and support, and
he is caring toward her.)
A DVA N C E D Ask: How does
Woody show Mama that he
cares about her? (He asks her
whether she is okay. He assures
her that he and the boys will
seal up all of the cracks in the
barracks.)
Literary Element 2 when he was asserting his authority.
Historical Narrative
Answer: People knew that
Japanese Americans ate rice and
used soy sauce but did not know
that Japanese Americans found
fruit poured over rice repulsive.
This shows the lack of understand-
ing many people had of Japanese
culture.
A P P ROAC H I N G Make sure that
students know that soy sauce
is a salty sauce prepared from
fermented soybeans and used in
many Asian dishes. Discuss why
it would be humorous for Kiyo to
think of eating pancakes covered
with soy sauce.
0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd
296
looked sly and crafty; he hammed it up.
Offstage it was whimsical, as if some joke
were bursting to be told.
“Hey, brother Ray, Kiyo,” he said. “You
“Yeah, yeah,” the boys said drowsily, as
if going back to sleep. They were both
young versions of Woody.
“You see all them knotholes in the floor
and in the walls?”
They looked around. You could see
about a dozen.
Woody said, “You get those covered up
before breakfast time. Any more sand comes
in here through one of them knotholes, you
have to eat it off the floor with ketchup.”
“What about sand that comes in through
the cracks?” Kiyo said.
Woody stood up very straight, which in
itself was funny, since he was only about
five-foot-six.
“Don’t worry about the cracks,” he said.
“Different kind of sand comes in through
the cracks.”
He put his hands on his hips and gave
Kiyo a sternly comic look, squinting at him
through one eye the way Papa would
Woody mimicked Papa’s voice: “And I can
tell the difference. So be careful.”
The boys laughed and went to work
nailing down lids. May started sweeping
out the sand. I was helping Mama fold the
clothes we’d used for cover, when Woody
came over and put his arm around her
shoulder. He was short; she was even
shorter, under five feet.
He said softly, “You okay, Mama?”
She didn’t look at him, she just kept fold-
1 ing clothes and said, “Can we get the cracks
covered too, Woody?”
Outside the sky was clear, but icy gusts of
wind were buffeting our barracks every few
minutes, sending fresh dust puffs up
through the floorboards. May’s broom
could barely keep up with it, and our oil
296 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Writing Practice
296
Research and Report The
SPIRAL
REVIEW
narrator describes Woody’s
efforts to improve the con-
struction of the barracks, and later she
expresses admiration for the seamstresses
in the camp. Have students conduct
research to find out more about how
Japanese Americans in internment camps
created culture and meaning in their lives.
To give students some focus areas, have
them create a chart with these columns:
heater could scarcely hold its own against
the drafts.
“We’ll get this whole place as tight as a
barrel, Mama. I already met a guy who told
me where they pile all the scrap lumber.”
“Scrap?”
“That’s all they got. I mean, they’re still
building the camp, you know. Sixteen
blocks left to go. After that, they say maybe
we’ll get some stuff to fix the insides a little 1
bit.”
Her eyes blazed then, her voice quietly
furious. “Woody, we can’t live like this.
Animals live like this.”
It was hard to get Woody down. He’d
keep smiling when everybody else was
ready to explode. Grief flickered in his eyes.
He blinked it away and hugged her tighter.
“We’ll make it better, Mama. You watch.”
We could hear voices in other cubicles
now. Beyond the wall Woody’s baby girl
started to cry.
“I have to go over to the kitchen,” he
said, “see if those guys got a pot for heating
bottles. That oil stove takes too long—some-
thing wrong with the fuel line. I’ll find out
what they’re giving us for breakfast.”
“Probably hotcakes with soy sauce,”
Kiyo said, on his hands and knees between
the bunks.
“No.” Woody grinned, heading out the
door. “Rice. With Log Cabin Syrup and
melted butter.”
I don’t remember what we ate that first
morning. I know we stood for half an hour
in cutting wind waiting to get our food.
Then we took it back to the cubicle and ate
huddled around the stove. Inside, it was
warmer than when we left, because Woody
was already making good his promise to
Historical Narrative How does Kiyo’s comment reflect
the misperceptions many people in the United States had
about Japanese Americans?
2
3/12/08 9:21:25 A
Schools, Arts, Communication, Activities,
and Housing. Suggest that students refer
to the Internet and printed resources for
information; have them write a brief report
on their findings.
 Teach

S
Answer: The photograph sug-
gests that life in the camps was
dismal and depressing for children
as well as adults.
More than 10,000 people were
interned at Manzanar, with families
living together in cramped quarters.

Reading Strategy 3
Summarize On the board,
write: The simple truth is the
camp was no more ready for us
Children Awaiting Relocation (Assembly Center, Turlock, California), May 2, 1942. Dorothea
Lange. Silver Gelatin Photograph.
when we got there than we were
Acclaimed photographer Dorothea Lange was hired by the War Relocation ready for it. Ask students to supply
Authority (WRA) to document the evacuation and internment of thousands of Californians of
Japanese ancestry. What does this photograph suggest about life in the internment camp?
details that show the truth of this
summary. In addition, request
that students summarize Woody’s
Mama, tacking up some ends of lath10 he’d The simple truth is the camp was no
responsibilities. (He is responsible
found, stuffing rolled paper around the more ready for us when we got there than 3
door frame. we were ready for it. We had only the dim- for taking care of his family, as
Trouble was, he had almost nothing to mest ideas of what to expect. Most of the well as helping his mother and
work with. Beyond this temporary weather families, like us, had moved out from siblings.)
stripping, there was little else he could do. southern California with as much luggage
Months went by, in fact, before our “home” as each person could carry. Some old men
changed much at all from what it was the left Los Angeles wearing Hawaiian shirts
day we moved in—bare floors, blanket and Panama hats and stepped off the bus
partitions, one bulb in each compartment at an altitude of 4000 feet, with nothing
dangling from a roof beam, and open ceil- available but sagebrush and tarpaper to
ings overhead so that mischievous boys stop the April winds pouring down off the
like Ray and Kiyo could climb up into the back side of the Sierras.11
rafters and peek into anyone’s life.

11. The Sierras, or Sierra Nevada Mountains, run through

10. In construction, lath is any of the thin, narrow strips of eastern California. Manzanar was between these
wood used as a foundation for plaster or tiles. mountains and Death Valley.

J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON 297

Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
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AAVE Approaching-level students who Standard Academic English, she would

use African American Vernacular English have written Are you okay, Mama? Have
(AAVE) may be accustomed to deleting students write three or four questions,
the verb is or are when asking a question. using Standard Academic English, that
Write on the board the following ques- include the verb to be.
tion from the previous page, “You okay,
Mama?” Say: In this question, Hous-
ton leaves out the verb are to make
Woody’s dialogue sound more realistic.
Had Houston written the question in

297
Teach
Big Idea+ 1
The Power of Memory
Answer: The seamstresses’
adapting World War I army clothes
is an example of the Japanese
Americans making the best of
their situation. It helped make the
situation a little more bearable.

S
Answer: Students may say that
the mood of the photograph
is depressing or ominous. The
people in the evacuee line may
be feeling nervous, scared, lost, or
confused as they face an intimi-
Group of evacuees of Japanese ancestry lined up outside train after arriving at Santa Anita
dating row of soldiers. Assembly Center from San Pedro as row of US soldiers face them, March 31, 1942. Dorothea
Lange. Silver Gelatin Photograph.
What is the mood of this photograph? What are some of the thoughts or feelings
that the people in the evacuee line might be experiencing in this scene?

The War Department tened the sleeves, added a collar, put arm
was in charge of all the holes in and handed me back a beautiful
camps at this point. They cape. By fall dozens of seamstresses were
began to issue military working full-time transforming thousands
surplus from the First of these old army clothes into capes, slacks
World War—olive-drab and stylish coats. But until that factory got
knit caps, earmuffs, pea- going and packages from friends outside
coats, canvas leggings. began to fill out our wardrobes, warmth
Visual Vocabulary Later on, sewing was more important than style. I couldn’t
A peacoat is a
machines were shipped help laughing at Mama walking around in
double-breasted
jacket of thick in, and one barracks was army earmuffs and a pair of wide-cuffed,
woolen cloth, often turned into a clothing khaki-colored wool trousers several sizes
worn by sailors. factory. An old seam-
stress took a peacoat of The Power of Memory What was significant about the
mine, tore the lining out, opened and flat- author’s memory of the seamstresses?
1

298 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Grammar Practice
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SPIRAL
REVIEW
Use Dashes On the board, write: shift. Then ask students to find examples
They were up to their knees in of dashes used in both ways.
muck—a common sight. Explain
that a dash is a punctuation mark used for
two specific purposes:
• to indicate an abrupt change in a
sentence
• to set off explanatory matter
Guide students to see that the dash in the
above sentence is used to show an abrupt

298
 too big for her.
Japanese are gener-
ally smaller than
Caucasians, and
almost all these
clothes were oversize.
They flopped, they
dangled, they hung.
Visual Vocabulary
The great actor and It seems comical,
director Charlie looking back; we
Chaplin gained fame were a band of
for his role as a
tramp in baggy pants
Charlie Chaplins
in a series of movies marooned in the
in the 1920s. California desert. But
at the time, it was
pure chaos. That’s
the only way to describe it. The evacua-
tion had been so hurriedly planned, the
camps so hastily thrown together, nothing
was completed when we got there, and
almost nothing worked.
I was sick continually, with stomach
cramps and diarrhea. At first it was from
the shots they gave us for typhoid, in very
heavy doses and in assembly-line fashion:
swab, jab, swab, Move along now, swab, jab,
swab, Keep it moving. That knocked all of
us younger kids down at once, with fevers
and vomiting. Later, it was the food that
made us sick, young and old alike. The
kitchens were too small and badly venti-
lated. Food would spoil from being left out
too long. That summer, when the heat got
fierce, it would spoil faster. The refrigera-
tion kept breaking down. The cooks, in
many cases, had never cooked before. Each
block had to provide its own volunteers.
Some were lucky and had a professional or
two in their midst. But the first chef in our
block had been a gardener all his life and
suddenly found himself preparing three
meals a day for 250 people.
Historical Narrative What does this information tell you
2 about living conditions at Manzanar?
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON
Advanced Learners
DI F F ER ENTIATED
AM0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 299 I N STR U C T IO N
SMALL GROUP
Evaluate Credibility Organize
students into groups. Have each
group brainstorm a list of the qualities
of a credible nonfiction account, such as
specific details and historical accuracy.
Then, ask students to use their lists to
evaluate Houston’s recollections about her
internment experience. Remind students
to supply evidence from the text to support
their evaluations.
“The Manzanar runs” became a condi-
tion of life, and you only hoped that Teach
when you rushed to the latrine, one
would be in working order.
That first morning, on our way to the Literary Element 2
chow line, Mama and I tried to use the
women’s latrine in our block. The smell Historical Narrative
of it spoiled what little appetite we had. Answer: People were not treated
Outside, men were working in an open like individuals, there were health
trench, up to their knees in muck—a hazards, and the internment
common sight in the months to come.
camp was poorly planned and
Inside, the floor was covered with excre- managed.
ment, and all twelve bowls were erupting
like a row of tiny volcanoes.
Mama stopped a kimono-wrapped
woman stepping past us with her sleeve
pushed up against her nose and asked,
Writer’s Technique S
“What do you do?” Description Ask students to
“Try Block Twelve,” the woman said, notice the description of the intern-
grimacing. “They have just finished ees’ clothing: “We were a band
repairing the pipes.” of Charlie Chaplins marooned in
It was about two city blocks away. We
the California desert.” Have them
followed her over there and found a line
of women waiting in the wind outside explain the figurative language and
the latrine. We had no choice but to join sensory images that create a vivid
the line and wait with them. picture of the internees’ appear-
Inside it was like all the other latrines. ances. (Sensory details such as the
Each block was built to the same design, oversize clothing, pea coats, and
just as each of the ten camps, from Mama’s earmuffs help create a
California to Arkansas, was built to a
vivid portrait.)
common master plan. It was an open
room, over a concrete slab. The sink was
a long metal trough against one wall,
with a row of spigots for hot and cold
water. Down the center of the room
twelve toilet bowls were arranged in six
pairs, back to back, with no partitions.
My mother was a very modest person,
and this was going to be agony for her,
sitting down in public, among strangers.
One old woman had already solved the
problem for herself by dragging in a
large cardboard carton. She set it up
around one of the bowls, like a three-
sided screen. oxydol was printed in large
299
3/12/08 9:21:32 AM
299
Teach
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Answer: Most students will admit
to being horrified at the prospect
of seeing a friend or family mem-
ber treated in such a degrading
way.
Reading Strategy
Summarize Answer: It was
insulting to force people to live in
such conditions. The author sum-
marized the terrible conditions to
show their importance.
English learn-
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS
ers may struggle to understand
the multiple-meaning words in
the summary. Explain that the
word quarters can mean “25-cent
coins,” but that here it means “a
living space.” The word mess, in
common usage, means “a dirty
condition,” but here it means
“meal.”
To check students’ understanding
of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
ing Resources Book, pp. 32–33.
300
black letters down the front. I remember
this well, because that was the soap we
were issued for laundry; later on, the
smell of it would permeate these rooms.
1 The upended carton was about four feet
high. The old woman behind it wasn’t
much taller. When she stood, only her
head showed over the top.
She was about Granny’s age. With great
effort she was trying to fold the sides of
the screen together. Mama happened to
be at the head of the line now. As she
approached the vacant bowl,
she and the old woman
bowed to each other
from the waist. Mama
then moved to help
her with the carton,
2 and the old woman
said very graciously, in
Japanese, “Would you like
to use it?”
Happily, gratefully, Mama bowed again
and said, “Arigato” (Thank you). “Arigato
gozaimas” (Thank you very much). “I will
return it to your barracks.”
“Oh, no. It is not necessary. I will be
glad to wait.”
The old woman unfolded one side of
the cardboard, while Mama opened the
other; then she bowed again and scurried
out the door.
Those big cartons were a common sight
in the spring of 1942. Eventually sturdier
partitions appeared, one or two at a time.
The first were built of scrap lumber. Word
would get around that Block such and
such had partitions now, and Mama and
my older sisters would walk halfway
across the camp to use them. Even after
every latrine in camp was screened, this
quest for privacy continued. Many would
300 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Reading Practice
0288_0300_U2P1_877979.indd 300
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Evaluate Ask students whether
they agree with Mama that in the
internment camp “cooperation
was the only way to survive.” In addition,
ask students whether they agree with the
government’s decision to make Man-
zanar a National Historic Site. Encourage
students to support their evaluations with
logical reasons.
wait until late at night. Ironically, because
of this, midnight was often the most
crowded time of all. Like so many of the
women there, Mama never did get used to
the latrines. It was a humiliation she just
learned to endure: shikata ga nai, this can-
not be helped. She would quickly
subordinate her own desires to those of
the family or the community, because she
knew cooperation was the only way to
survive. At the same time she placed a
high premium on personal privacy,
respected it in others and
insisted upon it for her-
self. Almost everyone
at Manzanar had
inherited this pair of
traits from the gener-
ations before them
who had learned to live
in a small, crowded coun-
try like Japan. Because of the
first they were able to take a desolate
stretch of wasteland and gradually make
it livable. But the entire situation there,
especially in the beginning—the packed
sleeping quarters, the communal mess
halls, the open toilets—all this was an
open insult to that other, private self, a
slap in the face you were powerless
to challenge. m
The Power of Memory How would it affect you to see
friends or family members endure humiliations such as the 1
ones Mama endured?
Summarize What does this summary of conditions at
Manzanar show the reader? What might have been the 2
author’s purpose in including it here?
Vocabulary
subordinate (sə bô rdə nāt́) v. to cause to be, or
treat as, secondary, inferior, or less important
3/12/08 9:21:33 A
 After You Read
Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret
1. What detail of Manzanar affected you the most?
Explain.
2. (a)How did the author feel about moving to
Terminal Island? (b)Why do you think the
author felt this way?
3. What did Mama do when the secondhand dealer
offered her a low price for her valuable dishes?
4. (a)How did the teacher at Boyle Heights treat
the author? (b)Compare and contrast that
teacher to the teacher from Ocean Park.
Analyze and Evaluate
5. (a)Why does the author mention various events
in U.S. history throughout the selection? (b)Do
you think this makes her story more effective?
Literary Element Historical Narrative
A historical narrative can blend elements of
objectivity and subjectivity. For instance, some
facts mentioned by Wakatsuki Houston are verifi-
able and recounted in numerous other sources.
Other details described by Wakatsuki Houston are
anecdotal, deal with feelings and perceptions, and
come from her personal memories. Both kinds of
details—the objective and the subjective—have
much to teach the reader about what happened to
many Japanese Americans during World War II.
1. How would this story be different if someone
who had no personal experiences related to
Manzanar had written it? Do you think it would
be as effective?
2. Does Wakatsuki Houston give enough objective
details about the historical period to help the
reader understand the context of the narrative?
J E A N N E WA K AT S U KI HOUS TON AND J AME S D . HOUS TON
AM0301_0302_U2P1_877979.indd 301
Literary Element
1. Most students will say that a version
by someone who had not experi-
enced Manzanar would not be as
visceral or compelling.
2. Most students will say that she pro-
vides enough information for them to
grasp the historical context.
After You Read
6. (a)Why does the author offer descriptions of
Assess
her houses throughout this time period? (b)Do 1. Answers will vary; students may
the comparisons of the houses achieve an say that the camp’s conditions
important purpose within the selection? Explain. were disturbing.
Connect 2. (a) As if she had moved to
7. Big Idea The Power of Memory Jeanne another country (b) Everything
Wakatsuki Houston said that going back to visit was unfamiliar; she had grown
Manzanar made her realize that her life began up among Caucasians.
there. Discuss the lessons you learned about
U.S. internment of Japanese Americans from 3. Mama broke all the dishes.
reading about Wakatsuki Houston’s memories 4. (a) Coldly (b) The Ocean Park
8. Connect to Today Executive Order 9066 teacher was kind and grand-
came as a shock to Japanese Americans, motherly. The Boyle Heights
many of whom had been United States citi- teacher was distant and unwill-
zens for many years or had been born in the
United States. Do you think an event like the
ing to help the author.
Japanese Internment could happen in the 5. (a) To provide historical context
United States today? Why or why not? for the story (b) Most students
will say yes.
Review: Autobiography 6. (a) To contrast her brick frame
As you learned on pages 284–285, an autobiog- house and high quality of life
raphy is a person’s account of his or her own life.
with the poor living conditions
In most autobiographies, the writer tells the story
from the first-person point of view, using the pro- at the camp (b) Students may
noun I. The use of this point of view makes most say the comparison shows how
autobiographies very personal and subjective. much the narrator’s life changed
and how greatly her mother
Partner Activity Meet with another student and
list some details from the selection that you would suffered.
not find in a more objective source, such as an
encyclopedia. How do these details help you better
7. Students’ answers will vary.
understand this episode in U.S. history? 8. Answers will vary. Some stu-
dents may say that a similar
Details Evaluation event would not happen in
Mama breaks gives a personal account; the United States or the world
her valuable offers a perspective today, after widespread recogni-
china. that a strictly factual
tion that the Japanese intern-
account wouldn’t
ment was wrong. Others may
say that a similar event could
happen again because racism
301
and bigotry persist in many
parts of the world.
3/12/08 9:37:38 AM For additional selection assess-
ment, see Assessment Resources,
Review: Autobiography pp. 77–78.
Students’ lists should contain spe-
cific details from the selection and an
explanation of how each affected their Progress Check
interpretation of this historical event. Can students recognize
historical narrative?
If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, p. 27.
301
After You Read
Assess
Reading Strategy
1. A is the correct answer. The
suffering of the internees is the
main idea of this excerpt.
Vocabulary Practice
Answers will vary. Sample
responses include:
patriarch Root: pater, “father”;
Root: arch, “highest rank” Mr.
Kazanakis was the family’s
patriarch.
designation Prefix: de-, “from”;
Root: sign, “to mark” Suffix: -tion,
“act of” Our group’s designation
was a yellow band with black stars.
alleviate Prefix: al- (ad-), “toward,
near”; Root: levis, “light” Suffix:
-ate, “to make” Mrs. Wu says her
faith helps alleviate her suffering.
subordinate Prefix: sub- “under”;
Root: ordin, “to order”; Suffix: -ate,
“having” As Carla’s subordinate, I
followed her orders.
Academic Vocabulary
In sentence 1, modify means “to
change.” In sentence 2, modify
means “to add information to limit
the meaning of a word.”
1. This idea will modify the plan to
our benefit.
2. Choose a precise adjective to
modify that noun.
Students’ informational reports should:
focus on a topic related to the Japanese
internment
• be based on at least three reliable
• paraphrase and summarize most
302
Reading Strategy Summarize
SAT Skills Practice
1. Which sentence best summarizes the main idea
of this excerpt from Farewell to Manzanar?
A. For the families involved, internment was
bewildering, unjust, and humiliating.
B. Japanese Americans had done nothing to
threaten national security.
C. Many families of Japanese origin were not
involved in mainstream American culture.
D. Internment camps for Japanese Americans
were poorly planned and constructed.
E. The old and the young adapted differently to
the restrictions of internment camps.
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Word Parts Use a dictionary to
find the meaning of each vocabulary word’s root.
Organize the meanings in a diagram as shown.
Use the word correctly in a sentence.
patriarch designation alleviate subordinate
EXAMPLE:
Root: bene, “good, well”
Root: dict, “say”
Suffix: -ion “act of”
The holy man said a benediction.
Academic Vocabulary
Wakatsuki cannot modify events of the past
but can hope they will not occur again.
Modify is an academic word. Use context clues
to figure out the meaning of modify in each
sentence. Explain the difference in meaning.
1. This idea will modify the plan to our benefit.
2. Choose a precise adjective to modify that
noun.
For more on academic vocabulary, see pages
52 and 53.
302 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
0301_0302_U2P1_877979.indd 302
Research and Report
sources, including at least one primary
source
information
Research and Report
Internet Connection
Assignment Use the Internet to research the
internment of Japanese Americans during World
War II. Write an informational report.
Get Ideas List five questions to focus your
research on narrow topics, such as living quarters,
or broader topics, such as psychological effects.
Develop a search plan that includes primary
sources from archived news accounts, which you
might access through a library database.
Research Take notes, creating separate electronic
files or notecards for each bit of information you
record. Include notes about the reliability of each
source. Paraphrase and summarize most informa-
tion; directly quote only memorable or incisive
ideas. For all information you record—quoted, para-
phrased, or summarized—integrate citations.
Information from Site Example of
Parenthetical Citation
Author given; (Hashimori)
if no author, cite sponsor; (University of Utah Historic
Collections)
if no author or sponsor, cite (“Children of the Camps”)
Web site title;
Also integrate attributions such as these:
According to , author of ,
the Web site reports .
Organize your notes by main ideas.
Report As you synthesize ideas from at least three
sources, use topic sentences for main ideas and
supporting sentences for specific data, facts, and
ideas. Use transitions such as On the other hand
and nevertheless to introduce varying or contradic-
tory ideas or opinions. Cite all sources at the end,
as well as in parenthetical references.
Literature Online
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash-
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection activities, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
4/1/08 2:41:44 P
• demonstrate correct parenthetical
citations
• contain transitions that integrate
sources and contradictory or varying
perspectives
• be organized logically according to
main ideas
• cite all sources at the end
For grammar practice, see Unit 2 Teach-
ing Resources Book, p. 31.
 Learning Objectives Grammar Workshop
Grammar Workshop In this workshop, you will
focus on the following Subject-Verb Agreement
objective:
Subject-Verb Agreement Grammar: Understanding
how to correct subject-verb

Literature Connection In every sentence, the verb (or action word)

must agree with the subject (or actor) in both person and number. In
agreement.
Focus
the sentence below, although the subject, barracks, looks plural, it func- Write on the board:
tions as a unit and takes the singular auxiliary verb was.
Juan and Maria is/are both in
“Each barracks was divided into six units, sixteen by twenty feet,
school.
about the size of a living room. . . .”
—Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston,
Subjects and Verbs Ask students to select the verb that
A verb is the action word in
from “Farewell to Manzanar” correctly agrees with the subject.
a sentence, and the subject
is who or what performs the Ask volunteers to share their
Examples: action. Subject-verb answers and explain their choice.
With a compound subject that is joined by and . . . agreement occurs when the
subject and verb match in
Use a singular verb if the parts of the subject make up a sin- person and number.
gle unit.

Rice and fruit is an unheard-of combination to the Japanese.

Tip
To help ensure subject-verb
Teach
agreement, identify each Recognize Predicate
Use a plural verb if the parts of the subject are not consid-
ered a unit.
subject as singular or plural Nominatives
and use an appropriate verb.
Describe predicate nominatives as
The neighborhood bully and his friend were frightening. Language Handbook
words equated with the subject by
For more on subject-verb
With a compound subject that is joined by or or nor . . . agreement, see the Language the use of linking verbs. Give an
Use a verb that agrees with the subject closest to it. Handbook, pp. R48–R49. example, such as “The cook is a
former gardener.” Draw an arrow
Either their homework or their chores keep the children inside.
Neither below-zero temperatures nor a blizzard prevents him from the subject to the predicate
from sledding. nominative. Point out that subject-
With a subject that is a collective noun . . .
verb agreement questions arise
when the subject is plural and the
Use a singular verb if the noun refers to a group as a whole.
predicate nominative is singular, or
The committee has to come to a decision by noon. vice versa. Say: Regardless of the
predicate nominative, the verb
Practice Write out the correct form of the verb in each sentence should always agree with the
below. subject.
1. The family (tries, try) to stick together and support each other.
2. The children (doesn’t, don’t) learn to speak Japanese.
3. Neither Mother nor the other parents (stops, stop) worrying.
Literature Online
Grammar For more grammar
Assess
4. Manzanar and another camp (is, are) located on the west coast. practice, go to glencoe.com and
enter QuickPass code GL59794u2. 1. tries
5. Harvesting beets in Idaho (were, was) hard work.
2. don’t
GRAMMAR WO RKS HOP 303 3. stop
English Learners 4. are
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Intermediate Recognizing singular • The cats sleep. For additional grammar practice,
and plural forms of nouns and verbs can • The cat sleeps. see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
be tricky. Point out that adding an s to a Discuss the opposite effect that adding Book, p. 34.
noun subject will make it plural. However, s has on the subject and verb. Write this
doing so will have the opposite effect on a sentence on the board:
present-tense verb—it will require it to be • The girls sings.
singular. Therefore, singular noun subjects Have students edit the sentence first to
require plural present-tense verbs, and make both the subject and verb singular
plural noun subjects require singular pres- and then to make them both plural.
ent-tense verbs. Write these sentences on
the board:
303
 Before You Read
World Literature
Before You Read South Africa

Focus from Kaffir Boy

Bellringer Options Meet Mark Mathabane

Selection Focus (born 1960)
Transparency 17

Daily Language Practice
Transparency 24
Or on the board write: Educa-
tion will open doors where none
seem to exist. Ask: Do you
agree with this statement?
Explain your answer. Have
students discuss what opportuni-
ties education has made available
to them.
W
hat was it like to grow up in South
Africa under the system of apartheid?
For Mark Mathabane (mä tä bäne)
“it meant hate, bitterness, hunger, pain, terror,
violence, fear, dashed hopes and dreams.”
Dark Childhood Mathabane spent his early
years living in poverty and fear under the
apartheid government, which relegated black
South Africans to ghettos and treated them as
inferior people. Constant police raids and
relocation to worthless parcels of land where up tennis and five years later won a tennis
work and education were scarce made life scholarship to an American college; he called
unbearable for black South Africans. the scholarship “my passport to freedom.”
Mathabane’s family lived in Alexandra town- In 1986 Mathabane published his first book,
ship, in a square-mile ghetto packed with Kaffir Boy, an honest portrayal of the horrors
200,000 black South Africans. Barely subsist- of growing up under apartheid. Despite being
ing on the ten dollars that Mathabane’s father banned by the South African government for
made each week, the family already found life its powerful anti-apartheid sentiment, this
in the Alexandra township to be brutal and autobiography was hugely successful.
harsh. But when Mathabane’s father was
A New Life Kaffir Boy in America, an account
arrested for being unemployed, the family fell
of Mathabane’s arrival and first years in the
into even deeper poverty.
United States, followed in 1989. This sequel
relates Mathabane’s difficulties in adapting to
a new culture and lifestyle in a land that was
“Books aren’t written with the comfort wonderfully different from, but possessed
unfortunate similarities to, the apartheid
of readers in mind. I know I didn’t system. His most recent book is the memoir
write Kaffir Boy that way.” Miriam’s Song (2001), about his sister’s experi-
ence of the last days of apartheid.
—Mark Mathabane

Escape from Oppression Although illiterate,

Mathabane’s mother understood the impor-
tance of education and insisted that her son Literature Online
attend school. Mathabane decided to master
Author Search For more about Mark Mathabane, go
English, which black South Africans were for- to glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
bidden to learn. At the age of thirteen, he took

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Vocabulary Skills
Literary Elements • Context Clues (SE p. 319)
• Theme (SE pp. 305, 307, 310, 312, • Academic Vocabulary (SE p. 319)
313, 319; TE pp. 309, 317) Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
• Voice (SE p. 319) • Analyze Art (SE pp. 308, 310, 313,
316)
from Kaffir Boy
Reading Skills Writing Skills/Grammar
• Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relation- • Write a Research Report (SE p. 320)
ships (SE pp. 305, 306, 310, 311, Study Skills/Research/Assessment • Analyze a Character (TE p. 310)
314, 316, 319) • Create and Research Questions (TE
p. 306)
304
 Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
Before You Read
For pages 304–320
Connect to the Autobiography
Focus
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
How does education change the way you see the world?
objectives:
Freewrite for a few minutes about the ways your education has
Literary Analysis: Analyzing
affected your perception of the world.
theme. Summary
Build Background Reading: Analyzing cause-
and-effect relationships. In this excerpt from Kaffir Boy,
Under apartheid, black South Africans, who made up more Mark Mathabane recalls the events
than seventy-five percent of the population, and other non-
white people were forced to live and work under a system of
that propelled him to go to school
strict racial segregation. Apartheid sparked strong opposition in at age seven. At first, the young
South Africa and in many other parts of the world and came to Mathabane agrees with a gang of
a definitive end in 1994 with the electoral victory of Nelson Vocabulary
older street kids that school is a
Mandela’s African National Congress. coterie (kōtə rē) n. a small waste of time. Early one morning,
group of people who share a par-
Set Purposes for Reading Mama drags him to school. On the
ticular interest and often meet
Big Idea The Power of Memory socially; p. 309 Janelle and her way, they meet a woman who tells
airplane-loving coterie crafted them about her oldest son, who
As you read this excerpt from Kaffir Boy, ask yourself, How
model airplanes. joined a gang and was stabbed to
does Mathabane show the power of memory to change one’s
life for the better? admonish (ad monish) v. to death. After Mama is beaten up for
warn, as against a specific action; putting him in school, Mathabane
Literary Element Theme p. 309 José’s parents admonished
begins to comprehend the impor-
Theme is the central message of a work of literature that read- him to stay out of the canyon.
tance of an education.
ers can apply to life. Finding the theme of a story helps you peruse (pə rō ō ̄ z) v. to read
connect with the author’s purpose in writing. As you read, ask through or examine carefully; p.
yourself, What is the central theme of this literary text? 311 The doctor perused the medical For summaries in languages other
journals for detailed information. than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
Reading Strategy Analyze Cause-and-Effect Resources Book, pp. 35–40.
Relationships credence (krēdəns) n. trustwor-
thiness, especially in the reports
A cause-and-effect relationship is a connection between the or statements of others; p. 313
reason for an occurrence and the occurrence itself. Analyzing The lawyer’s argument had more Vocabulary
these relationships helps to explain why things happen and credence than the accounts of
why a character or person makes the decisions he or she bystanders. Context Clues Read aloud
makes. As you read, ask yourself, What influences the charac- the sentences following the defini-
ters in Kaffir Boy to make the decisions they do? vehemently (vēə mənt lē) adv.
strongly; intensely; passionately; tions of the vocabulary words. Ask
Tip: Make Connections Use a chart like the one below to p. 315 The peace activists argued students to identify the context
make connections between causes and effects in the selection. vehemently against the war. clues in each sentence that help
reveal the meaning of the vocabu-
Cause Effect lary word.
His gang refuses to Narrator decides not
go to school. to go to school.

