Before Reading
In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles
How would you like to be
R3.7 Explain the effects of common
literary devices (e.g., symbolism,
imagery, metaphor) in a variety of
fictional and nonfictional texts.
R3.8 Critique the credibility of
characterization and the degree to
which a plot is contrived or realistic
(e.g., compare use of fact and fantasy
in historical fiction).
816
Poem by Francisco X. Alarcón
For Gwen, 1969
Poem by Margaret Walker
remembered ?
KEY IDEA Suppose you and your family were moving to another
state. How would you want to be remembered by your friends
and classmates? Would you like them to remember something
you accomplished, the way you looked, or how you treated others?
The poems you are about to read recollect the lasting impact of a
special grandmother and an important American poet.
LIST IT Divide a sheet of paper in half. Use one half to list what
you remember about a person who has had a significant effect
on your life. On the other half of the page, make a list of the
ways you hope to be remembered.
How I Remember How I Want to Be Remembered
1. 1.
2. 2.
literary analysis: characterization in poetry
In just a few lines, a poem can paint a portrait of a
memorable character. To create great characters, poets Francisco X.
Alarcón: Poet of
use four methods of characterization similar to those
Two Countries
used for fiction and nonfiction. Those methods are
When Francisco
• describing the character’s physical appearance Alarcón was a
• presenting the character’s thoughts, words, and actions child, his family
moved back and
• presenting the thoughts, words, and actions of other
forth between
characters
Mexico and the
• having the speaker of the poem comment directly on United States
the character several times. Francisco X. Alarcón
born 1954
As you read the following poems, look for places where the One constant in his
poets use these methods of characterization. Record the life was his grandmother, who helped
examples in a chart like the one shown. raise him. Among his recent projects is
a bilingual poetry collection for young
Grandmother Gwen readers.
What does the
Margaret Walker:
character look like?
Historian for the
What does she think, “mijito People Margaret
say, and do? don’t cry” Walker graduated
from college at
(lines 4–5)
the height of the
What do others say Great Depression.
about her? She eventually
found a writing
job through the
reading skill: identify imagery Works Progress Margaret Walker
1915–1998
Many poets use imagery to create vivid descriptions. Administration, a
Imagery is made up of words and phrases that appeal to government job-creation agency. It
one of the reader’s five senses: touch, sight, taste, smell, and was the beginning of a long career as
hearing. These sensory details help to hint at different ideas a poet, essayist, and professor. Among
her coworkers were novelist Richard
and emotions surrounding the poem’s subject or setting.
Wright and poet Gwendolyn Brooks.
As you read “In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” and “For
Gwen, 1969,” pay attention to the words and phrases each more about the author
poet uses to appeal to your senses. Consider what ideas or For more on these poets, visit the
Literature Center at ClassZone.com.
emotions these details might suggest.

817
 In a
Neighborhood
in !os
"ngeles Francisco X. Alarcón

I learned
Spanish
from my grandma

mijito1
5 don’t cry
she’d tell me a a CHARACTERIZATION
What do the
grandmother’s words
on the mornings in lines 4–6 tell us
my parents about her? Record this
would leave information in your
characterization chart.
10 to work
at the f ish
canneries

my grandma
would chat
15 with chairs

sing them
old b CHARACTERIZATION
songs Reread lines 13–21. What
can you infer about
the grandmother’s
dance personality from this
20 waltzes with them description of her
in the kitchen b actions?

1. mijito (mC-hCPtI): Spanish for “my

little child.” A contraction of the
phrase mi hijito.

818 unit 7: biography and autobiography

 when she’d say
niño barrigón 2
she’d laugh

25 with my grandma
I learned
to count clouds

to point out
in f lowerpots
30 mint leaves

my grandma
wore moons
on her dress

Mexico’s mountains
35 deserts
ocean

in her eyes
I’d see them
in her braids

40 I’d touch them

in her voice
smell them c c IDENTIFY IMAGERY
What sensory details
in lines 31–42 help you
one day visualize, or form a
I was told: mental picture of, the
45 she went far away speaker’s grandmother?

but still
I feel her
with me

whispering
50 in my ear
mijito

2. niño barrigón (nCnPyI

bär-rC-gInQ): a Spanish phrase
meaning “potbellied little boy.”

820 unit 7: biography and autobiography

 Rain Slicked Avenue (2004), Lisbeth Firmin. Oil on panel, 20˝ × 20˝. Klaudia Marr
Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For Gwen,
969 (Gwendolyn Brooks)
Margaret Walker

The slender, shy, and sensitive young girl

is woman now,
her words a power in the Ebon land.1
Outside her window on the street
5 a mass of life moves by.
Chicago is her city. d d CHARACTERIZATION
Her heart f lowers with its f lame— Reread lines 1–6. What
do you learn about
old stockyards, new beaches Gwen in these lines?
all the little storefront churches
10 and the bar on the corner.
Dreamer and seer of tales
She witnesses rebellion,
struggle and sweat.
e IDENTIFY IMAGERY
The people are her heartbeat— What senses do the
15 In their footsteps pulsate daily details in lines 14–16
all her black words of f ire and blood. e appeal to?

