Teacher Guide
Novel
Companion
My Ántonia
Willa Cather
Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
Our Town
Thornton Wilder
The Way to Rainy
Mountain
N. Scott Momaday
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Photo Credits
10 Getty Images; 18 CORBIS; 26 Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS; 35 G.E. Kidder Smith/
CORBIS; 43 Bettmann/CORBIS; 52 E.O. Hoppé/CORBIS.
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is given to authors, publishers, photographers, museums,
and agents for permission to reprint the following copyrighted material. Every effort
has been made to determine copyright owners. In case of any omissions, the Publisher
will be pleased to make suitable acknowledgments in future editions.
Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except
as permitted under the United States Copyright Act, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a
database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher.
Send all inquiries to:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
8787 Orion Place
Columbus, OH 43240-4027
ISBN: 978-0-07-889162-5
MHID: 0-07-889162-0
Printed in the United States of America.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 047 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Novel Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Connection to the Glencoe Literature Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Connection to Glencoe’s Literature Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Overview of the Structure of the Novel Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Interacting with Excerpts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Using Excerpts to Compare and Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Interactive Reading Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Note-Taking Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Note-Taking Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Outline of the Novel Companion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Unit 1
My Antonia by Willa Cather
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Unit 2
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Unit 3
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Unit 4
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Unit 5
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
. . . . . . . . . . 43
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Unit 6
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
52
About the Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Options for Motivating Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Options for Using Related Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
iv
ABOU T THE NOVEL COMPANION
The Novel Companion is the advanced
level of Glencoe’s interactive reading
workbooks, Interactive Read and Write,
which accompany the literature program,
Glencoe Literature. Students will study six
novels, autobiographies, and plays as they
complete the Novel Companion workbook.
Each title they study is paired with one
unit of Glencoe Literature. The titles, chosen
from those offered in Glencoe’s Literature
Library, represent well-known and muchloved literature both from the literary
canon and from award-winning modern
works. They challenge advanced students
by offering readabilities that are either at
grade level or one grade above level.
The Novel Companion workbook does not
include the full text of the novels (and the
other longer works). Each student should
have easy access to their own copies of
the novels. The Novel Companion does
include numerous excerpts from the
novels. These excerpts allow students to
do close readings of the text as they study
key aspects of the novel that reflect
important concepts already covered in
Glencoe Literature.
Connection to the Glencoe
Literature Program
The major themes and concepts represented
by the literary works featured in the Novel
Companion have been carefully matched to
Glencoe Literature’s Big Ideas, the major
themes and concepts that appear in each
unit of the Glencoe Literature program. The
Novel Companion’s approach to teaching
literature and reading is also modeled after
that of Glencoe Literature: students study
literary elements, apply reading
strategies, learn new vocabulary, write
about literature, and engage in other
activities related to the literature. The
Novel Companion, however, additionally
teaches students note-taking techniques to
help them make connections between the
Novel Companion’s longer works and
Glencoe Literature’s shorter works.
Although the Novel Companion is
designed to be used in conjunction with
Glencoe Literature, it can easily be used
independently. For example, students
may wish to delay beginning their novels
until after they’ve finished their unit work
in Glencoe Literature. (Note that the
literary elements paired with a novel
draw from literary elements taught in
units up to and including the unit to
which the novel has been assigned,
whereas the Big Ideas and reading
strategies draw only from the unit to
which the novel has been assigned.)
Connection to Glencoe’s
Literature Library
Students may use any published version
of the novel in their work with the Novel
Companion. Library editions of the titles are
offered by Glencoe in its Literature Library
series. These editions include related
readings, for which the Novel Companion
offeres activities that give students the
opportunity to relate themes and concepts
from the novel to other types of literature.
A bout the N ovel Compani on
1
ABOUT T H E NOVEL COMPANION
Overview of the Structure
of the Novel Companion
The Novel Companion has students practice
applying advanced-level skills, first taught
in Glencoe Literature, to excerpts from novels
and other longer works. The workbook
begins by introducing each novel and its
author. It then breaks down the literary
work into sets consisting of several chapters
each. The teaching apparatus for the
chapter sets mirrors that for the literature
selections in Glencoe Literature: each has
an assigned literary element, a reading
strategy, accompanying vocabulary words,
and writing and extension activities.
Students study the literary element,
reading strategy, and the Big Idea as
reflected in the excerpts.
The Novel Companion includes two general
types of lessons:
• Interactive Reading Lessons are lessons
based on the sequential chapter
groupings (chapter sets) in each novel.
In this part of the workbook, students
practice identifying important ideas and
themes, analyzing literary elements,
applying reading strategies, completing
graphic organizers, and mastering
vocabulary—all skills that expert readers
use to help them comprehend novels
and other lengthy works of literature.
(See pages 4–5.)
• Note-Taking Lessons present two
methods of note-taking to help students
connect the major themes in Glencoe
Literature to the novels and other works
they will be reading. Learning these
valuable methods will help students take
effective notes whenever they study. (See
pages 6–7.)
2
For an annotated outline of the Novel
Companion structure, see pages 8–9.
Interacting with Excerpts
For each novel, students interact with 9–15
excerpts, each one or two pages long. The
excerpts allow students to use targeted
skills to work with targeted text. These
targeted skills include 1) analyzing and
evaluating literary elements inherent in
the text, 2) applying advanced-level reading
strategies, and 3) utilizing specialized
methods of note-taking.
Interacting with Excerpts: Literary Elements
Great works of literature are ideal for
studying the application of literary
techniques, such as satire, and literary
devices, such as hyperbole, as well as
for identifying literary elements, such
as diction. In both Glencoe Literature and
the Novel Companion, literary techniques,
devices, and elements are all referred to
as literary elements because they are present
in the literature and help to define the
literature and create effects. In the Novel
Companion, students study the particular
literary elements of an excerpt by
answering two literary element questions
that address specific highlighted sections
of that excerpt. (See page 4.)
Interacting with Excerpts: Reading
Strategies Literary works are sometimes
difficult to read and understand, even for
advanced-level students. To help students
read such works more easily and effectively,
the Novel Companion re-teaches certain
reading strategies already taught in Glencoe
Literature. The specific strategies are
determined by the complexity of the
literature as well as by whether the literary
elements require a review of certain reading
ABOU T THE NOVEL COMPANION
strategies. For example, to help students
understand an author’s style, it may be
necessary to first teach how to recognize
and analyze an author’s style as you read.
Just as with the literary elements lessons,
students study and apply particular reading
strategies to an excerpt by answering two
questions that address specific highlighted
sections of that excerpt. (See page 4.)
Interacting with Excerpts: Note-Taking To
help students retain what they have read,
the Novel Companion introduces two notetaking systems and demonstrates the value
of these systems by applying them to
targeted areas of literary study: the study
of themes and concepts. These themes and
concepts appear in the form of Big Ideas
that occur in each unit of Glencoe Literature.
By applying both note-taking approaches
to a specific excerpt, students get the most
out of what they’ve read. (See page 7).
Using Excerpts to Compare
and Contrast
In addition to including excerpts from
novels and other longer works, the Novel
Companion also includes excerpts from
selections that appear in Glencoe Literature.
Students compare and contrast three or
four of the longer work’s literary elements
with those of the Glencoe Literature excerpt.
A bout the N ovel Compani on
3
ABOUT THE NOVEL COMPANION
Interactive Reading Lessons
The questions that appear in the interactive reading lessons help direct
students through the process of reading and extracting meaning from the
excerpts. The diagrams on the following pages also appear on pages 2–3 of the
Novel Companion’s student edition and serve to introduce students to these
types of lessons. You may wish to review that section of the student edition
with your students before having them work on the Novel Companion.
Book 1
: Introd uction and
BEFOR E YOU READ
Get Set to Read
NOVEL NOTEBOOK
to record
Keep a special notebook
that you read
entries about the novels
this year.
ture
Conne ct to the Litera
you remember most clearly?
from your childhood do
What people and places
you?
a strong impression on
Why did they leave such
After reading about the novel and the author, you
will begin to read the novel. You will study it in
groupings of chapters, or chapter sets, in the
Novel Companion. Each chapter set begins with
an activity to connect your personal experience to
the literature. You will also read background
material to provide context for the chapter set
content.
WRITE THE CAPTION
Write a Journal Entry
image below, in
Write a caption for the
information in
the present tense, using
Build Background.
place from your
a memorable person or
In your journal, write about
What importance does
person or place in detail.
childhood. Describe the
to you today?
the person or place have
Build Backg round
ts
Challenges Faced by Immigran
often faced greater challenges
land, immigrant families
In the settling of frontier
countries under
many immigrants left their
than U.S.-born settlers. Because
deal of money with
often did not have a great
difficult circumstances, they
States, some struggled
lives. Once in the United
new
their
begin
to
which
and conducting business
that made meeting people
their customs
with a language barrier
against
ts also experienced prejudice
to
difficult. Many immigran
were resentful of having
Some U.S.-born settlers
and religious practices.
ts for land or work.
compete with immigran
BEFORE Y
OU READ:
Introduction
Set Pur pos
es for Rea ding
왘 BIG
Literary Eleme
nt Plot and
Setting
Plot is the seque
nce of events
in a narrative work.
place in which
the events occur.
Setting is the
time
Setting includes
surroundings,
not only the physic and
but also the ideas,
al
customs, values
time and place.
, and beliefs of
a particular
Often there is
a close relatio
nship
between the plot
literary work. Most
and the setting
plots begin with
in a
setting, along
the exposition,
with the charac
which introduces
ters and conflic
the
relationship betwe
ts. When there
en plot and setting
is a close
particular events
, the reader gets
of this plot could
the sense that
the
only happen in
the graphic organi
this particular
zer on the next
setting. Use
page to help you
seasons relate
to the plot and
keep track of how
setting.
the
As you read, notice
how the autho
r introduces the
of the novel.
setting in the
exposition
Reading Strate
gy Analy
ze Cultural and
When you analy
Historical Conte
ze, you think
xt
critically about
the cultural and
something. To
historical conte
analyze
to the details
xt of a novel,
that reveal setting
you pay attent
ion
, dress, speech,
behaviors charac
mannerisms, and
teristic of a particu
11
1
lar
in history
Book
culture at a particu
tion and
.
lar time
My Ántonia: Introduc
Understanding
the experiences
of the characters
time period helps
during a certain
you comprehen
d why theyPMfeel
they do.