MARK MATHABANE 305 For additional vocabulary practice,

see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
English Learners Book, pp. 43–44.
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For additional context, see Glencoe

Intermediate Students from other
cultures become more at ease socially by
sharing details of their background and
experience. At the same time, others in
the class will benefit by learning about cul-
tural differences. Invite students who have
lived in or traveled to South Africa or other
countries to share their knowledge about
and experiences with the schools and/or
the cultures of those countries.
As students read the excerpt from Kaffir
Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
Boy, tell them to keep in mind the informa-
tion they have learned from their classmates
about other cultures. After students have
finished the story, have students compare
this shared cultural information with the
cultural details found in the excerpt.

305

Teach
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Say: Keep the following ques-
tions in mind as you read: What
was life like under the system of
apartheid? Why is Mathabane’s
mother so intent on making
him go to school? (It was a life
of fear, poverty, despair, and
violence. Blacks were cruelly and
inhumanely treated. Mathabane’s
mother wants him to have a better
life than she or other South African
blacks have had. She doesn’t want
him to spiral into the dead-end life
of a gang member.)
Reading Strategy
Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships Answer: He
prefers the freedom and adven-
ture they enjoy, and he probably
does not want to answer to his
mother.
For additional practice using the
reading skill or strategy, see Unit 2
Teaching Resources Book, p. 42.
For an audio recording of this
selection, use Listening Library
Audio CD-ROM.
Readability Scores
Dale-Chall: 6.4
DRP: 53
Lexile: 910
306
1
Mark Mathabane
“Education will open doors where none
seem to exist.”
2 from shebeens,4 or goods from the Indian
1 When my mother began dropping hints
that I would soon be going to school, I
vowed never to go because school was a
waste of time. She laughed and said, “We’ll
see. You don’t know what you’re talking
about.” My philosophy on school was that
of a gang of ten-, eleven-, and twelve-year-
olds whom I so revered that their every
word seemed that of an oracle.1
These boys had long left their homes
and were now living in various neighbor-
hood junkyards, making it on their own.
They slept in abandoned cars, smoked glue
and benzene,2 ate pilchards3 and brown
bread, sneaked into the white world to
1. In Greek mythology, the gods sometimes spoke through
an oracle, or a person such as a priestess.
2. The boys are taking a risk with benzene, a poisonous
liquid obtained from coal.
3. Pilchards are small fish of the herring family.
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Research Practice
0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 306
SPIRAL Research Questions Tell
REVIEW SMALL GROUP
students that apartheid, a
legalized system of racial
segregation and oppression of blacks,
was formally instituted in South Africa in
1948. Black South Africans were forced
into nine separate “nations” and restricted
to small rural areas of infertile land. Have
students work in small groups to generate
questions about apartheid in South Africa.
Have one student in each group record
from
South African boys play soccer with an undersized ball in
Soweto, 1990. South Africa. David Turnley.
caddy and, if unsuccessful, came back to
the township to steal beer and soda bottles
traders on First Avenue. Their life style was
exciting, adventurous, and full of surprises;
and I was attracted to it. My mother told
me that they were no-gooders, that they
would amount to nothing, that I should
not associate with them, but I paid no
heed. What does she know? I used to tell
myself. One thing she did not know was
that the gang’s way of life had captivated
me wholly, particularly their philosophy
on school: they hated it and considered an
education a waste of time.
They, like myself, had grown up in an
environment where the value of an education
4. Shebeens are taverns operating without government
license or approval.
Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relationships Why do you
think the gang has such appeal for Mathabane compared to
the life his mother wants for him?
2
3/12/08 9:52:02 A
the group’s questions. After they have
created a list of questions, instruct groups
to use Internet and library resources to
research the answers to their questions.
Ask groups to present their findings to the
class. Make sure that each group member
plays a role in the presentation.
 was never emphasized, where the first thing
a child learned was not how to read and
write and spell, but how to fight and steal
and rebel; where the money to send chil-
dren to school was grossly5 lacking, for sur-
vival was first priority. I kept my
membership in the gang, knowing that
for as long as I was under its influence,
I would never go to school.
One day my mother woke me up at four
in the morning.
“Are they here? I didn’t hear any
noises,” I asked in the usual way.
“No,” my mother said. “I want you to
get into that washtub over there.”
“What!” I balked, upon hearing the
word washtub. I feared taking baths like
one feared the plague. Throughout seven
Instantly my mother leaped away from
the tub and headed, on tiptoe, toward the Teach
bedroom. Fear seized me as I, too, thought
of the police. I sat frozen in the bathtub,
not knowing what to do. Literary Element 3
“Open up, Mujaji [my mother’s maiden
name],” Granny’s voice came shrilling
Theme Answer: He seems
through the door. “It’s me.” to be somewhat passive; he
My mother heaved a sigh of relief; her feels that he is under the gang’s
tense limbs relaxed. She turned and influence.
headed to the kitchen door, unlatched it,
and in came Granny and Aunt Bushy.
“You scared me half to death,” my
mother said to Granny. “I had forgotten all
about your coming.”
“Are you ready?” Granny asked my
mother.
“Yes—just about,” my mother said, Explain to
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S

years of hectic living the number of baths I
had taken could be counted on one hand
with several fingers missing. I simply had
no natural inclination for water; cleanliness
was a trait I still had to acquire. Besides,
we had only one bathtub in the house, and
it constantly sprung a leak.
“I said get into that tub!” My mother
shook a finger in my face.
Reluctantly, I obeyed, yet wondered
why all of a sudden I had to take a bath.
My mother, armed with a scropbrush and a
piece of Lifebuoy soap, purged6 me of
years and years of grime till I ached and
bled. As I howled, feeling pain shoot
through my limbs as the thistles of the
brush encountered stubborn calluses, there
was a loud knock at the door.
5. Here, grossly means “totally; entirely.”
6. To purge is to cleanse or get rid of whatever is unclean or
undesirable.
Theme Do you think the author has strong convictions of
3 his own at this point? Explain.
beckoning me to get out of the washtub. English learners that a person’s
She handed me a piece of cloth to dry convictions are his or her strong
myself. As I dried myself, questions raced personal beliefs or opinions.
through my mind: What’s going on?
What’s Granny doing at our house this
ungodly7 hour of the morning? And why
did she ask my mother, “Are you ready?”
While I stood debating, my mother went
into the bedroom and came out with a
stained white shirt and a pair of faded
black shorts. Literary Element 4
“Here,” she said, handing me the togs,
“put these on.” Theme Answer: Students
“Why?” I asked. should note that gang life
“Put them on I said!” had a corrupting influence on
I put the shirt on; it was grossly loose-
Mathabane.
fitting. It reached all the way down to my
ankles. Then I saw the reason why: it was
my father’s shirt! A DVA N C E D Lead a discussion
“But this is Papa’s shirt,” I complained.
“It don’t fit me.”
about what this particular bath may
“Put it on,” my mother insisted. “I’ll symbolize. (Students may suggest
make it fit.” that the bath symbolizes a cleans-
“The pants don’t fit me either,” I said. ing of the narrator’s past actions.)
“Whose are they anyway?”

Theme What do you think is the connection between cleanli-

4 ness and Mathabane’s life in the gang? 7. In this context, ungodly means “outrageous; shocking.”

MARK MATHABANE 307

Approaching Level
DI F F ER E 307
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Writer’s Technique S
SMALL GROUP
Dialogue Dialogue can
AAVE Approaching-level students out that the ’s helps distinguish the posses- inform the reader about char-
who use African American Ver- sives. Explain that it is important to use the acters and create drama in a
nacular English (AAVE) may have difficulty ’s when writing and speaking. story. Ask: What does the dia-
remembering to include the ’s when form- Organize students into small groups, and logue on this page tell you about
ing a possessive. Write the following lines have each group write four sentences that each character? (The narrator is
from Kaffir Boy on the board: Granny’s contain possessives. a defiant, disrespectful youth. The
voice came shrilling through the door; it mother is a determined, com-
was my father’s shirt; a mixture of pig’s fat manding woman. Granny is a little
and vaseline. Ask students to identify the gentler than the mother.)
possessive forms in the sentences. Point

307
Teach

S
Answer: The children live in
poverty and squalor, and older
children must serve as caretak-
ers for their younger siblings. The
three older children may consider
school a break and great opportu-
nity from the unfair burden in their
difficult lives.
Discuss details of the image; for Children in Alexandra Township. Louise Gubb. Alexandra continues to be one of the poorest
areas in the Gauteng region of South Africa. Suffering from overcrowding, crime, and a lack of
example, the young child caring for infrastructure. Half of all young people in the area do not receive education.
a toddler. Ask students to imagine What does the background in this photograph tell you about daily life for these
how the children might spend their children? How might the older three react to being enrolled in school like the author was?

time if they do not attend school.

“Put them on,” my mother said. “I’ll “Where are we going, Gran’ma?” I said,
make them fit.” hoping that she would tell me what my
Moments later I had the garments on; I mother refused to tell me. I still had no
looked ridiculous. My mother started idea I was about to be taken to school.
working on the pants and shirt to make “Didn’t your mother tell you?” Granny
them fit. She folded the shirt in so many said with a smile. “You’re going to start
intricate ways and stashed it inside the school.”
pants, they too having “What!” I gasped, leaping from the
been folded several chair where I was sitting as if it were
times at the waist. She made of hot lead. “I am not going to
then choked the pants school!” I blurted out and raced toward
at the waist with a the kitchen door.
piece of sisal rope to My mother had just reappeared from the
hold them up. She bedroom and guessing what I was up to,
Visual Vocabulary then lavishly smeared she yelled, “Someone get the door!”
Sisal is a coarse, strong my face, arms, and Aunt Bushy immediately barred the
fiber obtained from the
leaves of a tropical plant.
legs with a mixture of door. I turned and headed for the window.
pig’s fat and vaseline. As I leaped for the windowsill, my mother
“This will insulate lunged at me and brought me down. I tus-
you from the cold,” she said. My skin sled, “Let go of me! I don’t want to go to
gleamed like the morning star, and I felt as school! Let me go!” but my mother held
hot as the center of the sun, and I smelled fast onto me.
God knows like what. After embalming “It’s no use now,” she said, grinning tri-
me, she headed to the bedroom. umphantly as she pinned me down.

308 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Reading Practice
0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 308 3/19/08 1:40:20 P

SPIRAL
SMALL GROUP
Respond Say: Explain rator. Use the text on this spread for the
REVIEW
that responses to read- dramatic reading.
ing can include discus- Allow students time to practice, and
sions, journals, oral interpretations, and encourage them to vary the pace and
dramatizations. inflection of their voice to reflect the tone
Organize students in small groups. Have and mood of the text. After the groups
group members choose characters from have read for the class, lead a discus-
the selection whose dialogue they will sion about how each group effectively
read aloud. Have the remaining group conveyed the tone and mood of the text
members take turns reading as the nar- through the reading.

308
 Turning her head in Granny’s direction,
she shouted, “Granny! Get a rope quickly!”
Granny grabbed a piece of rope nearby
and came to my mother’s aid. I bit and
clawed every hand that grabbed me, and
howled protestations against going to
school; however, I was no match for the
two determined matriarchs.8 In a jiffy they
had me bound, hands and feet.
“What’s the matter with him?” Granny,
bewildered, asked my mother. “Why did
he suddenly turn into an imp9 when I told
him you’re taking him to school?”
“You shouldn’t have told him that he’s
being taken to school,” my mother said.
“He doesn’t want to go there. That’s why I
requested you come today, to help me take
him there. Those boys in the streets have
been a bad influence on him.”
As the two matriarchs hauled me
through the door, they told Aunt Bushy not
to go to school but stay behind and mind
the house and the children.
The sun was beginning to rise from
beyond the veld10 when Granny and my
mother dragged me to school. The streets
were beginning to fill with their everyday
traffic: old men and women, wizened,11
bent, and ragged, were beginning their
rambling; workless men and women were
beginning to assemble in their usual cote-
ries and head for shebeens in the back-
8. Matriarchs (maātrē̄ ärkś) are women who head families
or who have great authority in other groups.
9. Here, imp means “a mischievous child.”
10. In South Africa, the veld (velt) is a rolling grassland with
scattered trees or bushes.
11. When the elderly become wizened (wiźənd), they are
shriveled or withered due to age.
The Power of Memory Why might Mathabane remember
2 so vividly the details of that day later in life?
Vocabulary
coterie (kotə rē)̄ n. a small group of people who share
a particular interest and often meet socially
English Learners
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PM 0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 309 I N STR UCTION
SMALL GROUP
Advanced Write the following
excerpts from sentences on the
board: I was no match for the two deter-
mined matriarchs; but stay behind and
mind the house and the children; break
loose and make a mad dash for freedom;
woman came along from the opposite
direction. Point out that the underlined
words have multiple meanings. Explain that
many words have multiple meanings. Stu-
yards where they discussed how they
escaped the morning pass raids12 and Teach
contemplated the conditions of life amidst
intense beer drinking and vacant, uneasy
laughter; young boys and girls, some as Literary Element 1
young as myself, were beginning their aim-
less wanderings along the narrow, dusty
Theme Ask: What does it
streets in search of food, carrying bawling 1 say about growing up in South
infants piggyback. Africa that children as young as
As we went along some of the streets, the narrator are carrying around
boys and girls who shared the same fears infants and looking for food? (It
about school as I were making their feelings shows that children must grow
known in a variety of ways. They were
up faster than they would in the
howling their protests and trying to escape.
A few managed to break loose and make a United States. They must take on
mad dash for freedom, only to be recap- the responsibilities of adults at an
tured in no time, admonished or whipped, early age.)
or both, and ordered to march again.
As we made a turn into Sixteenth
Avenue, the street leading to the tribal Big Idea 2
school I was being taken to, a short,
chubby black woman came along from the The Power of Memory
opposite direction. She had a scuttle13 over- Answer: The day became very
flowing with coal on her doek-covered significant to him and affected
(cloth-covered) head. An infant, bawling the path he followed in life, so it
deafeningly, was loosely swathed with a is understandable that he would
piece of sheepskin onto her back.
Following closely behind the woman, and
have strong memories of it.
picking up pieces of coal as they fell from AP P ROAC H I N G Ask students to
the scuttle and placing them in a small recall a moment in their lives that
plastic bag, was a half-naked, potbellied, they remember vividly. Ask them
and thumb-sucking boy of about four. The to explain why they remember the
woman stopped abreast.14 For some reason
event so clearly. Point out that their
we stopped too.
“I wish I had done the same to my oldest reasons for remembering may be
son,” the strange woman said in a regretful similar to Mathabane’s.
12. Pass raids refers to the practice whereby police
periodically stopped black South Africans to see that they
had the proper papers authorizing them to be in specific
areas.
13. Here, a scuttle is a coal container.
14. Abreast means “alongside the others.”
Vocabulary
admonish (ad monish) v. to warn, as against a specific
action
MARK MATHABANE 309
3/19/08 1:40:38 PM
dents must consider the context in which a
word appears to determine which meaning
applies.
Have students work in small groups to look
up the various meanings of each under-
lined word. Tell them to work together to
determine which meaning is appropriate in
the sentence. Then, have them share their
selected definitions with the class.
309
Teach
Reading Strategy 1 A schoolboy does homework at his
Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships Answer: Life
on the streets and involvement
with gangs probably caused him
to become a tsotsi.
Literary Element 2
Theme Answer: This woman
warns Mathabane of what his
future will be like if he continues
his life on the street and does not
pursue an education.
A P P ROAC H I N G Ask: What is the
conflict between Mathabane and
his mother? (Mathabane does
not want to attend school, but his
mother wants him to go.)
S beyond any help. I can’t help him even if I
Answer: Despite scarce
resources, the young boy studies
diligently. This reflects the theme
that education creates an opportu-
nity for a better life.
1 the woman think caused her son to become a tsotsi?
Writing Practice
0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Analyze a Character Have
students analyze a character
from the autobiography. The
following questions may help students get
started:
• What does the character do and say?
• How does the character interact with others?
• How would you describe the character’s
personality?
• What motivates the character throughout
the story?
310
voice, gazing at me. I was confounded15 by
her stopping and offering her unsolicited
opinion.
“I wish I had done that to my oldest
son,” she repeated, and suddenly burst
into tears; amidst sobs, she continued,
“before . . . the street claimed him . . .
and . . . turned him into a tsotsi.”16
Granny and my mother offered consola-
tory remarks to the strange woman.
“But it’s too late now,” the strange
woman continued, tears now streaming
freely down her puffy cheeks. She made
no attempt to dry them. “It’s too late
now,” she said for the second time, “he’s
wanted to. Uswile17 [He is dead].”
“How did he die?” my mother asked in
a sympathetic voice.
15. To be confounded is to be confused or bewildered.
16. A tsotsi (tsot  sē̄) is an armed street hoodlum or gangster.
17. Uswile (o
o swē̄l ā )
Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relationships What does
310 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
310
Tell students to begin by recording in
writing any ideas they have or their first
reactions to the questions above. Then,
instruct them to write their analyses in
several paragraphs.
After students have finished, invite vol-
unteers to share their character analysis
with the class. Lead a discussion about
similarities and differences among all of
the analyses to help students gain a better
understanding of the characters.
desk, Mali. 1960, Paul Almasy Mali.
Resources for education are scarce
throughout Africa, but many old
organizations have targeted
education as a key component for
fighting poverty and hunger.
How do this child’s
attitude and activities reflect the
theme of Mathabane’s tale?
“He shunned school and, instead, grew
up to live by the knife. And the same knife
he lived by ended his life. That’s why
whenever I see a boy-child refuse to go to
school, I stop and tell the story of my dear
little mbitsini18 [heartbreak].”
Having said that, the strange woman left
as mysteriously as she had arrived.
“Did you hear what that woman said!”
my mother screamed into my ears. “Do
you want the same to happen to you?”
I dropped my eyes. I was confused.
“Poor woman,” Granny said ruefully.
“She must have truly loved her son.”
Finally, we reached the school and I was
ushered into the principal’s office, a tiny
cubicle facing a row of privies19 and a
patch of yellowed grass.
“So this is the rascal we’d been talking
about,” the principal, a tall, wiry man,
18. mbitsini (əm bit sē̄́nē̄)
19. Privies (priv́ē̄z) are outhouses, or toilets.
Theme Why is it significant that Mathabane encounters
this woman? 2
3/19/08 1:40:56 P
 foppishly20 dressed in a black pin-striped
suit, said to my mother as we entered.
His austere,21 shiny face, inscrutable and
imposing, reminded me of my father. He
was sitting behind a brown table upon
which stood piles of dust and cobweb-
covered books and papers. In one upper
pocket of his jacket was arrayed a variety
of pens and pencils; in the other nestled a
lily-white handkerchief whose presence
was more decorative than utilitarian.22
Alongside him stood a disproportion-
ately portly 23 black woman, fashionably
dressed in a black skirt and a white
blouse. She had but one pen, and this she
held in her hand. The room was hot and
stuffy and buzzing with flies.
“Yes, Principal,” my mother answered,
“this is he.”
“I see he’s living up to his notoriety,” re-
marked the principal, noticing that I had
been bound. “Did he give you too much
trouble?”
“Principal,” my mother sighed. “He was
like an imp.”
“He’s just like the rest of them, Principal,”
Granny sighed. “Once they get out into the
streets, they become wild. They take to the
many vices of the streets like an infant takes
to its mother’s milk. They begin to think
that there’s no other life but the one shown
them by the tsotsis. They come to hate
school and forget about the future.”
“Well,” the principal said. “We’ll soon
remedy all that. Untie him.”
“He’ll run away,” my mother cried.
“I don’t think he’s that foolish to attempt
that with all of us here.”
20. The man surely would not think that he dressed
foppishly—in the style of one who pays too much
attention to his or her clothes.
21. Austere means “serious, strict, or severe.”
22. Something that is utilitarian is functional or practical.
23. A portly person has a heavy or stout but dignified
appearance.
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 311 I N STR UCTION
Intermediate Explain that different
cultures have different attitudes toward
education. Have a discussion with English
learners about education in their culture.
Begin by pointing out that teaching and
learning occur in different ways for dif-
ferent cultures. Then ask English learners
from other cultures to answer the follow-
ing questions and encourage students to
elaborate on their answers and also ask
each other similar questions:
“He is that foolish, Principal,” my
mother said as she and Granny began Teach
untying me. “He’s tried it before. Getting
him here was an ordeal in itself.”
The principal rose from his seat, took Reading Strategy 3
two steps to the door and closed it. As
the door swung closed, I spotted a row of Analyze Cause-and-Effect
canes of different lengths and thicknesses Relationships Answer:
hanging behind it. The principal, seeing Some students may say that he
me staring at the canes, grinned and will be frightened into attending
said, in a manner suggesting that he had school, and others may think that
wanted me to see them, “As long as you the threat makes it more likely
behave, I won’t have to use any of those
that he will run away and join
on you.”
Use those canes on me? I gasped. I the gang. Say: Read the next
stared at my mother—she smiled; at paragraph. Why do Mama and
Granny—she smiled too. That made me Granny smile? (Students should
abandon any inkling of escaping. realize that the women are glad to
“So they finally gave you the birth see that Mathabane is frightened
certificate and the papers,” the principal
of the canes because that will
addressed my mother as he returned to
his chair. make him more likely not to run
“Yes, Principal,” my mother said, “they away and to stay in school.) Ask
finally did. But what a battle it was. It took students to recall what the mother
me nearly a year to get all them papers and grandmother had to do to get
together.” She took out of her handbag a Mathabane to school. (They had to
neatly wrapped package and handed it to tackle him and bind his hands and
the principal. “They’ve been running us
feet. Then, they had to drag him
around for so long that there were times
when I thought he would never attend to the school.)
school, Principal,” she said.
“That’s pretty much standard proce-
dure, Mrs. Mathabane,” the principal
said, unwrapping the package. “But
you now have the papers and that’s
what’s important.
“As long as we have the papers,” he
continued, minutely perusing the contents
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S Make sure that
Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relationships What effect students understand that the canes
do you think the principal’s statement will have on 3 are used to deliver corporal pun-
Mathabane’s commitment to attending school?
ishment. Then, have them answer
Vocabulary the question above.
peruse (pə roō z̄ ) v. to read through or examine
carefully
MARK MATHABANE 311
3/12/08 9:52:17 AM
• What is your culture’s attitude toward
education?
• What are the schools like in your culture?
• How are the teaching strategies similar to
or different from strategies in the United
States?
• How much homework do students
receive?
• What subjects are taught in schools?
• How do students and teachers interact?
311
Teach
Literary Element 1 ties in Pretoria.”24
Theme Answer: Students may
note that it is another example of
how disadvantaged the author
is and how things are stacked
against him.
Big Idea 2 the principal said to Granny, “is as impor-
The Power of Memory
Answer: Mathabane’s mother
recalls how her own lack of educa-
tion has adversely affected her
life. Ask: How might education
make Mathabane’s life different
from his mother’s life? He will be
able to think beyond the limiting
scope of his personal experience.
Writer’s Technique S
Paradox Explain that Granny’s
comment is a paradox—a state-
ment that has two parts that are
both true, but that also seem to
contradict each other. Ask: How
is her comment contradictory
but also true? (She understands
the regulations but doesn’t under-
stand their justice or sense.)
Writing Practice
0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Write an Autobiographical
Narrative Tell students that an
autobiographical narrative is a
story about the person who is writing the
narrative. The narrative describes a series
of events in the writer’s life. Have students
write a short autobiographical narrative to
connect to the text.
Ask students to consider a time when they
were “torn between two worlds” or faced
with a difficult decision. In their narratives,
312
of the package, “we won’t be breaking
the law in admitting your son to this
school, for we’ll be in full compliance
with the requirements set by the authori-
“Sometimes I don’t understand the
laws from Pitori,”25 Granny said. “They
did the same to me with my Piet and
Bushy. Why, Principal, should our chil-
dren not be allowed to learn because of
some piece of paper?”
“The piece of paper you’re referring to,
Mrs. Mabaso [Granny’s maiden name],”
tant to our children as a pass is to us
adults. We all hate passes; therefore, it’s
only natural we should hate the regula-
tions our children are subjected to. But as
we have to live with passes, so our chil-
dren have to live with the regulations,
Mrs. Mabaso. I hope you understand, that
is the law of the country. We would have
admitted your grandson a long time ago,
as you well know, had it not been for the
papers. I hope you understand.”
“I understand, Principal,” Granny said,
“but I don’t understand,” she added
paradoxically.
One of the papers caught the principal’s
eye and he turned to my mother and
asked, “Is your husband a Shangaan,
Mrs. Mathabane?”
“No, he’s not Principal,” my mother
said. “Is there anything wrong? He’s
Venda and I’m Shangaan.”26
The principal reflected for a moment or
so and then said, concernedly, “No, there’s
nothing seriously wrong. Nothing that we
can’t take care of. You see, Mrs. Mathabane,
technically, the fact that your child’s father
24. The rules come from South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.
25. Pitori is Granny’s pronunciation of “Pretoria.”
26. The people of South Africa belong to many different
ethnic groups, including Venda and Shangaan, each
with its own language.
312 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
312
have students describe the sequence of
events that led to the decision. Then, have
them explain why the decision was sig-
nificant in their lives. Allow students time
to write their narratives. Have volunteers
share their narratives with the class.
is a Venda makes him ineligible to attend
this tribal school because it is only for chil-
dren whose parents are of the Shangaan
tribe. May I ask what language the children
speak at home?”
“Both languages,” my mother said wor-
riedly, “Venda and Shangaan. Is there any-
thing wrong?”
The principal coughed, clearing his
throat, then said, “I mean which language
do they speak more?”
“It depends, Principal,” my mother said,
swallowing hard. “When their father is
around, he wants them to speak only
Venda. And when he’s not, they speak
Shangaan. And when they are out at play,
they speak Zulu and Sisotho.” 27
“Well,” the principal said, heaving a sigh
of relief. “In that case, I think an exception
can be made. The reason for such an excep-
tion is that there’s currently no school for
Vendas in Alexandra. And should the
authorities come asking why we took in
your son, we can tell them that. Anyway,
your child is half-half.”
Everyone broke into a nervous laugh,
except me. I was bewildered by the whole
thing. I looked at my mother, and she
seemed greatly relieved as she watched
the principal register me; a broad smile
broke across her face. It was as if some
enormously heavy burden had finally
been lifted from her shoulders and her
conscience.
“Bring him back two weeks from today,”
the principal said as he saw us to the door.
“There’re so many children registering
27. Zulu and Sisotho are ethnic groups as well as languages.
Theme How does this passage contribute to a recurring
theme in the story? 1
The Power of Memory What detail of her own life
might Mathabane’s mother be remembering or thinking 2
about at this moment?
3/12/08 9:52:18 A
 today that classes won’t begin
until two weeks hence. Also, the
school needs repair and cleaning
up after the holidays. If he
refuses to come, simply notify
us, and we’ll send a couple of
big boys to come fetch him, and
he’ll be very sorry if it ever
comes to that.”
As we left the principal’s office
and headed home, my mind was
still against going to school. I was
thinking of running away from
home and joining my friends in
the junkyard.
I didn’t want to go to school
for three reasons: I was reluctant
to surrender my freedom and
independence over to what I
heard every school-going child
call “tyrannous discipline.” I had
heard many bad things about life
in tribal school—from daily beat-
South African man with passbook. Juda Ngwenya.
ings by teachers and mistresses
who worked you like a mule to a passbook with them that stated where they were allowed to work and
long school hours—and the sight live. If their passbooks were not in order, they could be arrested and jailed.
of those canes in the principal’s As the principal in Kaffir Boy explains it, how are the student regulations
similar to the passbooks?
office gave ample credence to
rumors that school was nothing
but a torture chamber. And there
was my allegiance to the gang.
But the thought of the strange woman’s
lamentations over her dead son presented
a somewhat strong case for going to
school: I didn’t want to end up dead in the
streets. A more compelling argument for
going to school, however, was the vivid
recollection of all that humiliation and pain
my mother had gone through to get me the
papers and the birth certificate so I could
Vocabulary
credence (krēdəns) n. trustworthiness, especially in
the reports or statements of others
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 313 I N STR UCTION
Established Knowledge of the correct
way to use a search engine is an important
skill in Internet research. Have students
search the Internet to find out more about
South African ethnic groups. In particu-
lar, students should look for information
about the two groups to which the narrator
belongs, Shangaan and Venda, as well
as the others that have been mentioned,
Zulu and Sisotho. Have students use the
same key words in several different search
During apartheid, Black South Africans were required to carry
enroll in school. What should I do? I was
torn between two worlds.
But later that evening something hap-
pened to force me to go to school.
I was returning home from playing soc-
cer when a neighbor accosted28 me by the
gate and told me that there had been a
bloody fight at my home.
“Your mother and father have been at it
again,” the neighbor, a woman, said.
28. In this case, to accost is to approach and speak to, often
in a pushy way.
Theme What does the contrast between these two differ-
ent worlds have to do with the themes of the story?
MARK MATHABANE
3/19/08
engines to see what kinds of results each
engine will find.
Use the following questions to focus stu-
dents’ research:
• What is the language of the ethnic group?
• What is the group’s history?
• What are the group’s customs?
Teach
Literary Element 3
Theme Answer: Students
should note that the contrast
between the two worlds highlights
the author’s development of a
theme of a crossroads or a place
of difficult choices; others may
point out a theme of awakening
or hope.
AP P ROAC H I N G Have students
first identify the sentences that
show the two worlds to which the
narrator belongs. Then, have them
answer the question.
S
Answer: Like the passbooks, the
student regulations are hated by
those who are subject to them.
They are discriminatory and make
access to education much more
difficult for non-white students,
in the same way that passbooks
make access to travel and work
much more difficult for non-white
adults.
3
313
1:41:21 PM
313
Teach
Reading Strategy 1 she’ll be all right. We took her to your
Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships Answer:
Students may say that Mathabane
would feel confused and, even
more importantly, responsible for
his mother’s injuries.
A DVA N C E D Lead a discussion
about how Mathabane’s reaction
to being “the cause of it all” may
affect his decision to go to school.
Ask students how this event in
Mathabane’s life may affect his
future beliefs and ideals. (Students
may suggest that Mathabane’s
reaction may force him to make
the decision to go to school. This
event may affect Mathabane’s
future beliefs about education and
its power.)
Reading Practice
0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Make Inferences Have students
use the information on this page to
make inferences about Mathabane
and his mother.
Say: The narrator becomes “hot with
anger” when he hears that his father
hit his mother. What does this reveal
about the narrator? (He cares for his
mother and is protective of her.) Despite
the neighbor’s warnings, Mathabane
314
“And your mother left.”
I was stunned.
ing a tirade30 of obscenities at my mother
and her mother. . . . He was drunk, but I
“Was she hurt badly?” wondered where he had gotten the money
“A little bit,” the woman said. “But to buy beer because it was still the middle
of the week and he was dead broke. He had
grandma’s place.” lost his entire wage for the past week in dice
I became hot with anger. and had had to borrow bus fare.
“Is anyone in the house?” I stammered, “What happened, Mama?” I asked, fight-
trying to control my rage. ing to hold back the tears at the sight of her
“Yes, your father is. But I don’t think you disfigured face.
should go near the house. He’s raving mad. “Nothing, child, nothing,” she mumbled,
He’s armed with a meat cleaver. He’s chased almost apologetically, between swollen
out your brother and sisters, also. And some lips. “Your papa simply lost his temper,
of the neighbors who tried to intervene he’s that’s all.”
threatened to carve them to pieces. I have “But why did he
never seen him this mad before.” beat you up like this,
I brushed aside the woman’s warnings Mama?” Tears came
and went. Shattered windows convinced down my face. “He’s
me that there had indeed been a skirmish never beaten you like
of some sort. Several pieces of broken this before.”
bricks, evidently broken after being thrown My mother
at the door, were lying about the door. I appeared reluctant to
tried opening the door; it was locked from answer me. She looked
Visual Vocabulary
the inside. I knocked. No one answered. I searchingly at Granny, The pestle is a blunt
knocked again. Still no one answered, who was pounding tool used to pound or
until, as I turned to leave: millet with pestle and grind substances in a
“Who’s out there?” my father’s voice mortar and mixing it mortar, a thick, hard
bowl, often made of
came growling from inside. with sorghum31 and wood or stone.
“It’s me, Johannes,”29 I said. nuts for an African
“Go away, . . . !” he bellowed. “I don’t delicacy. Granny said,
want you or that . . . mother of yours set- “Tell him, child, tell him. He’s got a right to
ting foot in this house. Go away before I know. Anyway, he’s the cause of it all.”
come out there and kill you!” “Your father and I fought because I took
“Let me in!” I cried. “Dammit, let me in! you to school this morning,” my mother
I want my things!” began. “He had told me not to, and when I
“What things? Go away, you black swine!” told him that I had, he became very upset.
I went to the broken window and He was drunk. We started arguing, and
screamed obscenities at my father, daring one thing led to another.”
him to come out, hoping that if he as much
as ever stuck his black face out, I would pelt
him with the half-a-loaf brick in my hand. 30. A tirade (tı̄ rād́) is a long, angry, or scolding speech.
He didn’t come out. He continued launch- 31. Millet is a grain similar to wheat, and sorghum is a
syrup made from a tropical grass.
Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relationships How might
29. The author’s name was Johannes (yō hä́nis) before he
Mathabane respond to discovering that he is the “cause of
it all”?
1
changed it to Mark.
314 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
314 3/12/08 9:52:21 A
tries to speak to his father. What does
this attempt reveal about the narrator?
(He is fearless and will do what is neces-
sary to find out the truth.) Mathabane’s
mother tells him that nothing hap-
pened when he asks her about the
fight with her husband. What does this
reveal about her? (She is protective of
her son and wants to shield him from
the truth.)
 “Why doesn’t he want me to go to
school?”
“He says he doesn’t have money to
waste paying for you to get what he calls
a useless white man’s education,” my
mother replied. “But I told him that if he
won’t pay for your schooling, I would try
and look for a job and pay, but he didn’t
want to hear that, also. ‘There are better
things for you to work for,’ he said.
‘Besides, I don’t want you to work. How
would I look to other men if you, a woman
I owned, were to start working?’ When I
asked him why shouldn’t I take you to
school, seeing that you were now of age,
he replied that he doesn’t believe in
schools. I told him that school would keep
you off the streets and out of trouble, but
still he was belligerent.”
“Is that why he beat you up?”
“Yes, he said I disobeyed his orders.”
“He’s right, child,” Granny interjected.
“He paid lobola [bride price] for you. And
your father ate it all up before he left me.”
To which my mother replied, “But I
desperately want to leave this beast of a
man. But with his lobola gone I can’t do it.
That worthless thing you call your hus-
band shouldn’t have sold Jackson’s
scrawny cattle and left you penniless.”
“Don’t talk like that about your father,
child,” Granny said. “Despite all, he’s
still your father, you know. Anyway, he
asked for lobola only because he had to
get back what he spent raising you. And
you know it would have been taboo for
him to let you or any of your sisters go
without asking for lobola.”
“You and Papa seemed to forget that my
sisters and I have minds of our own,” my
mother said. “We didn’t need you to tell us
The Power of Memory What aspects of the life of
2 Mathabane’s father might explain his attitudes toward
education and a working wife?
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 315 I N STR UCTION
Emerging Approaching-level students
may have a difficult time understanding
Mathabane’s mother’s efforts to fight her
culture’s traditional gender roles. Bring in
some historical information about the fight
for civil rights and gender equality in the
United States. Read aloud the information
and allow students to ask questions or
offer their opinions about the information
provided.
whom to marry, and why, and how. If it
hadn’t been for your interference, I could Teach
have married that schoolteacher.”
Granny did not reply; she knew well
not to. When it came to the act of “selling”
Big Idea 2
women as marriage partners, my mother
was vehemently opposed to it. Not only
The Power of Memory
was she opposed to this one aspect of Answer: He probably never went
tribal culture, but to others as well, partic- to school and is ashamed that he
ularly those involving relations between cannot provide for his family.
men and women and the upbringing of
children. But my mother’s sharply differ-
ing opinion was an exception rather than Big Idea 3
the rule among tribal women. Most times,
many tribal women questioned her sanity The Power of Memory
in daring to question well-established Answer: She is teaching him
mores.32 But my mother did not seem to to question his societal and cul-
care; she would always scoff at her oppo-
tural traditions.
nents and call them fools in letting their
husbands enslave them completely.
Though I disliked school, largely because I
knew nothing about what actually went on
there, and the little I knew had painted a
Cultural History S
dreadful picture, the fact that a father would Marriage A lobola, or bride price,
not want his son to go to school, especially a is a part of Zulu marriage arrange-
father who didn’t go to school, seemed hard ments. A price is determined
to understand.
to make up for the “loss” of a
“Why do you want me to go to school,
Mama?” I asked, hoping that she might,
daughter, usually ten head of cattle
somehow, clear up some of the confusion paid by the husband of the bride.
that was building in my mind. In ancient and medieval Europe
“I want you to have a future, child,” my and many other parts of the world,
mother said. “And, contrary to what your there was a similar marriage
father says, school is the only means to a tradition called the dowry, which
future. I don’t want you growing up to be
is still common in some modern
like your father.”
countries. Have students look up
the definition of dowry. Ask: How
32. The customs and moral standards followed by most does the dowry differ from the
people in a given society are called mores (mōŕāz).
lobola? (The dowry is the money
The Power of Memory How is Mathabane’s mother try- or property brought to the marriage
ing to pass along her strong convictions to her son? 3
by the wife, while the lobola is the
Vocabulary property the husband gives to the
vehemently (veə mənt lē) adv. strongly; intensely; wife’s parents.)
passionately
MARK MATHABANE 315
3/19/08 1:41:38 PM
Established Invite students to discuss present what they have learned to the
their thoughts about and experiences with class in an organized fashion.
gender discrimination. Ask them to offer
opinions about Mathabane’s mother’s con-
victions and what she is trying to accom-
plish. Have students who are interested in
learning more about gender roles in South
Africa today research this issue using print
and electronic sources. Have the students
compile notes on their research and then
315
Teach
Reading Strategy 1
Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships Answer: It
helps Mathabane realize why his
father acts abusively. He realizes
that life on the streets without an
education would make him act like
his father. Ask: Do you think the
statement would have affected
Mathabane as much had his
father not acted abusively earlier
that day? (The statement probably
would not have been as powerful
had his father’s behavior not taken
a turn for the worse that day.) Alexandra Township, South Africa. Louise Gubb. A recent estimate suggests that more than half
of Alexandra’s population lives in shacks and informal dwellings like these.
What does this photograph tell you about life under apartheid?