1. Ebon land: a reference to African-American society

and culture.

in a neighborhood in los angeles / for gwen, 1969 821

 Reading for Information
MAGAZINE ARTICLE In “For Gwen, 1969,” Margaret Walker celebrates the
successes of her friend, Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks remained successful and
influential for 30 years after 1969. This article traces her impressive career.
A Way with Words
James C. Hall
Gwendolyn Brooks liked to say that
African-American poetry is the story
of a community learning “to lift its
face unashamed.” Poetry’s emotion
and commitment to powerful,
memorable language made it ideal
for writers who wanted to transform
how people felt about the possibilities
of the future. Gwendolyn Brooks has
always successfully tapped the ability
of poetry to affect our sense of life’s
possibilities. . . .
By paying close attention to the
lives of common folk in the Chicago
neighborhoods around her, Brooks
discovered a way to draw attention
to the unjust conditions in which they
lived and to celebrate the fact that
they did so with courage and purpose.
Keeping families together, caring for
loved ones, educating, and teaching
were all necessary parts of the
struggle—parts that most definitely
deserved celebration. . . . Yet, at the
same time, Brooks’s poetry did not
reduce the complex nature of human
beings to social problems.
Her book Annie Allen was granted
the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, and Brooks
became the first African American to
win that award. Brooks’s poetry was
elaborate in its use of symbolism and
its reference to other writing. However,
822 unit 7: biogr aphy and autobiogr aphy
she always managed
to tell the story of
individuals whose lives
and struggles were
easy to recognize
and respect. Human
lives were always
complicated in a
Brooks poem, but a
reader rarely leaves her
work puzzled or unaffected.
Brooks was born in 1917 and
died in 2000. For most of her life,
Chicago was home, and she had
always been one of its model cultural
ambassadors. . . .
In the final decades of Brooks’s life,
she worked to cultivate an interest
in poetry among schoolchildren. She
recognized how underserved Chicago’s
children were and how often poetry
and the arts were the first activities
to be cut in an underfunded school
system. With her own resources, she
sponsored a poetry contest for children
of all backgrounds and creatively
drew attention to the skills and ability
that might be lost. As effectively as
any writer in the African-American
tradition, Brooks managed to model
a life and create a body of work that
made known the necessity of “lifting
one’s face unashamed.”
After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall What is Gwen’s “heartbeat” in “For Gwen, 1969”? R3.7 Explain the effects of common
literary devices (e.g., symbolism,
2. Clarify What happens to the speaker’s grandmother at the end of imagery, metaphor) in a variety of
fictional and nonfictional texts.
“In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles”? R3.8 Critique the credibility of
characterization and the degree to
3. Represent Based on the details in “In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles,” which a plot is contrived or realistic
create a sketch of the speaker’s grandmother. (e.g., compare use of fact and fantasy
in historical fiction).

Literary Analysis
4. Make Inferences About Character Reread lines 1–3 of “For Gwen, 1969.”
What can you infer about the speaker’s feelings toward Gwen?
5. Identify Author’s Purpose What do you think is the author’s main purpose
in each poem—to inform, to entertain, to persuade, or to share personal
thoughts and feelings? Support your answer with details from the poems.
6. Analyze Characterization Look back at the chart you filled in as you read.
Explain which methods of characterization the poet relies on most in “In a
Neighborhood in Los Angeles.” Is his characterization believable?
7. Analyze Imagery The poem “In a Neighborhood in Los Angeles” uses
imagery to describe the speaker’s grandmother. In a web like the one shown,
write down the details from the poem that appeal to each of the five senses.
Then note the feelings or ideas this imagery helps the speaker express.

Hearing Smell
in her voice smell them
“In a Neighborhood
in Los Angeles”
suggests joy, Sight
Taste/
fun dance waltzes
Touch

8. Evaluate Characterization Which character do you think is more

powerfully presented, the grandmother or Gwen? Explain.

Extension and Challenge

9. Big Question Activity With a small group of classmates, compare and
contrast the ways in which the poems describe their subjects. Do you
think the women would be happy with the way they are remembered?
10. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION Reread the article about
Gwendolyn Brooks on page 822, then do some research on Chicago
during the 1960s. Why might Margaret Walker have chosen the year 1969
as the setting for her poem about Brooks?

in a neighborhood in los angeles / for gwen, 1969 823