1/23/08 4:49:20
and act as
As you read, look
for details that
help you better
experience of
understand the
establishing a
homestead in
Keep in mind
Nebraska in the
that although
1880s.
the characters
Ántonia Shime
of Jim Burden
rdas live during
and
the same histori
have very differe
cal period, they
nt cultural backg
rounds. You may
use a graphic
organizer like
find it helpful
the one at the
to
the details you
right to keep track
notice about each
of
character.
.indd 11
011-022_U1_Antonia_889154
You are then introduced to the targeted skills for
the chapter set: the Big Idea, the literary element,
and the reading skill or strategy. You will also get
vocabulary for the chapter set.
12
Context
Details
Jim
Burden
Setting
Ántonia
Shimerdas
Dress
Speech
Mannerisms
and
Behaviors
N: Unit 1
2/5/08 6:49:42
PM
ACTIVE READING: Introduction and Book 1
of Jim’s first year on his grandparents’ farm. Then
review your chart and think about how the seasons
relate to the plot and setting.
1. Autumn
Read, Respond, Interpret
Interactive reading pages include text
excerpts from the novels that emphasize
a literary element or a reading strategy.
Questions in the margin help you interact
with highlighted portions of the text.
N OV E L C O
M PA N I O
The undulating
flags moved
and
flapped in the
wind as if they
were
living creatures.
011-022_U1_Anton
ia_889154.indd
12
Throughout the novel, the characters are sensitive to
the change of seasons. On the chart below, record
important events and activities that mark each season
Every lesson includes an active reading
graphic organizer to fill in as you read.
This graphic organizer is related to
either the literary element or the reading
skill or strategy for the chapter set.
Vocabulary
decorum [di
kor´ əm]
n. formality; etique
tte
The guests, dresse
d in gowns and
tuxedos, behav
ed with great
decorum at the
formal dinner
party.
interminable
[in tur´mi nə
bəl]
adj. endless
Every year the
geese come back
to
the pond and
we must listen
to their
loud and interm
inable honkin
g.
meritorious
[mer´ə tor ē
´ əs]
adj. noble
Risking his life
to save the childre
n
from the fire
was a merito
rious act.
portentous [por
ten´təs]
adj. threatening
The villain sudde
nly pulled out
a
dagger and the
audience gaspe
d
at this porten
tous act.
undulating [un
´ jə lɑ̄t´ in]
adj. having a
wavy outline
or
appearance
As you read Book
1, notice the chang
yourself, How
es the characters
do the choice
experience. Then
s you make chang
ask
e who you are?
You’re invited to interact with the information in
Build Background by summarizing content or
writing a caption for an image related to the
content.
and Book 1
Idea Making
Choic
es
Everyday peopl
e are faced with
choices, large
choices have the
and small. Some
power to chang
of these
e who we are.
meet two familie
In Book 1 of My
s who have made
Ántonia, we
Nebraska.
significant choice
: to settle in rural
2. Winter
* harvest season
* Jim gets to
know the farm
*
*
*
lement
ADING: Literar y E
INTERACTIVE RE
and his two
he’s sold ’em his oxen 3. Spring
“Yes’m,” said Otto; “and
ams. I’d have
price of good work-te
and
bony old horses for the
the old man can underst
interfered about the horses—
any good. But
’a’ thought it would do
some German—if I’d
s.”
distrust of Austrian
Bohemians has a natural
is that, Otto?”
interested. “Now, why
Grandmother looked
“Well, ma’m, it’s politics.
nose.
and
brow
his
Fuchs wrinkled
while to explain.”
It would take me a long
we were
rougher; I was told that
The land was growing
half of the
which cut up the west
approaching Squaw Creek,
value for farming.
made the land of little
Shimerdas’ place and
which indicated
broken, grassy clay cliffs
Soon we could see the
g tops of the
glitterin
the
and
the windings of the stream,
in the ravine. Some
trees that grew down
cottonwoods and ash
yellow leaves
already turned, and the
of the cottonwoods had
gold and silver
made them look like the
and shining white bark
INTERAC
Literary Element
4. Summer
words or
Plot and Setting Which
give you
Reading Strat
phrases in this description
egy
the Shimerdas’
the most vivid sense of
Analyze Cultu
ral and Histo
homestead?
rical
Context If
the character
of the
Grandfathe
r lived durin
g the curre
time period,
nt
more than
one hundred
years after
My Ántonia
takes place
you think he
, do
would beha
ve differently?
Explain.
trees in fairy tales.
I could still see
Shimerdas’ dwelling,
As we approached the
shelving banks
hillocks, and draws with
nothing but rough red
crumbled away.
out where the earth had
and long roots hanging
I saw a sort of shed,
banks,
those
of
one
Presently, against
grew
wine-coloured grass that
same
the
with
that had
thatched
a shattered windmill frame,
everywhere. Near it tilted
horses, and
to this skeleton to tie our
no wheel. We drove up
the draw-bank.
window sunk deep in
then I saw a door and
fourteen ran
of
girl
a
and
and a woman011-022_U1_Antonia_889154.indd along
The door stood open,
trailed 13
girl
little
A
ly.
hopeful
us
out and looked up at
had on her head the same
behind them. The woman
when she
silk fringes that she wore
embroidered shawl with
was not old, but
train at Black Hawk. She
had alighted from the
and lively, with
young. Her face was alert
other’s
she was certainly not
little eyes. She shook grandm
a sharp chin and shrewd
hand energetically.
My Ántonia:
1
duction and Book
M y Á n t o n i a : I n t ro
4
16
15
N OV E L C
O M PA N
ION: Uni
t 1
TIVE REA
DING
: Reading
Strategy
NO VEL EXC
ERP T:
CHA PTE
On Christma
R 12
men were just s morning, when I got
down to
coming in from
and pigs alwa
their morning the kitchen, the
ys had their
chores—the
Otto shouted
breakfast befo
horses
“Merry Chri
re
other when
stmas!” to me, we did. Jake and
they saw the
and
winked at each
waffle-irons
came down,
on the stov
wea
e. Grandfat
Morning pray ring a white shirt and
her
his Sunday
ers were long
coat.
from Saint
Matthew abou er than usual. He read
the chapters
t the birth of
listened, it
all seemed
like somethin Christ, and as we
and near at
g that
hand. In his
prayer he than had happened latel
Christmas,
y,
and for all
ked the Lord
that it had
He gave than
for the first
meant to the
ks
world
poor and dest for our food and com
fort, and pray ever since.
itute in grea
ed for the
t cities, whe
harder than
re
it was here
with us. Gran the struggle for life was
often very
interesting.
dfather’s pray
He had the
ers
expression.
were
gift of simp
Because he
le and mov
talked so little
force; they
ing
were not wor
, his words
had a pecu
n dull from
reflected
liar
constant use.
I n t ro d u c t i o n a n d Bwha
o o k t1he
13
was thinking
His prayers
chiefly thro
about at the
ugh them that
time
, and it was
views abou
we got to know
t things.
his feelings
and his
After we sat
down to our
how pleased
waffles and
the2/5/08
6:49:43 PM
sausage, Jake
Shim
erdas had been
Ambrosch
was
with their pres told us
the Christma friendly and went to the
ents; even
s tree. It was
creek with
him to cut
clouds wor
a soft grey
day outside,
king across
the sky, and
with heavy
There were
occasional
always odd
squalls of snow
jobs to be don
holidays, and
.
e about the
the men were
barn
I played dom
busy until after
on
inoes, while
noon. Then
Otto wrote
mother. He
Jake and
a long lette
always wro
r home to his
te to
matter whe
re he was, and her on Christmas Day
, he said, no
his last lette
no matter how
r. All afternoon
long it had
write for a
been since
he sat in the
while, then
dining-room
sit idle,
table, his eyes
. He would
following the his clenched fist lying
and wrote
on the
pattern of the
his own lang
oilcloth.
uage so seld
awkwardly.
om that it cam He spoke
His effort to
e to him
remember
At about four
entirely abso
o’clock a visit
rbed him.
wearing his
or appeared:
rabbit-skin
Mr. Shimerda
cap and colla
had knitted.
,
r, and new
He had com
mittens his
e to thank us
all grandmo
wife
ther ’s kind
for the pres
ness
ents, and for
us from the
basement and to his family. Jake and
Otto joined
deepening
we sat abou
grey of the
t the stove,
winter after
enjo
comfort and
ying the
noon and the
security in
atmosphere
my grandfat
seemed com
of
her’s house.
pletely to take
This feeling
suppose, in
possession
the crowded
of
clutter of their Mr. Shimerda. I
cave, the old
man
1/23/08 4:49:25 PM
011-022_U1_Antonia_889154
.indd 15
011-022_U1_An
tonia_889154.i
ndd 16
1/23/08 4:49:27
PM
ABOU T THE NOVEL COMPANION
Show What You Know
Book 1
: Introd uction and
AFTER YOU READ
APPLY BACKGROUND
Critica lly
Respo nd and Think
the Novel on
Reread Introduction to
information
pages 8–9. How did that
or appreciate
help you understand
novel?
what you read in the
and the Shimerda family.
life of the Burden family
1. Contrast the ways of
[Compare]
resent the Burdens at times?
Why does Mrs. Shimerda
After you read the chapters in the chapter set,
you will answer questions about the content,
including how the background information helped
you as you read.
’s character and
father? Describe Mr. Shimerda
2. What happens to Ántonia’s
[Analyze]
his relationship with Ántonia.
AFT ER YO
U REA D:
Intr odu ctio
United
ty have emigrated to the
in the prairie communi
to understand
3. Many of the people
s make it difficult for them
States. What cultural difference
them together as
What common bonds bring
each other and get along?