S The latter statement hit me like a bolt of
Answer: Apartheid created dra-
matic disparities in wealth, even
among neighbors. In this photo-
graph, well-built apartments rise
over a ramshackle shanty town.
Explain to students that equality
did not exist even within the black
African communities. Differences
in eduction, background, and
tribal group created differences in
status—and often led to conflict. In
addition, despite apartheid, thou-
sands of black Africans flooded into
South Africa every year from other
African countries, because there
were more jobs in South Africa
than elsewhere.
lightning. It just about shattered every
defense mechanism and every pretext 33 I
had against going to school.
“Your father didn’t go to school,” she
continued, dabbing her puffed eyes to
reduce the swelling with a piece of cloth
dipped in warm water, “that’s why he’s
doing some of the bad things he’s doing.
Things like drinking, gambling, and
neglecting his family. He didn’t learn how
to read and write; therefore, he can’t find
a decent job. Lack of any education has
narrowly focused his life. He sees nothing
33. A pretext is a false reason or excuse one gives to hide
a true reason or motive.
Analyze Cause-and-Effect Relationships Why do
1 you think the statement had such a strong effect on
Mathabane?
beyond himself. He still thinks in the old,
tribal way, and still believes that things
should be as they were back in the old
days when he was growing up as a tribal
boy in Louis Trichardt. Though he’s my
husband, and your father, he doesn’t see
any of that.”
“Why didn’t he go to school, Mama?”
“He refused to go to school because his
father led him to believe that an education
was a tool through which white people
were going to take things away from him,
like they did black people in the old days.
And that a white man’s education was
worthless insofar as black people were
concerned because it prepared them for
jobs they can’t have. But I know it isn’t
totally so, child, because times have
changed somewhat. Though our lot isn’t
any better today, an education will get
you a decent job. If you can read or write

316 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Reading Practice
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SPIRAL
REVIEW
Identify Problem and Solution pleted their charts, discuss the problems
Point out that the selection deals and solutions as a class. Invite volunteers
with education as a solution both to to share the information in their charts.
a major cultural problem and to the spe-
cific conflicts among the characters. Have
students make a chart illustrating various
problems and solutions in the story. At the
top, they should write the headings Prob-
lem and Solution. Tell students to include
at least three problems and solutions in
their charts. When students have com-

316
 you’ll be better off than those of us who
can’t. Take my situation: I can’t find a job
because I don’t have papers, and I can’t
get papers because white people mainly
want to register people who can read and
write. But I want things to be different for
you, child. For you and your brother and
sisters. I want you to go to school, because
I believe that an education is the key you
need to open up a new world and a new
life for yourself, a world and life differ-
ent from that of either your father’s or
mine. It is the only key that can do that,
and only those who seek it earnestly and
perseveringly will get anywhere in the
white man’s world. Education will open
doors where none seem to exist. It’ll
make people talk to you, listen to you,
and help you; people who otherwise
wouldn’t bother. It will make you soar,
like a bird lifting up into the endless blue
sky, and leave poverty, hunger, and suf-
fering behind. It’ll teach you to learn to
embrace what’s good and shun what’s
bad and evil. Above all, it’ll make you a
somebody in this world. It’ll make you
grow up to be a good and proud person.
That’s why I want you to go to school,
child, so that education can do all that,
and more, for you.”
A long, awkward silence followed,
during which I reflected upon the signifi-
cance of my mother’s lengthy speech. I
looked at my mother; she looked at me.
Finally, I asked, “How come you know
so much about school, Mama? You didn’t
go to school, did you?”
“No, child,” my mother replied. “Just
like your father, I never went to school.”
For the second time that evening, a mere
statement of fact had a thunderous impact
on me. All the confusion I had about
school seemed to leave my mind, like
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0306_0317_U2P1_877979.indd 317 I N STR UCTION
Emerging Have students summarize the
main events in this selection by creating
a sequence-of-events chart. Suggest that
students use a timeline format or a series
of boxes with arrows leading from one box
to the next. For each mark on the time-
line or in each box, have students write a
brief description of an event. Tell students
that events should be listed in the order
in which they occur. You may give stu-
darkness giving way to light. And what
had previously been a dark, yawning void Teach
in my mind was suddenly transformed
into a beacon of light that began to grow
larger and larger, until it had swallowed
Big Idea 2
up, blotted out, all the blackness. That
beacon of light seemed to reveal things
The Power of Memory
and facts, which, though they must have Answer: Students should note
always existed in me, I hadn’t been aware that her statements help Matha-
of up until now. bane realize how much she loves
“But unlike your father,” my mother him. He will probably understand
went on, “I’ve always wanted to go to and respect her much more now.
school, but couldn’t because my father,
under the sway of tribal traditions,
thought it unnecessary to educate females.
That’s why I so much want you to go,
child, for if you do, I know that someday I Literary Element 3
too would come to go, old as I would be
then. Promise me, therefore, that no mat- Theme Ask: Did the narrator
ter what, you’ll go back to school. And I, make the right decision? (Most
in turn, promise that I’ll do everything in students will agree that he was
my power to keep you there.” right to choose knowledge over
With tears streaming down my cheeks ignorance, even if school presents
and falling upon my mother’s bosom, I
certain problems.)
promised her that I would go to school 3
“forever.” That night, at seven and a half AP P ROAC H I N G Before students
years of my life, the battlelines in the answer the question below, ask
family were drawn. My mother on the them to recall the lifestyle that
one side, illiterate but determined to Mathabane would have chosen
have me drink, for better or for worse,
if he had decided not to go to
from the well of knowledge. On the other
side, my father, he too illiterate, yet
school. (Mathabane would have
determined to have me drink from the joined a gang.) Tell students to
well of ignorance. Scarcely aware of the use this information to answer the
magnitude of the decision I was making question.
or, rather, the decision which was being
emotionally thrust upon me, I chose to
fight on my mother’s side, and thus my
destiny was forever altered. m
The Power of Memory How do you think his mother’s
To check students’ understanding
statements might change Mathabane’s feelings now and 2 of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
later in his life?
ing Resources Book, pp. 46–47.
MARK MATHABANE 317
3/12/08 9:52:28 AM
dents the option of drawing the events as
opposed to writing about them.
When students have finished, have them
share their charts with the class. Be sure
to point out any important events that
students may have missed.
317
After You Read
Assess
1. (a) Answers will vary. Students
may choose the scene in which
the narrator’s mother and
Granny tie him up or the scene
in which Mathabane screams
at his father. (b) Students may
point to each scene’s emotional
impact and suspense.
2. School is a waste of time. His
attitude comes from the street
gangs.
3. (a) He becomes enraged and
abuses his wife. (b) It reveals
the father’s hopelessness about
the future and his mother’s
belief that her children can have
better lives.
4. Students may say that his use of
South African words makes the
narrative more authentic and
interesting.
5. The setting is essential because
it was this specific time and
place that forced Mathabane
into making a decision about
school.
6. They show the problems that
result from ignorance.
7. Her lack of education and abu-
sive treatment at the hands of
her society and husband made
her an angry and rebellious
person. Her situation led her to
fight for a better life for her son.
8. Answers will vary. Some stu-
dents may say that Mathabane
would have joined a gang
instead of going to school. Oth-
ers may say that Mathabane
would have become like his
father. It is unlikely that Matha-
bane would have become the
respected writer he is today if
he had chosen not to attend
school.
318
After You Read
Respond and Think Critically
5. How important is the setting—the time and
Respond and Interpret
place—of this autobiographical story? How does
1. (a)What scene from this selection lingers in your
mind? (b)What about the scene is memorable?
it influence the events that occur?
6. Consider Mathabane’s use of cultural details such
2. As this excerpt begins, what is Mathabane’s atti-
tude toward school and where did this attitude
as the treatment of women. How do these details
illuminate Mathabane’s purpose in this selection?
come from?
3. (a)How does Mathabane’s father react to the Connect
day’s events? (b)How does the conflict
7. Big Idea The Power of Memory Mathabane
between Mathabane’s parents reflect their differ-
tells this story with the benefit of hindsight. How
ent outlooks on his life?
can he now see that his mother’s past altered
Analyze and Evaluate her son’s life?
4. Mathabane uses South African words through- 8. Connect to the Author Mathabane writes that
out the text. In your opinion, do these words by choosing “to fight on [his] mother’s side,” his
enhance or detract from the reading experi- “destiny was forever altered.” What might his life
ence? Explain. have been like if he had chosen to fight on his
father’s side instead?
Daily Life & Culture
A Life Apart Group Activity Discuss the following ques-
tions with your classmates.
Apartheid classified South Africans into one
of three categories: the Bantu, or black citi- 1. What are some ways that people can try to
zens, the “Coloured,” or biracial citizens, and change oppressive policies like apartheid?
white citizens. The Bantu group was sepa-
2. What similarities and differences do you
rated and divided into powerless tribal
“homelands” called Bantustans. These areas see between apartheid and the slavery and
had few jobs and limited opportunities for segregation laws that once existed in the
education. Once they had been ousted from United States?
urban areas, Bantu access to cities was strictly
regulated. Nonwhite South Africans were
required to carry a “pass,” or documents that
allowed their presence in otherwise restricted
areas. Social interaction between the races
was also strictly limited.
318 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
0318_0320_U2P1_877979.indd 318 3/19/08 1:42:23 P
A Life Apart For additional assessment, see
1. Students may suggest organizing pro- Assessment Resources, pp. 79–80.
tests or promoting education among
the oppressed people.
2. Students may cite the “separate
but equal” policies: having separate
schools for African Americans and
having African Americans sit in the
back of buses.
 Literary Element Theme Reading Strategy Analyze Cause-and-
After You Read
Some works of literature have a stated theme, Effect Relationships
which is expressed directly. More works have an ACT Skills Practice Literary Element
implied theme, which is revealed gradually
through events, dialogue, or description. A literary 1. The main reason the narrator agrees to go to
school is:
1. The central theme is the saving
work may have more than one theme.
power of education as exempli-
1. What is the central theme in this selection from A. a chance encounter with a stranger who tells
of her dead son.
fied by the choice Mathabane
Kaffir Boy? Is this theme stated or implied?
B. his mother’s determination that he not end had to make between the
Explain.
up like his father. streets and education. It was
2. What other themes can you identify from this C. the sight of the canes hanging on the princi-
selection? Are they connected to the central
Mathabane’s decision, and it
pal’s door.
theme? Explain. D. the thought of his mother’s humiliating
was a decision that probably
efforts to get the correct papers. saved his life. The theme is
Review: Voice stated in his mother’s mono-
Vocabulary Practice logue and in Mathabane’s
As you learned on pages 184–185, voice is the
distinctive use of language that conveys the
Practice with Context Clues Identify the thoughts.
context clues in the following sentences that
author’s or narrator’s personality to the reader.
help you determine the meaning of each bold-
2. The themes are violence, drug
Voice is determined by elements of style such as abuse, and the cultural treat-
faced vocabulary word.
word choice and tone.
1. The coterie of go players met every week
ment of women as property,
Partner Activity With a classmate, offer three or the lobola. The themes of
at the Yakamuras’ house.
examples of writing from Kaffir Boy that demon-
strate Mathabane’s voice. For each example, pro-
2. My parents admonish me often on the violence and drug abuse are
subject of not falling behind in my studies. connected to the central theme;
vide an explanation of what makes its language so
3. We will peruse the information for several
effective. Make a chart like the one below.
hours before we make a decision.
they represent one path that
4. Lily did not know whether to distrust the Mathabane could follow. The
story or to give it credence. theme of lobola is related;
Example Why Voice Is 5. Will vehemently urged his listeners to sup- it shows the oppression that
Distinctive port plans for the new park.
Mathabane’s mother wants her
“The streets were The author uses
Academic Vocabulary son to leave behind.
beginning to fill with vivid, creative lan-
their everyday guage and allitera-
traffic: old men and tion, such as
Mathabane’s mother believed passionately in Review: Voice
education, whereas his father did not.
women, wizened, “women, wizened” Students should explain why each
bent, and ragged, and “ragged… Whereas is an academic word. It is often found
in formal and legal documents. More casual
example of language is effective.
were beginning their rambling”…
ways of saying whereas include although,
rambling…”
“while on the contrary,” and “in view of the fact Progress Check
that.” Show the meaning of whereas by com-
pleting this sentence starter: The students at Can students identify
whereas the students at my school . theme?
Literature Online
For more on academic vocabulary, see pages
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash-
53 and 54. If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection activities, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2. Resources Book, p. 41.

MARK MATHABANE 319

Reading Strategy
PM 0318_0320_U2P1_877979.indd 319 3/24/08 2:28:09 PM 1. B is the correct answer. The
Vocabulary Practice Academic Vocabulary other options also play a part,
but this knowledge hits him
1. of go players met every week Answers will vary. Sample response:
“like a bolt of lightning.”
2. my parents, me, not falling behind in The students at Linton High have all
my studies new labs, whereas the students at my
3. information, several hours, before we school are working in labs that are fifty
make a decision years old.
4. distrust, or
5. argument, passionate, urged

319
After You Read Learning Objectives

Respond Through Writing In this assignment, you

will focus on the following

Assess Research Report

objectives:
Research: Investigating
apartheid.
Respond Grammar: Understanding
how to use hyphens.
Through Writing Investigate Apartheid Research the apartheid system in South Africa
during the 1900s. Using primary and secondary sources, prepare a re-
search report of 1,500 words or more on some aspect of the policy that
Students’ reports should: denied rights to the Bantu and other African groups. Incorporate informa-
tion and examples from Mathabane’s memoir into your report.
• define apartheid and investigate
and present a clear thesis about Understand the Task Grammar Tip
some aspect of it • Primary sources are firsthand accounts of an event, such as diaries
or eyewitness accounts written or recorded at the time an event took Hyphens
• draw on Mathabane’s account,
place. When you use two words as
as well as on other primary and • Secondary sources are sources written by people who did not expe- a single adjective before a
secondary sources rience or observe the event. noun, join the words with a
• be at least 1,500 words hyphen.
Prewrite Write four or five questions to guide your research. Use a
• present quoted evidence and variety of reliable sources to find the answers, and take notes. Develop half-awake, thumb-
explain the relationship of the a thesis that reveals your focus, such as the specific rights that were
sucking boy of about four
evidence to the thesis denied, the different ways that men and women felt the effects of apart- a lily-white handkerchief
• define any unfamiliar terms heid, or the effects of this political and social system on children. Then
black-owned businesses
outline the main ideas you will use to develop and support your thesis.
• include a visual
“As writes in ,...”
• correctly hyphenate compound Draft Use your introduction to define apartheid and to present your
adjectives, as necessary thesis. Use your body paragraphs to present evidence from your note-
cards, choosing only those details that strengthen your thesis. As you
weave in sources, use introductory phrases such as “As writes in ,
…” Add a chart, a graph, or another visual display both to communicate
information and to add interest to your report.

Revise Ask yourself:

✓ What information does my reader still need to understand my thesis?
✓ Where do I need to give more background information?
✓ Where should I add an introduction or an explanation to make the
meaning of a quotation clearer or more relevant to my thesis?
✓ Which terms in my paper might be unfamiliar to my readers? How can
I better explain them?

Revise for clarity by rewriting any potentially misleading information.

Edit and Proofread Proofread your paper, correcting any errors in

spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Use the Grammar Tip in the side
column to help you use hyphens correctly.

320 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Writing Practice
0318_0320_U2P1_877979.indd 320 3/24/08 2:28:32 PM

SPIRAL
REVIEW
Use a Visual Aid As students to show the areas where the apartheid
For grammar practice, see Unit 2 Teach-
begin drafting their reports, remind system occurred. After students have ing Resources Book, p. 45.
them to create a visual aid using listed several ideas, tell them to select the
the information from their research. aid that best helps convey the points they
Emphasize that visual aids are charts, want to emphasize.
graphs, maps, or other items that help
display information.
Students should consider the informa-
tion that they want to convey in their
reports and brainstorm various visual aids.
For example, students could use a map

320
 Before You Read
Living Well. Living Good.
Meet Maya Angelou
(born 1928)
M
aya Angelou had a difficult early life,
but she overcame her obstacles to
become a successful performer and
writer. She is considered one of the most influ-
ential African American women of her time.
Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St.
Louis, Missouri. She spent most of her child-
hood in Stamps, Arkansas, with her paternal
grandmother. As a young girl, she spent a lot
of time reading books. She developed a love
of literature, including the works of Langston
Hughes and William Shakespeare.
“In all my work, what I try to say is
that as human beings we are more
alike than we are unalike.”
—Maya Angelou
In 1940 Angelou and her brother were taken
to San Francisco, California. Five years later,
at the age of seventeen, Angelou graduated
from high school and gave birth to a son. To
support herself and her son, she held odd
jobs, working as a waitress, cook, and dancer.
During the 1950s, she performed profession-
ally using the stage name of Maya Angelou.
Her Literary Career Begins After touring
twenty-two countries performing in a produc-
tion of Porgy and Bess, Angelou left the United
States. For a few years she lived in Cairo,
Egypt, where she worked as an associate edi-
tor for the Arab Observer. In 1962 she moved to
Ghana. There she wrote for the African Review
0321_0322_U2P1_877979.indd 321
Literary Elements
• Memoir (SE pp. 322, 323, 326)
• Theme (SE p. 326, TE p. 324)
Reading Skills
• Draw Conclusions (SE pp. 322, 325,
327)
Before You Read
Focus
Bellringer Options
Selection Focus
Transparency 18
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 25
Or, on the board write: Money
Can’t Buy Happiness Ask:
Do you agree or disagree with
this statement? Have students
discuss their responses in class.
and worked at the University of Ghana’s
School of Music and Drama.
When Angelou returned to the United States,
James Baldwin, whom she had met through
the Harlem Writers Guild several years ear-
lier, encouraged her to write an autobiogra-
phy. At first she rejected the idea, but later she
reconsidered and decided to write I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings. This autobiography
details her life from her childhood in Stamps
to the birth of her son.
Continued Success After the success of her
first autobiography, Angelou published four
more. In addition to her autobiographies,
Angelou wrote several collections of poetry,
including Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water
‘fore I Diiie, which was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize in 1972. Angelou also wrote and
presented a poem called “On the Pulse of
Morning” for the 1993 inauguration of
President Bill Clinton.
Literature Online
Author Search For more about Maya Angelou, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
MAYA ANGE L OU 321
3/24/08 2:41:00 PM
Living Well. Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
Living Good. • Analyze Art (TE p. 325)
Writing Skills/Grammar
• Apply Tone (SE p. 327)
Vocabulary Skills • Exposition (TE p. 322)
• Analogies (SE pp. 322, 327)
• Academic Vocabulary (SE p. 327)
321
Before You Read
Focus
Summary
Maya Angelou shares a story told to
her by her Aunt Tee, who worked
as a maid for a rich family in Bel Air.
Her employers ate poorly, did little
entertaining, and seemed unhappy.
Aunt Tee threw parties regularly for
her friends, ate rich food, and had
a good time. During one of the
parties, her employers ask to join
her. Aunt Tee’s experience with the
family taught Angelou that money
does not buy happiness.
For summaries in languages other
than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, pp. 48–53.
Interactive Read and Write
Other options for teaching this
selection can be found in
• Interactive Read and Write for
English Learners, pp. 67–76
• Interactive Read and Write for
On-Level and Approaching-
Level Learners, pp. 67–76
Vocabulary
Analogies Say: Fill in the word
that completes the analogy.
1. meticulous: careless :: neat:
(messy, sloppy)
2. commodious: mansion ::
cramped: (cottage)
3. convivial: warm :: unfriendly:
(cold)
4. scenario: story :: sketch:
(drawing)
5. inhibit: shyness :: flaunt:
(boldness)
For additional context, see Glencoe
Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
322
Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
For pages 321–327
Connect to the Essay
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
If you had all the money you wanted, what would you still
objectives:
need to live a good life? Discuss this question with a partner.
Literary Study: Analyzing
Build Background memoir.
Reading: Drawing
This selection includes a reference to meals consisting of pigs’ conclusions about author’s
feet, greens, and fried chicken. These and similar foods are beliefs.
sometimes called “soul food.” This culinary tradition began
when Africans became enslaved people in the American
South. They combined African and European cooking methods
into a new style of cooking. Today there are soul food restau-
rants throughout the United States.
Vocabulary
Set Purposes for Reading meticulous (mi tikyə ləs) adj.
characterized by great or exces-
Big Idea The Power of Memory sive concern about details; p. 323
As you read, ask yourself, Why has Angelou’s memory of this Editors have to be meticulous when
anecdote stayed with her? they are proofreading.
Literary Element Memoir commodious (kə mōdē əs) adj.
having or containing ample room;
A memoir is a nonfiction narrative illustrating some event or spacious; p. 324 The house was
memory from the author’s life. As you read, ask yourself, Why commodious for a family of four.
did Angelou choose to tell this story in her essay?
convivial (kən vivē əl) adj. fond
Reading Strategy Draw Conclusions of merriment and parties with
About Author’s Beliefs good company; sociable; p. 325
Everyone agreed she was a conviv-
Authors often include clues to their own beliefs in ial person.
their writing. By looking for these clues, you can draw
conclusions about the author’s beliefs and gain a deeper scenario (si nārē ṓ) n. an out-
line or model of an expected or
appreciation for the work itself. As you read, ask yourself, What
does this essay say about Angelou’s beliefs? imagined series of events; p. 325
The worst-case scenario is that it
Tip: Look at Details When you are trying to draw conclusions, will rain.
look at the details the author has included in the essay. They inhibit (in hibit) v. to hold back
can provide you with the information you need to make your one’s natural impulses; to restrain;
conclusions. p. 325 A lack of encouragement
can inhibit a child’s talents.
Details Conclusion
Sofas and chairs Angelou respects
were tautly Aunt Tee’s neatness.
upholstered.
322 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Writing Practice
0321_0322_U2P1_877979.indd 322 3/24/08 2:54:25 PM
SPIRAL Understand Exposition In type of person Aunt Tee is so the story
REVIEW
Angelou’s essay, the first four seems real and believable.)
paragraphs provide background Have students choose a person to write
information. Say: This part of the mem- about. Then have them write two to three
oir is known as exposition. Understand- paragraphs of exposition, using descrip-
ing the exposition material is necessary tions of appearance, personality traits, and
for understanding the rest of the other details to provide background.
story. Ask: Why does Angelou tell you
so much about her aunt and her aunt’s
work history before she starts telling
the story? (Readers need to know what
 Teach
Big Idea 1
The Power of Memory
Living Ask: How might this memory
Well. have affected Angelou’s life?
How might it have affected
Living Aunt Tee’s life? (Angelou
Good. learned to enjoy life. Aunt Tee
could appreciate the things she
had.)

