SHORT STORY
What Do Fish Have to
Do with Anything?
by AVI
Connect to Your Life
Important Lessons Have you ever had an experience
in which someone unexpected taught you an
important lesson about life? Perhaps it was a person
you knew well, like a sister. Perhaps it was someone
you had never seen before. What was the lesson that
you learned? Share your experience with a classmate.
Build Background
Focus Your Reading
LITERARY ANALYSIS DYNAMIC AND STATIC CHARACTERS
CURRENT EVENTS
In recent years, a growing number of
children in the United States have had
to take care of themselves while their
parents were away at work.
While parents try to prepare their
children to be responsible and to know
what to do in case of emergency, for
many children being on their own
brings loneliness and worry. In the
following story Willie must stay home
by himself while his mother works. As
you read, think about how this might
contribute to the overall story.
Static characters are relatively simple characters who do
not change throughout a story. Dynamic characters are
more complex characters who undergo change as the
result of events in a story’s plot. Both main and minor
characters can be dynamic or static.
ACTIVE READING DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
To understand a story, you need to draw conclusions
about the characters based on information in the story
and what you know from your own experience. What
characters do, say, think, and what others say and think
about them is called characterization. You get to know
characters in a story through characterization.
READER'S NOTEBOOK
WORDS TO KNOW Vocabulary Preview
contemplated
intently
interval
nuisance
urgency
Copyright © McDougal Littell Inc.
As you read this story, choose a character and jot down
the way in which he or she is characterized. Then write
conclusions you can draw from the details.