]
a community? [Conclude
You will then demonstrate what you learned from
your interactive reading of the excerpts. You will
also practice using the vocabulary words you
were introduced to and learn a new vocabulary
word that can be used in your academic writing.
Literary Elem
ent Plot
and Setting
The death of
Mr. Shimerda
is a significant
plot of the nove
event in the
l. In what ways
novel relate
is the settin
d to Mr. Shim
g of the
erda’s death
? [Evaluate]
n and Boo
k 1
Vocabulary
Jim and Ántonia? In what
the friendship between
4. How would you describe
other? [Evaluate]
ways do they benefit each
2. intermina
ble
3. meritorio
us
4. portentou
s
own family. Have any of
about the history of your
like the choices
5. Making Choices Think
had to make difficult choices,
your family members ever
to settle in
s made when they decided
the Burdens and the Shimerda
Nebraska? Explain. [Connect]
5. undulating
Reading Strat
egy
In addition, you will complete a short writing
assignment and other activities related to what
you read in the chapter set content. These
activities will draw on what you studied in your
interactive work on the excerpts from the
chapters.
20
Unit 1
NOVEL COMPAN ION:
.indd
011-022_U1_Antonia_889154
Academic
Analyze Cultu
ral
Historical Cont and
Based on the
ext
actions and
dialogue in
conclusions
the novel, what
can you make
about the chara
beliefs abou
t suicide? [Con
cters’
clude]
Intr odu ctio
U REA D:
AFT ER YO
20
k 1
n and Boo
2/5/08 6:49:51 PM
and limited
and worthless
and pleasant
and swirling
Vocabulary
Jim stood near
the door, sunk
waiting for
deep in the
Antonia to eme
drawbank,
rge from her
preceding sente
home. In the
nce, emerge
means “to rise
forth.” Think
about the struc
and come
ture of Anto
imagine her
nia’s home
coming out
and
of her
emerge espe
cially appropriate door. Why is the word
in this conte
xt?
as
Con ten t Are
Con nec t to
Wr itin g
onse
Personal Resp
Why?
memorable?
naturally
types of land
Research what
marsh?
Assignment
you live. Is there
s
area where
area that show
occur in the
map of the
s? Create a
de a map key.
Forest? Plain
Inclu
land.
types of
these different
sources of
of possible
make a list
likely
First
te
their
Investiga
s them, and
how to acces
.
information,
the one below
a chart like
reliability. Use
Science
most
ts did you find
Which even
Source
Access
Reliability
My Ánto nia:
Intro duct
011-022_U1_An
tonia_889154.i
ndd 21
After you read the entire novel, you will work with
related readings, connect the novel to an excerpt
from Glencoe Literature, and finally, write an
essay or story that draws upon what you learned
by reading.
RE
CON NEC T
LITE RAT URE
TO OTH ER
aby
EXC ERP T: Lull
LITE RAT URE
PAN
NOV EL COM
1
ION: Unit
TO OTH ER
LITE RAT URE
RE SP ON
Compare the
novel you have
just read to the
which is excerp
literature select
ted from Lullab
ion at the left,
y by Leslie Marm
Then answer the
on Silko in Glenc
quest
oe Literature.
support your answe ions below. Provide details
from the select
rs.
ions to
Sh or t Sto
ry
ias
some of the
June Nam
ing discuss
opinion, did
ts in this read
ed. In your
The immigran
any
they experienc
experience
My Ántonia
discrimination
t farmers in
the immigran Explain.
s?
discrimination
nia_889154.indd
48
4:50:13 PM
1/23/08
Category
PM
2/5/08 6:49:33
047-050_U1_Anto
nia_889154.indd
49
Sensory De
Sights
tai
ls
Fence the
child helped
neighbors
working in her parents paint;
their yar
d; family friendly
Mo wn gra
dog
ss; sun on
pavement
Mom che
ering the
child on;
cars passing
Smells
Sounds
Tastes
Touch
hot handle
bar
Draft Mak
e a plan
for how you
Then beg
in writing
will present
the draft
incidents
the actio
of your stor
ns in a logi
in specific
y. As you
places. Use
cal sequen
to describ
write, loca
ce.
e the sigh
the concret
te scenes
ts, sounds
e sensory
and
, smells,
details you
and tastes
Revise Exch
brainstorme
of the scen
d
ange pap
e.
work ans
ers with
a classma
wers the
assignment
te. Decide
nostalgic.
whether
by creating
Also decide
your clas
a mood
classmate
whether
sma
that
te’s
the
feedback,
is either
elegiac or
and be sure writing is clear and
classmate
focused.
makes on
you underst
Give you
your own
and the com
r
work.
ments you
Edit and
r
Proofread
Edit your
and is wel
writing so
l organize
that it expr
d. Carefully
spelling erro
esse
proofread
rs.
for grammar s your ideas effective
, punctua
ly
tion, and
50
N: Unit 1
ANIO 47
COMP
Ánt onia
NOVE LMy
D TH RO
UG
H W RI
TIN
G
TALK ABOUT ITApply
Mood Writ
With a small be bas
e a short
group, talk
story abo
edabout
on you
how
ut an incid
UNDERSTAN
both My Ántonima
r own exp
gineLullab
ia and
ent in the
erience as
D THE TAS
. Creaytedescri
life of a child
• A short
the culture of stro
a young
bean
either
K
story is
the charac
child or it
ng senters.
elegiac or
a brief fictio
se ofDiscuss
can be som . It can
how the Bohem
narrative
nostalgic
nal
in prose
ian traditions setting.
mood by
ething you
that usu
of
giving you
Ántonia’s family
on a sing
ally focu
Pre
le event
r story a
compa
writereDra
ses
to w
and
theidea
characte
Navajo traditi
rs. Elements has only a few
ons
s for you
braiof
Ayah’s
nsto
family
r
rmin
stor
.
of the
stor
g lists, jour
y from mul
y include
Jot down some
with
naling
setting, cha short
tiple sources
notes
othehere
plot, poin
r stud
first.
ract
. You can
ents, or rese about childhood
ers,
t of view
try
memorie
, and them
arching sim
• Mood
s, discussi
e.
ilar short
is
Choose a
the
ng
ideas
emotion
stories at
setting, cha
literary wor
al quality
the library.
ract
of a
chart like
k.
the one belo ers, and actions
to the moo Elements that con
for your stor
tribute
d of a liter
every deta
w to brai
language,
ary work
nstorm sen
y. As you
il you thin
are
sub
prewrite,
k of, but
sory deta
mood for
use a
imagining
diction, and ject matter, sett
ils. You do
your read
ing,
the scene
not have
tone, as
ers.
well as rhym
and rhyt
will help
to use
hm.
you capture
e
Scene: Lea
the
• An eleg
rning to ride
iac literary
Setting:
two-wheel
work is one
has the
The
bike
mood or
that
Mood: Nos neighborhood whe
tone of an
An elegy
re the child
talgic
elegy.
is a sad
’s family
poem that
death or
used to live.
laments
loss.
a
My Ántoni
48
PM
1/23/08 4:49:34
ndd 22
tonia_889154.i
en loom set
the tall wood
had done it. On r a tamarack tree for
the snow in
unde
into the sand
She had been
gone down but
see it clearly.
The sun had
. It came in
shade. She could
dma gave her
off its own light
before
when her gran
the wind gave
shed
girl
—wa
little
a
s
s and
only
coe’
new wool
Com par e &
s to pull the twig
ings in Glen
thick tufts like
ed out for it
Con tras t
Related Read answers with
it. Ayah reach
the wooden comb freshly washed wool.
refer to the
your
1. Plot and Settin
the weaver spins s had, and she smiled
the raw,
questions
from
of
l. Support
t
wing
, her
burrs
nove
shee
g What is the
follo
wool
babie
this
The
ed the
laughed
on of
setting of Lullab
a separate
like her own
compare to the
Library editi
while she comb
y? How does this
ed how she had
.
answers on
a silvery
rural Nebraska
And
ing
ided
mber
your
Literature
spinn
prov
reme
Write
setting
er
landscape of My
when
beside her,
an now, and
la Cathshe
the texts.
on the lines
Ántonia?
th cedar
grandma sat
Work / Wil them. She was an old wom
details from
e notes first
smoo
n
of
s
the
som
dow
n
nd
sat
Talk
arou
er
at
jot dow
ories. She
Willa Cath
strand of yarn
paper, but
ed at the loom
d
had become mem
work
nwoo
er
life
an
you
cotto
her
moth
t
the wide
red and
spindle. Her
, how migh
Eleanor Hinm
land
back against
t yellow and
have read
her
Sam
back
brigh
you
with
her
t
ces
ng?
dyed
on
s
wha
writi
with yarn
rough bark
the yarn in
sophy of
Based on
Letter to Fran
hed them dye
tree, feeling the
ed to the
Cather’s philo
lka
and contrast
gold. She watc
east and listen
summarize
eed petals,
Annie Pave
r, compare
you
hed
bones; she faced
pots full of beew
erda. Can
Pavelka’s lette
boiling black
blankets her
sing a high-pitc
Ántonia Shim
Based on
and sage. The
she felt
wind and snow
with that of
n so tight
juniper berries,
. Out of the wind wide fluffy
Pavelka’s life
soft and wove
Yeibechei song
es? Explain.
watch the
er made were
’ feathers.
moth
could
birds
see similariti
she
like
and
off them
until the
warmer,
that rain rolled
tracks, steadily,
warm on cold
her
ing
in
By
.
fill
sleep
gone
ed
snow
was
Ayah remember
had come from
in her mother’s
dark
ped
the
wrap
see
direction she
ts,
.
windy nigh
snow she could
. She
n’s sandy floor
away
hoga
the light of the
feet
the
few
on
a
north2.west
Character How
blankets
big arroyo
is the character
d now, with the
lleta Creek,
outline of the
nd
nd
of Ayah in Lullab
The snow drifte
the edge of Cebo
drifted up arouof Jim’s grandmother in My
Atop the Mou t-Moon
d
y similar to the
g on ie
it in gusts. It
wasnssittin
Ántonia? How
character
thin cows woul
t Hea
of the prair
are they differe
wind hurling
springtime the
ones with little
William Leas
impressio
the
nt?
e in the their
wher
overshoes—old
Burden’s first
which
chewed flat to
on. What do
black
Jim
dy
snow
et
her
t-Mo
the
alrea
pare
Stre
at
Hea
go
Com
smiled
where
Least
graze on grass
se on Man
of William
. She
l buckles. She
deep creek bed
little
meta
?
by
wide
er,
the
with those
mon
little
from The Hou
In
cover her
ground.
ate
have in com
ed in the summ
eros
was trying to
had no black
of water flow
descriptions
y factors alien rs
le
for
they
Sandra Cisn
man
trick
ng
a
e,”
when
looki
only
What facto
No Last Nam
could remember only the high buckskin
would wander,
ng culture.