Maya Angelou
Interior at Ciboure, 1912. Henri Matisse. Canvas. Musee
Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France © ARS, NY.
unt Tee was a Los Angeles mem-
ber of our extended family.1 She
was seventy-nine when I met
her, sinewy,2 strong, and the color of old
lemons. She wore her coarse, straight hair,
which was slightly streaked with gray, in a
long braided rope across the top of her
head. With her high cheekbones, old gold
skin, and almond eyes, she looked more
like an Indian chief than an old black
woman. (Aunt Tee described herself and
any favored member of her race as
Negroes. Black was saved for those who
had incurred her disapproval.)
1 She had retired and lived alone in a
dead, neat ground-floor apartment. Wax
flowers and china figurines sat on elabo-
1. Parents and their children make up what is called the
nuclear family. One’s extended family includes other
relatives who are related by blood or marriage.
2. Here, sinewy (sinŪ ē) could mean “physically powerful”
or “vigorously healthy.”
Literary Element 2
Memoir Answer: In a memoir,
the author usually looks back on a
specific incident. An autobiography
covers a longer period. Ask: Why
rately embroidered and heavily starched might an author write a mem-
doilies. Sofas and chairs were tautly oir instead of or in addition to
upholstered. The only thing at ease in an autobiography? (The author
Aunt Tee’s apartment was Aunt Tee.
has a particular lesson or story to
I used to visit her often and perch on her
uncomfortable sofa just to hear her stories. share.)
She was proud that after working thirty AP P ROAC H I N G Explain to
years as a maid, she spent the next thirty approaching-level students that
years as a live-in housekeeper, carrying the authors use the framework of a
keys to rich houses and keeping meticulous
memoir when they relate their
accounts.
“Living in lets the white folks know own interesting, meaningful, or
Negroes are as neat and clean as they are, humorous experiences to family or
sometimes more so. And it gives the Negro friends.
maid a chance to see white folks ain’t no
Memoir How does this passage suggest that the essay is
an example of a memoir and not an autobiography? 2
Vocabulary
For additional literary element
meticulous (mi tikyə ləs) adj. characterized by great practice, see Unit 2 Teaching
or excessive concern about details
Resources Book, p. 54.

MAYA ANGE L OU 323

For an audio recording of this
English Learners selection, use Listening Library
DI F F ER E NTIATED
0323_0325_U2P1_877979.indd 323 I N STR UCTION 3/12/08 11:17:10 AM Audio CD-ROM.

Intermediate English learners may find
it difficult to visualize Aunt Tee’s apartment
as Angelou describes it in the second
paragraph. For example, students may not
know what a doily is, so point out that a
doily is a small lace covering that is used
to protect furniture. Tell students that wax
flowers are artificial. Use the painting as
an example of a formal room like the one
Angelou describes. Explain that the painting
is similar to Aunt Tee’s apartment but that
it is not an exact representation because it
does not depict the sofa that the narrator Readability Scores
sits on or the china figurines mentioned Dale-Chall: 7.7
in the memoir. Encourage students to DRP: 59
draw pictures showing their images of the Lexile: 1110
apartment.

323
Teach
Literary Element 1 California, lived with them in a fourteen-
Theme Say: This long para-
graph provides clues to the
excerpt’s theme. Ask: What
theme does Angelou introduce
with the summary of Aunt
Tee’s life with the Bel Air
couple? (Angelou introduces the
idea that even those who have
many luxuries may take little joy
in life.)
A P P ROAC H I N G For students having
difficulty identifying the theme,
point out that Angelou describes
the couple’s luxuries (a mansion,
servants, four-course dinners) but
notes that the couple grows more
distant from each other.
Big Idea 2 Aunt Tee’s commodious live-in quarters.
The Power of Memory
Answer: Aunt Tee is making
a point about the value of joy
compared to the value of
possession.
Writer’s Technique S
Compare and Contrast Angelou
sets up a comparison between the
life of Aunt Tee’s employers and that
of Aunt Tee’s friends on Saturdays.
Ask: What can you learn from this
comparison? Answer: Aunt Tee’s
employers have no excitement in
their lives. Their evenings are dull.
Aunt Tee and her friends have a
good time even though their lives
are hard.
324
smarter than Negroes. Just luckier.
Sometimes.”
Aunt Tee told me that once she was
housekeeper for a couple in Bel Air,3
room ranch house. There was a day maid
who cleaned, and a gardener who daily
tended the lush gardens. Aunt Tee oversaw
the workers. When she had begun the job,
she had cooked and served a light break-
fast, a good lunch, and a full three- or four-
1 course dinner to her employers and their
guests. Aunt Tee said she watched them
grow older and leaner. After a few years
they stopped entertaining and ate dinner
hardly seeing each other at the table.
Finally, they sat in a dry silence as they ate
evening meals of soft scrambled eggs,
melba toast, and weak tea. Aunt Tee said
she saw them growing old but didn’t see
herself aging at all.
She became the social maven.4 She
started “keeping company” (her phrase)
with a chauffeur down the street. Her best
friend and her friend’s husband worked in
service5 only a few blocks away.
On Saturdays Aunt Tee would cook a
pot of pigs’ feet, a pot of greens, fry
chicken, make potato salad, and bake a
banana pudding. Then, that evening, her
friends—the chauffeur, the other house-
keeper, and her husband—would come to
There the four would eat and drink, play
records and dance. As the evening wore
3. Bel Air is one of the wealthiest, most fashionable
communities in Los Angeles.
4. A maven is one who has special knowledge or experience
and is an expert in a given field.
5. Aunt Tee’s two friends in service are servants in another
household.
Vocabulary
commodious (kə mōdē əs) adj. having or containing
ample room; spacious
324 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Reading Practice
0323_0325_U2P1_877979.indd 324
Interpret Morals Ask students to
identify at which part in the memoir that
Angelou switches from telling Aunt Tee’s
story to sharing what she has learned from
the story. (The paragraph on the previous
page that begins ”That story stayed with
me . . .“
Say: Angelou ends her memoir by
explaining the lesson of her aunt’s story
to readers. Ask: Why does Angelou add
on, they would settle down to a serious
game of bid whist.6
Naturally, during this revelry jokes were
told, fingers snapped, feet were patted, and
there was a great deal of laughter.
Aunt Tee said that what occurred dur-
ing every Saturday party startled her and
her friends the first time it happened.They
had been playing cards, and Aunt Tee,
who had just won the bid, held a handful
of trumps. She felt a cool breeze on her
back and sat upright and turned around.
Her employers had cracked her door open
and beckoned to her. Aunt Tee, a little
peeved, laid down her cards and went to
the door. The couple backed away and
asked her to come into the hall, and there
they both spoke and won Aunt Tee’s sym-
pathy forever.
“Theresa, we don’t mean to disturb
you . . .” the man whispered, “but you all
seem to be having such a good time . . .”
The woman added, “We hear you and
your friends laughing every Saturday
night, and we’d just like to watch you.
We don’t want to bother you. We’ll be
quiet and just watch.”
The man said, “If you’ll just leave your
door ajar, your friends don’t need to
know. We’ll never make a sound.” Aunt
Tee said she saw no harm in agreeing,
and she talked it over with her company.
They said it was OK with them, but it
was sad that the employers owned the
gracious house, the swimming pool, three
cars, and numberless palm trees, but had
no joy. Aunt Tee told me that laughter
and relaxation had left the house; she
agreed it was sad.
6. Bid whist is a card game, somewhat like bridge, for two
players or two teams of two players.
The Power of Memory Why would Aunt Tee feel that it
was especially meaningful to share this memory with 2
Angelou?
3/12/08 11:17:24
her interpretation of the moral? (Ange-
lou wants readers to take away the same
message she did when she first heard the
story.)

When I Get that Feeling, 2000. Colin Bootman.
Oil on board. Private collection.
That story has stayed with me for nearly
thirty years, and when a tale remains fresh
in my mind, it almost always contains a
lesson which will benefit me.
My dears, I draw the picture of the
wealthy couple standing in a darkened
hallway, peering into a lighted room where
black servants were lifting their voices in
merriment and comradery, and I realize
that living well is an art which can be
developed. Of course, you will need the
basic talents to build upon: They are a love
of life and ability to take great pleasure
from small offerings, an assurance that the
world owes you nothing and that every
gift is exactly that, a gift. That people who
may differ from you in political stance, sex-
ual persuasion, and racial inheritance can
The Power of Memory What does Angelou seem to
3 imply that one should do with personal memories?
Advanced Learners
DI F F ER ENTIATED
AM0323_0325_U2P1_877979.indd 325 I N STR U C T IO N
Write a Narrative While the essay is an
example of a memoir, Aunt Tee’s story is
an example of a narrative. Say: A narra-
tive is a story, usually focusing on one
particular day or moment in a person’s
life. Most narratives include a moral or a
lesson.
be founts of fun, and if you are lucky, they
can become even convivial comrades. Teach
Living life as art requires a readiness to
forgive. I do not mean that you should suf-
fer fools gladly, but rather remember your Big Idea 3
own shortcomings, and when you encoun-
ter another with flaws, don’t be eager to The Power of Memory
righteously seal yourself away from the Answer: Remembering the past
offender forever. Take a few breaths and can be a way to learn life lessons
imagine yourself having just committed or understand how to improve
the action which has set you at odds. one’s present life.
Because of the routines we follow, we
often forget that life is an ongoing adven-
Ask students if they agree with
ture. We leave our homes for work, acting Angelou’s argument that personal
and even believing that we will reach our memories can become life lessons.
destinations with no unusual event star- ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S Explain to
tling us out of our set expectations. The English learners that the word
truth is we know nothing, not where our
imply means “to make some-
cars will fail or when our buses will stall,
whether our places of employment will be thing understood without saying it
there when we arrive, or whether, in fact, directly.” Have the students apply
we ourselves will arrive whole and alive at that meaning when answering the
the end of our journeys. Life is pure adven- Big Idea question.
ture, and the sooner we realize that, the
quicker we will be able to treat life as art:
to bring all our energies to each encounter,
to remain flexible enough to notice and
admit when what we expected to happen Reading Strategy 4
did not happen. We need to remember that
we are created creative and can invent new Draw Conclusions
scenarios as frequently as they are needed. About Author’s Beliefs
Life seems to love the liver of it. Money Answer: Students may say that
and power can liberate only if they are Angelou believes someone who
used to do so. They can imprison and fully embraces life will have a
inhibit more finally than barred windows more rewarding life than some-
and iron chains. m
one who simply waits for things to
Draw Conclusions About Author’s Beliefs What does happen.
this statement reveal about Angelou’s beliefs about life? 4
Vocabulary
convivial (kən vivē əl) adj. fond of merriment and
parties with good company; sociable S
scenario (si nārē ṓ) n. an outline or model of an At the age of seven, Colin Boot-
expected or imagined series of events
inhibit (in hibit) v. to hold back one’s natural man moved from his native Trini-
impulses; to restrain dad to New York City. Ask: How
might this painting reflect a
MAYA ANGE L OU 325 change in Bootman’s struggle
to fit into American culture?
3/19/08 1:49:15 PM
(Though the African American
woman may not be part of the
Have students write a short narrative in dominant culture, she seems to
which they relate an experience from be celebrating and expressing her
which they learned an important lesson. individuality.)
To check students’ understanding
of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
ing Resources Book, pp. 59–60.
325
After You Read
Assess
1. (a) Some reasons are boredom,
curiosity, or envy. (b) Aunt Tee
felt sorry for their joyless lives.
2. (a) Fun-loving, organized,
strong-willed, and compassion-
ate (b) Neat because most of
her life was spent cleaning;
tough because she had to face
life as a servant
3. (a) Her parties consisted of
dancing, jokes, and games.
(b) The employers are unhappy
and bored; Aunt Tee and her
guests love life, enjoy good
meals and each other‘s
company.
4. (a) Because one never knows
whether a job will be there
tomorrow, how long life will last,
or whether a destination will be
reached (b) Answers will vary.
5. Her story reinforces Angelou’s
idea of living well and makes
her lesson more memorable.
6. Money and power can improve
life but can also inhibit success
and happiness.
7. Students should support their
opinions with facts and reasons.
8. (a) Memories helped Aunt Tee
to realize that she was happy
without wealth or power.
(b) For Angelou, the memory
may have helped her focus
on life’s adventures and its
possibilities.
9. Angelou shows that the rich
white people and the less
After You Read
Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret 6. At the end of the essay, Angelou comments
about the effects of money and power. How
1. (a)Why do Aunt Tee’s employers want to watch
does Angelou value them?
her parties? (b)What does Aunt Tee’s coopera-
tion with her employers reveal about her atti- 7. Assess Angelou’s suggestions about “living well.”
tude toward them? Is it possible to live the way she suggests?
Explain.
2. (a)How would you describe Aunt Tee’s
personality? (b)How do these traits reflect her Connect
life?
8. Big Idea The Power of Memory Memory
3. (a)Describe the parties of Aunt Tee and the rou-
can influence our lives in many ways. (a)Did
tines of the employers. (b)How happy are Aunt
memories influence Aunt Tee? Explain.
Tee and her employers?
(b)How might the memory of Aunt Tee have
4. (a)Why does Angelou say that “life is pure influenced Angelou’s life? Explain.
adventure”? (b)Do you agree with this defini-
9. Connect to the Author Angelou says that
tion of life? Explain.
people are “more alike than we are unalike.”
How does she illustrate this idea in her
Analyze and Evaluate
memoir?
5. Why do you think Angelou chose to include the
story of her Aunt Tee in this essay, instead of
only explaining her idea of “living well”?
Literary Element Memoir theme can also be implied, meaning that the
A memoir is a personal account of events from
reader must use context clues to determine the
central idea.
the author’s past. It is usually written from the first-
person point of view, using the pronoun I. While an Partner Activity Discuss the theme of “Living
autobiography usually tells the story of a person’s Well. Living Good.” with a classmate. First, write
entire life, a memoir typically focuses on a single down the theme. Next, decide if the theme is
incident or a particular period in a person’s life. stated directly or implied in the content. Support
1. Why is “Living Well. Living Good.” classified as a
your decision by listing specific examples from the
selection. Use a web like the one below to orga-
memoir?
nize your ideas.
2. What role does Angelou play in the essay?
Example:
3. Could Angelou have converted this essay into
an autobiography? Explain.
Theme:
Review: Theme Example: Example:
As you learned on page 124, theme is the central
idea of a piece of literature. The theme can be
stated directly, meaning that the author points out
the main idea of the work for the reader. The
326 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
0326_0327_U2P1_877979.indd 326 3/19/08 1:50:17 P

affluent black people want to Literary Element Review: Theme

enjoy life.
1. It includes personal observations and
responses to people and events; it is
For additional assessment, see
Assessment Resources, pp. 81–82. not the story of her life but the story
of one incident.
2. Angelou is an observer.
3. It could be included as part of an
autobiography.
The partner activity responses should be
as follows:
• The theme is enjoying life.
• Support includes the comparison of
Aunt Tee’s parties and her employers’
lives, Angelou’s own conclusions, and
the examples near the end of the
selection.

326

Reading Strategy Draw Conclusions
About Author’s Beliefs
SAT Skills Practice
1. The description of the evening meal that her
employers eat (page 324) serves to
(A) emphasize their lack of interest in wealth
(B) point out their dull, colorless lives
(C) suggest that they are in failing health
(D) underscore the idea that the poor enjoy
life more than the rich
(E) reveal that Aunt Tee had lost interest in
her job
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Analogies Choose the word
pair that best completes each analogy.
1. meticulous : perfectionist ::
a. tiny : housekeeper b. irritable : grouch
2. commodious : space ::
a. large : gigantic b. luxurious : comfort
3. convivial : socialite ::
a. victorious : winner b. careless : child
4. outline : scenario ::
a. describe : description b. deceive : truth
5. inhibit : restraint ::
a. distinct : conception
b. imagine : visualization
Academic Vocabulary
Details in this memoir combine to promote the
idea that life should be lived well every day.
Promote is a multiple-meaning word. A teacher
might promote a student to the next grade,
while an ad campaign might promote a prod-
uct. Using context clues, try to figure out the
meaning of promote in the sentence above
about the memoir.
For more on academic vocabulary, see pages
52 and 53.
PM 0326_0327_U2P1_877979.indd 327
Write with Style
Students’ character sketches should:
• focus on someone who reflects their
own beliefs about how to live life
• demonstrate a tone that is consistent
with the students’ feelings about the
person and with their beliefs
After You Read
Write with Style
Apply Tone Assess
Assignment Write a character sketch focused on
someone who reflects your own beliefs about how
Reading Strategy
to live life. Use a tone that is consistent with your 1. Analysis: D is correct. Angelou’s
feelings about the person and with your beliefs.
aunt doesn’t need money to
Get Ideas Tone is an author’s attitude toward his entertain, focuses on living in
or her subject matter. A tone can be inspirational or
critical, happy or sad, humorous or serious. Look
the moment rather than work-
back at the chart you made about Angelou’s beliefs ing for the future, and does not
(p. 322). List details you could use to show your show examples of helping oth-
own beliefs and attitude toward your subject. ers in need.
Steven Gomez
Tone: • president of conservation committee; Progress Check
Respect/ library volunteer; scout leader
Admiration
• says more with the light in his eyes than Can students draw
some people say with a hundred words
conclusions about the
author’s beliefs?
Give It Structure Do not state your beliefs or atti-
tude directly. Instead, let the details of your charac- If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
ter sketch convey your attitude. Then decide on a Resources Book, p. 55.
logical order for your details.
Look at Language Word choice contributes to
your style. As you write, pay close attention to your
choice of words and their connotation. “Light in Vocabulary Practice
one’s eye” is not the same as a twinkle; volunteer
1. b 2. b 3. a 4. a 5. b
does not carry the same connotations as helper or
servant.
Proofread Proofread your paper, correcting any Academic Vocabulary
errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. As a
guide, refer to the Traits of Strong Writing on pages Answers will vary. Possible
R28–R29. response: present and underscore
or emphasize
Literature Online
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash- To create custom assessments
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection activities, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2. using software, use ExamView
Assessment Suite.
MAYA ANGE L OU 327
3/24/08 3:09:20 PM
• contain details rather than direct state-
ments to convey the students’ attitude
• show an awareness of word choice
and the connotative values of words
For grammar practice, see Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, p. 58.
327
Before You Read
Focus
Bellringer Options
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 26
Or, on the board, write: I didn’t
think there were any artists in
America. Ask: Why might a
person who has never visited
the United States think this is
true? Have students share their
opinions and discuss the various
misconceptions that exist about
life in the United States. If stu-
dents have personal immigration
stories, ask them to share those
as well.
328 U N IT 2
0328_0329_U2P1_877979.indd 328
Literary Elements
• Author’s Purpose (SE pp. 329,
331–332, 334, 336, 338)
• Biography (SE p. 338)
Reading Skills
• Make Generalizations About Events
(SE pp. 329, 331, 333, 337, 339)
• Preview (TE p. 330)
• Make Inferences (TE p. 334)
328
Before You Read
First Impressions from De Kooning:
An American Master
Meet Mark Stevens and
Annalyn Swan
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan live in New York.
ark Stevens, an art critic for New York
M magazine, has written about a wide
variety of artists. His subjects range
from masters like Vincent van Gogh and
Willem de Kooning to folk and outsider art-
ists. Stevens’s wife and coauthor, Annalyn
Swan, is an award-winning music critic who
has written for magazines including Time,
The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, and
New York. She has also been a senior arts edi-
tor at Newsweek.
A Long Time Coming Swan and Stevens dedi-
cated ten years of their lives to researching and
writing their biography of Willem de Kooning.
While one conducted research and interviews
exploring the first half of de Kooning’s life, the
other did research about the second half. Then
the couple worked together to shape their
material into a coherent whole.
“We were lucky. We had a subject
that never bored us. . . . we really
liked de Kooning.”
—Annalyn Swan
Writing About a Life The art of biography
writing has developed as times and literary
traditions have changed. Many authors today
see biography as the creation of art from fact;
NONFI C TI ON
First Impressions from
De Kooning:
An American Master
Vocabulary Skills
• Denotation and Connotation
(SE p. 339, TE p. 329)
to be successful, a biographer can fail neither
art nor truth.
Over the many years of their research and
writing, Stevens and Swan found that their
respect and admiration for de Kooning deep-
ened. They were keen to do justice to this
original and complex man. Swan said, “That
de Kooning was an immigrant colored every-
thing in his life. He was forever caught
between Europe and the New World, suffused
with private longings, regret, loneliness and
joy. . . . For a biographer, exploring such a
complicated subject is fascinating.”
Stevens and Swan’s years of labor were vali-
dated when they were awarded a Pulitzer
Prize in 2005. One reviewer had this to say
about their work: “When we get the chance to
look at the whole life and work of Willem de
Kooning, the upheaval in American art in the
middle of the 20th century comes into clearer
focus. That alone makes De Kooning: An
American Master . . . an important book.”
Literature Online
Author Search For more about Mark Stevens and
Annalyn Swan, go to glencoe.com and enter QuickPass
code GL59794u2.
3/24/08 3:20:11 PM
Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
• Analyze Art (SE pp. 333, 335–336,
TE p. 330)
• Interview (TE p. 336)
Writing Skills/Grammar
• Research Report (SE p. 339)
• Make Comparisons (TE p. 332)
 Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
Before You Read
For pages 328–339
Connect to the Biography
Focus
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
How would you feel and how would you handle the chal-
objectives:
lenges of everyday life if no one around you spoke your lan-
Literary Study: Analyzing
guage? Write a journal entry that explores this question.
author’s purpose. Summary
Build Background Reading: Making
generalizations about events. In this excerpt from De Kooning:
Willem de Kooning was born in the Netherlands in 1904. He An American Master, the authors
eventually became a leader in an artistic movement called
Abstract Expressionism. Abstract artists make no attempt to re-
record Willem de Kooning’s first
create the world as it really exists. impressions of the United States
upon arrival as a Dutch immigrant.
Set Purposes for Reading Vocabulary
Beginning with de Kooning’s first
Big Idea The Power of Memory obligatory (ə bligə tôŕē) adj. sighting of the American coastline
required or necessary; p. 331 The
As you read, ask yourself, How do Stevens and Swan empha-
student went to class regularly and his first American home in
size de Kooning’s recollections of his arrival in the United States? Hoboken, New Jersey, the reader
because the teacher said attendance
Literary Element Author’s Purpose was obligatory. learns of de Kooning’s experiences
The author’s purpose is the author’s reason for writing a literary artisan (ärtə zən) n. a skilled and choices that eventually lead
work. Understanding the author’s purpose enables you to grasp craftsman; p. 332 Fine details reveal him to Greenwich Village and the
why the author presents certain events and characters as he or the cabinetmaker as an artisan. world of experimental art.
she does. As you read, ask yourself, What do Stevens and belie (bi lı̄) v. to misrepresent;
Swan hope to accomplish by sharing de Kooning’s first impres- to give a false impression of; For summaries in languages other
sions of America with the reader? p. 334 The warm loving light in the than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
small child’s eyes belied her refusal to Resources Book, pp. 61–66.
Reading Strategy Make Generalizations hug her mother.
About Events
torrential (tô renchəl) adj. flow-
When you base conclusions about a text on specific examples, ing rapidly and abundantly;
ideas, or anecdotes, you are making generalizations, observa- p. 334 Walking in the torrential
Vocabulary
tions that may relate universal themes and ideas to a text. As rain left us completely soaked.
you read, ask yourself, Why are these events occurring?
Denotation and
Tip: Connotation and Denotation Connotation Say: Words
Tip: Take Notes As you read, record specific examples in the Remember that words often carry with the same meaning may
text and then generalize. positive or negative suggestions. have different connotations.
Reacting to these connotations is
Write on the board: It is necessary
part of active reading.
Passage Generalization for animals to eat. Ask: Could
De Kooning first This made him feel you substitute obligatory for
lived with other comfortable, since necessary in this sentence?
Dutch immigrants his surroundings were Explain. (No; obligatory connotes
in the United new.
a social or institutional
States.
requirement.)

MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 329

English Learners For additional vocabulary practice,

DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION
0328_0329_U2P1_877979.indd 329
Intermediate Say: Willem de Kooning
was part of a group of painters called
the Abstract Expressionists. They were
called “Expressionists” because they
used their paintings to express deep
emotions. Write Expressionist on the
board and circle the word express within it.
Then list the following on the board:
Cubist, Futurist, Surrealist, Modernist.
3/24/08 3:20:27 PM
see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
Book, pp. 69–70.
Ask: What word forms the root of the
name of each of these artistic move- For additional context, see Glencoe
ments? (cube, future, real or surreal, Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
modern) What features might you
expect from each movement, given
these names? (Cubism: geometric;
Futurism: innovative; Surrealism:
imaginative; Modernism: new)

