Extended Response Example – Written by 7th period AND Mrs. Brinson
Question: How do Julia’s feelings about her name change over time?
Support your answer with details from the text.
Julia’s feelings about her name changed over time in
the story Names Nombres. In the beginning Julia was
very protective of the correct pronunciation of her name
and as the story moved on, she was less concerned with
that. Some examples to show Julia’s feeling over time are
when Julia and her family first arrived in America the
second time, the officer mispronounced her family’s name
really wrong. Julia wanted to correct him, but was afraid
her family would not be let into the country. Julia took
the time to pronounce her name correctly under her breath
pronouncing every syllable. This action reveals how
important it is for people to at least try and pronounce
her family’s name correctly. Further in the story, Julia
went to her mother in frustration about wanting to correct
her new friends and teachers at school, but her mother
told her not to bother.
In time it was revealed that Julia had become popular
and she wrote “I was no longer worried about the
pronunciation of my name.” Julia wrote about her various
nicknames from her friends and how those names
represented “good times.” Julia wrote about a time when
her friends asked her where she was from and asked her
to pronounce all of her names that are associated with her
heritage. It can be inferred that Julia was not
comfortable with this situation as it only brought to light
that she was different and being “different” isn’t at all
what Julia wanted. Once she was older, she simply wanted
to fit in.
The examples given should be clear in showing how
Julia’s feelings of her name changed from the beginning of
the story to the end.