In “Geraldo
;
the skinny cows
s splashed
the surroundi family to feel isolated
rubber overshoes wrapped over their
winding path
Geraldo from
and her
new grass along
they
ed Ántonia
leggings that
was dry or
have caus
with manure.
asins. If the snow
blanket over
novel?
and not
elkhide mocc
the old Army
in Cather’s
he
walk all day
Ayah pulled
ie’s blanket—t
person could
a
s of
Jimm
n,
l.
froze
shaw
a
ings the beam
time
her head like
and in the even
That was a long
wet;
hs of pale
her.
get
to
lengt
sent
, and it
d hang with
one he had
wool was faded
the ceiling woul drying out slowly.
green
the
not
ngs,
ago and
s. She did
buckskin leggi
g on the edge
3. Mood What
velin
ght
unra
thou
is the mood of
was
So she
this excerpt from
about Jimmie.
mood compare
Lullaby? How
her mother
to the primary
want to think
does this
mood of My Ánton
ing and the way
ia?
about the weav
Interview
Bonacorsi
Interview/
McNamara
LA TED
WI TH RE
WO RK
21
e. If
from each sourc
what you learn
you found
Take notes on
ation, use what
adictory inform
there is contr
e.
on
reliable sourc
terms used
in the most
the scientific
with
iliar
meanings of
If you are unfam
to clarify the
tigate further
maps, inves
those terms.
ng
other map-maki
and
ils,
rulers, stenc
attractive
Create Use
accurate and
ng
you create an
If map-maki
tools to help
a map key.
e your
er to include
choose to creat
map. Rememb
ble, you may
a map key.
er to include
software is availa
uter. Rememb
map on a comp
describing
n to your map,
an introductio
in your
Report Write
ation included
citations
g the inform
and summarizin ate and correctly formatted
accur
consulted.
map. Include
resources you
sites and print
for the Web
011-022_U1_An
CON NEC T
ion and Book
1
1/23/08 4:49:33
PM
22
AD IN GS
Practice
Identify whet
her each set
of paired word
same or oppo
s have the
site meaning.
1. decorum
and formality
NO VEL
COM PAN
Colon
Grammar
Tip
A colon
is used to
introduc
and to intro
e a list
duce mat
explains
erial that
, restates
, or illustrate
previous
s
materials:
Fuchs told
me ever
ything I
to know:
wanted
how he
had
in a Wyo
lost his ear
ming blizz
ard whe
was a stag
n he
e-driver,
and how
throw a
to
lasso.
In descripti
ve writing,
be used
to elaborat a colon can
e upon a
with furth
point
er descripti
on:
She kne
w every
farmer for
about: how
miles
much land
under culti
he had
vation, how
cattle he
many
was feed
ing, wha
liabilities
t his
were.
ION : Uni
t 1
My Ánton ia
047-050_U
1_Antonia_
889154.indd
• A nostalg
ic literary
work is one
expresse
s nostalg
that
ia. Nostalg
longing
ia is a
for one’s
home or
past.
49
50
047-050_U1_Anto
2/5/08 6:49:33
PM
154.indd
047-050_U1_
Antonia_889
47
2/5/08
6:49:34
PM
A bout the N ovel Compani on
5
ABOUT T H E NOVEL COMPANION
Note-Taking Systems
Pages 4–5 of the Novel Companion’s student edition introduce students to the
two note-taking systems (described below) taught in the workbook. You may
wish to review those pages of the student edition with your students before
having them having them complete lessons in the workbook.
On-Page Note-Taking To help students connect to the Big Idea, the On-Page
Note-Taking lessons have students use symbols to mark up an excerpt directly
on the page.
The Cornell Note-Taking System The Novel Companion also trains students on the
Cornell Note-Taking System, developed at Cornell University to help students
take more effective notes. In this system, the page is divided into two
columns, one wide and one narrow. This format allows students to effectively
organize their thinking by having them record, reduce, and then recap their
notes. Students take notes on excerpts from the novels and relate the excerpts
to the Big Idea. The following summarizes the steps of the system:
Record
First, students will record notes in the wide column as they read.
Their notes may include summaries, bulleted lists, and graphic organizers.
Reduce
Next, students will reduce, or condense, their notes into key words,
phrases, questions, and comments in the narrow column. This step will help
them clarify meaning, find information within their notes, and trigger their
memories when they study.
Recap
Finally, students use the bottom portion of the page to recap,
or summarize, what they have learned from their notes. This step helps
strengthen their grasp of what they just read before they move on to the
next section of text.
6
ABOU T THE NOVEL COMPANION
Note-Taking Lessons
The Novel Companion’s note-taking lessons teach students how to record important
information in their own words, reduce the information to key words they will
remember, and recap their notes in a summary. Questions and activities in pages
that follow allow students to apply the information from their notes.
The information below also appears on page 6 of the Novel Companion’s
student edition and serves to introduce students to these types of lesson
pages. You may wish to review that page of the student edition with your
students before having them complete lessons in the workbook.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING: B IG Id ea
MARK IT UP
Read, Question, and Mark-Up
Are you allowed to write in your novel?
If so, then mark up the pages as you
read, or reread, to help with your
note-taking. Develop a shorthand
system, including symbols, that works
for you. Here are some ideas:
Underline = important idea
Bracket = text to quote
Not only will you be interacting with excerpts from
the novels as you work with the literary elements
and reading strategies assigned to a chapter set,
but you will also be working with excerpts that
relate to the Big Idea assigned to each
chapter set.
Asterisk = just what you were
looking for
Checkmark = might be useful
Circle = unfamiliar word or phrase to
look up
왘 BIG Idea
Making Choices How does reading
about the Burden family and the
Shimerda family help you to understand
the choices people make?
Mark up the excerpt, looking for
evidence of how it expresses the
Big Idea.
You will take notes on the excerpt—right on the
page. With practice, you will devise a short-hand
system that works for you. In the meantime, you
can use the suggested on-page mark-up system.
18
Record, Reduce, and Recap
You will also learn the Cornell Note-Taking
System, described on the previous page.
Here you will take notes on the excerpt you
marked-up on the On-Page Note-Taking page.
NOVEL EXCERPT: CHAPTER 14
No wagon could be got to the Shimerdas’ until a road was
broken, and that would be a day’s job. Grandfather came
from the barn on one of our big black horses, and Jake lifted
grandmother up behind him. She wore her black hood and was
bundled up in shawls. Grandfather tucked his bushy white
beard inside his overcoat. They looked very Biblical as they set
off, I thought. Jake and Ambrosch followed them, riding the
other black and my pony, carrying bundles of clothes that we
had got together for Mrs. Shimerda. I watched them go past the
pond and over the hill by the drifted cornfield. Then, for the first
time, I realized that I was alone in the house.
I felt a considerable extension of power and authority, and was
anxious to acquit myself creditably. I carried in cobs and wood
from the long cellar, and filled both the stoves. I remembered
that in the hurry and excitement of the morning nobody had
thought of the chickens, and the eggs had not been gathered.
Going out through the tunnel, I gave the hens their corn, emptied
the ice from their drinking-pan, and filled it with water. After
the cat had had his milk, I could think of nothing else to do,
and I sat down to get warm. The quiet was delightful, and
the ticking clock was the most pleasant of companions. I got
Robinson Crusoe and tried to read, but his life on the island
seemed dull compared with ours. Presently, as I looked with
satisfaction about our comfortable sitting-room, it flashed upon
me that if Mr. Shimerda’s soul were lingering about in this
world at all, it would be here, in our house, which had been
more to his liking than any other in the neighbourhood. I
remembered his contented face when he was with us on
Christmas Day. If he could have lived with us, this terrible
thing would never have happened.
I knew it was homesickness that had killed Mr. Shimerda,
and I wondered whether his released spirit would not
eventually find its way back to his own country. I thought of
how far it was to Chicago, and then to Virginia, to Baltimore—
and then the great wintry ocean. No, he would not at once set
out upon that long journey. Surely, his exhausted spirit, so tired
of cold and crowding and the struggle with the ever-falling
snow, was resting now in this quiet house.
NOVEL COMPANION: U nit 1
011-022_U1_Antonia_889154.indd 18
1/23/08 4:49:29 PM
CORNELL NOTE -TAKING: B IG Idea
Use the Cornell Note-Taking system to take notes on the excerpt at the left.
Record your notes, Reduce them, and then Recap (summarize) them.
Record
Reduce
Try the following approach as you
reduce your notes.
ASK QUESTIONS
Write any questions you have about
the novel. Do you have to go to an
outside source to find the answers?
Recap
M y Ántoni a: I nt roduct i on and B ook 1
011-022_U1_Antonia_889154.indd 19
19
1/23/08 4:49:30 PM
A bout the N ovel Compani on
7
ABOUT T H E NOVEL COMPANION
Outline of the Novel Companion
The following is an annotated outline of the lesson structure of the Novel Companion:
Novel Title Page
I. Introduction to the Novel
Students read about the novel and its place in literary history, including details
about its themes and how and when it was written and published.
II. Meet the Author
Students read about the author’s background and the historical, cultural,
and literary context of his or her work.
III. Chapter Set
A. Before You Read
1. Connect to the Literature
Students identify with the selection in a brief activity that links the novel
with the student’s own experience.