329
Teach
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Say: The authors intertwine
anecdotes, description, and
quotations to piece together a
narrative of de Kooning’s life.
How does their use of de Koon-
ing’s recollections help the reader
understand the man? (They
offer the reader a glimpse into
the man’s hopes, dreams, and
desires.)
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Answer: He expected to see
things that were exciting and new.
A P P ROAC H I N G Ask: What are
some things that de Kooning
expected to see in America?
(Skyscrapers, bright lights, the
Statue of Liberty)
S the sailors, de Kooning looked out over the
Francis Hopkinson Smith
(1838–1915) was an American
watercolorist who viewed art as a
hobby. As an engineer, he helped
construct the foundations for the
Statue of Liberty, which he also
painted.
For an audio recording of this
selection, use Listening Library
Audio CD-ROM.
Readability Scores
Dale-Chall: 6.4
DRP: 66
Lexile: 1160
330
1
2 The Statue of Liberty. Francis Hopkinson Smith (1851–1915).
from De Kooning: An American Master
Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
I
1 didn’t think there were any artists in sive as the ship steamed into the Virginia
America. port of Newport News on July 30. The voy-
age itself had been stressful. He found the
“Look Bill, America!” With that shout from English ship filthy and, for much of the trip,
was forced to hide in the hot, dark engine
water—and looked again. He saw “a sort of room where the sailors—while never offi-
Holland, lowlands, just like back home,” as cially acknowledging his presence—gave
he remembered it. No skyscrapers with glit- him lots of work. . . .
tering lights. No beckoning Statue of Liberty. What sort of country, de Kooning won-
Not only was he disappointed at his first dered, was this America? He felt particularly
glimpse of America, he was also apprehen- uneasy because he knew no English, which
forced him to rely completely upon friends.
Cohan, as cheerful and optimistic as ever,
The Power of Memory Why was de Kooning disappointed
2 when he first saw America? proved a resourceful companion who helped
330 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Reading Practice
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SPIRAL
REVIEW
Preview This excerpt occurs sev- subject is arriving in the United States
eral chapters into De Kooning: from Holland, and is disappointed by
An American Master. Have what he sees.) Have students use this
students look at the title, the quotation information to predict what will happen to
that acts as a subtitle, and the first few de Kooning.
sentences to gain perspective about what
is happening. Ask: What do these clues
tell the reader about the selection?
(The subject will experience something
for the first time. Art and the United
States are both somehow involved. The
 steer de Kooning to New York without pass-
ing through the usual entry point for immi-
grants on Ellis Island—the obligatory first
step for legal entrance into the United States
by way of Manhattan. The passage of the
Immigration Act of 1924 had sharply cur-
tailed the flow of immigrants into America,
and, while the new quotas were less restric-
tive for northern Europeans than for others,
illegal immigrants like Cohan and de
Kooning faced certain deportation from Ellis
Island. Calling upon his network of Dutch
friends, Cohan arranged to board a coast
vessel carrying goods from Newport News
to Boston.
Throughout the next week, as they
steamed up the eastern seaboard, de
Kooning and Cohan stoked the engines and
worked as firemen. Disembarking in Boston,
they proceeded by train to Rhode Island,
where, with a group of Dutch sailors, they
boarded another coast vessel bound for the
old South Street port at the tip of Manhattan.
Although South Street had been the center
of the city’s harbor life from the colonial era
through the nineteenth century, the shipping
business had mostly moved by the 1920s to
docks along the Hudson River on the West
Side of Manhattan. South Street was a quiet
back door into the city for those who wanted
to avoid scrutiny.
“We had enough money to buy a ticket
on a passenger boat,” de Kooning remem-
bered of the trip from Rhode Island, “with
music and dancing, and early one morning I
just walked off the ship and I couldn’t
believe it—I was free on the streets of New
York.” As at Newport News, he was not
Make Generalizations About Events Why do de
3 Kooning and his friend avoid the more traditional points of
entry into the United States?
Vocabulary
obligatory (ə bligə tô r´ē) adj. required or necessary
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
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SMALL GROUP
Established Write the follow-
ing on the board: Boston, Hobo-
ken, Holland, Manhattan, Newport News,
Rhode Island. Say: The first two pages
of the selection show the complicated
trip that de Kooning took from Europe
to America. Have students put the places
listed on the board in the order in which
de Kooning passed through them, accord-
ing to the passage. For every place except
overwhelmed by his first impressions. De
Kooning, who always relished the Teach
debunking1 observation, said about his first
view of New York: “This I remember: no
skyscrapers. They had disappeared in the Reading Strategy 3
fog.” Their few possessions in hand, the
group of Dutchmen headed purposefully Make Generalizations
uptown to Barclay Street, where they About Events Answer: They
boarded one of the ferries connecting were entering illegally and wanted
Manhattan to Hoboken, New Jersey, the to avoid discovery.
town across the river where they planned to
stay. This is probably when de Kooning saw
the counterman recklessly pouring coffee For additional practice using the
into the row of cups and was suddenly reading skill or strategy, see Unit 2
seized by the difference between Holland Teaching Resources Book, p. 68.
and America—the first slow and deliberate,
the other driven, haphazard, profligate.2
Like most immigrants, de Kooning spent
his early months in America swaddled Literary Element 4
among his own countrymen. Hoboken was
the logical place for a Dutch stowaway to Author’s Purpose Answer:
live during the first unsettling days, as In Holland, life is slower. The
Cohan, the impresario of their emigration, United States is much faster-
recognized. Once a sleepy river town and paced. De Kooning is used to
leafy retreat for New Yorkers eager to escape
paying close atention to details
the summer heat, Hoboken had become by
the 1920s an important shipping town with and to quality of life.
a population of about seventy thousand.
Four ferries connected it with its huge neigh-
bor. The ships of nine big oceangoing lines
docked at its piers, including the Cultural History S
Netherlands-American Steam Navigation
Company, which attracted a number of Ellis Island Ellis Island, in Upper
Dutch settlers. By the time de Kooning New York Bay, is most famous for
arrived, the traditionally German flavor of its role as a major point of entry for
Hoboken had almost disappeared, owing in immigrants to the United States.
part to a huge wave of Italian immigrants Over 17 million immigrants
around the turn of the century. There
entered through Ellis Island
remained a northern European overlay to
between 1892 and 1924.
1. Debunking means “exposing a myth.”
2. Profligate means “reckless or extravagant.”
Author’s Purpose What does this observation reveal
about the place de Kooning has come from? What does it
help you understand about de Kooning?
4
MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 331
3/19/08 1:52:55 PM
Holland, have students indicate the means
of transportation that de Kooning used to
get there. Then ask students to work in
small groups, using atlases or the Internet
to prepare a map illustrating de Kooning’s
journey.
331
Teach
Literary Element 1 community, and the Holland Seaman’s
Author’s Purpose Answer:
They are illustrating the time and
the setting, and explaining why so
many Dutch immigrants like de
Kooning settled there.
Big Idea 2 liked it quite well.”
The Power of Memory
Answer: By wearing fine cloth-
ing, de Kooning demonstrated his
success and newfound American
identity. Clothing became a kind
of currency to de Kooning, who
calculated his earnings in clothes
he could purchase.
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS Say: Find
the details that describe
de Kooning’s new clothes.
(three-piece suit is elegant; shirt
collar starchily correct; fedora,
raked jauntily)
1 Hoboken, New Jersey, at length and in such detail?
Writing Practice
0330_0337_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Comparisons Have students
research newspapers, maga-
zines, and the Internet to find
information about the experiences of
immigrants to the United States today. If
possible, arrange to have a guest speaker
on the topic of immigration. Then have
students write a short essay comparing and
contrasting the experiences of de Kooning
with those of present-day immigrants.
332
the city, however, along with a liberal sprin-
kling of Dutch inhabitants. The first Dutch
Reformed Church had been founded in 1850
and maintained a high profile in the local
Home provided a welcoming refuge for
Dutch, German, and Scandinavian sailors
and immigrants. “My sailor friends knew
the Dutch settlement there, and they brought
me to the Dutch Seaman’s Home, a sort of
boarding house,” de Kooning said. “Thanks
to them the landlady gave me three weeks’
credit. It was a nice, very clean little house. I
Located at 332 River Street, the Holland
Seaman’s Home was across the road from
the docks lining the river and near the
Lutheran Seaman’s Mission. Just down
River Street were the Holland bakery, the
Holland Hotel, and a restaurant called
Holland. Despite his desire to leave the Old
World, de Kooning—who instantly dropped
his Dutch name, Willem, in favor of the all-
American “Bill”— found the traces of home
comforting. Plenty of work was available.
More than thirty painters and decorators
worked in Hoboken in 1926, a number of
them either German or Dutch immigrants.
Their establishments bore such names as
Braue and Schermerhorn, Otto Burckhardt
and Son, and Fred Schlegel. “Three days
later I was a housepainter,” de Kooning
said, “and got nine dollars a day, a nice sal-
ary for that time.”
For someone who with a few notable
exceptions paid little attention to how he
dressed, de Kooning showed a particular
preoccupation with clothes during his
early days in America: they represented
both a badge of success and a symbol of a
new identity. After only one week of work,
de Kooning proudly remembered, “I could
buy a new suit, black for Sundays, low-belt
Author’s Purpose Why do the authors describe
332 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
332
trousers, nice workmen’s clothes, for I
didn’t want to be different. . . . I do like a
fine suit and a nice tie.” If in one week he
could afford a suit, “In three weeks I could
pay off my rent and had new underwear
and socks.” Like many immigrants, de
Kooning also wanted to demonstrate his
success to his family and maintain the leg-
end of a land of riches. A photograph taken
in 1926, and no doubt sent home to
Holland, shows de Kooning and a Dutch
friend on the ferry between New York and
Hoboken. De Kooning is lolling back
against the railing, clearly at ease with the
camera, the world, and his relative pros-
perity. In contrast to his Dutch companion,
who is dressed in a poorly fitting jacket
and workingman’s cap, de Kooning is
handsomely turned out. His three-piece suit
is elegant, his shirt collar starchily correct.
On his head is a fedora, raked jauntily over
his forehead and all but hiding his eyes.
De Kooning could get by without much
English, though it was not always easy. In
the beginning, he knew how to order only
one thing in restaurants—a hamburger.
(When he finally tried to order something
else at the local restaurant, the waiter said,
“Hamburger, right?” de Kooning meekly
nodded.) On the job, he found he had much
to learn about the way his new country
operated, which often differed from the
careful, artisanal manners of Holland. “I
was impressed by the workers’ efficiency
and their tools,” he said. “We worked with-
out stopping for eight hours and used much
larger and better brushes than those we had
in Holland. I learned a great deal on how to
The Power of Memory In what ways did clothing
become meaningful to de Kooning as he began his life in 2
America?
Vocabulary
artisan (ärtə zən) n. a skilled craftsman
3/12/08 11:30:37
 mix pigment with water and oil.” He
was struck by the American willing-
ness simply to slap new paint over
old; in Holland, housepainters would
strip a window down to the wood
before repainting. He also tried his
hand at sign painting, and came
away with a high regard for the vet-
erans with whom he worked. “Sign
painting was difficult for me because
they used other letters here,” he said.
“How those old guys smoking their
pipes did it, I don’t know.”
De Kooning soon found helpful
and congenial Dutch friends. Leo
Cohan, who worked as a cook in a
restaurant in Hoboken, sometimes
arranged for de Kooning to get free
meals; between lodgings, de Kooning
occasionally stayed in Cohan’s rented
room. A man named Wimpy
Deruyter—a ship’s mechanic who
befriended de Kooning on the voyage
to America—visited whenever he was
back in town. De Kooning’s keenest
friendship, however, was with a Willem de Kooning, 1953. Tony Vaccaro.
Dutch singer named Bart van der
Schelling. Well known for never keep-
ing a job or having any money, Bart was
big, charming, and exceedingly attractive.
(He would later fight in the Spanish Civil
War and eventually became a naïve, or 3
“primitive,” painter.) Like Leo Cohan, he
remained close to de Kooning for years: in
the early thirties Bill and Bart spent so much
time together they seemed like brothers.
On Sundays, de Kooning would go
sightseeing with friends. Little remained of
3. Naïve painters usually have no formal artistic training and
are known for painting directly on a canvas without
preliminary drawings.
Make Generalizations About Events What insights
3 into Holland and America did de Kooning gain from work-
ing as a house painter in Hoboken?
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0330_0337_U2P1_877979.indd 333 I N STR UCTION
SMALL GROUP
Advanced English learners may
experience difficulty processing
the many facts that are presented in
tandem with de Kooning’s first experiences
in America. Have students select passages
that are difficult to read and paraphrase
them. Tell students that they should pay
close attention to the footnotes, because
they provide important information. Assign
students to small groups with students who
Teach
Reading Strategy 3
Make Generalizations
About Events Answer: In
the American painters’ “willing-
ness to slap new paint over old,”
de Kooning was able to perceive
the general American preference
for speed and innovation over the
Dutch concern for craftsmanship
and preservation.
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S Explain that
the phrase to slap new paint over
old is an idiomatic expression.
Write the following on the board:
hit, put, try, see. Ask: Which of
these words is closest in mean-
ing to the word slap as it is used
in the passage? (put)
the rustic charm that had once brought
New Yorkers across the river to Hoboken.
Its main allure in the Prohibition4 era was
its great number of speakeasies;5 a local S
poll taken in 1930 named Hoboken the
Tony Vaccaro’s photograph of de
“wettest”6 city in New Jersey. But there
was some greenery in the area. Only steps Kooning portrays him as a robust,
almost giantlike figure. Encourage
students to discuss the physical
4. The Prohibition era officially began in 1919 with the 18th and mental challenges many immi-
Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited the sale
or consumption of alcoholic beverages anywhere in the
grants endured during the Great
U.S. The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933 with the Depression. Remind students that
21st Amendment.
de Kooning supported himself by
5. Speakeasies were places that existed during the Prohibition
commercial jobs that required hard
era where people could go to purchase illegal alcohol.
6. Wet means that alcohol was available for purchase, so the labor with little pay.
reference to Hoboken being the “wettest” city in New
Jersey means that one could find a lot of places to obtain
alcohol.
MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 333
3/19/08 1:53:04 PM
have paraphrased different passages. Have
students share their work with the group.
333
Teach
Literary Element 1 mansion on a promontory known as Castle
Author’s Purpose Answer:
De Kooning’s success as a
“pop” artist developed out of
his exposure to the glitz, deca-
dence, and freedom of 1920s
New York
Culural History S
The Bowery In the mid 1800s
the Bowery was the center of
theater life in New York, but by
the end of the nineteenth century,
it was under the violent rule of a
street gang named the Bowery
Boys. The 2002 film Gangs of
New York, set in Lower Manhat-
tan in the 1860s, recreates the
struggle for control of New York’s
streets. In the 1920s and through
most of the twentieth century, the
Bowery has been known for its
high poverty and crime rates.
Reading Practice
0330_0337_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Make Inferences Remind
students that the selection never
explains why de Kooning left Hol-
land to come to America. Ask: What can
you infer about de Kooning’s life before
he came to America from the informa-
tion in the passage? (He was trained as
an artist; he liked living on the margins
of society; he didn’t have much money.)
What factors might have led de Koon-
ing to come to America? (He wanted
334
from the Holland Seaman’s Home was
Hudson Square, which looked over the
river. Just beyond lay the Stevens Institute
of Technology, which was housed in a
Point. De Kooning went there often to look
across the water at the city. With friends
like Bart, Wimpy, and Leo—who sounded
like a troupe of comics—de Kooning also
began to explore New York. He felt com-
fortable with its kaleidoscopic jumble of
ethnic groups, which recalled the mixing of
Dutch and foreigners around the
Rotterdam7 docks. He saw the poverty, too,
which belied the myth of easy riches: the
slums on the Lower East Side;8 the tene-
ments with windowless inner rooms and
public toilets on every other floor; the two-
bit flophouses on the Bowery.9 (One day,
he would come to love the photographs of
Weegee10—the great chronicler of the city’s
meaner streets.) But that was not the New
York that caught his eye. The Roaring
Twenties were one of the city’s great dec-
ades. It thrived on too much money, not
enough sleep, and worried cries from the
rest of the country about “decadence.”11
The WPA12 guide to the city, compiled as
part of the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project,
7. Rotterdam is a city in the southwestern portion of the
Netherlands.
8. The Lower East Side of New York City’s Manhattan
borough attracted many immigrants because of the
availability of cheap housing.
9. Flophouses were cheap hotels or rooming houses that
could be found in a section of New York City called the
Bowery.
10. Weegee is the professional name of photographer Arthur
Fellig, who became famous for his crime-scene photos.
11. Decadence is the process of falling into decay or decline.
12. The WPA is the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts
Project. The program started in the 1930s and was known
for hiring artists who ranged in experience and style.
Vocabulary
belie (bi lı̄) v. to misrepresent; to give a false
impression of
334 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
334
to make money; he was looking for
adventure.) Ask students to provide
specific references from the text to
support their answers.
perfectly captured the proudly self-
conscious, rhetorical flair of the period:
All through the 1920s New York
had been not only the symbol of
America but the symbol of the mod-
ern—the fortunate giant in his
youth, the world city whose past
weighed least heavily upon its
future. . . . It was a city infallible in
finance, torrential in pace, unlim-
ited in resource, hard as infrangible
diamonds, forever leaping upon the
moment beyond. “You can get away
with anything,” said Ellen Thatcher
in John Dos Passos’ Manhattan
Transfer, “if you do it quick
enough.” Speed—with its dividend,
sensation—became the master for-
mula in every human activity and
technique: Wall Street, dancing,
crime, the theater, construction,
even death.
What de Kooning thrilled to was the pop
energy of the city, which was exotic to a
Dutchman who grew up in the subdued
culture of northern Europe. Here was free-
dom from the constraints of class, taste,
and disapproving looks; here was a new
kind of openness, an invitation to wonder.
One of the first places he visited was
Coney Island, a masterpiece of rhinestone
splendor that provided entertainment for
New York’s lower and middle classes.
Cecil Beaton described it this way during
the 1930s:
Author’s Purpose What insights into de Kooning’s artis-
tic sensibilities do the authors suggest by including these
observations?
1
Vocabulary
torrential (tô renchəl) adj. flowing rapidly and
abundantly
3/19/08 1:53:16 P
 Teach

S
Answer: Students may note the
seaside setting, the colorful struc-
tures, the Ferris wheel.
American John Wenger (1887–
1976) displayed artistic talent
at the age of three. He eventu-
ally became a designer of stage
settings who also created colorful
outdoor scenes.

Cultural History S
Coney Island, 1931. John Wenger. Watercolor and tempera over pencil on paperboard, Social Change in the 1920s
55.1 x 71.1 cm. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. The end of World War I in 1918
How does this painting help viewers understand Coney Island’s appeal? Coney Island has
featured amusement parks, thrill rides, and a colorful boardwalk of attractions since the 1800s.
introduced a new era in U.S.
history referred to as the Roaring
Every Saturday and Sunday a “I liked the sentimental side of the peo- Twenties. Although the extrava-
million people go to bathe at ple,” de Kooning said, “the girls, the gance implied by this term is an
Coney Island, reached by sub- houses on the avenues, and the skyscrap- exaggeration, many young people,
way in half an hour. They stay ers.” Not surprisingly, he relished Times disillusioned by the war, did rebel
until the electric bulbs silhou- Square. Perhaps it reminded him of the against values they considered
ette the minarets, domes and square at the foot of the Coolsingel13 in old-fashioned.
turrets, illumine the skeletons Rotterdam, where he had whiled away
of roller-coasters and the mag- time with the Randolfis. Except it was big-
nificent pleasure-palace of ger, more extravagant, crazier. Like the har-
George C. Tilyou (the Barnum of bor of Rotterdam, Times Square was a
Coney Island), which with its many crossroads populated by . . . just about
columns and electrical splendour, everyone. Times Square in 1926 was lined
resembles something from the Pan- with movie houses, shooting galleries, and
American exposition of 1900. The amusement arcades. At night, it shim-
passengers on the Cyclone rend the mered with thousands of brightly colored
air with their concerted screams.
13. Coolsingel is a main street in the old part of Rotterdam.

MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 335

Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
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AAVE Approaching-level students who ing’s negative judgment about New

use African American Vernacular English York’s art scene. Standard Academic
(AAVE) may be accustomed to using English avoids using double negations,
multiple negations within a sentence, such as not never. Have students write
or to using no or never where Standard five pairs of sentences that follow the pat-
Academic English uses any or ever. Write tern of the sentences on the board.
these sentences on the board: There’s no
art here. There will not ever be any art
here. Say: These two sentences each
use a single negation to show de Koon-

335
Teach
Literary Element 1 found his footing in America,
Author’s Purpose Answer:
Although de Kooning has found
a trade for himself, he does not
work among artists and intellec-
tuals as he did in Holland. This
artistic milieu is important enough
to him to make a change.
Ask: Who are the
A P P ROAC H I N G
Randolfis? (They were bohemian
friends of de Kooning in Holland.)
S a high promontory of land up the
Answer: Students might suggest
de Kooning’s use of color, brush-
stroke technique, and inclusion
of abstract forms. De Kooning
became a major figure in abstract
expressionism, a type of art that
emphasizes form and color rather
than recognizable subject mat-
ter. Abstract expressionists often
applied paint rapidly with large
brushes.
Cultural History S
Greenwich Village Located
in Lower Manhattan, Greenwich
Village has been home to artists
and musicians since the 1920s. It
is easily recognized by its narrow,
curved streets which contrast with
New York’s grid-like street planning.
In the 1950s and 1960s Green-
wich Village became the center for
some of America’s most famous
artists such as Jackson Pollock and
Andy Warhol.
336
electric lights. De Kooning had him-
self photographed amid the bustle
of Times Square. He looked like a
man at home. Once de Kooning
Hoboken seemed too much like
North Rotterdam. Crowded tene-
ments, cold-water walk-ups, and
communal backyard toilets or priv-
ies were the realities of working-
class life in Hoboken; he had not left
Rotterdam to move to a similarly
depressed city across the ocean.
More important, he missed living in
a bohemian milieu. It was one thing
to be a workingman living among
artists or people like the Randolfis
who flourished on the margins of
society. It was quite another to be a
workingman among workers. On
Sundays, a friend with an old car
sometimes drove him to Storm King,
Door to the River, 1960. Willem de Kooning.
The Willem de Kooning Foundation.
Hudson with sweeping views down De Kooning is associated with a form known as action
the river. “We would stand by the painting, characterized by rapid, forceful brushstrokes, abstraction, and
parapet and look at the view of the emotional expression. In your opinion, what elements of this painting
city,” de Kooning said. “It used to
most vividly demonstrate de Kooning’s originality?
scare me to death. I would say to
myself, ‘There’s no art here. You came to
city called Greenwich Village, where
the wrong place.’” Although he visited the
poets and painters were said to live. He
galleries on Fifty-seventh Street, they
determined its location—south of
mostly showed plummy European paint-
Fourteenth Street and north of Canal
ings intended for conservative apartments
Street—and one day found himself amid
on the Upper East Side. He saw nothing
like Mondrian. 14 the oddly angled streets and old brown-
stones. But he could not find “the
Leo Cohan urged de Kooning to move
Village” he had heard about. “There were
across the river. “I said to him, ‘Bill, you
just lots of Italians standing around on
mustn’t hang around in Hoboken. You
corners. Inside, you know, the Village was
must go to Manhattan. There you’ll find
nice, but from the outside, you couldn’t
other artists.’” In Hoboken, de Kooning
tell it was there—it was so quiet.” Then,
began to hear about a community in the
while still living in Hoboken, de Kooning
met a Sicilian artist named Mirabaggo,
14. Piet Mondrian was a Dutch abstract painter. who lived in the Village. When a barber
Author’s Purpose Why do you think de Kooning is ready
1 for a change?
336 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Research Practice
0330_0337_U2P1_877979.indd 336 3/12/08 11:30:46
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Interview Say: Books, periodi- before them. Tell students to prepare
cals, and the Internet are sources questions in advance. The answers should
of information, but writers can help students understand the time and
also use other sources of information. place in which the subject lived.
In addition to library and electronic
research, Stevens and Swan interviewed
people who knew de Kooning. This
gave them a sense of who he was and
what he became. Have students inter-
view an adult family member or friend
about someone who lived a generation
 whom Mirabaggo knew retired, he bought
the empty barbershop and opened a cof-
feehouse decorated with plaster copies of
Greek and Roman sculpture. De Kooning
began to spend time there on weekends.
Soon he was also going to Café Rienzi,
another coffeehouse that opened shortly
after Mirabaggo’s. He began to discover
old Village hangouts, such as the Pepper
Pot, the MacDougal Tavern, and the
Jumble Shop. All of them had been in var-
ying degrees haunts of writers and artists
since the 1890s. Of greatest importance to
de Kooning, however, was the living pres-
ence of painters. “Here in Greenwich
Village there was a strong tradition of
painting and poetry,” he said. “I had not
known this, and it brought back memories
of my interests when I was 14, 15 or 16
years old.”
Now that he had located an American
art world, de Kooning naturally wanted to
join it. He made some drawings and illus-
trations to replace the portfolio that he
had left behind in Belgium, and began to
read the Help Wanted ads for commercial
artists in the Manhattan newspapers, just
as he had in Brussels. When one ran in the
New York World he dropped off his portfo-
lio at the stated address. To his dismay,
the place was mobbed with applicants for
the job. He had all but given up hope
when a man appeared holding aloft a
portfolio and shouting, “Where’s de
Kooning?” The American’s pronunciation
was jarring. In Dutch, de Kooning was
pronounced with a hard “o”—as in
Koning. In American, he was de Kooning.
The job was his. De Kooning was so
pleased—his first triumph in America!—
that he signed up immediately, no ques-
tions asked. “I didn’t even ask them the
The Power of Memory Why do you think this recollec-
2 tion is significant for de Kooning?
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
AM0330_0337_U2P1_877979.indd 337 I N STR UCTION
Intermediate The last four paragraphs of
the selection contain direct quotation and
descriptive observation. Pair students and
have them take turns reading these para-
graphs aloud. Tell them to pay attention
both to pronunciation and to emotional
tone. Suggest that they use vocal inflec-
tion—as though they were acting—to add
meaning to their reading. Then have stu-
dents discuss de Kooning’s feelings about
salary because I thought if I made twelve
dollars a day as a house painter [de Teach
Kooning variously described his Hoboken
wages as nine or twelve dollars a day] I
would make at least twenty dollars a day Big Idea 2
being an artist.” The elation abruptly
ended after a week when he was handed The Power of Memory
twenty-five dollars. “I was so astonished Answer: He was reminded of his
I asked him if that was a day’s pay,” said early interest in art. This recol-
de Kooning. “He said, ‘No, that’s for the lection helped move him toward
whole week.’” De Kooning had learned success.
the hard way that less skilled labor could
pay more than an arts-related job and that
life in America was not going to be easy. Reading Strategy 3
“It turned out to be quite different from
what I thought,” de Kooning said of Make Generalizations
America. “Nowhere near as luxurious as About Events Answer:
I imagined it.”
Immigrants may be surprised
Disgruntled, de Kooning spent the
weekend wondering whether or not to that they cannot rely on their old
return to housepainting in Hoboken. ways of doing things in order to
Cohan and other Dutch friends urged succeed.
him to keep the new job. As Cohan
sensed, art and the company of artists
would finally prove far more important Big Idea 4
to his friend than a fatter paycheck.
Although de Kooning by no means con- The Power of Memory
sidered himself a serious painter—that Answer: He realizes that being
would only come years later—he made free to express himself might be
an essential decision that weekend: he worth some sacrifices.
must at least live in the neighborhood of
art. His hopes of making a fortune
waned, but his interest in an American To check students’ understanding
art world strengthened. A little more than of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
a year after his arrival in Hoboken, de ing Resources Book, pp. 72–73.
Kooning packed his few possessions, said
good-bye to his sailor friends, and took
the ferry into Manhattan. m
Make Generalizations About Events What does this
story illustrate about the experiences of many immigrants 3
to America?
The Power of Memory What do you think changed for
de Kooning? 4
MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 337
3/12/08 11:30:51 AM
life in America and his career as an artist,
based on what they have learned from the
last four paragraphs.
337
After You Read
Assess
1. Answers will vary.
2. (a) The Statue of Liberty
and Ellis Island (b) He was
disappointed.
3. (a) He no longer needed or
wanted to be among his coun-
trymen. (b) It introduced him to
a community of artists.
4. Most students will say that the
authors show the foundation
that led to de Kooning’s success.
5. Students might note how the
authors intersperse de Kooning’s
quotations throughout the
selection, providing a personal
touch.
6. De Kooning loved the idea of
being free to express himself.
The only way to pursue this type
of success was to delve into the
American art world.
7. Students may say the differ-
ences in attitude between these
countries were what most likely
gave rise to de Kooning’s artistic
endeavors and sensibilities.
8. Answers will vary. Students may
say that learning details of de
Kooning’s life helps them build
context for connecting to his
difficult, abstract paintings.
For additional assessment, see
Assessment Resources, pp. 83–84.
Literary Element
1. To persuade readers that the
seeds of de Kooning’s artistic
sensibilities were sown in his
early impressions of the United
States
2. Students may cite passages in
which the authors quote or para-
phrase de Kooning, as well as
the details—the counterman, the
exchange over the hamburger,
de Kooning’s vain attention to his
338
After You Read
Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret Stevens and Swan accomplish this goal? Explain
why or why not.
1. What did you consider most interesting or sur-
prising about de Kooning’s experiences? Explain. 6. At first, de Kooning viewed success in the
United States in terms of income. Later, his
2. (a)What was missing from de Kooning’s first
glimpse of the United States? (b)How did his
views of success shifted. Analyze de Kooning’s
transition and determine what brought about
first impressions affect him?
the change in his attitude.
3. (a)What reasons do Stevens and Swan cite for de
Kooning’s departure from Hoboken? (b)Why Connect
might the move have helped his career as an art-
7. Big Idea The Power of Memory From the
ist? Explain.
comparisons between Holland and the United
Analyze and Evaluate States, do you believe that de Kooning would
have achieved the same artistic success had he
4. De Kooning eventually becomes an influential
remained in Holland? Explain.
and innovative abstract painter. Do you believe
that the biographers’ description of de Kooning’s 8. Connect to Today De Kooning is considered
arrival in the United States helps you under- one of the most important and influential contri-
stand his eventual success? Explain. butions to modern American art. Does knowl-
edge of de Kooning as a person help you to
5. To be successful, a biographer must provide
gain appreciation for him as an artist? Why or
facts about a person’s life and must also capture
why not?
the essence of that person. Do you believe that
Literary Element Author’s Purpose Partner Activity Pair up with a classmate and
examine the selection you just read. Determine
Authors often write to achieve one or more of the
how the authors’ use of quotations helps provide
following purposes: to persuade, to inform, to
explain, to entertain, or to describe. One might attri-
a historical and cultural context. Working with your
partner, create a two-column chart similar to the
bute several of these purposes to Stevens and
one below.
Swan’s biography of Willem de Kooning.
1. Which purpose do you think most applies to Examples of Explanation of
this selection? Explain. Quotations from Historical or
2. Cite several passages that support your claim. Other Sources Cultural Context
p. 335 It was an inexpen-
sive and appealing
Review: Biography “Every Saturday
form of entertain-
As you learned on pages 284–285, a biography is and Sunday a
ment, so it
an account of someone’s life written by someone million people
attracted a lot of
else. In addition to describing a person’s life, a go to bathe at
people from the
biography provides insight into the time and place Coney Island,...”
lower and middle
in which the person lived.
classes.
338 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
0338_0339_U2P1_877979.indd 338 3/19/08 1:54:20 P
appearance—about his early experi-
Progress Check
ences in the U.S.
Can students identify author’s
Review: Biography purpose?
You may want to present students with If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
more information in the form of a video Resources Book, p. 67.
or photographs regarding this time
period. This will help students visualize
the references in the text.

Reading Strategy Make Generalizations
About Events
Making generalizations helps readers understand
the main points and implications of a work.
For example, considering de Kooning’s experiences
enables us to generalize about other immigrants’
lives at the time.
1. (a)What generalizations can you make about de
Kooning’s reasons for coming to the United
States? (b)What does the selection suggest about
how the United States could both confound and
reward the expectations of immigrants?
2. Find three examples from the text that support
your ideas. Explain.
Vocabulary
Practice with Denotation and Connotation
Denotation is the literal, or dictionary, meaning of
a word. Connotation is the implied, or cultural,
meaning of a word. For example, the words
embarrassing and humiliating have a similar
denotation, but humiliating suggests a more
profound embarrassment and has a more nega-
tive connotation.
Each of these vocabulary words is listed with a
word or term that has a similar denotation.
Decide whether the second word or term is
more negative, more positive, or about the
same, and explain why.
1. obligatory required
2. artisan skilled worker
3. belie misrepresent
4. torrential heavy
PM 0338_0339_U2P1_877979.indd 339
Research and Report
Students’ multimedia presentations
should:
• focus on de Kooning and Abstract
Expressionism
• be based on reliable primary and sec-
ondary sources
• include reproductions or videos of the
work of the Abstract Expressionists and
integrate music of the time period
After You Read
Connect to Art
Research Report Assess
Assignment Research de Kooning and his fellow
New York “rebel artists” who helped create Abstract Reading Strategy
Expressionism. Create a multimedia presentation
about the artists and their art. 1. (a) Students may say that de
Kooning wanted to experience
Investigate Generate four or five research ques-
tions about who the artists were, how they became the American Dream or that he
friends, what made their art groundbreaking, and wanted to experience the feel-
so on. Answer your questions by using reliable pri- ing of being completely free to
mary and secondary sources. As you take notes,
express himself. (b) It suggests
compile a list of art terms and their definitions.
Develop a table like this one to organize your that although immigrants might
research. have to change their previous
ways, they would experience a
Source Assessment freedom without parallel.
author—respected 2. Answers could include “Here
Sylvester, David.
British art critic and was a new kind of openness, an
Modern Art. NY:
curator; book— invitation to wonder” or “It was
Franklin Watts, 1965.
documented primary quite another to be a working-
Primary source.
source
man among workers.”
Create Use appropriate software to create a multi-
media slideshow or other presentation of your find- Vocabulary
ings. Include reproductions or videos of the work of
the Abstract Expressionists, and integrate music of Answers will vary. Sample answers:
the time period. Include a final slide that docu-
1. Obligatory connotes enforce-
ments your sources. See pages R35-R37 for help
with bibliographic style. ment and a binding require-
ment. It may be slightly more
Report As you compile information in your report,
use your visuals to help explain terms that are spe- negative, although the words
cific to Abstract Expressionism. Make links between are close.
the artists and the movement and what the artwork
2. Artisan is more positive. It sug-
shows. Focus on what defines Abstract Expression-
ism, explaining varying perspectives on the era and gests someone who is both
art while maintaining a focus on the central con- artistic and skilled.
cerns and accomplishments of the artists. 3. These words suggest the same
associations with misrepresent-
Literature Online
ing the truth.
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash-
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection, go to glencoe.com 4. Torrential is more negative; in
and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2. the sense of rain, it suggests
flooding, whereas heavy sug-
MARK S TE V E NS AND ANNALYN S WAN 339 gests mere pouring.
3/24/08 3:25:42 PM
• document sources, using correct biblio-
graphic style
• explain varying perspectives on the era
and art while maintaining a focus on
the central concerns and accomplish-
ments of the artists
For grammar practice, see Unit 2
Teaching Resources Book, p. 71.
339
Vocabulary Workshop
Jargon
Focus
Ask: What jargon or technical
terms do you know from sports
or music? (Students may suggest
terms such as designated hitter
or reprise.) You may also wish to
discuss when it is or is not appro-
priate to use jargon in students’
own writing.
Teach
Define Jargon Say: Clues for
defining jargon are word parts,
subject matter, and context. Write
this sentence from De Kooning:
An American Master on the board:
“He . . . eventually became a naïve,
or ‘primitive,’ painter.” Ask: Which
strategies can you use to define
the jargon in this sentence?
(Context and subject matter help
to define naïve as “primitive.”)
Assess
1. pigments—a substance that
adds color, black, or white to
another material
2. stripped—removed paint from
3. portfolio—samples of art
4. bohemian—leading an uncon-
ventional life in community with
other artists and writers
For additional vocabulary practice,
see Glencoe Interactive
Vocabulary CD-ROM.
340
Learning Objectives
In this workshop, you will
focus on the following
objective:
Vocabulary: Understanding
jargon.
Vocabulary Terms
Jargon is the specialized or
technical language of a
trade, a profession such as
law or medicine, art, and
sports.
Test-Taking Tip
When you encounter
unfamiliar jargon in a
reading selection, look for
word parts you already
know. Then consider the
subject of the selection and
the context of the sentence
to determine the meaning of
the word.
Literature Online
Vocabulary For more
vocabulary practice, go to
glencoe.com and enter the
QuickPass code GL59794u2.
340 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Vocabulary Practice
0340_U2VW_877979.indd 340
Context Clues Review types of context
clues that help define jargon:
• examples
• explanation
• synonym or antonym
• contrast
Give students practice with these sen-
tences: “He preferred plein air painting
to painting indoors.” (A contrast defines
plein air as “outdoor.”) Having failed
to reach her sales goal, she couldn’t
Vocabulary Workshop
Jargon
Literature Connection You may not be familiar with the word arti-
sanal in the quotation below.
“On the job, he found he had much to learn about the way his
new country operated, which often differed from the careful, arti-
sanal manners of Holland.”
—Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, from “First Impressions” from
De Kooning, An American Master
You may, however, have read or heard the word artisan, meaning “a
skilled worker,” and know many words with the suffix –al, which means
“like” or “characterized by.” The context, or setting in which the word
appears, also gives you a clue that artisanal means “skillfully crafted.”
Words like artisanal, which are related to a specific field or occupation,
are called jargon. This specialized language also includes specific mean-
ings for common words. For example, in “First Impressions,” a painter is
described as naïve, which generally means “lacking experience and
understanding.” As jargon, though, it refers to a painting style character-
ized by a lack of formal training. A brush in this selection probably is a
paintbrush, not a hairbrush. The chart below shows some examples of
jargon.
Jargon Specific field or occupation Meaning when used as jargon
anomaly medicine defect
bug computers and technology error, especially in a program
czar politics person who is in charge of a policy
or an agenda
Practice Identify the jargon in each of the following sentences
related to “First Impressions.” Then use the context to help you write
a definition for the jargon. Check your answers, using a dictionary.
1. De Kooning learned about how to mix pigments with oil and water
while painting houses.
2. In Holland, housepainters always stripped windows down to the
wood before repainting them.
3. De Kooning created new paintings and illustrations for his portfolio
to show employers.
4. Hoboken was very much like North Rotterdam, not the bohemian
setting he had expected.
3/24/08 3:56:29 PM
decide whether to punt or keep trying.
(An antonym defines punt as “give up.”)
The candidate’s bruising attack made his
opponent feel wounded and angry. (An
explanation defines bruising as “hurtful.”)
 Before You Read
Typhoid Fever
from Angela’s Ashes
Meet Frank McCourt
(born 1930)
W
hen I look back on my childhood I
wonder how I survived at all. It
was, of course, a miserable child-
hood: the happy childhood is hardly worth
your while.” Thus begins Frank McCourt’s
powerful memoir, Angela’s Ashes.
Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn, New
York, to recently immigrated Irish parents.
His father, Malachy McCourt, struggled with
alcoholism and unemployment. His mother,
Angela Sheehan, bore the grim task of raising
young children in the face of unrelenting pov-
erty. In the mid-1930s, the McCourts moved
back to Limerick, Ireland, to better their lives.
An Irish Childhood In Ireland, however, the
McCourts fared no better, given the country’s
economic depression, unstable employment,
and wretched living conditions. Angela tried
to sustain the family by scrimping and saving
and by soliciting help from Catholic charities
and the government. She also endured the
deaths of three of her children.
Breaking Free When he was nineteen,
McCourt decided to return to the United
States to begin a new life. After working a
series of jobs, McCourt served in the Korean
War, which entitled him to benefits under the
GI Bill and funded his education at New York
University. He became a teacher and taught in
New York City public schools for twenty-
seven years.
A Story to Tell McCourt knew he had a story
to tell and struggled for years trying to tell it.
“All along I wanted to do this book badly.
I would have to do it or I would have died
0341_0342_U2P1_877979.indd 341
Literary Elements
• Voice (SE pp. 342, 344, 346–348,
350)
• Memoir (SE p. 350)
Reading Skills
• Analyze Style (SE pp. 342–344, 350;
TE p. 347)
Before You Read
Focus
Bellringer Options
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 27
Or write on the board two
excerpts from the selection:
I do believe, induced by potent
circumstances / that thou art
howling.” In 1996, at the age of sixty-six, he
finally published Angela’s Ashes. mine enemy and The wind was
a torrent of darkness among the
gusty trees, / The moon was
“I learned the significance of my own a ghostly galleon tossed upon
insignificant life.” cloudy seas. Ask: Which lines
—Frank McCourt of poetry do you like more?
What are some of your favorite
poems or lines of poetry? Have
McCourt’s gritty story gripped readers almost
immediately. When he wrote Angela’s Ashes,
students explain which lines from
McCourt did not want to write something the selection they like best. Then
“charming or lyrical.” Instead, he wanted to have students discuss their favorite
offer a description of his poverty-stricken
poems and state why these are
Irish childhood that was real and honest. He
won several prestigious awards for the book, their favorites.
including the Pulitzer Prize.
Two years later, McCourt followed Angela’s
Ashes with ‘Tis, the second work in his mem-
oir series. ‘Tis chronicles his adventures in the
United States, including his first job, his time
in the military, his college education, and his
profession as a teacher. McCourt published
another book, in 2005, Teacher Man. It is based
on his own unique experience of teaching in
the U.S. public school system.
Literature Online
Author Search For more about Frank McCourt, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
F RANK M C C OURT 341
3/24/08 4:07:43 PM
Vocabulary
• Word Origins (SE pp. 342, 350)
• Academic Vocabulary (SE p. 350) Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
• Analyze Art (SE pp. 345, 346)
• Use and Create Maps (TE p. 342)
Typhoid Fever
Writing Skills/Grammar
• Persuasive Essay (SE p. 351)
• Quotation Marks (TE p. 344)
Study Skills/Research/Assessment • Run-on Sentences (TE p. 346)
• Draw Conclusions (TE p. 348)
341
Before You Read
Focus
Summary
Author Frank McCourt recalls
his childhood experience as a
typhoid fever patient in a Fever
Hospital. One day Patricia Madi-
gan, the girl in the room next to
his, starts up a conversation with
him. The two develop a sweet
friendship against the wishes of
Sister Rita, one of the hospital’s
nuns. Frank recites Shakespeare
to Patricia, and she reads poetry
to him. Eventually, Sister Rita
banishes Frank to an empty ward.
Patricia dies soon afterward.
For summaries in languages other
than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, pp. 74–79.
Vocabulary
Word Origins Divide the
class into three groups. Assign a
vocabulary word to each group
and have students use a dictionary
or another resource to research the
etymology of that word. Encourage
them to make guesses about other
words that might share the same
root as the vocabulary word and
then to research the etymologies
of those other words to confirm
342 U N IT 2
their guesses.
0341_0342_U2P1_877979.indd 342
For additional vocabulary practice,
see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
Book, pp. 82–83.
For additional context, see Glencoe
Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
342
Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
For pages 341–351
Connect to the Memoir
When you are sick, what do you do to keep your mind
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
objectives:
occupied? Write a journal entry about the last time you were
sick and what you did or thought about to pass the time. Literary Study: Analyzing
voice.
Build Background Reading: Analyzing style.
Typhoid fever is an infection spread via food, water, and milk con-
taminated with the Salmonella typhi bacteria. Diphtheria is a dis-
ease caused by bacteria that have been infected by certain
viruses. If left untreated, both diseases can be fatal.
Vocabulary
Set Purposes for Reading
induce (in dōō̄ s) v. to lead or
Big Idea The Power of Memory move by persuasion; to bring
As you read, ask yourself, How does McCourt portray his child- about; p. 345 The physicians
hood decades after he lived it? decided to induce labor.
potent (pōtənt) adj. having
Literary Element Voice strength or authority; powerful; p.
Voice is the distinctive use of language that conveys the author’s 345 The black widow spider injects
or narrator’s personality. Voice is determined by elements of a potent poison into its victims.
style such as word choice and tone. As you read, ask yourself,
rapier (rāpē ər) n. a narrow,
What does the author’s voice reveal about his personality and
long-bladed, two-edged sword; p.
credibility?
347 The pirates drew their rapiers
Reading Strategy Analyze Style and dueled on deck.
Style consists of the expressive qualities that distinguish an Tip: Word Origins Remember
author’s work, including word choice and the length and that knowledge of a word’s origins
arrangement of sentences, as well as the use of figurative lan- supplies you with clues to, rather
guage and imagery. As you read, ask yourself, How can analyz- than a full account of, a word’s
ing style reveal an author’s attitude and purpose? current meaning.
Tip: Ask Questions Ask yourself questions about style as you
read and record them in a chart like the one shown below.
Question Answer Example
What kinds of He uses fan- “an owl and a
imagery does tastical and pussycat that
McCourt use? nonsensical went to sea in
imagery to a green boat
create an air with honey
of innocence. and money”
NONFI C TI ON
Listening, Speaking, and Viewing Practice
3/24/08 4:08:47 PM
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Use and Create Maps Looking at so intertwined. Then have students create
and creating visual representations their own maps that include the places in
are good ways to engage students the story. Have students present their maps
with spatial intelligence and to develop the to the class.
spatial skills of others in the class. Have
students find Ireland and England on a
world map or globe. Have them notice that
Ireland is actually two countries, Ireland
and Northern Ireland. Also have them
notice Ireland’s proximity to England, the
primary reason the countries’ histories are
 Teach
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Say: Keep the following in mind
as you read: Which parts of the
selection seem like genuine
memories and which seem
fictional? (Answers will vary. The
dialogue is probably somewhat
fictionalized.)

Reading Strategy 1
A Sick Ward at the Salpetriere. Mabel Henrietta May. Oil on canvas. Musée de l’Assistance Publique, Hopitaux de Paris, France.
Analyze Style Answer:
Students may say that at first it is
confusing but that it then actually
makes the narrative flow, like a
conversation.

from Angela’s Ashes Frank McCourt

he other two beds in my room are I wonder. What kind of a question is
empty. The nurse says I’m the only that? I don’t know what to tell her.
typhoid patient and I’m a miracle Yoo hoo, are you there, typhoid boy?
for getting over the crisis. I am.
The room next to me is empty till one What’s your name?
morning a girl’s voice says, Yoo hoo, who’s Frank. ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S The switch-
there? That’s a good name. My name is ing between narrative and dialogue
I’m not sure if she’s talking to me or Patricia Madigan. How old are you? might confuse English learners. You
someone in the room beyond. Ten. may wish to pair them with more
Yoo hoo, boy with the typhoid, are you Oh. She sounds disappointed.
advanced students. Allow pairs the
awake? But I’ll be eleven in August, next month.
I am. Well, that’s better than ten. I’ll be four- opportunity to read the selection
Are you better? teen in September. Do you want to know aloud, noting the switches. You may
I am. why I’m in the Fever Hospital? also provide them a bit more time
Well, why are you here? I do. to go through the selection together,
I don’t know. I’m still in the bed. They stopping after each page or para-
stick needles in me and give me medicine. Analyze Style McCourt does not use quotation marks to
What do you look like? set off dialogue. What effect does this style have? 1 graph to comment on the switching.

F RANK M C C OURT 343

English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 343 I N STR UCTION 3/12/08 12:00:56 PM
For additional practice using the
reading skill or strategy, see Unit 2
Teaching Resources Book, p. 81.
Beginning Some students may have a
difficult time with McCourt’s narrative style.
He often runs together ideas and speaking For an audio recording of this
parts. Help students note which para- selection, use Listening Library
Audio CD-ROM.
graphs in the story have more than one
speaker. Then ask them to identify aloud
each speaker while pointing to the words Readability Scores
being said by that speaker. Dale-Chall: 4.1
DRP: 48
Lexile: 1200

343
Teach
Literary Element 1 used to be in Africa. I nearly died. Are you
Voice Answer: Students
may say that McCourt’s use of
voice helps to portray Patricia as
straightforward and clever.
A DVA N C E DEncourage more
advanced students to create a one-
page back story for Patricia. They
might expand on who her friends
are, what her family is like, whether
she has hobbies, what makes her
happy, and what she might really
be feeling at the hospital that she
is not sharing with Frank.
Reading Strategy 2 find you talking.
Analyze Style Answer: His
writing style mimics the way a
child speaks and thinks.
Cultural History S
Religion in Ireland The Little
Messenger of the Sacred Heart
was a Catholic magazine founded
in the mid-1870s by German-born
Arnold Janssen, a Catholic priest
and former teacher. The magazine
shows up in the Fever Hospital
because of the hospital’s Catholic
ownership and staff.
344
I have diphtheria and something else.
What’s something else?
They don’t know. They think I have a dis-
ease from foreign parts because my father
going to tell me what you look like?
I have black hair.
You and millions.
I have brown eyes with bits of green
that’s called hazel.
You and thousands.
I have stitches on the back of my right
hand and my two feet where they put in
the soldier’s blood.
Oh, God, did they?
They did.
You won’t be able to stop marching and
saluting.
There’s a swish of habit and click of
beads and then Sister Rita’s voice. Now,
now, what’s this? There’s to be no talking
between two rooms especially when it’s a
boy and a girl. Do you hear me, Patricia?
I do, Sister.
Do you hear me, Francis?
I do, Sister.
You could be giving thanks for your two
remarkable recoveries. You could be saying
the rosary. You could be reading The Little
Messenger of the Sacred Heart that’s beside
your beds. Don’t let me come back and
She comes into my room and wags her
finger at me. Especially you, Francis, after
thousands of boys prayed for you at the
Confraternity.1 Give thanks, Francis, give
thanks.
She leaves and there’s silence for awhile.
Then Patricia whispers, Give thanks,
Francis, give thanks, and say your rosary,
1. A confraternity is a group of people dedicated to a
religious cause.
Voice What does McCourt’s use of voice convey about
1 Patricia’s personality?
344 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Writing Practice
0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 344
Quotation Marks and Dialogue
Review with students the basic rules
for punctuating dialogue, including the use
of quotation marks and the use and place-
ment of other punctuation marks, either
inside or outside the quotation marks.
Then have students rewrite the opening
of the story, from the first “Yoo hoo…” to
“Ten,” properly punctuating the dialogue.
Ask students also to insert dialogue tags,
such as “I said” or “she asked” where
Francis, and I laugh so hard a nurse runs in
to see if I’m all right. She’s a very stern
nurse from the County Kerry and she
frightens me. What’s this, Francis?
Laughing? What is there to laugh about?
Are you and that Madigan girl talking? I’ll
report you to Sister Rita. There’s to be no
laughing for you could be doing serious
damage to your internal apparatus.
She plods out and Patricia whispers
again in a heavy Kerry accent, No laughing,
Francis, you could be doin’ serious
damage to your internal apparatus. Say
your rosary, Francis, and pray for your
internal apparatus.
Mam visits me on Thursdays. I’d like to
see my father, too, but I’m out of danger,
crisis time is over, and I’m allowed only
one visitor. Besides, she says, he’s back at
work at Rank’s Flour Mills and please God
this job will last a while with the war on
and the English desperate for flour. She
brings me a chocolate bar and that proves
Dad is working. She could never afford it
on the dole. He sends me notes. He tells
me my brothers are all praying for me, that
I should be a good boy, obey the doctors,
the nuns, the nurses, and don’t forget to
say my prayers. He’s sure St. Jude pulled
me through the crisis because he’s the
patron saint2 of desperate cases and I was
indeed a desperate case.
Patricia says she has two books by her
bed. One is a poetry book and that’s the one
she loves. The other is a short history of
England and do I want it? She gives it to
Seamus,3 the man who mops the floors
every day, and he brings it to me. He says,
I’m not supposed to be bringing anything
from a dipteria room to a typhoid room
2. A patron saint is a saint to whom a craft, an activity, or the
protection of a person or place is dedicated.
3. Seamus (shāmus)
Analyze Style McCourt blends narration and dialogue
here. What is the effect of this stylistic technique? 2
3/19/08 2:24:54 P
appropriate. When students have finished,
lead them through their rewritten dia-
logues, noting the proper way to punctu-
ate the characters’ speech.
 with all the germs flying around and hid-
ing between the pages and if you ever
catch dipteria on top of the typhoid they’ll
know and I’ll lose my good job and be out
on the street singing patriotic songs with a
tin cup in my hand, which I could easily
do because there isn’t a song ever written
about Ireland’s sufferings I don’t know.
Oh, yes, he knows Roddy McCorley. He’ll
sing it for me right enough but he’s barely
into the first verse when the Kerry nurse
rushes in. What’s this, Seamus? Singing? Of
all the people in this hospital you should
know the rules against singing. I have a
good mind to report you to Sister Rita.
Ah, God, don’t do that, nurse.
Very well, Seamus. I’ll let it go this one
time. You know the singing could lead to
a relapse in these patients.
When she leaves he whispers he’ll teach
me a few songs because singing is good for
passing the time when you’re by yourself in
a typhoid room. He says Patricia is a lovely
girl the way she often gives him sweets
from the parcel her mother sends every fort-
night. He stops mopping the floor and calls
to Patricia in the next room, I was telling
Frankie you’re a lovely girl, Patricia, and she
says, You’re a lovely man, Seamus. He smiles
because he’s an old man of forty and he
never had children but the ones he can talk
to here in the Fever Hospital. He says, Here’s
the book, Frankie. Isn’t it a great pity you
have to be reading all about England after all
they did to us, that there isn’t a history of
Ireland to be had in this hospital.
The book tells me all about King Alfred
and William the Conqueror and all the
kings and queens down to Edward, who
had to wait forever for his mother, Victoria,
to die before he could be king. The book
has the first bit of Shakespeare I ever read.
The Power of Memory Why might McCourt remember
3 this so many years later?
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 345 I N STR UCTION
Beginning Students for whom reading
does not come easily will probably have
difficulty with Seamus’s vernacular speech.
Consider writing on the board some of his
unusual contractions, such as ‘twas, ‘tis,
and ‘twould, followed by their two-word
counterparts: it was, it is, and it would.
Other difficult phrases may include “never
heard the likes of it,” “has a good mind
to,” and “lovely in yourself.” Have the class
Bernadette Soubirous, Visionary of Lourdes,
1844–1879. Artist unknown.
Notice how the artist uses light and
shades of color to highlight elements in the
painting. Does the image capture the personality
of Sister Rita? Support your opinion.
I do believe, induced by potent circumstances
That thou art mine enemy.
The history writer says this is what
Catherine, who is a wife of Henry the
Eighth, says to Cardinal Wolsey, who is
trying to have her head cut off. I don’t
know what it means and I don’t care
Vocabulary
induce (in dō̄ ō̄ s) v. to lead or move by persuasion;
to bring about
potent (potənt) adj. having strength or authority;
powerful
F RANK M C C OURT
3/12/08
discuss the meanings of these phrases to
make sure everyone understands.
Teach
Big Idea 3
The Power of Memory
Answer Perhaps McCourt grew
to admire and appreciate Shake-
speare, and therefore his first
exposure to Shakespeare’s writing
became a significant event in
his life.
A DVA N C E D Advanced students
may also note how closely the
quote fits his and Patricia’s battle
against Sister Rita.
S
Answer: The woman in the
painting looks strict and severe,
much like the personality of
Sister Rita.
Bernadette Soubirous was four-
teen in 1858 when she reported
seeing the vision of the Virgin Mary
in Lourdes, France. Waters from
the spring where the Virgin is said
to have appeared are believed to
have miraculous healing powers,
and tens of thousands of people
make pilgrimages to Lourdes every
year. Bernadette died in 1879 and
was named a saint in 1933.
345
12:01:02 PM
345
Teach makes no sense and
when I say that
Patricia gets huffy
and says that’s the
Literary Element 1 last poem she’ll ever
read to me. She says
Voice Answer: Young Frank I’m always reciting
loves to read, even when he does the lines from
not understand all of the words. Shakespeare and they
The words seem magical to him, make no sense either.
and he is impressed by Shake- Seamus stops mop-
ping again and tells
speare. He is straightforward
us we shouldn’t be
about what he feels. fighting over poetry
A P P ROAC H I N GSome students because we’ll have
may not understand the phrase enough to fight about
from Shakespeare. Explain that when we grow up
and get married.
this line from Henry VIII is spoken
Patricia says she’s
by the Queen to a man who has sorry and I’m sorry
betrayed her because he values too so she reads me
power over truth and loyalty. She part of another poem
is saying that his lust for power has Stained glass window of Saint Elizabeth Healing the Sick,13th Century. Gothic. St. Elizabeth, which I have to
Marburg, Germany. remember so I can
made him her enemy.
Thirteenth Century Germanic stained glass features detailed backgrounds, figures say it back to her
with expressive faces, and ornate geometric frames around the scenes depicted. Do the figures
in this scene reflect the characters in “Typhoid Fever”? Why or why not?
early in the morning
or late at night when
there are no nuns or
nurses about,
because it’s Shakespeare and it’s like hav- The wind was a torrent of darkness among the
S ing jewels in my mouth when I say the gusty trees,
words. If I had a whole book of The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon
Answer: Some may say that the
Shakespeare they could keep me in the cloudy seas,
figures in the stained glass are hospital for a year. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the
like Frank, Patricia, and Seamus, Patricia says she doesn’t know what purple moor,4
who try to pass healing and good induced means or potent circumstances And the highwayman came riding
will among one another. Others and she doesn’t care about Shakespeare,
Riding riding
may say that the central, religious she has her poetry book and she reads to
me from beyond the wall a poem about an The highwayman came riding, up to the old
figure in the glass does not reflect inn-door.
owl and a pussycat that went to sea in a
the severe and unkind religious green boat with honey and money and it He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a
figures in the story (the Sisters, bunch of lace at his chin,
especially Sister Rita).
The earliest stained glass dates back
Voice What does McCourt’s use of voice in this sentence
to ancient Rome, when it was used 1 tell you about his personality as a child?
4. A moor is a wide, boggy expanse of land.
to decorate homes. The brilliant
colors are made when metal oxides 346 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
are added to molten glass. In the
Grammar Practice
twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 346 3/19/08 2:25:08 P
stained glass became a fine art, with
richly detailed panels that allowed
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Run-On Sentences Although sentences, separating its sections with
light to stream in. Stained glass fell run-on sentences can be a stylistic semicolons, or any other correct means.
out of favor during the Reformation, choice, as in McCourt’s writing, it is
and many stained-glass panels were best in most cases to fix these grammati-
ordered destroyed. The art form cally incorrect sentences. Make copies
was revived in the nineteenth of the run-on sentence on this page that
and twentieth centuries by artists begins “Patricia says she doesn’t know
such as Louis Comfort Tiffany and what induced means” and give each stu-
Marc Chagall. dent a copy. Have them correct the run-
on sentence by breaking it into multiple

346
 A coat of the claret5 velvet, and breeches6
of brown doe-skin,
They fitted with never a wrinkle, his boots
were up to the thigh.
And he rode with a
jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled
sky.
Every day I can’t
wait for the doctors
and nurses to leave
me alone so I can
learn a new verse
from Patricia and find
Visual Vocabulary
A French cocked-hat is out what’s happening
a triangular hat with its to the highwayman
brim turned upward in and the landlord’s
three places.
red-lipped daughter. I
love the poem
because it’s exciting and almost as good as
my two lines of Shakespeare. The redcoats
are after the highwayman because they
know he told her, I’ll come to thee by
moonlight, though hell should bar the way.
I’d love to do that myself, come by
moonlight for Patricia in the next room,
though hell should bar the way. She’s
ready to read the last few verses when in
comes the nurse from Kerry shouting at
her, shouting at me, I told ye there was to
be no talking between rooms. Diptheria is
2 never allowed to talk to typhoid and visa
versa. I warned ye. And she calls out,
5. Claret, also the name of a red wine, is a dark, purplish red
color.
6. Breeches is an old term for pants.
Voice What does this statement tell you about the
3 narrator’s personality?
Vocabulary
rapier (rāpē ər) n. a narrow, long-bladed,
two-edged sword
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 347 I N STR UCTION
AAVE Approaching-level students who
use African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) may drop sounds from consonant
clusters. Explain that McCourt’s characters,
who have an Irish dialect, drop vowels
from words in a similar way. Read the
following passage from this page: “And
she calls out, Seamus, take this one. Take
the by.” Note that the “o” is missing from
boy. Have students practice reading aloud,
Seamus, take this one. Take the by. Sister
Rita said one more word out of him and Teach
upstairs with him. We gave ye a warning
to stop the blathering but ye wouldn’t.
Take the by, Seamus, take him. Reading Strategy 2
Ah, now, nurse, sure isn’t he harmless.
’Tis only a bit o’ poetry. Analyze Style Point out
that such phrases as “Dipthteria
Take that by, Seamus, take him at once.
He bends over me and whispers, Ah, is never allowed to talk to
God, I’m sorry, Frankie. Here’s your typhoid . . .” use the children’s
English history book. He slips the book diseases to identify them. Ask
under my shirt and lifts me from the bed.
students to note other examples
He whispers that I’m a feather. I try to see
they see. (“He whispers that I’m
Patricia when we pass through her room
but all I can make out is a blur of dark a feather.”)
head on a pillow. English learn-
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S
Sister Rita stops us in the hall to tell me
ers may have difficulty understand-
I’m a great disappointment to her, that she
ing McCourt’s use of metaphor. Ask
expected me to be a good boy after what
English learners what a metaphor,
God had done for me, after all the prayers
said by hundreds of boys at the such as “He whispers that I’m a
Confraternity, after all the care from the feather” means. (Frankie does not
nuns and nurses of the Fever Hospital, after weigh much like a feather may
the way they let my mother and father in to feel weightless.)
see me, a thing rarely allowed, and this is
how I repaid them lying in the bed reciting
silly poetry back and forth with Patricia
Madigan knowing very well there was a
ban on all talk between typhoid and diph-
theria. She says I’ll have plenty of time to
reflect on my sins in the big ward upstairs
and I should beg God’s forgiveness for my
disobedience reciting a pagan English poem
about a thief on a horse and a maiden with
Literary Element 3
red lips who commits a terrible sin when I
Voice Answer: He is young,
could have been praying or reading the life
of a saint. She made it her business to read
somewhat naive, and romantic.
that poem so she did and I’d be well
advised to tell the priest in confession.
The Kerry nurse follows us upstairs
gasping and holding on to the banister. She Big Idea 4
tells me I better not get the notion she’ll be
The Power of Memory
Answer: The experience in
The Power of Memory Why do you think McCourt
4 the hospital must have affected
remembers and is able to re-create details like this?
McCourt deeply for him to remem-
F RANK M C C OURT 347 ber it in such detail. Other students
may argue that McCourt prob-
ably has embellished some of the
3/19/08 2:25:23 PM details to create a more effective
story. Ask: If, in reality, McCourt
focusing on correct pronunciation of con- did see Patricia on his way past,
sonant clusters. why do you think he would
have changed it in this mem-
oir? (In not revealing what she
looks like, McCourt maintains the
mystery and romance surrounding
the friendship. In being faceless,
Patricia comes to represent the
concept of unattainable love.)
347
Teach
Literary Element 1 me at the far end of the ward against the
Voice Answer: The narrator
seems very mature for his age; he
knows exactly what the adults are
trying to shield him from.
A DVA N C E DAsk advanced stu-
dents to consider McCourt, the
child narrator, and McCourt, the
adult author. Ask: Based on what
you remember about being
McCourt’s age, is his level of
maturity believable? If not, point
to places where he inserts an
adult’s perspective. (Answers will
vary, but students may identify
the reference on this page in
which the narrator places his fate
in the context of the overall Irish
famine as a point where the adult
McCourt inserts himself.)
Big Idea 2 will never know a gray hair.
The Power of Memory
Answer: Students will probably
say that he was very sad after her
death. Possibly he felt bad that he
was not in the room next to hers
when she died. Ask: Do you
think McCourt thinks he could
have saved or rescued her, like
the highwayman in the poem?
(The romantic part of him prob-
ably thinks he could have rescued
her, but the mature part of him
knows that there was nothing he
could have done.)
To check students’ understanding
of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
ing Resources Book, p. 85.
348
running up to this part of the world every
time I have a little pain or a twinge.
There are twenty beds in the ward, all
white, all empty. The nurse tells Seamus put
wall to make sure I don’t talk to anyone
who might be passing the door, which is
very unlikely since there isn’t another soul
on this whole floor. She tells Seamus this
was the fever ward during the Great
Famine7 long ago and only God knows how
many died here brought in too late for any-
thing but a wash before they were buried
and there are stories of cries and moans in
the far reaches of the night. She says
’twould break your heart to think of what
the English did to us, that if they didn’t put
the blight on the potato they didn’t do
much to take it off. No pity. No feeling at all
for the people that died in this very ward,
children suffering and dying here while the
English feasted on roast beef and guzzled
the best of wine in their big houses, little
children with their mouths all green from
trying to eat the grass in the fields beyond,
God bless us and save us and guard us from
future famines.
Seamus says ’twas a terrible thing indeed
and he wouldn’t want to be walking these
halls in the dark with all the little green
mouths gaping at him. The nurse takes my
temperature, ’Tis up a bit, have a good sleep
for yourself now that you’re away from the
chatter with Patricia Madigan below who
She shakes her head at Seamus and he
gives her a sad shake back.
Nurses and nuns never think you know
what they’re talking about. If you’re ten
going on eleven you’re supposed to be
simple like my uncle Pat Sheehan who was
dropped on his head. You can’t ask ques-
7. The Great Famine refers to the Irish potato famine of
the 1840s, during which many Irish citizens died from
starvation and disease.
348 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Research Practice
0343_0348_U2P1_877979.indd 348
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Draw Conclusions The Irish
Potato Famine of the 1840s was
caused by the spread of a parasitic,
moldlike organism. Because this major
source of nourishment and income disap-
peared, many Irish citizens emigrated to
the United States and England. Those who
could not afford to travel were left behind
to die from disease and starvation. Have
students use various resources to research
the Potato Famine and other places in the
tions. You can’t show you understand what
the nurse said about Patricia Madigan, that
she’s going to die, and you can’t show you
want to cry over this girl who taught you a
lovely poem which the nun says is bad.
The nurse tells Seamus she has to go and
he’s to sweep the lint from under my bed
and mop up a bit around the ward. Seamus
tells me she’s a right oul’ witch for running
to Sister Rita and complaining about the
poem going between the two rooms, that
you can’t catch a disease from a poem . . . .
He never heard the likes of it, a little fella
shifted upstairs for saying a poem and he has
a good mind to go to the Limerick Leader8 and
tell them print the whole thing except he has
this job and he’d lose it if ever Sister Rita
found out. Anyway, Frankie, you’ll be outa
here one of these fine days and you can read
all the poetry you want though I don’t know
about Patricia below, I don’t know about
Patricia, God help us.
He knows about Patricia in two days
because she got out of the bed to go to the
lavatory when she was supposed to use a
bedpan and collapsed and died in the lava-
tory. Seamus is mopping the floor and
there are tears on his cheeks and he’s say-
ing, ’Tis a dirty rotten thing to die in a lav-
atory when you’re lovely in yourself. She
told me she was sorry she had you reciting
that poem and getting you shifted from the
room, Frankie. She said ’twas all her fault.
It wasn’t, Seamus.
I know and didn’t I tell her that. m
8. Limerick is the town in Ireland in which the story takes
place. The Limerick Leader is a local publication, probably a
newspaper.
Voice What does this tell you about the narrator’s level of
1
maturity?
The Power of Memory How do you think Patricia’s
death and her sorrow over McCourt’s departure affected
McCourt?
2
3/12/08 12:01:11
world now stricken by famine. Have them
analyze the information and compare their
notes. Tell them to make a comparative
graph or chart and present their findings
to the class.
 After You Read
Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret
1. (a)How did you feel after reading the selection?
(b)What specifically about the selection made
you feel this way? Explain.
2. (a)What is the first reason Sister Rita gives for
telling Frank and Patricia not to talk to each
other? (b)What does this tell you about the
time period and setting in which this selection
takes place?
3. (a)What are the subjects of McCourt’s and
Patricia’s poetry? (b)What does their love for
these written passages tell you about their dif-
ferent tastes in literature?
4. (a)Which patients had Frankie’s new ward previ-
ously housed? (b)How does this knowledge
affect the mood of the selection?
Primary Source Quotation
A Child’s Perspective
McCourt waited many years to write Angela’s
Ashes because he needed time to understand
his painful childhood. As he says, “I couldn’t
have written this book fifteen years ago because
I was carrying a lot of baggage around. . . . and I
had attitudes and these attitudes had to be soft-
ened. I had to get rid of them, I had to become,
as it says in the Bible, as a child. . . . The child
started to speak in this book. And that was the
only way to do it, without judging.”
Group Activity Discuss the following ques-
tions with classmates. Refer back to the quota-
tion and cite evidence from the selecion for
support.
PM0349_0351_U2P1_877979.indd 349
Primary Source Quotation
1. Students may say that McCourt suf-
fered injustices as a child, and he
needed to assume a more innocent,
childlike perspective in order to judge
his childhood fairly.
2. Students may note the diction, the
sense of limited perspective, and the
sense of innocence.
Analyze and Evaluate
5. Does Frank and Patricia’s dialogue sound like
the dialogue of a ten-year-old and a fourteen-
year-old? Illustrate your answer with examples
from the text.
6. What kind of effect do you think the portrayal of
the adults has on the excerpt as a whole?
Connect
7. Big Idea The Power of Memory Do you
think this selection reads more like fiction or
nonfiction? Explain.
8. Connect to Today In “Typhoid Fever”, the sick
children entertain themselves and each other by
reciting poetry. What might sick children look to
for entertainment in a hospital today?
1. Why do you think it was important for
McCourt to become “as a child” in
Angela’s Ashes?
2. What are some ways in which the excerpt
reflects the perspective of a child? Support
your answer with specific examples.
F RANK M C C OURT
3/12/08 12:22:12 PM
For additional assessment, see Assess-
ment Resources, pp. 85–86.
After You Read
Assess
1. (a) Students will probably say
that they were sad after reading
the selection. (b) Students will
probably say that Patricia’s death
caused their emotional response.
2. (a) There should be no talking
between rooms, “especially when
it’s a boy and a girl.” (b) The story
is set in a strict and rigid place
and during a time period in which
girls and boys are separated.
3. (a) Frank reads about English
history, while Patricia reads
about an owl and a pussycat
and also about a highwayman’s
romantic rescue of a red-lipped
woman. (b) McCourt likes the
serious and dramatic. Patricia
likes the fanciful and playful.
Both like the highwayman, a
poem of love and conflict.
4. (a) Victims of the Great Famine
(b) It creates a somber, oppres-
sive, or depressing mood.
5. Students may say that the dia-
logue sounds authentic. They
should support their opinions
with excerpts.
6. The nuns do not sympathize with
the children; Seamus is a com-
forting and kind figure. This con-
veys that most adults do not con-
nect with or understand children.
7. Students may say that the selec-
tion reads like fiction because of
349
the author’s use of a child narra-
tor and because it may seem so
different from their lives.
8. Answers will vary. Sick children
in hospitals today can find
entertainment in television,
books, magazines, movies, and
video games.
349
After You Read
Assess
Literary Element
1. Students will probably say that
the voice sounds like that of a
young boy using mostly simple
words without adding his own
thoughts.
2. Students should note that
McCourt uses short, clipped sen-
tences; run-on sentences with
simple vocabulary; and images
and picked-up adult expressions.
Review: Memoir
Students’ charts may include
outdated ideas about disease,
which lead to scoldings from the
adults; and the war, which keeps
McCourt’s father from visiting.
Progress Check
Can students identify voice?
If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, p. 80.
Reading Strategy
1. D is the correct answer. The
openness of the dialogue serves
as a contrast to the behavior of
the nuns.
350 U N IT 2
0349_0351_U2P1_877979.indd 350
Vocabulary Practice
Answers will vary. Sample responses:
induce
Definition to move by persuasion
Etymology Latin in- + ducere meaning
“to lead”
Sample sentence Nothing could induce
me to eat that awful stew!
potent
350
Literary Element Voice Reading Strategy Analyze Style
An author uses voice to communicate his personal- SAT Skills Practice
ity or opinions to the reader. The voice in an autobi-
ographical work such as Angela’s Ashes is the voice
1. The opening dialogue between the narrator and
Patricia (pages 343–344) serves to
of the author’s younger self as perceived by his
adult self. When analyzing a writer’s voice, look at (A) inform the reader about health care in
how the writer uses elements such as sentence Ireland
structure, word choice, and tone. (B) prepare the reader for tragedy
(C) reveal the average child’s mature thinking
1. Is the voice in this selection credible as that of a
skills
young boy or that of an adult? Explain.
(D) show children to be open and honest with
2. What stylistic devices does McCourt use to cre- each other
ate his narrator’s voice? (E) point out differences in the way boys and
girls view the same situation
Review: Memoir
Vocabulary Practice
As you learned on pages 284–285, memoir is a
Practice with Word Origins Studying the
type of narrative nonfiction that presents the story of
a period in the writer’s life. It is usually written from
etymology, or origin and history, of a word can
help you understand and explore its meaning.
the first-person point of view and emphasizes the
Create a word map like the one below for
narrator’s own experience of this period. It may also
each of these vocabulary words from the text.
reveal the impact of significant historical events on
his or her life. induce potent rapier
EXAMPLE:
Partner Activity With a classmate, discuss
“Typhoid Fever” as a memoir. Working with your Definition Etymology
partner, create a two-column chart similar to the an historical account Greek chronos
one below. Fill in the left-hand column with exam- told in time order means “time”
ples of historical details or events referenced in the
chronicle
text. In the right-hand column, describe each exam-
ple’s effect on the author’s life. Sample Sentence
The novel was a chronicle of three generations.
Historical Detail Effect on Author
or Event Academic Vocabulary
old-fashioned had to stay isolated The Sisters did not want to expose the
medicine in the Fever Hospital children to other diseases.
Expose is a multiple-meaning word. A hiker
might be exposed to the elements, or a
reporter might expose the illegal actions of a
government official. Use context clues to try to
figure out the meaning of expose in the sen-
tence above about the memoir. Check your
Literature Online guess in a dictionary.
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash- For more on academic vocabulary, see pages
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection activities, go to
52 and 53.
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
NONFI C TI ON
3/14/08 10:56:55 AM
Definition having strength or authority; Etymology French rapiere meaning
powerful “sword”
Etymology Latin potens meaning Sample sentence When the villain drew
“powerful” his rapier, the villager stepped back in
fright.
Sample sentence Jim’s punishment was
a potent reminder of what could hap-
pen if we cheated.
rapier Academic Vocabulary
Definition a narrow, long-bladed, two- to leave open to danger or subject to risk
edged sword
 Learning Objectives
After You Read
Respond Through Writing In this assignment, you
will focus on the following