2. Build Background
Students are provided with any context they will need to fully understand
and appreciate the chapter set content. An accompanying activity asks
students either to summarize the ideas in the background text or write
a caption for a related image.
3. Big Idea
This links the chapter set content to the Big Idea that appears in the unit the
novel accompanies.
4. Literary Element
Students are introduced to the targeted literary element for the chapter set.
5. Reading Strategy
This introduces students to the targeted reading strategy for the chapter set
and also includes a model of a graphic organizer that students might re-create
for themselves as they read.
6. Vocabulary
Students are introduced to the targeted vocabulary for the chapter.
A sample sentence shows use of each word.
7. Active Reading Graphic Organizer
A graphic organizer shows students how to record literary element
or reading skill or strategy information as they read.
B. Interactive Reading
1. Literary Element excerpt
Students interact with an excerpt that relates to the targeted literary element.
2. Reading Strategy excerpt
Students interact with an excerpt that relates to the targeted reading
strategy.
8
ABOU T THE NOVEL COMPANION
C. Note-Taking Systems
1. Big Idea excerpt
Students interact with an excerpt that relates to the targeted Big Idea.
D. After You Read
1. Respond and Think Critically
Students answer questions about the chapter set content; at least one
item addresses the Big Idea.
2. Literary Element
Students answer questions that review the targeted literary element for
the chapter set.
3. Reading Strategy
Students answer questions that review the targeted reading strategy for the
chapter set.
4. Vocabulary
Students review the targeted vocabulary for the chapter, using exercises
that test their comprehension of the words.
5. Academic Vocabulary
Students learn a new academic vocabulary word and apply it, using
an activity related to the chapter set content.
6. Writing: Personal Response, Write with Style, Write a …
Students write in a variety of modes and produce a range of writing
products as they address the content of the chapter set. In some exercises,
they try out literary techniques demonstrated by the author in the
chapter set.
7. Connect to Content Areas, Research and Report, Speaking and Listening
Students respond to the chapter set content through speeches, oral
interpretation, research presentations, and other activities that often extend
their knowledge beyond the novel itself.
IV. Work with Related Readings
Students answer questions that connect the novel with the related readings
that appear in Glencoe’s Literature Library edition of the novel.
V. Connect to Other Literature
Students answer questions that connect the novel with an excerpt from
another Glencoe Literature title.
VI. Respond Through Writing
Students write a longer piece—either narrative, persuasive, or expository—in
response to the novel. The assignment guides students through the writing
process, and at least one assignment in the Novel Companion will have students
directly compare and contrast the novel to a selection in Glencoe Literature.
A bout the N ovel Compani on
9
My Ántonia
Willa Cather
10
ABOUT THE WORK
My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Published in 1918, My Ántonia is one of
Willa Cather’s best-known works and is
considered by many to be her greatest
literary achievement. Narrator Jim Burden,
in reminiscing about his life on the
Nebraska frontier in the late 1800s, shares
the history of his lifelong friend, Ántonia
Shimerda. The novel, based on some of
Cather’s own experiences, is a vivid
portrait of the landscape of the Great
Plains, the transition from the Old West to
the new, the enduring bonds of friendship,
and the strength and values of frontier
people. It includes the struggle of a young
woman to provide for herself and her child.
Note that the novel includes a graphic
description of a suicide. Before assigning
students to read the work, you may wish
to prepare them for this scene.
Synopsis
The novel is presented as a collection of
memories written by Jim Burden, a New
York lawyer nostalgic for his youth in rural
Nebraska. He is inspired by his feelings for
Ántonia Shimerda, a close childhood friend.
Jim Burden’s tale begins in the late 1800s,
when he is a ten-year-old orphan living
on his grandparents’ farm in Nebraska.
Jim develops a special friendship with
Ántonia, the spirited daughter of
Bohemian immigrants who live near the
Burden farm. Jim helps Ántonia learn
English, and together they enjoy exploring
the landscape of their surroundings. Jim
notices Ántonia’s personal strength as she
deals with her family’s struggle to survive
and with the tragic death of her father.
After living on his grandparents’ farm for
three years, Jim moves to the Nebraska
town of Black Hawk. Ántonia eventually
moves to Black Hawk as well, taking a job
as a domestic servant. She enjoys urban
life, regularly attending dances with other
immigrant farm girls who work in Black
Hawk. Although Jim dislikes the town of
Black Hawk, he is drawn to the social
activities of Ántonia and her friends.
Ántonia respects and values him like a
close younger brother. The family that
employs Ántonia, like many people in
the town, disapproves of her social life.
Eventually, Ántonia takes a job with a
new employer. After he tries to attack
her, however, Ántonia decides to return
to her family’s farm.
When Jim attends college, he loses contact
with Ántonia. After graduating, he returns
home to find that she is pregnant and has
been abandoned by the man she loved.
When Jim pays her a visit, he finds Ántonia
doing strenuous farm work and standing
firm in her wish to build a good life for
herself and her child. During the brief time
they spend together, they reconnect as
friends and promise always to be together
in spirit. Jim leaves for law school and
avoids visiting Ántonia for twenty years,
afraid to see her aged and unhappy. When
he finally meets her again, he finds her
happily married to a Bohemian man,
raising many children, and running a
successful farm. Jim is moved by her
strong spirit and believes that she has
found true fulfillment in the land and
her family. He feels it is his destiny to be
forever connected with Ántonia, her close
family, and the land of his youth.
My Án to n ia
11
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
Setting the Stage
Forging a New Life
Have students explain how setting can be
used to create a mood in a novel.
• Display images of a variety of settings,
including urban and rural scenes and
natural landscapes in different seasons.
Ask students to describe what ideas
or emotions they associate with each
image. Ask students to explain why
each image evokes a particular feeling
or idea.
• Have students identify the setting of
movies or TV shows and speculate on
how the setting supports the stories.
Ask students to propose changes in the
stories that might become necessary if
the settings changed.
Have students explore the westward
migration in the 1800s and the
motivations of pioneers and settlers.
• Ask students to describe images they
have seen of settling the American
frontier or immigrating to a new
country.
• Ask students why someone would
initiate a dramatic life change such as
moving to an unknown, undeveloped
place. What goals would make the
struggle worthwhile? What values,
skills, and personality traits might help
people endure difficult adjustment
periods and strenuous work?
• What values, skills, and personality
traits might help people endure this
adjustment?
Friends Forever
Students can explore the concept of
friendship.
• Ask students what characteristics they
believe are important in friendships.
What kinds of experiences can change
friendships or put them in jeopardy? Do
students think these characteristics and
experiences are fixed, or can they change
with time, place, and cultural influences?
• Divide the class into pairs or small
groups. Ask each group to present a
brief enactment of one of the following
scenarios:
– Two children have an adventure that
deepens their friendship.
– Someone reaches out to help a neighbor
through a difficult experience.
– A person defends an unpopular
decision or way of life.
12
Romantic Style
Have students analyze Cather’s style and
the influences that shaped it.
• Explain that Cather’s descriptions of
characters have been labeled by some
critics as Romantic in style. Romanticism
began as a literary and artistic movement
in Europe in the eighteenth century.
Works created in this style are often
characterized by an emphasis on the
imaginative, emotional, and subjective
experiences of individuals, as well as on
celebrating nature.
• Help students find art books that contain
examples of the work of Romantic artists.
Ask students to compare the style of one
of these artists to Cather’s writing style.
Then have students present a brief
report to the class.
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
Letter to Frances
Samland
by Annie Pavelka
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 25)
from The House on
Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 26)
McNamara Interview/
Bonacorsi Interview
by June Namias
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 27)
• Willa Cather Talks of
Work
by F. H.
• Willa Cather
by Eleanor Hinman
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 28)
Atop the Mound
by William Least
Heat-Moon
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 29)
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO My Ántonia
This reading provides background on the origins of the writing of My Ántonia.
• Ask students to list some of their favorite novels or movies.
• Have students discuss how the writers might have come up with the ideas for
the stories.
• Discuss how the setting is important to each plot.
Sandra Cisneros skillfully portrays some of the emotions of present-day immigrants
to the United States.
• Ask students to list some of the challenges and adjustments faced by immigrants to
our country.
• Have students rank each item on the list between 1 and 5, with 5 being the most
difficult adjustment and 1 being the least difficult.
• Brainstorm ways in which long-time residents can make the adjustment easier for
new arrivals.
These readings describe life for immigrants who chose to live in the city rather
than become farmers.
• Ask students to imagine that they work for the department of immigration. Their job
is to help immigrants find new homes.
• Have students list questions that they would ask new immigrants to help them
decide whether they would prefer life in the city or in the country.
Interviews with Cather reveal the novelist’s dedication to her work as a writer.
• Ask students to name their favorite authors.
• Ask how they imagine the author spends a typical day.
• Have them think of three questions they would like to ask the authors if they had
the chance.
• Speculate with students how people become authors. What inspires them to write?
Compare the field of writing to other fields such as medicine, computer science,
fine arts, law, etc. What preparation is necessary to become a writer? What is the
pay like?
William Least Heat-Moon describes the Kansas prairie.
• Ask students to write in their journals about hikes they have taken in the country,
walks along a lake or in the park, or other experiences communing with nature.
What did they see? How did they feel?
• After students read, have them compare their feelings to those of William Least
Heat-Moon in “Atop the Mound.”
My Án to n ia
13
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
INTRODUCTION AND BOOK 1
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
In this photograph, an immigrant farmer and his wife
pause in their work and stand in front of their homestead.
ACTIVE READING
Autumn: Jim meets Ántonia; Jim rides his pony around
the countryside; Jim eats watermelons from the patch;
Winter: Jim kills a rattlesnake; Jim drives Ántonia and
Yulka around in a sled; Shimerdas don’t have warm
clothing or enough to eat; snowstorm prevents Jake from
buying Christmas gifts; Mr. Shimerda and Burdens get
together for Christmas; Mr. Shimerda kills himself; friends
and family bury Mr. Shimerda and must use axes to chop
frozen ground; Spring: Ambrosch and Jake fight;
Grandfather sells Mrs. Shimerda a cow; Summer:
harvest; Ántonia and Jim watch a thunderstorm.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Plot and Setting
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
description of the setting suggests that wild,
unpredictable things can happen in a place where
sunflowers grow as big as trees.
Literary Element: Plot and Setting
Answers will vary. Students may suggest that using a
word like “skeleton” to describe an old windmill gives
the setting a glooming or sinister quality.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cultural and
Historical Context
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. The Burden family home is comfortable, warm, and
cheerful, while the Shimerdas live in a dugout and do
not have enough food. Mrs. Shimerda resents her
way of life at times and doesn’t want people to
believe she is inferior.
2. He kills himself. He was a quiet man who preferred
life in his native country, a musician who was very
religious, and a concerned father. Ántonia was
especially close to him.
3. Differences in language, religion, and customs
(preferred food, clothing, and so on) are among
the cultural barriers. Rituals such as welcoming
newcomers and performing funeral rites for the
dead bring the people closer together, as does
the need to cooperate in order to survive in a
hostile environment.
4. They have fun together. Jim helps Ántonia to learn
new English words and provides an escape from
her difficult circumstances, and Ántonia praises
Jim to others when he kills the snake, making him
feel worthwhile.
5. Answers will vary, but students may mention that
their ancestors had to decide to come to the United
States from another country or that their family once
moved from another place within the country.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information helped them understand that the novel
takes place during a unique and important time in
American history.
Answers will vary. Students may assert that the
Grandfather would behave in a very similar way if he
were alive today, since having a quiet and reserved
personality is possible during any time period.
Literary Element: Plot and Setting
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cultural and
Historical Context
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cultural and
Historical Context
Answers will vary. Students may conclude that in
Mr. Shimerda’s culture, a Christmas tree is more
sacred than in Grandfather’s culture.
Answers will vary. Students may conclude that the
Bohemians view suicide as a sin, while the Burden
family, especially the Grandmother, see it in more
practical terms, as an unwise decision that will be a
hardship for the Shimerda family.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Making Choices
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
Burden and Shimerda families made difficult choices
14
about where to live, choices that had some unexpected
consequences.
Answers will vary. Students may find that the bleakness
of the prairie contributed to Mr. Shimerda’s despair and
his decision to commit suicide.
Vocabulary Practice
1. same, 2. different, 3. different, 4. different, 5. same
ANSWER KEY
Academic Vocabulary
Literary Element: Character
Answers will vary. Students may note that since
Antonia’s home is partly underground, the word emerge
seems more appropriate than a simpler word choice,
such as “come out.”
Answers will vary. Frances and her father talk “like
two men,” indicating that women of this time were not
expected to have knowledge or interest in farming and
business.
Writing
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences about
Characters
Personal Response
Answers will vary. Students may respond that they
found Mr. Shimerda’s suicide most memorable because
it was shocking and tragic.
Connect to Content Areas
Science
Students’ performances should
• be neatly completed
• include a map key
• show evidence of research
• be detailed
BOOKS 2 AND 3
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
Virgil’s pastoral poetry describes the same innocence
and simplicity of country life that Jim observes in his
rural Nebraska surroundings.
ACTIVE READING
Jim: spends time with the “hired girls”; sneaks off to
dances until his grandmother stops him; stops speaking
to Ántonia after Cutter attacks him; graduates and gives
a speech; goes to college in Lincoln; becomes involved
with Lena and stops studying; prepares to go to Harvard;
Ántonia: begins working for Harlings; spends time with
other immigrant women; goes to dances and spends time
with boys; leaves job with Harlings when they criticize
her social life; takes job with Cutter; saved from Cutter by
Jim; angers Jim with her way of life; moves back to her
family’s farm
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Character
Answers will vary. Students may find that the many
details describing Mrs. Harling make her a round
character. Others may find that the details place
Mrs. Harling in the category of a stock character in
the role of the sturdy housewife.
Answers will vary. Students may infer that Lena is
very easy to be with, pleasant, and also very natural,
not artificial.
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences about
Characters
Answers will vary. Students may infer that Jim’s
feelings for Ántonia are deeper and more complicated
than the feelings he has for Lena. Others may infer that
Jim truly prefers Lena over Ántonia.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Life Transitions
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Jim feels
sadness and regret when it comes time for him to leave
Nebraska.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. They are daughters of immigrant farmers who find
work in town. They are animated, social, and attend
dances, behaviors that most women in the
community find unladylike.
2. He is attacked by Wick, who comes home hoping
to find Ántonia alone. Jim is disgusted with her—
angry that she has put the two of them in such a
situation.
3. Cather provides contrast between Lena and Ántonia.
The chapter gives readers a chance to see Jim grow
and change in his first two years of college.
4. The women represent freedom, emotion, and an
openness of expression that is not found among
other townspeople.
5. Answers will vary. Students may find that the literal
meaning is related to Lena’s appearance in Lincoln
while the figurative meaning is related to Jim’s
strong feelings for Ántonia that he always carries
with him.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information helped them understand that many other
authors have also written works that glorify the rural
lifestyle.
My Án to n ia
15
ANSWER KEY
Literary Element: Character
Answers will vary. Students may observe that Jim has
grown up from a boy to a man. He now has ambitions
and interests that take him away from his family. Also,
his reasons for wanting to spend time with Ántonia and
“the hired girls” are now more romantic than playful.
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences about
Characters
Answers will vary. Students may infer that Ántonia
refuses to see herself as just a hired girl and that she
wants to make independent decisions. Ántonia also
highly values the time she spends dancing; it seems to
touch a part of her that she is not able to access
through duty and work.
Vocabulary Practice
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Mood
The phrase “Happy children, contented women, and
men who saw their lives coming to a fortunate issue”
contributes to the warm and nostalgic mood.
Literary Element: Mood
The details about Ántonia’s hard work and the generous
support of her friends and family create an optimistic
and hopeful mood.
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
It means a person who is associated with another in
some activity or endeavor. One meaning is informal and
the other is formal.
Answers will vary. Some students may comment that
the dead dog is a reminder that even though Jim has
such fond memories of rural Nebraska, it is still a place
of loss and death. Other students may comment that the
death of the dog is meant to contrast the far more tragic
death of Mr. Shimerda from Ántonia’s childhood,
showing the reader that the life Ántonia has now with
her own children is much happier than her own
childhood.
Writing
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
Personal Response
Answers will vary. Students may say that they hope Jim
and Ántonia stay close because they have been such
good friends for such a long time.
Answers will vary. Some students may comment that
over time a person’s eyes usually do not change as
much as other parts of the body. Others may remark
that sometimes the eyes are seen as spiritually
significant, a window to the soul.
1. a week spent on vacation, 2. “Please, may I?”,
3. matches and babies, 4. a person who reuses an
old teapot, 5. delicious meal
Academic Vocabulary
Speaking and Listening
Literature Groups
Students’ literature groups should
• listen attentively to each other
• take turns expressing their opinions
• use examples from the text to support their opinions
• do their best to reach a consensus
BOOKS 4 AND 5
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Some critics say My Ántonia is primarily elegiac, a sad
lament for what has been lost, while others say it is
primarily nostalgic, a longing for what was good in
the past.
ACTIVE READING
The Cuzak Farm: ducks and geese; barefooted boys;
Leo butting his mother playfully; kolaches; Bohemian
16
language; orchards; pictures from the old country; sons
standing tall and straight; Ambrosch and Leo giggling and
whispering; Cuzak watching his family with amusement
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Encountering the Unexpected
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Jim was
surprised that Nebraska had changed so little. Ántonia
was surprised when her engagement was broken
but she coped by building a family with a more
trustworthy man.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. She is pregnant and has been abandoned by Larry,
the man she was planning to marry. Jim does not like
to think of Ántonia as weak or broken in spirit, but
rather as someone who has strength of character.
2. She wants to give the child the best life she can. She
is positive and strong—able to stand up to challenges.
3. She has a successful farm, a husband, and several
happy children. The house is full of laughter and
activity. They spend a great deal of time outdoors.
Jim realizes that she has found true happiness.
ANSWER KEY
4. Students may say that because Jim and Ántonia
grew up together, they are like close siblings and
know each other too well. At the time in their lives
when they might have considered entering into such
a relationship, they were pursuing other interests.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that Jim
expected or feared that Ántonia would have become
bitter or worn out from the hardships in her life. He
was surprised and pleased to find that she was happy.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information helped them understand that Cather’s own
experiences living on the Nebraska prairie were very
similar to the life of the character of Jim in the novel.
Literary Element: Mood
Answer will vary, but students may describe the
principal mood of My Ántonia using words like hopeful,
nostalgic, melancholy, or sad.
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
Answers will vary. The images that reoccur have to do
with the rural landscape and the spirit and energy of
the “hired girls” who represent all that Jim sees as
fresh and good in the immigrant farm families.
Vocabulary Practice
1. jaunty, 2. none, 3. duplicity, 4. unabashed, 5. none,
6. conformation, 7. droll
Academic Vocabulary
Students may mention their siblings and cousins of
similar ages.
Write with Style
Apply Imagery
Student’s paragraphs should
• use imagery in the style of My Ántonia
• be organized in a logical pattern
• use images that appeal to the senses
Research and Report
Visual/Media Presentation
Students’ presentations should
• incorporate a variety of mediums
• include clear diction so that the audience can
understand
• be presented loudly enough for the entire audience
to hear
NOVEL AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
Letter to Frances Samland
Both are immigrants to Nebraska in the late 1800s. Their
fathers both die by suicide. Both seem to have had
difficult lives filled with hard work but also laughter and
loving memories.
The House on Mango Street
Students should conclude that the language barriers
and cultural differences alienated the immigrants as
much as the vast distances of prairie life.
McNamara Interview/Bonacorsi Interview
They may mention that in My Ántonia people made fun
of the immigrants’ foreign ways and inability to speak
English well.
Willa Cather Talks of Work/Willa Cather
Students may say that Cather prefers to concentrate on
the simple, everyday aspects of life rather than grand,
melodramatic events. She is obsessed with telling
things truthfully, without romanticizing them.