Persuasive Essay
objectives:
Writing: Writing an editorial.
Assess
Grammar: Understanding
how to use absolutes and Respond Through
absolute phrases.
Offer a Solution McCourt’s essay reflects the biases of a certain place, Writing
time, and group of people regarding the behavior of children in a hospi-
tal. Imagine you are a reporter for the Limerick Leader. Write an editorial Students’ essays should:
suggesting a more or less strict approach to the behavior of Patricia and
Francis. Explain why your solution is reasonable, and refute the counter- • offer a solution that is clearly
claims and biases that you see as part of the problem. Grammar Tip stated in a thesis, claim, or opin-
Absolutes and Absolute ion statement
Understand the Task Phrases • present ideas in a logical order
Absolutes and absolute
• An editorial is a short article written to express an opinion.
phrases are unrelated. An
• support the thesis or opinion with
• Counterclaims, or counterarguments, are opposing arguments.
absolute is a modifier that evidence
• Biases are values or ways of thinking that prevent people from
considering facts in an objective way.
cannot be compared. • use persuasive techniques and
Examples of absolutes are rhetorical devices
Prewrite Begin by identifying your audience, purpose, and controlling dead, perfect, and empty; • include at least one counterclaim
idea or thesis, which is your opinion. Then list points you will make to for example, something can-
support your thesis, or the reasons for your opinion. Also list counter-
or counterargument
not be any more or any less
claims and biases you will address, such as the Sisters’ belief that reciting dead than something else. • address bias
or listening to poetry will harm the children. A student who meets all of these
An absolute phrase is a
Draft As you draft, put your arguments in a logical order. For example, phrase that modifies the criteria should receive the equiva-
you could begin with your least important idea and build to your most entire remainder of the sen- lent of a 4-point response.
important or convincing one. For each reason you discuss, present tence in which it is found.
Many absolute phrases are A student who fully meets three or
evidence, such as commonly accepted beliefs, facts, expert opinions,
or logical reasoning. Incorporate persuasive techniques and rhetorical verbal phrases: they consist partially meets all of these criteria
of a noun or pronoun and a
devices by using these frames or others like them: should receive the equivalent of a
participle:
Appeal to Authority As , the author states, . 3-point response.
The work finished, Seamus
Appeal to Ethical Belief It is only right that . left the room. A student who fully meets 1–2 or
Appeal to Logic The most logical thing to do is . That said, they went on
Rhetorical Question What good would it do to ?
partially meets three of these crite-
reading anyway.
ria should receive the equivalent of
Revise Exchange papers with a partner. Be sure you can identify each Prepositional phrases can
also function as absolutes:
a 2-point response.
other’s thesis or opinion and at least two logical, well-supported reasons
that directly support the thesis. Also, identify at least one counterclaim In fact, Seamus breaks the A student who partially meets one
and one bias that your partner has addressed. Revise your essay to rules. of these criteria should receive the
improve your thesis, your reasons, your evidence, or your responses to equivalent of a
possible arguments or ways of thinking that oppose your own.
1-point response.
Edit and Proofread Proofread your paper, correcting any errors in
spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Use the Grammar Tip in the side For grammar practice, see Unit 2
column to help you with absolutes and absolute phrases. Teaching Resources Book, p. 84.

F RANK M C C OURT 351

Advanced Learners
DI F F ER ENTIATED I N STR U C T IO N
0349_0351_U2P1_877979.indd 351 3/24/08 4:16:14 PM

Supporting Details Encourage Instruct students to incorporate quotes

Advanced students to search other sources from their sources to add to the logical
for historical and social facts related to the appeal of their editorials.
story and to include the information in
their editorials. For example, they may wish
to research typhus and diphtheria as com-
municable diseases. They may also wish to
explore Irish culture and Catholicism in the
early twentieth century to get a feel for the
social status of religious men and women.

351

Historical Perspective
on Angela’s Ashes
Focus
Summary
This article is an examination
of Frank McCourt, the author of
Angela’s Ashes. The article out-
lines the worldwide success of the
memoir, and McCourt comments
on the pervasive bleakness of the
book. He discusses the value of
personal experiences to a writer.
He talks about his long teaching
career and his experience writing
Angela’s Ashes.
For activities related to this
selection, see Unit 2 Teaching
Resources Book, pp. 87–95.
Big Idea
The Power of Memory
Say: What does McCourt believe
is the best writing inspiration
or subject matter? How does
writing affect his well-being?
(He believes personal experiences
are the best inspiration or subject
matter for writing. Writing gives
him a great sense of accomplish-
ment. He feels that he was born
to be a writer.)
E NG LI S H LE A R N ERS Explain to Eng-
lish learners that well-being refers
to a person’s health, happiness,
and security.
Readability Scores
Dale-Chall: 5.8
DRP: 61
Lexile: 1050
For an audio recording of this
selection, use Listening Library
Audio CD-ROM.
352
Historical Perspective
on Angela’s Ashes Learning Objectives
For pages 352–355
from
In studying this text, you will
Looking
focus on the following
objective:
Reading: Recognizing
Forward to author’s purpose.
the Past
A Profile of Frank McCourt
Carolyn T. Hughes Frank McCourt, 1998,
New York.
National Book Award Winner
ngela’s Ashes is McCourt’s attempt to 1
Set a Purpose for Reading
Read to learn about McCourt’s personal journey in
writing Angela’s Ashes. A come to terms with his childhood—
one so beset by tragedy and misfor-
tune that he has called his work simply an
Build Background “epic of woe.” In 1930 McCourt was born
in Brooklyn, to Irish immigrants Malachy
Author Frank McCourt, who spent his childhood in
and Angela. His parents, crushed by the
Limerick, Ireland, revisits his early years in Angela’s
Ashes. In this selection, Hughes discusses why recent death of their daughter and by the
McCourt was inspired to write a memoir of his child- alcoholic Malachy’s inability to hold a job,
hood in Limerick. moved the family back to Ireland—but bad
1 luck followed them. McCourt’s twin broth-
Reading Strategy ers died shortly after the family returned to
Limerick, and he himself almost perished
Recognize Author’s Purpose from typhoid fever. But the greatest chal-
Recognizing the author’s purpose involves identifying lenge for McCourt to contend with was his
the author’s intent for writing a literary work. Authors father’s continued drinking and eventual
may write for any or all of the following purposes: to
abandonment of the family. In 1941
persuade, inform, explain, entertain, or describe. As you
Malachy McCourt, Sr., left for England,
read, use a web diagram like the one below to take
notes on the details of the interview.
ostensibly to get a factory job. He was sup-
posed to send home money. It never hap-
pened. He disappeared, leaving his family
to fend for themselves.
Descriptions At times, the landscape of Angela’s Ashes
Author’s
Purpose of McCourt’s is so bleak it’s downright depressing. But
childhood McCourt’s use of a child narrator (an idea
that came to him “in a dream”) works to
soften the tragedy of the story. Instead of
352 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
Research Practice
0352_0355_U2AV_877979.indd 352 3/25/08 8:20:25 AM
Locate Information Using the appropri- books, summaries of his books, and the
ate resources is important when research- publications that contain his other writings.
ing a paper. Research materials present
different types of information and present
information in different ways. For example,
a book index may list books of similar
subject matter but probably will not pro-
vide much specific information about the
individual books. Have students locate dif-
ferent types of resources to find biographi-
cal information about McCourt, a list of his

being delivered through an adult’s jaded
vision, the events are relayed from an inno-
cent, even lighthearted perspective, with-
out judgment, which makes room for the
poignancy and humor so celebrated by
readers and critics.
Much of Angela’s Ashes is devoted to the
depiction of McCourt’s educational experi-
ence at Leamy National School in Limerick,
where, he says, his teachers had about as
light a touch as the Marquis de Sade.1 When
McCourt became a teacher himself, he was
determined to provide a creative, productive
environment for his students. He began his
career in 1959 at McKee Vocational and
Technical High School on Staten Island, and
after 13 years went on to Stuyvesant High,
where he became the kind of teacher stu-
dents dream of. Claire Costello, a Stuyvesant
alumna who now works as a Manhattan
attorney, says that McCourt was so popular
that students who were not assigned to his
classes would audit them (now not many
teachers can claim that kind of approbation).2
In class McCourt was known to play Irish
records, and even to break out his harmonica
and play a tune or two himself. While his
approachability endeared him to his stu-
dents, McCourt insists he learned more from
his students than they did from him.
“I found that in the beginning of my
teaching career, just like everybody else, I
would put on an act and try to be what I
wasn’t: the teacher who knows everything.
Sometimes I felt I was saying things that I
really didn’t mean. ‘Oh, yeah, I understand
The Waste Land,3 I understand Shakespeare,’
when I might not. But one of the things I
discovered in the classroom was honesty. I
don’t mean it from any moral or ethical
sense. It’s a powerful tool to tell the truth.”
1. The Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) was a French
nobleman and writer condemned for his abusive behavior.
2. Approbation means “praise.”
3. The Waste Land is a famous poem by American writer
T. S. Eliot.
Approaching Level
DI F F ER ENTIATED
0352_0355_U2AV_877979.indd353 I N STR U C T IO N
Established Consider bringing in the
film version of Angela’s Ashes and screen-
ing excerpts for the class. This may help
less proficient readers visualize McCourt’s
work and give all students an idea of how
a book is turned into a movie.
After viewing scenes from the movie, ask
students to write a paragraph in which
they compare images from the movie
with images described in the book. Have
Informational Text
The practice of telling the truth was an 2 Historical Perspective
exercise that would prove important for
McCourt. And in having to articulate to his
on Angela’s Ashes
students lessons on how to write, he was for-
mulating the strategies that he would even-
tually put to use himself. “I told them, ‘If you
write, it’s like having a Geiger counter 4 you
Teach
can run over your life. There will be hot
spots—when you had your first fight with
Reading Strategy 2
your brother, when you fell in love, your first Recognize Author’s
kiss, and all that—then you look for conflict.’
The ol’ conflict dilemma. I also told them to
Purpose Ask: What does
get the stories of their fathers and mothers this sentence imply about the
and grandparents. There are grandparents author’s purpose? (It implies that
sitting at home now who are mines of infor- the author’s purpose is to show
mation and stories. They want to tell them, 3 the development of McCourt as
but most people cast them aside. I told my a writer.)
students, ‘There’s your material; get out the
AP P ROAC H I N G Ask: What does
tape recorder, take notes.’ ”
McCourt acknowledges being an avid this sentence tell you about
note taker himself and says it helped him McCourt as a writer? (McCourt
with the writing of his book. “I’ve been learned that the truth offered him
keeping journals for forty years, and there writing material.)
were things I discovered in my notebooks
that I had forgotten about—like how my
mother was attracted to my father and his
hangdog look. Well, one of the reasons why
Big Idea 3
he had a hangdog look then was because he
had just been released from three months in
The Power of Memory
prison for hijacking a truck. He thought it Say: How might the memories
was full of cans of pork and beans, but it of your elders be even more
turned out to be buttons.” McCourt laughs. inspirational than your own?
“I had forgotten about that completely.” (Elders have lived in different time
Although McCourt has spent much of his periods and have probably seen
life teaching writing, he admits he’s suspi- many great changes in their life-
cious of today’s writing programs. “It
times. They have many life experi-
depends on the person, but I think you’d be
better off falling in love, you’d be better off ences and stories to share.)
getting rejected by someone. These are valu-
able experiences!” McCourt says. “My point
is, anything is worth writing about. I gave
my students an assignment. I said, ‘Look,
pick somebody in this class, don’t look at Literary History S
The Waste Land The Waste
4. A Geiger counter, an instrument with a tube and electronic
equipment, is used to detect particles of radiation. Land is a free-verse poem written
by T. S. Eliot about the disintegra-
C AROLYN T. HUGHE S 353
tion of civilization and the disil-
lusionment that many people felt
3/12/08 12:28:42 PM
after World War I.
them evaluate the techniques used to cre-
ate the film images and explain whether
they were as effective as McCourt’s use of
imagery in the book.
353

Historical Perspective
on Angela’s Ashes
Teach
Big Idea 1 he published a piece
The Power of Memory
Ask: How can negative memo-
ries affect the present? (Bad
memories, like those of McCourt’s
upbringing, can affect a person’s
emotional well-being. They can
also affect how a person views the
world and can create a pessimistic
attitude.)
Literary History S
The Village Voice The Voice is
a popular weekly newspaper based
in New York City. Founded in 1955
by Ed Fancher, Dan Wolf, and noted 1 He wrote most of the book at his home in
writer Norman Mailer, the Voice is
known for its hard-hitting and lively
journalistic style and its relentless
investigations into the sometimes
lurid politics of Manhattan. The
paper has won a number of awards
over the years, including three Pulit-
zer prizes, and is considered by the
people of New York to be a first-rate
source of information on the local
cultural scene.
Reading Practice
0352_0355_U2AV_877979.indd 354
Create New Knowledge An important
student task is to read widely and to inte-
grate information from different sources.
The memoir is a popular form of literature.
In addition to McCourt’s follow-up mem-
oirs, ‘Tis and Teacher Man, suggest to
students some memoirs by other authors,
such as The Diary of a Young Girl by
Anne Frank, The Story of My Life by Helen
Keller, and Night by Elie Wiesel. Have stu-
354
Informational Text
Frank McCourt in New York. January 4, 2000. Tore Bergsake.
them right now, but you are going to write
about this person. You are going to observe
them for a month and then write.’ It forced
them, encouraged them, to observe another
human being and perhaps realize the signifi-
cance of insignificance.”
One of the major reasons it took McCourt
so long to write Angela’s Ashes was that he
didn’t understand the truth of his own les-
son. He marginalized the significance of his
early life, believing that his family’s crush-
ing poverty rendered their story inconse-
quential. His background, in fact, was a
source of embarrassment: “In my twenties
and thirties, I didn’t want to write about
being poor. I had to overcome a lot of fear—
overcome the shame. I guess you could say
I was suffering from low self-esteem.”
In 1969, McCourt did attempt to write a
book about his life. “I think I called it If You
Were in the Lane. It was completely deriva-
tive. I was imitating everybody, even
Evelyn Waugh.5 Imagine me writing like
Evelyn Waugh!”
5. Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was a British writer, known
for his satiric portrayals of the British upper classes.
354 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
dents read another memoir and compare
it to the selection in terms of subject mat-
ter and style. Ask students to present their
analysis to the class.
Although he didn’t
give up writing com-
pletely, it was 25 years
before McCourt would
try to tackle his own
story again. In the
meantime he wrote
the occasional article—
about a Jewish ceme-
tery in Limerick in the
Village Voice and a series
of articles about New
York for the Manhattan
Spirit. McCourt even
tried his hand as an
entertainer. In 1984, he
starred with brother
Malachy, an actor,
Manhattan bar owner, and renowned bon
vivant,6 in a cabaret show called A Couple of
Blaguards. The show premiered in New York
and went on to Chicago, San Francisco, and
Ireland. The brothers McCourt sang Irish
songs and told stories about their family.
(The play, directed by Howard Platt, is now
enjoying a successful run at New York’s
Triad Theater.)
When McCourt retired from teaching and
finally turned to the writing of Angela’s
Ashes, it didn’t take long for him to finish it.
Pennsylvania. “I started it in October 1994.
The actual writing took a year—actually,
less than a year because I was distracted
by various events and people visiting, so
maybe it took ten months of straight writ-
ing. I just got up every morning and I
wrote. What was it Red Smith7 said? ‘You
sit at the desk and you open a vein.’ That
was my routine. I wrote on the right-hand
page of my notebook, and on the left-hand
6. Bon vivant means “a person with sophisticated tastes,
especially of food and drink.”
7. Red Smith (1905–1982) was an American sports columnist.
3/25/08 8:21:18 AM

side I jotted down notes about what I
needed to dig deeper into.” McCourt
didn’t have any set schedule for how many
hours a day he would work: “I didn’t
push. . . . When it came, it came.” Having
his wife as a sounding board helped. “I
would read passages to Ellen—and she
thought it was fine.”
McCourt showed the first 159 pages to
Molly Friedrich, a New York City neighbor
who also happens to be a literary agent. She
agreed to work with McCourt, and passed
the manuscript on to Nan Graham, editor in
chief at Scribner. Graham, no easy sell,
loved it: “I edited The Liar’s Club,”8 Graham
says. “I’ve seen a lot of memoirs, but from
the beginning I thought the work and voice
in Angela’s Ashes was extraordinary. I
bought the book within a week. There really
was so little to do as far as editing. This man
is a stunning writer.”
8. Liar’s Club was author Mary Karr’s popular 1995 memoir.
Respond and Think Critically
Respond and Interpret
1. Write a brief summary of the main ideas in this
article before you answer the following questions.
For help on writing a summary, see page 415.
2. What is your opinion of McCourt’s claim that
“anything is worth writing about”?
3. (a)For what reason(s) did McCourt decide to use
a child’s point of view to narrate Angela’s Ashes?
(b)What might this say about his perspective on
childhood?
4. (a)What was the most important quality that
McCourt realized he must have in order to be a
good teacher? (b)How did he apply what he
learned as a teacher to his work as a writer?
Analyze and Evaluate
5. (a)Hughes delves into McCourt’s upbringing, his off-
PM0352_0355_U2AV_877979.indd 355
over traditional methods of learning
how to write.
6. (a) Some may refer to the “shame”
McCourt said he felt about being poor,
which kept him from approaching his
story honestly. (b) Hughes thinks that
writing allows a person to gain a richer
understanding of his or her life and self.
7. Most will agree that McCourt
approached his past with greater
Informational Text
McCourt handed in his final draft to
Graham on November 30, 1995, the 328th
anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Swift,9
one of McCourt’s favorite writers (he has a
thing for significant dates). Although work-
ing on the book was emotionally draining,
McCourt felt an overwhelming sense of
accomplishment when he finished it. “I
would have been very unhappy if I had died
without writing it. I would have begged for
another year. ‘Jesus, give me another year!’ I
would have died howling. So I did it, and
I’m glad it’s out of the way. You see, it’s a
great thing to know why you were put on
this earth. I was a teacher, but teaching was
my second occupation. All the time I was a
writer not writing, just jotting things down
in notebooks and so on. But all the time the
book was developing in my head as I taught
the kids at Stuyvesant. It was forming and
waiting to be born.” m 2
9. Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Irish author
celebrated for his satiric prose in such works as Gulliver’s
Travels.
beat methods of teaching, and his brief stint as an
actor. Why do you think she includes these details
of McCourt’s life? (b)Do these details support
McCourt’s message about writing? Why or why not?
6. (a)Hughes says that “one of the major reasons
it took McCourt so long to write Angela’s Ashes
was that he didn’t understand the truth of his
own lesson.” What do you think Hughes means
by this comment? (b)What do you think Hughes
believes the act of writing can teach a person?
Connect
7. McCourt attempted to write a book about his life
in 1969. It took another twenty-five years before
he wrote Angela’s Ashes. Do you think the passing
of time distanced him from or made him more
aware of his memories of the past? How do you
think the passage of time colors your memories?
C AROLYN T. HUGHE S
3/12/08
honesty as he grew older. Students
may say that the passage of time
allows a person to look at painful expe-
riences with humor and maturity.
For additional assessment, see
Assessment Resources, pp. 87–88.
Historical Perspective
on Angela’s Ashes
Teach
Reading Strategy 2
Recognize Author’s
Purpose Ask: Do you think
McCourt could have written
Angela’s Ashes any earlier than
he did? (Some students will say
no because he needed time to
remember his past. Others will say
that he could have written it earlier
had he realized his calling sooner.)
Assess
1. Students’ summaries should
focus on prominent ideas in the
article, such as McCourt’s teach-
ing experience, his commitment
to honesty, and the value of
personal experience in writing.
2. Many will say that good writing
is a result of the author’s style
and point of view. Others will
claim that some topics are not
as interesting as others.
3. (a) The idea came to him in
a dream, and he wanted his
story to contain humor.
(b) McCourt thinks that
children are playful yet more
resilient and observant.
4. (a) Honesty (b) In his mem-
oir, McCourt approached his
355
past with the same honesty he
used in the classroom. McCourt
12:28:48 PM “learned more from his students
than they did from him” and
used his experiences as “a rich
vein” to tap into.
5. (a) Hughes was trying to show
the stark contrast between
McCourt’s painful childhood
and his energetic personality.
(b) Students should realize that
McCourt values life experience
355
Before You Read Before You Read

Focus Terwilliger Bunts One

from An American Childhood
Bellringer Options
Selection Focus Meet Annie Dillard
Transparency 19 (born 1945)
Daily Language Practice
Transparency 28
A
s a child, Annie Dillard was encour-
aged by her parents to investigate the
Or on the board, write: world around her. That keen attention
Humor is emotional chaos to detail and fascination for living things is
reflected in Dillard’s writing, whether she is Tinker Creek and Beyond In college Dillard
remembered in tranquility.
describing a grasshopper on her window or wrote a 40-page paper about Henry David
—James Thurber discussing her family’s idiosyncrasies. Thoreau, and her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
A sense of humor . . . is the abil- is often compared to Thoreau’s Walden; or Life
in the Woods. Dillard spent time living in
ity to understand a joke—and nature next to Tinker Creek in Virginia’s
that the joke is oneself. “The dedicated life is worth living. You Roanoke Valley. Just as Thoreau described
—Clifton Fadiman must give with your whole heart.” life in the woods in Walden, in Pilgrim at
Tinker Creek, Dillard examines the beautiful
Ask: Do you agree with these —Annie Dillard and sometimes brutal natural world. Pilgrim
quotations? Which is more at Tinker Creek won the Pulitzer Prize for
Nonfiction in 1975, when Dillard was only
accurate? Have students discuss An American Childhood Annie Dillard, the thirty years old.
their reactions in small groups. oldest of three daughters, had an unusual
Dillard was inspired by the birth of her first
childhood. Her parents, the Doaks, were
daughter to complete a memoir, entitled An
creative thinkers who encouraged and
American Childhood. Dillard describes growing
inspired creativity in Dillard and her sisters.
up with eccentric parents: a father who quit
The world was open to the Doak sisters to
his lucrative job to mimic Mark Twain’s jour-
explore, question, and discover. During
ney down the Mississippi River and a mother
adolescence, Dillard began experimenting
who encouraged her daughters to explore the
with writing poetry. She read poets of all
world outside the family home as soon as
kinds and particularly admired the works of
they could remember their phone number.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Dillard wrote poetry
According to Michael J. Farrell, “Dillard
in her own style as well as in the style of her
urges us not to turn away, coaxes us instead
favorite poets. She was also a voracious
to look Life in the eye.” Whether writing
reader; she notes that, at the age of thirteen,
about the natural world or the human one,
“I was reading books on drawing, painting,
Dillard observes with an unflinching gaze.
rocks, criminology, birds, moths, beetles,
stamps, ponds and streams, medicine.” In
fact, Dillard reread her favorite book—The Literature Online
Field Book of Ponds and Streams—every year.
Author Search For more about Annie Dillard, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.