Atop the Mound
Jim Burden’s impressions of the prairie are remarkably
similar to Heat-Moon’s. Burden recalls feeling as if “the
world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of
it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction.”
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
1. Answers will vary. The story takes place outdoors, in
winter, along Ceboletta Creek. This setting is similar
to the rural Nebraska landscape because it is open
and bleak.
2. Answers will vary. Both characters are older women
who have cared for their families. The character of
Ayah seems more sorrowful. Ayah is also a more
complex, rounded character than Jim’s grandmother.
3. Answers will vary. Students may describe the mood
of the Silko excerpt as sadder than Cather’s novel.
Talk About It
Discussions will vary.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Short Story
Students’ stories should
• communicate an elegiac or nostalgic tone
• contain sensory details
My Án to n ia
17
Narrative of the
Life of
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
18
ABOUT THE WORK
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was
the first of Douglass’s three autobiographies.
He wrote this autobiography only seven
years after he escaped from enslavement
in Maryland, partially to answer criticism
he received while on the abolition lecture
circuit. Although this narrative was a
bestseller, its appeal was based on the
thrill of the plot; the public was generally
slow to acknowledge its literary worth.
Even most well-meaning and favorable
reviewers saw its value mainly as an
abolitionist tool. Thus, Douglass was
known as an orator rather than as a writer.
It was not until the 1970s that Douglass’s
narrative was viewed as a great literary
achievement. Today the work is considered
by many to be the best piece of writing in
its genre.
Sensitivity Note: This autobiography
includes language and descriptions of
brutality that many students will find
disturbing. You may want to point out that
the inclusion of these elements accurately
portrays plantation conditions as they were
in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Synopsis
Douglass describes his early years—
including his faint memories of his mother,
who was separated from him when he
was an infant. At an undisclosed age, he
is sent to live at Col. Lloyd’s house with
other children. There for the first time he
witnesses a slave—his aunt Hester—being
whipped. Afterward, the child Frederick
hides for hours in a closet, afraid his turn
will be next.
Douglass describes the conglomeration
of plantations and out-farms that made
up the Lloyd property and the system
of sending enslaved people to work at
different localities. His vivid descriptions
of enslaved children going without beds,
clothing, or food are heartrending.
When he is about seven years old,
Frederick is sent to Baltimore, where he
teaches himself to read. Douglass describes
the differences between city slaves and
plantation slaves: As a rule, slaves in the
city fared much better than those on the
plantations.
After five years in Baltimore, Douglass
is returned to the country, where he is
whipped for the first time. The new owner
declares that city life has made Douglass
unfit for fieldwork and sends him to
Edward Covey’s farm to be broken in.
There he stands up to the merciless Covey
and prevails over him.
Believing he has claimed his manhood,
Douglass begins to teach other slaves to
read and makes one failed attempt to lead
others in an escape. After a time spent in
jail, he is sent back to Baltimore, where he
learns a trade in shipbuilding and survives
a gang assault. He finally plans a second
escape—and succeeds.
Narrative of the L if e of Fre d e r ic k D o u g la ss
19
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
20
Bringing Characters to Life
Human Dignity
Help students appreciate the writer’s
ability to depict believable characters.
• Ask students to think about the physical
activity of a person who is nervous.
Explain that writers often describe
actions of a character, allowing the
reader to draw conclusions about that
character. Guide students to recognize
that there are some common indications
of nervousness, such as drumming
fingers, excessive swallowing, pacing,
laughing, or wringing hands. Have
students choose a specific emotion or
frame of mind and demonstrate the
behaviors associated with it. Then
have the class guess the emotion.
• Have students describe (rather than
demonstrate) a person’s behavior and
have the class identify the emotion. For
example, if a person is described as
slouching in his or her chair, directing
eyes to the floor, and glancing around
furtively without lifting his or her head,
students might guess that the character
is guarding a secret.
• Ask students to explain the difference
between description through actions and
direct description. As an example of
direct description, read the following
sentence to the class: “Tyesah was
permanently perky. She bounced into
every room, jingling her long earrings.”
Guide students to see that in using
this technique, the author draws the
conclusion for the reader. As they read
Douglass’s narrative, have students
pay attention to the ways in which the
author uses description to portray
characters.
Encourage students to consider the worth
of individuals.
• Point out that throughout the book,
Douglass emphasizes the idea of human
dignity. Ask students if they know of
anyone, student or adult, whom they
consider to be dignified. Have them
describe the bearing and demeanor of
this person. Does dignity only come
with age? Is this quality conferred,
earned, or intrinsic to all humans?
• Have students brainstorm to list actions
or behaviors that serve to demean
another human being (for example,
name calling or interrupting). Then, for
each demeaning behavior, have students
identify an opposite action that would
serve to acknowledge a person’s worth.
The Value of Education
Help students see how education changes
the student and is a lifelong process.
• Have the class consider whether any
book they read during their high school
years (not necessarily one they read for
school) significantly changed the way
they think about certain life issues. Did
they take any action as a result of this
change in thinking?
• Have students consider the differences
between education and training. Guide
the class to develop a definition for each
term. Make a chart on the board and
have students classify different learning
activities they engage in as either
education or training.
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
The Escape of
Hezekiah Hill
by William Still
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 24)
Second Inaugural
Address
by Abraham Lincoln
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 25)
Healing Africa’s
Children
by Renee Kemp
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 26)
Freedom’s Plow
by Langston Hughes
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 27)
The Sky Is Gray
by Ernest J. Gaines
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 28)
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
This account elaborates on the details of a successful escape from slaveholders.
• This short narrative would work well as a postreading activity for Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass.
• Explain that underground resistance movements have occurred throughout history.
As an example, discuss with the class some of the efforts to save Jews during
World War II.
• After students read, ask if they think any enslaved persons, including Douglass,
would have successfully escaped without help. Emphasize that the enslaved
person was the one who would have had to initiate the flight.
This speech demonstrates the need for the nation to recover from a devastating
civil war.
• This short speech would work well as a postreading activity for Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass.
• Before students read, explain that more than 600,000 men died in the Civil War,
more than in all other U.S. wars combined.
• After they read, have students look for ideals expressed by Lincoln that coincide
with those of Douglass.
This report tells of a ceremony of atonement in Ghana.
• This report would work well as a postreading activity for Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass.
• Before they read, remind students that the trade of enslaved people served the
Caribbean islands as well as the United States.
• After students read, ask whether they think Douglass would have been satisfied
with the ceremony.
This poem encourages hope as an active force for supporting freedom.
• This poem would work well as a postreading activity for Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass.
• Before students read, review the meanings of apostrophe and metaphor.
• As they read, have students look for examples of these literary devices in the poem.
• After they read, ask students how they think Douglass might have been an
inspiration to the poet.
This story tells a poignant tale of kindness and human dignity in the segregated
South of the 1940s.
• This story would work well as a postreading activity for Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass.
• Before students read, explain the term dialect and discuss the nature of language
as a means of communication, not as a system of linguistic rules. Allow time for
students to share phrases they may have used or heard in various parts of the
United States.
• After they read, ask students to consider in what ways the South has changed from
Douglass’s time period to the present.
Narrative of the L if e of Fre d e r ic k D o u g la ss
21
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
CHAPTERS I–VIII
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
The winters in Maryland are cold, though milder than in
other parts of the United States, and the topography is
quite varied.
ACTIVE READING
Douglass’s father: slaveholder (possibly Capt. Anthony),
aloof, cruel; he wonders if this is true; otherwise has no
feelings for him. Mr. Plummer: overseer, an alcoholic,
cruel; he was afraid of him. Master Daniel Lloyd: son of
the Colonel, protective of Frederick; he felt safe around
him. Hester: his aunt, beautiful, proud; he admired her.
Col. Lloyd: wealthy slaveholder, aloof, cruel, cunning;
he was afraid of him. Mr. Austin Gore: overseer, proud,
ambitious, persevering; he was afraid of him. Sophia
Auld: wife of his Baltimore master, extremely kind, then
turned cruel; he was at first happy and hopeful around
her but soon became fearful of her.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Voice
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Douglass
writes as both the child who was separated from his
mother and as the adult reflecting on what that meant.
Literary Element: Voice
Answers will vary. Students may note that Douglass’s
formal phrases such as “death soon ended what little
we could have” helps convey a sense of depth and a
tone of solemnity.
Reading Strategy: Summarize
Answers will vary. A sample summary might be:
“Douglass was not upset about leaving his home
because he had no family there and he knew he would
probably suffer no matter where we went.”
Reading Strategy: Summarize
Answers will vary. A sample summary might be:
“Douglass met Sophia Auld and was very much
influenced by the kindness she showed him.”
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Power of Memory
Answers will vary. Douglass’s childhood memories
illustrate that white people deprived the enslaved
people of education to keep the enslaved powerless.
22
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. He saw his aunt Hester whipped when he was a
young child. He calls this experience the “bloodstained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery,”
meaning that it was the horrible initiation, his first
awareness of what his future held.
2. The enslaved people received pork and corn meal
each month. The children wore shirts and no pants
or shoes, no one had a bed. The men and women
had one coarse blanket. The slaveholders in many
cases treated the enslaved people worse than they
did their animals.
3. They were always afraid they might be talking to a
spy or to the master himself. They were intelligent
and wary, protecting themselves from retaliation
however possible.
4. In Chapter V, Douglass writes, “The ties that
ordinarily bind children to their homes were all
suspended in my case. I found no severe trial in my
departure.” As a child he knew only that he was not
sorry to leave his home; only as an adult does he
realize this was because his ties to his mother had
been broken. The dual narrative voice shows the
dramatic irony in the child’s situation.
5. Answers will vary, but most students will agree that
it was the strong emotions felt at the time that
caused the memory to be preserved.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that reading
Introduction to the Autobiography helped them to
understand why slavery existed in the South and why
Douglass did not have a choice about becoming a slave.
Literary Element: Voice
Answers will vary. Students may find that Douglass’s
voice reveals that he is intelligent, determined,
and devout.