356 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

0356_0357_U2P1_877979.indd 356 3/25/08 8:41:47 AM

Literary Elements Terwilliger Bunts One

• Anecdote (SE pp. 357–358, 360, Listening/Speaking/Viewing Skills
from An American
362, 364) Childhood • Analyze Art (SE p. 362; TE p. 358)
• Idioms (TE pp. 357, 361)

Reading Skills Writing Skills/Grammar

• Connect to Personal Experience Vocabulary Skills • Write an Anecdote (SE p. 364)
(SE pp. 357, 359, 360, 364) • Synonyms (SE p. 364; TE p. 357) • Main Idea and Details (TE p. 358)
• Dialogue (TE p. 362)

356
 Literature and Reading Preview
Learning Objectives
Before You Read
For pages 356–364
Connect to the Memoir
Focus
In studying this text, you will
focus on the following
How do you use humor in your daily life? List moments
objectives:
throughout your day that you treat with humor.
Literary Study: Analyzing
Build Background anecdote. Summary
Reading: Connecting to
An American Childhood is set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in personal experience. In this memoir, the author
the 1950s. At that time, most middle-class married women did describes her mother’s sense of
not work outside the home or pursue their own careers. It was
often assumed that women fortunate or wealthy enough to
humor. Her mother loved word-
attend college were looking for husbands. play and practical jokes. Although
her mother had the capacity to
Set Purposes for Reading run New York City, she had to be
Vocabulary
Big Idea The Power of Memory content to run her own household,
tremulously (tremyə ləs lē) adv.
As you read, ask yourself, How does Dillard link her humorous
in a trembling or vibrating way; so she thought up clever inven-
memories of her mother to her development as a writer? tions to make housework easier.
p. 359 After he heard the knock at
Literary Element Anecdote the door, he tremulously asked, Her mother’s odd sense of humor
“Who’s there?” taught the author to take a stand.
An anecdote is a brief account of an interesting occurrence.
Anecdotes add depth and variety to the text and help the eschew (es chō̄ ō̄ ̄ ) v. to keep
reader to visualize the characters and events. As you read the apart from something disliked or For summaries in languages other
story, ask yourself, How does Dillard use anecdotes to deepen harmful; avoid; p. 359 Because I than English, see Unit 2 Teaching
our understanding of her mother’s approach to life? dislike music with violent lyrics, I
Resources Book, pp. 96–101.
eschew it.
Reading Strategy Connect to Personal advocate (advə kāt́) v. to pub-
Experience licly support; p. 360 I advocate
Authors often write about situations, settings, or characters the passing of that law, and I will Vocabulary
to which or to whom the reader can relate. Connecting to be sure to vote for it.
personal experience can help you better understand the
Synonyms Explain that
stolid (stolid) adj. showing little
author’s message. As you read, ask yourself, What situations or no emotion; p. 361 Her face although words may be synonyms,
in the text remind me of instances in my own life? was stolid after hearing the bad their usage depends on context.
news; we never knew how sad she For example, eschew means to
Tip: Make a Chart Choose events, characters, or situations was.
from the excerpt that seem familiar to compare to your personal
keep apart from something disliked
experiences. Record your thoughts in a chart like the one below. Tip: Word Parts Word parts are or harmful, and escape means to
prefixes, suffixes, and base words come through a potentially harm-
Situations in the text Reminds me of . . . or roots. Words that have the suffix ful experience, without suffering
Mother rolled down I have an aunt who was -ly are often adverbs. consequences. Both words imply
the hill at the beach. like that when she was avoiding harm, but they are not
younger.
entirely interchangeable. Have
students use a thesaurus to find
two synonyms for each vocabulary
word and use each synonym cor-
rectly in an original sentence. Have
ANNI E D I L L ARD 357 students note which word fits best
English Learners in the context of their sentences.

DI F F ER E NTIATED I N STR UCTION

0356_0357_U2P1_877979.indd 357 3/25/08 8:42:03 AM

Intermediate English learners may
struggle to understand the idiomatic
expressions in the selection. On the
board, write the following expressions,
and discuss their meanings:
• to cook up (to create or think of)
• cut clips from reels of talk (selected
favorite words and phrases from
conversations)
• collared us into her gags (forced us to take
part in the tricks she played on others)
Then, ask students to think about why
Dillard chose to use these expressions to
For additional vocabulary practice,
describe her mother. (Students may sug- see Unit 2 Teaching Resources
gest that Dillard uses idiomatic expres- Book, pp. 104–105.
sions to add to the humor of the story and
to highlight her mother’s sense of humor.)
For additional context, see Glencoe
Interactive Vocabulary CD-ROM.
357
Teach
Big Idea 1
The Power of Memory
Say: Keep the following ques-
tions in mind as you read: How
did the author feel about her
mother’s antics while she was
growing up? How have her atti-
tudes changed? (While growing
up, the author was embarrassed
by her mother’s unusual behav-
ior. The author now respects her
mother’s intellect and ingenuity.) S&H Green Stamps, 1965. Andy Warhol.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Annie Dillard

Literary Element
Anecdote Answer: It intro-
duces the author’s mother and her
unusual sense of humor.
S English?”
American artist Andy Warhol
(1928–1987) used images of
popular culture to comment
on U.S. society. His work often
repeated images such as S&H
Green Stamps on a single canvas
to reflect how the media saturates
society with visuals that influence
consumerism.
1 ne Sunday afternoon Mother wan-
dered through our kitchen, where
Father was making a sandwich and
2
listening to the ball game. The Pirates were
playing the New York Giants at Forbes
Field. In those days, the Giants had a util-
ity infielder1 named Wayne Terwilliger.
Just as Mother passed through, the radio
announcer cried—with undue drama—
“Terwilliger bunts one!”
“Terwilliger bunts one?” Mother cried
back, stopped short. She turned. “Is that
“The player’s name is Terwilliger,”
Father said. “He bunted.”
“That’s marvelous,” Mother said. “‘Ter-
williger bunts one.’ No wonder you listen
to baseball. ‘Terwilliger bunts one.’”
1. In this context, utility means “useful generally rather than
in a specialized function.” So, a utility infielder is capable
of playing shortstop or first, second, or third base.
Anecdote How does this opening anecdote draw the
2 reader in?
For the next seven or eight years, Mother
made this surprising string of syllables her
own. Testing a microphone, she repeated,
“Terwilliger bunts one”; testing a pen or a
typewriter, she wrote it. If, as happened
surprisingly often in the course of various
improvised gags, she pretended to whisper
something else in my ear, she actually
whispered, “Terwilliger bunts one.”
Whenever someone used a French phrase,
or a Latin one, she answered solemnly,
“Terwilliger bunts one.” If Mother had
had, like Andrew Carnegie,2 the opportu-
nity to cook up a motto for a coat of arms,
hers would have read simply and tellingly,
“Terwilliger bunts one.” (Carnegie’s was
“Death to Privilege.”)
She served us with other words and
phrases. On a Florida trip, she repeated
2. Based in Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) made
a fortune in the steel industry and donated $350 million
to social and educational institutions.

358 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Writing Practice
For an audio recording of this
selection, use Listening Library 0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd 358 3/12/08 12:37:59

Audio CD-ROM. Main Idea and Supporting Details

Identifying the main idea and supporting
details of an essay is crucial to students’
Readability Scores understanding of an essay. Have students
write a sentence that summarizes the
Dale-Chall: 6.3
main idea of Dillard’s essay. Then have
DRP: 59
Lexile: 1040
them list five details from the essay that
support that main idea. Ask volunteers to
read their main ideas and details.

358
 tremulously, “That . . . is
a royal poinciana.” I don’t
remember the tree; I
remember the thrill in her
voice. She pronounced it
carefully, and spelled it.
Visual Vocabulary
A coat of arms is an She also liked to say
arrangement of sym- “portulaca.”3
bols on a shield that,
The drama of the
along with a motto,
represents one’s words “Tamiami Trail”
ancestry. stirred her, we learned on
the same Florida trip.
People built Tampa on one coast, and they
built Miami on another. Then—the height
of visionary 4 ambition and folly—they
piled a slow, tremendous road through the
terrible Everglades to connect them. To
build the road, men stood sunk in muck to
their armpits. They fought off cottonmouth
moccasins and six-foot alligators. They
slept in boats, wet. They blasted muck with
dynamite, cut jungle with machetes; they
laid logs, dragged drilling machines,
hauled dredges, heaped limestone. The
road took fourteen years to build up by the
shovelful, a Panama Canal in reverse, and
cost hundreds of lives from tropical, mos-
quito-carried diseases. Then, capping it all,
some genius thought of the word Tamiami:
they called the road from Tampa to Miami,
this very road under our spinning wheels,
the Tamiami Trail. Some called it Alligator
Alley. Anyone could drive over this road
without a thought.
3. The royal poinciana and the portulaca (pôr chə lakə) are
native to the tropics and bear bright flowers.
4. Here, visionary refers to imagining something in perfect
but unrealistic form. People had foreseen the benefits of
connecting the two cities but overlooked practical
considerations involved in constructing the road.
3 Connect to Personal Experience What does the
author reveal here about her mother’s personality?
Vocabulary
tremulously (tremyə ləs lē) adv. in a trembling or
vibrating way
Approaching Level
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd 359 I N STR UCTION
AAVE Approaching-level students who
use African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) may be accustomed to using
nonstandard forms of the verb to be. Write
the following examples of Dillard’s “Pitts-
burghisms” on the board.
• This glass needs washed.
• The dog needs walked.
Say: Dillard left out the verb to be
in these sentences to reflect the way
Hearing this, moved, I thought all the
suffering of road building was worth it (it
wasn’t my suffering), now that we had this
new thing to hang these new words on—
Alligator Alley for those who like things
cute, and, for connoisseurs like Mother, for
lovers of the human drama in all its bold-
ness and terror, the Tamiami Trail.
Back home, Mother cut clips from reels
of talk, as it were, and played them back at
leisure. She noticed that many Pittsburghers
confuse “leave” and “let.” One kind relative
brightened our morning by mentioning why
she’d brought her son to visit: “He wanted
to come with me, so I left him.” Mother
filled in Amy and me on locutions we
missed. “I can’t do it on Friday,” her pretty
sister told a crowded dinner party, “because
Friday’s the day I lay in the stores.”5
(All unconsciously, though, we ourselves
used some pure Pittsburghisms. We said
“tele pole,” pronounced “telly pole,” for that
splintery sidewalk post I loved to climb. We
said “slippy”—the sidewalks are “slippy.”
We said, “That’s all the farther I could go.”
And we said, as Pittsburghers do say, “This
glass needs washed,” or “The dog needs
walked”—a usage our father eschewed; he
knew it was not standard English, nor even
comprehensible English, but he never let on.)
“Spell ‘poinsettia,’” Mother would throw
out at me, smiling with pleasure. “Spell
‘sherbet.’” The idea was not to make us
whizzes, but, quite the contrary, to remind
us—and I, especially, needed reminding—
5. Locutions are forms or styles of verbal expression. Where
this woman said she had to lay in the stores, Mother
might have said she had to go grocery shopping.
The Power of Memory Why do you think her mother
is trying to remind the author that she does not “know it
all just yet”?
Vocabulary
eschew (es choo) v. to keep apart from something
disliked or harmful; avoid
ANNI E D I L L ARD 359
3/12/08
many people spoke in Pittsburgh when
she was a child. If she had written the
sentences in standard English, Dillard
would have written This glass needs to
be washed and The dog needs to be
walked. Have students write two or three
sentences that include the infinitive to be.
Teach
Reading Strategy 3
Connect to Personal
Experience Answer: She is
eccentric or odd, dramatic, and loves
to play with words and phrases.
ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S Explain to Eng-
lish learners that they should not
take the phrase “she served us” lit-
erally. The mother is not serving her
family words, as one would serve
food. Ask English learners what
they think this phrase means. (She
is bringing interesting words and
phrases to the family’s attention.)
For additional practice using the
reading skill or strategy, see Unit 2
Teaching Resources Book, p. 103.
Big Idea 4
The Power of Memory
Answer: Her mother was trying
to teach her to keep learning or to
avoid being overly proud of what
she already knows.
A DVA NC E D Ask: What does
the author suggest about her
childhood self when she says, “I,
4 especially, needed reminding”?
(The author suggests that, as a
child, she had an inflated percep-
tion of her own intelligence.)
12:38:02 PM
Cultural History S
Tamiami Trail The Tamiami Trail,
built in 1928, made direct travel
between the two coasts of Florida
possible. Over 270 miles long, it
was cut out of the rock beneath
the Everglades. Some environmen-
talists now criticize the highway for
interrupting the natural wildlife of
the Everglades.
359
Teach
Literary Element 1 “No. I just wanted to tell you something
Anecdote Answer: She
appreciates people who can think
unconventionally or who can chal-
lenge her intellect. Ask: To what
does “it” refer in this sentence?
(“It” refers to the mother’s “verbal
challenge.”)
Reading Strategy 2 years to determine where the joke lay.
Connect to Personal
Experience Answer: The
author would have chosen to act
out the part of Cecile to please her
mother, or she would have told
the caller it was a wrong number
because she was embarrassed.
1 reveal about what Dillard’s mother values in life?
Research Practice
0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd
SPIRAL
REVIEW
Library and Internet Skills
Have students choose a commer-
cial product that Mother mentions
and find a description and the history of
the product using either print or Internet
sources. Suggest that students might find
advertisements for the product in old
periodicals housed in the library and that
they might use the Internet to find the
manufacturer’s Web site. When
students have finished their research,
360
that we didn’t know it all just yet. “There’s
a deer standing in the front hall,” she told
me one quiet evening in the country.
“Really?”
once without your saying, ‘I know.’”
Supermarkets in the middle 1950s began
luring, or bothering, customers by giving
out Top Value Stamps or Green Stamps.6
When, shopping with Mother, we got to the
head of the checkout line, the checker,
always a young man, asked, “Save stamps?”
“No,” Mother replied genially, week
after week, “I build model airplanes.” I
believe she originated this line. It took me
Anyone who met her verbal challenges
she adored. She had surgery on one of her
eyes. On the operating table, just before she
conked out, she appealed feelingly to the
surgeon, saying, as she had been planning
to say for weeks, “Will I be able to play the
piano?” “Not on me,” the surgeon said.
“You won’t pull that old one on me.”
It was, indeed, an old one. The surgeon
was supposed to answer, “Yes, my dear,
brave woman, you will be able to play the
piano after this operation,” to which Mother
intended to reply, “Oh, good, I’ve always
wanted to play the piano.” This pat scenario
bored her; she loved having it interrupted. It
must have galled7 her that usually her
acquaintances were so predictably unalert; it
must have galled her that, for the length of
her life, she could surprise everyone so con-
tinually, so easily, when she had been the
same all along. At any rate, she loved any-
6. [Top Value . . . Stamps] Stores gave customers a certain
number of stamps per dollar spent. These stamps were
saved up and later exchanged for merchandise.
7. Here, galled means “irritated.”
Anecdote What does the exchange with the surgeon
360 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON
360
have them pretend that they are Mother
and write a letter to the manufacturer
explaining what they liked and disliked
about the product and whether they
would use the product again.
one who, as she put it, saw it coming, and
called her on it.
She regarded the instructions on bureau-
cratic forms as straight lines.8 “Do you
advocate the overthrow of the United
States government by force or violence?”
After some thought she wrote, “Force.” She
regarded children, even babies, as straight
men.9 When Molly learned to crawl,
Mother delighted in
buying her gowns
with drawstrings at
the bottom, like
Visual Vocabulary
Swee’pea’s, Swee’pea is the baby
because, as she in “Popeye” cartoons.
explained energeti-
cally, you could easily step on the draw-
string without the baby’s noticing, so
that she crawled and crawled and
crawled and never got anywhere except
into a small ball at the gown’s top.
When we children were young, she moth-
ered us tenderly and dependably; as we
got older, she resumed her career of anar-
chism.10 She collared us into her gags. If
she answered the phone on a wrong num-
ber, she told the caller, “Just a minute,”
and dragged the receiver to Amy or me,
saying, “Here, take this, your name is
Cecile,” or, worse, just, “It’s for you.” You
had to think on your feet. But did you
want to perform well as Cecile, or did
8. Bureaucratic refers to the rigidly formal paperwork and
procedures involved in dealing with government officials
and agencies. For Mother, these things were setups for
jokes—the straight lines that led to punch lines.
9. Straight men are people who assist comedians by
feeding them straight lines or serving as objects of fun.
10. Here, anarchism refers to active resistance against what
is oppressive and undesirable.
Connect to Personal Experience Which option do you
think the author might have chosen in this situation? Why? 2
Vocabulary
advocate (advə kāt́) v. to publicly support
3/19/08 2:32:53 P
 you want to take pity on the wretched
caller?
During a family trip to the Highland
Park Zoo, Mother and I were alone for a
minute. She approached a young couple
holding hands on a bench by the seals,
and addressed the young man in drip-
ping11 tones: “Where have you been? Still
got those baby-blue eyes; always did slay
me. And this”—a swift nod at the dumb-
struck young woman, who had removed
her hand from the man’s—“must be the
one you were telling me about. She’s not
so bad, really, as you used to make out.
But listen, you know how I miss you, you
know where to reach me, same old place.
And there’s Ann over there—see how
she’s grown? See the blue eyes?”
And off she sashayed,12 taking me
firmly by the hand, and leading us
around briskly past the monkey house
and away. She cocked an ear back, and
both of us heard the desperate man begin,
in a high-pitched wail, “I swear, I never
saw her before in my life. . . .”
On a long, sloping beach by the ocean, she
lay stretched out sunning with Father and
friends, until the conversation gradually
grew tedious, when without forethought
she gave a little push with her heel and
rolled away. People were stunned. She
rolled deadpan and apparently effortlessly,
arms and legs extended and tidy, down the
beach to the distant water’s edge, where
she lay at ease just as she had been, but
half in the surf, and well out of earshot.
She dearly loved to fluster people by
throwing out a game’s rules at whim13—
when she was getting bored, losing in a dull
sort of way, and when everybody else was
taking it too seriously. If you turned your
11. Dripping here refers to using excessive charm or appeal.
12. She sashayed or walked in a way that showed a
seeming lack of interest.
13. The phrase at whim means “suddenly and unexpectedly.”
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM 0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd 361 I N STR UCTION
SMALL GROUP
Advanced Remind students
that Dillard frequently uses idioms
when describing her mother. Then locate
the idiom conked out, which describes
Dillard’s mother on the operating table.
Explain that the idiom means “went to
sleep.” Gather students in small groups,
and ask them to brainstorm other idioms
that have the same meaning as conk
out. Have students compile a list of other
back, she moved the checkers around on the
board. When you got them all straightened Teach
out, she denied she’d touched them; the
next time you turned your back, she lined
them up on the rug or hid them under your
chair. In a betting rummy game called Cultural History S
Michigan, she routinely played out of turn, Cartoon Characters Elzie Crisler
or called out a card she didn’t hold, or Segar introduced the cartoon
counted backward, simply to amuse herself
character Popeye, a sailor who
by causing an uproar and watching the rest
of us do double takes and have fits. (Much develops superhuman strength
later, when serious suitors came to call, after eating spinach, in comic strip
Mother subjected them to this fast card form in 1928. Popeye cartoons
game as a trial by ordeal; she used it as an were made for American television
intelligence test and a measure of spirit. If in the 1960s and 70s. Swee’pea
the poor man could stay a round without
(p. 360) is Popeye’s adopted baby.
breaking down or running out, he got to
marry one of us, if he still wanted to.)
She excelled at bridge, playing fast and
boldly, but when the stakes were low and
the hands dull, she bid slams14 for the devil- Literary Element 3
ment of it, or raised her opponents’ suit to
bug them, or showed her hand, or tossed Anecdote Ask: What does
her cards in a handful behind her back in a the anecdote involving the
characteristic swift motion accompanied by bridge games reveal about the
a vibrantly innocent look. It drove our
author’s mother? (The mother
stolid father crazy. The hand was over 3
before it began, and the guests were was a skilled card player, but
appalled. How do you score it, who deals when the game got dull she often
now, what do you do with a crazy person ignored the rules to entertain
who is having so much fun? Or they were herself.)
down seven, and the guests were appalled. ENGLIS H LE A R N E R S To help
“Pam!” “Dammit, Pam!” He groaned. What
ails such people? What on earth possesses English learners understand this
them? He rubbed his face. anecdote, provide the following
She was an unstoppable force; she never definitions: devilment: mischief; to
let go. When we moved across town, she bug them: to annoy them.
persuaded the U.S. Post Office to let her
keep her old address—forever—because
14. When she bid slams, Mother “went for broke,” betting
that she would win every or all but one of the tricks in a
round of play.
Vocabulary
stolid (stolid) adj. showing little or no emotion
ANNI E D I L L ARD 361
3/19/08 2:33:06 PM
idioms. (Examples may include zonk out,
drift off, pass out, crash, drop off, nod off,
sack out, fall out, and turn in.)
After students have compiled their lists,
invite a volunteer from each group to share
the group’s idioms with the class.
361
Teach
Literary Element
Anecdote Answer: They
may have felt their intelligence
and abilities were going to waste
as housewives, since there were
not many opportunities for them
outside the home.
Reading Strategy
Connect to Personal
Experience Answer: Students
may point out that independent
thinkers like Dillard’s mother are
happiest when they can develop
new ideas and be free from
routines.
she’d had stationery printed. I don’t know
how she did it. Every new post office
worker, over decades, needed to learn that
although the Doaks’ mail is addressed to
1
here, it is delivered to there.
Mother’s energy and intelligence suited
her for a greater role in a larger arena—
mayor of New York, say—than the one she
had. She followed American politics closely;
she had been known to vote for Democrats.
She saw how things should be run, but she
had nothing to run but our household. Even
there, small minds bugged her; she was
smarter than the people who designed the
2 things she had to use all day for the length
of her life.
1 Anecdote What does this sentence reveal about how
some women of that generation may have felt?
“Look,” she said. “Whoever designed this
corkscrew never used one. Why would any-
one sell it without trying it out?” So she
invented a better one. She showed me a
drawing of it. The spirit of American enter-
prise never faded in Mother. If capitalizing
and tooling up15 had been as interesting as
theorizing and thinking up, she would have
fired up a new factory every week, and
chaired several hundred corporations.
“It grieves me,” she would say, “it
grieves my heart,” that the company that
15. Capitalizing and tooling up has to do with providing the
finances and equipment necessary to start up a new
business or factory.
Connect to Personal Experience Why do you think
people like Dillard’s mother may prefer theorizing and 2
inventing to running a business?

S
Answer: This advertisement helps
illustrate Dillard’s mother’s fascina-
tion with advertising techniques
and interesting or unusual turns of
phrase. With her love of jokes and
entertainment, she would have
enjoyed this circus poster.
Showman P. T. Barnum (1810–
1891) is sometimes called the
Shakespeare of Advertising. In part-
nership with James A. Bailey (1847–
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey—Trains. Artist unknown.
1906), Barnum & Bailey launched Travelling circuses used posters that featured exaggeration and excitement to attract audiences. What idea
“The Greatest Show on Earth,” a in the selection does this advertisement help illustrate?
spectacle that appealed to opera
lovers and curiosity seekers alike. 362 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Writing Practice
0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd 362 3/12/08 12:38:10

SPIRAL
REVIEW
Dialogue Dillard says that her might have reacted. Then have them write
mother challenged her daughters’ the dialogue that might have taken place
dates to ridiculous card games to between Mother, Annie as a teenager, and
test their intelligence and measure their one of Annie’s boyfriends.
spirit. Help students develop a deeper
understanding of the text by having them
imagine the conversation that might
have taken place between Mother and
her daughters’ boyfriends. Suggest that
students consider how the young men
might have felt and how her daughters

362
 made one superior product packaged it
poorly, or took the wrong tack16 in its
advertising. She knew, as she held the
thing mournfully in her two hands, that
she’d never find another. She was right.
We children wholly sympathized, and so
did Father; what could she do, what
could anyone do, about it? She was
Samson17 in chains. She paced.
She didn’t like the taste of stamps so
she didn’t lick stamps; she licked the cor-
ner of the envelope instead. She glued
sandpaper to the sides of kitchen draw-
ers, and under kitchen cabinets, so she
always had a handy place to strike a
match. She designed, and hounded work-
men to build against all norms,18 doubly
wide kitchen counters and elevated bath-
room sinks. . . . She drew plans for an
over-the-finger toothbrush for babies, an
oven rack that slid up and down, and—
the family favorite—Lendalarm.
Lendalarm was a beeper you attached to
books (or tools) you loaned friends. After
ten days, the beeper sounded. Only the
rightful owner could silence it.
She repeatedly reminded us of P. T.
Barnum’s dictum:19 You could sell any-
thing to anybody if you marketed it right.
The adman who thought of making
Americans believe they needed underarm
deodorant was a visionary. So, too, was
16. The company took the wrong course of action or tack.
17. In the Bible, Samson is powerful and mighty until an
enemy tricks him. Soon Samson is chained up in prison.
18. Here, the norms are rules, standards, and accepted
practices.
19. In the 1800s, Barnum presented many popular
entertainments, including what is now the Ringling
Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The actual words
of his famous saying (dictum) were “There’s a sucker
born every minute.”
English Learners
DI F F ER E NTIATED
PM0358_0363_U2P1_877979.indd 363 I N STR UCTION
Beginning Tell students to pair up and
select a passage that presents difficulty
for them. Have them make a list of words
from the passage that are difficult to
decode, and then use a dictionary to find
the pronunciations and meanings of the
words. Suggest that students repeat the
words aloud several times. Once they have
gained some confidence, have students
read the selection to each other, paying
the hero who made a success of a new
product, Ivory soap. The executives were Teach
horrified, Mother told me, that a cake of
this stuff floated. Soap wasn’t supposed to Big Idea 3
float. Anyone would be able to tell it was
mostly whipped-up air. Then some The Power of Memory
inspired adman made a leap: Advertise
Answer: She is making the point
that it floats. Flaunt it. The rest is history.
She respected the rare few who broke that her mother taught them to
through to new ways. “Look,” she’d say, think for themselves and stand
“here’s an intelligent apron.” She called for what they believed to be right,
upon us to admire intelligent control even if they had to do it alone.
knobs and intelligent pan handles, intel- A DVA N C E D Have students con-
ligent andirons and picture frames and
knife sharpeners. She questioned every-
sider the ways in which the author
thing, every pair of scissors, every knit- has incorporated her memories
ting needle, gardening glove, tape of her mother into her life as
dispenser. Hers was a restless mental demonstrated by this selection.
vigor that just about ignited the dumb (She has used her mother’s
household objects with its force. example to become a better writer
Torpid20 conformity was a kind of sin; it
and an independent woman.)
was stupidity itself, the mighty stream
against which Mother would never cease to
struggle. If you held no minority opinions, or
if you failed to risk total ostracism for them
daily, the world would be a better place
without you. . . .
She simply tried to keep us all awake. And
To check students’ understanding
in fact it was always clear to Amy and me, of the selection, see Unit 2 Teach-
and to Molly when she grew old enough to ing Resources Book, pp. 107–108.
listen, that if our classmates came to cruelty,
just as much as if the neighborhood or the
nation came to madness, we were expected Progress Check
to take, and would be each separately
capable of taking, a stand. m Can students understand
anecdotes?
20. Something that’s torpid is dull and lifeless.
If No ➔ See Unit 2 Teaching
The Power of Memory Why do you think the author Resources Book, p. 102.
used the words “and would be each separately capable of 3
taking” here?
ANNI E D I L L ARD 363
3/12/08 12:38:14 PM
particular attention to the pronunciation of
the words on their lists.
363
After You Read After You Read

Assess Respond and Think Critically

1. Students’ responses will vary.
2. (a) The phrase may seem
absurd, or she may like the
combination of sounds. (b)
She has a whimsical sense of
humor; enjoys the absurdities of
language and life
3. (a) Pretends to know a young
man sitting with his girlfriend;
purposely misplays a bridge
hand (b) She does not seem to
care about the couple and she
seems to try to upset her bridge
partners.
4. Dillard’s mother continually
thinks of ways to improve prod-
ucts and invents new and useful
ones.
5. (a) Details of the Tamiami Trail;
“Pittsburghisms”; and card game
antics (b) Details add humor
and affection and enliven
scenes.
6. Her humor and zest for life
would make her an ideal
mother for some; others would
not want a quirky, restless
mother.
7. Her interest in the quality of
products and the techniques
of advertising would be rel-
evant today. Her teasing of
the couple in the zoo may be
inappropriate.
Respond and Interpret
1. What questions would you like to ask the author
about her mother?
2. (a)Why does Dillard’s mother enjoy the phrase
“Terwilliger bunts one”? (b)What does her moth-
er’s reaction to and use of this phrase suggest
about her personality?
3. (a)Describe two incidents that illustrate how her
mother’s unexpected behavior flusters people.
(b)Do you think the author’s mother cares
about the consequences of her actions?
Analyze and Evaluate
4. What does Dillard mean when she says the
Literary Element Anecdote
Essayists often use anecdotes to support their opin-
ions, clarify their ideas, and get a reader’s attention.
1. What main point do you think Dillard wanted to
make through the anecdotes about her mother?
2. Dillard’s mother tested suitors. What insight
does this give you into the Dillard’s relationship
with her mother?
Reading Strategy Connect to Personal
Experience
Personal experiences guide readers toward
insightful analysis of the text. Use your chart from
p. 357 to answer the following questions.
1. Which of your personal experiences most helped
you relate to Dillard’s stories about her mother?
2. Do you think most readers would be able to
connect to these stories? Why or why not?
Literature Online
Selection Resources For Selection Quizzes, eFlash-
cards, and Reading-Writing Connection activities, go to
glencoe.com and enter QuickPass code GL59794u2.
“spirit of American enterprise never faded in
Mother”?
5. (a)Identify places in the selection that illustrate
the author’s attention to detail. (b)How do
these details enhance your appreciation of the
selection?
Connect
6. Big Idea The Power of Memory How does
the author’s mother compare with your idea of
an ideal mother? Explain
7. Connect to Today Which of Dillard’s mother’s
opinions or actions would be appropriate or
relevant today?
Vocabulary Practice
Practice with Synonyms A synonym is a
word that has the same or nearly the same
meaning as another word. With a partner,
match each boldfaced vocabulary word below
with its synonym. Use a thesaurus or dictionary
to check your answers.
1. tremulously a. avoid
2. eschew b. tremblingly
3. advocate c. listlessly
4. stolid d. haughty
e. unemotional
f. recommend
Writing
Write an Anecdote In one or two paragraphs,
write an anecdote about a person you know, in
which the person reveals an amusing quirk or some
other notable personality trait. Make it clear that the
anecdote is not a description of an isolated event
but an illustration of the person’s habitual behavior.

364 U N IT 2 NONFI C TI ON

Literary Element
1. She wanted to portray her 0364_U2P1_877979.indd 364 3/25/08 8:52:01 AM

mother’s complexity, unique- Reading Strategy Vocabulary Practice

ness, and significant influence
1. Answers will vary. Practice with Synonyms
as a role model.
2. Students may say that it is difficult to 1. b 2. a 3. f 4. e
2. Their mother cared about the
relate to this story since the mother
quality and character of men
who wanted to marry her
was unique. Others may find that Writing
their familial relationships were
daughters, but she was also Students’ paragraphs should:
similar.
controlling to judge their worth • focus on a single person
by her rules. • describe the subject’s personality
For additional assessment, see • include information from more than
Assessment Resources, pp. 89–90.
one event
364