Reading Strategy: Summarize
Answers will vary. Students may summarize the main
events as being Douglass’s birth, the death of his
mother, and learning to read from Sophia Auld.
Vocabulary Practice
1. packed up, 2. great, master, 3. harsh feelings, 4. skin,
itchy, uncomfortable, 5. frustrated, refused
Academic Vocabulary
Answers will vary. Students may respond that fair rules
and laws help people live safely and treat each other
with respect.
ANSWER KEY
Writing
Personal Response
Answers will vary. Students should support their
response with information from the text.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Covey
was afraid of Douglass and did not want anyone else to
know that Douglass had beat him in a fight.
Connect to Content Areas
Art and Social Studies
Students’ presentations should
• include a combination of words, images, and music
• incorporate technology in the creation of the report
• be well organized and present an overview of the
spiritual origins of the blues
• be presented with appropriate eye contact, tone of
voice, and body language
CHAPTERS IX–X
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
A machine was used to separate the wheat from
the chaff.
ACTIVE READING
Answers will vary. Possible responses:
Cause = Douglass is mistreated by Covey.
Effect = Douglass loses his spirit.
Cause = Sandy gives Douglass a root.
Effect = Douglass gains new confidence.
Cause = Douglass fights Covey.
Effect = Douglass’s desire for freedom is renewed.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Quests and Encounters
Answers will vary. Douglass learned that he was willing
to risk his life in order to be free.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. He whipped her and tried to give her away because
she was physically disabled and helpless. This made
Frederick indignant and angry that he could not be
more protective.
2. Auld experienced a religious conversion. Frederick
became adamant that all men ought to have integrity.
3. He had no legal recourse, unless a white man were
to testify on his behalf. With both the church and the
law organized against enslaved people, his only
chance for freedom is flight.
4. Ships on the bay inspire him with both sorrow and
determination. With white sails unfurled, they head
for the open sea; their journey symbolizes freedom
and fulfillment.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that from
that day forward, Douglass believed that he had the
power to defend himself and protect himself.
Apply Background
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Tone
Answers will vary. Students may describe the tone of
this passage as “weary,” “sad,” or “hopeless.” They
may base their descriptions of Douglass’s repetition of
the word “work” or the phrase “broken in body, soul,
and spirit.”
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information in Build Background helped them to
understand that Maryland was part of the southern
slave states but still had a climate more similar to the
northern states.
Literary Element: Tone
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the short
sentences followed by exclamation points help create
the desperate tone of the passage.
Answer will vary. Students may note that there is not a
significant contrast in tone, but that the tone at the end
of the chapter is much more hopeful. This hopefulness
is demonstrated in the more frequent use of declarative
sentences beginning with “I”, such as “I earned it.”
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships
Reading Strategy: Analyze Cause-and-Effect
Relationships
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Douglass
is an educated man and does not seem to believe in
superstition.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that
Douglass’s intelligence and his education played an
important role. They may also feel that Douglass
exhibited exceptional courage and physical stamina
during his experiences at the Covey farm.
Literary Element: Tone
Narrative of the L if e of Fre d e r ic k D o u g la ss
23
ANSWER KEY
Vocabulary Practice
Literary Element: Historical Narrative
1. f, 2. b, 3. d, 4. a, 5. e
Answers will vary. Students may respond that
abolitionists during this time met a very significant
need and that they were constantly under pressure.
Academic Vocabulary
Context clue: earlier
Write with Style
Apply Tone
Students’ speeches should
• be written from Covey’s point of view
• communicate a main idea or thesis
• convey tone through word choice, punctuation,
sentence structure, and/or figures of speech.
Research and Report
Visual/Media Presentation
Print ads should
• include a combination of words and images
• communicate a persuasive message
• be presented using appropriate eye contact, tone
of voice, and body language.
CHAPTERS XI–APPENDIX
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Shipbuilding was an important industry in the region
where Douglass lived.
ACTIVE READING
Answers may vary. Sample answer: South: nonslaveholders were very poor; many slaveholders lived
in luxury; other slaveholders were poor or had only
moderate means; the shipyard was filled with yelling
and the sounds of whipping; half-naked children and
barefoot women were commonly seen; many houses
dilapidated. North: generally a higher standard of living
for everyone; ships in New Bedford were of highest
quality; warehouses filled to capacity; workers in
shipyard moved about quietly on their own; people
were generally happier; houses well-kept; formerly
enslaved people lived better than many southern
slaveholders.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Historical Narrative
Douglass felt insecure and frightened in New York
because he knew that kidnappers might bring him
back to slavery.
24
Reading Strategy: Recognize Author’s Purpose
Douglass wants to be sure that the reader does not
think he is an opponent of all religion.
Reading Strategy: Recognize Author’s Purpose
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Douglass
is using the pairings to show that any religion that
condones slavery is a hypocritical religion.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Keeping Freedom Alive
Answers will vary. With freedom, Douglass discovered
a new dignity in hard work, no matter how dirty it might
be. He found a great thirst for knowledge and a sense
of purpose through the anti-slavery movement. One
might say that he lost his sense of isolation.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Auld urged Frederick to stop thinking; this was
impossible for Frederick to do. Frederick was highly
agitated, anxious, and hopeful.
2. He was surprised at the general wealth, supported
without the need for enslaved workers. He was
shocked by the gulf that existed between his
perceptions and reality. He saw how hideously
unnecessary the system of enslavement was.
3. April 28, 1845. Seven years. Douglass worked for
another eighteen years before Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation.
4. Answers may vary. Students may cite examples
such as school club procedures, rules governing
local parks, or state laws governing drivers’ permits
and licenses.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
Douglass was so frightened by the idea of speaking
in front of the group that he suffered greatly to do
so. They may also note that the cross is a reference
to Christ and that Douglass is connecting his
anti-slavery work to his Christian faith.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that reading
the information about Douglass helped them understand
that learning to read and write played an important role
in Douglass’s journey to freedom.
ANSWER KEY
Literary Element: Historical Narrative
Healing Africa’s Children
Answers will vary. Some students may respond that
reading an autobiography makes the information
seem more vivid or more personal. Other students may
respond that an autobiography may be biased because
it is written from one person’s point of view while a
textbook is more objective.
Douglass might feel betrayed and hurt.
Reading Strategy: Recognize Author’s Purpose
Answers will vary. Students will probably conclude that
the author wanted others to know about the horrors of
slavery so that more people would stand up against it.
Vocabulary Practice
1. opposite, 2. opposite, 3. different, 4. same, 5. same
Freedom’s Plow
Douglass as a young illiterate man struggled with
the inability to articulate his urge to claim his right
to freedom. He developed an ability to express his
desires and had the courage to claim them.
The Sky Is Gray
Both have to claim their dignity in the face of a society
that is organized against them as individuals and
against the principle that all of humanity have rights.
Personal Response
Personal responses will vary. Students should support
their response with information from the text.
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
1. Answers will vary. Students may note that Gomez
explicitly informs the reader of her dual voice when
she writes in the very first line, “I didn’t realize…
[we]… were doing an extraordinary thing.”
2. Answers will vary. Students may comment that the
tone of A Swimming Lesson is much more informal
and humorous than Narrative.
3. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
both works address issues of prejudice and
discrimination against people of color.
Speaking and Listening
Talk About It
Literature Groups
During discussion the students should
• respect others’ viewpoints by listening attentively
• provide specific examples to support opinions
Discussions will vary. Students should be respectful of
one another and should be able to refer to the text to
support their opinions.
Academic Vocabulary
Answers will vary. Students may suggest that they can
spend time volunteering for an organization they think
is important, or donate money to a charity they feel is
worthwhile.
Writing
NOVEL AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
The Escape of Hezekiah Hill
The narrator relates that Hezekiah had decided, just as
Frederick had, that he would rather die than continue to
be an enslaved person. He was proud to work on his
own and earn wages, just as Frederick had done.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Autobiographical Narrative
Students’ narratives should
• be written in using a dual narrative voice
• be well organized and follow a logical sequence
• include few errors in grammar and spelling
Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln recognizes the paradox of both sides’ praying
to the same God for victory. Though Lincoln condemns
slavery, he does not want to judge those religious
individuals who fight to uphold it. Douglass paints a
more negative picture of religious slaveholders and
argues that they use religion to justify owning and
mistreating enslaved people.
Narrative of the L if e of Fre d e r ic k D o u g la ss
25
A Separate Peace
John Knowles
26
ABOUT THE WORK
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
John Knowles’s first novel, A Separate
Peace, is a modern classic about a young
man’s coming of age. Set in a traditionbound New England boarding school
during World War II, Knowles’s book
presents the inner struggles of sixteenyear-old Gene Forrester as he deals
with a complicated friendship and the
consequences of an impulsive act.
Through Gene and his classmates, the
novel explores social pressures, the
transition to adulthood, and the dark
side of human nature.
Synopsis
The story of A Separate Peace is narrated by
Gene Forrester, the novel’s main character.
When the novel begins, thirty-one-year-old
Gene is visiting Devon, the boarding
school he attended. The story then flashes
back to the summer of 1942. Gene is taking
summer classes and preparing for his final
year at school. World War II is intensifying,
but it seems far away to Gene and his best
friend, Phineas (Finny), an outstanding
athlete. In what could be their last carefree
summer before they graduate, they
dedicate themselves to sports, friends, and
breaking school rules. Always craving
excitement, the popular and inventive
Finny organizes the Super Suicide Society.
Members must brave a hazardous leap
into a river from a high tree limb. Gene
fears climbing the tree, but he admires
Finny and feels obligated to meet the
challenge. As the friendship between Gene
and Finny develops, Gene, who is a good
student, sees that the far less-studious
Finny can “get away with anything.” Envy
begins to taint Gene’s admiration for his
friend. Gene even begins to believe that
Finny is envious of him and is sabotaging
his chances to become valedictorian. One
day, high in the tree, Gene is consumed
with jealousy when he realizes that he is
“not of the same quality” as Finny. As he
and Finny prepare to jump, Gene jounces
the limb. Finny falls, shattering his leg, and
Gene is, for the first time, able to jump
from the limb without fear.
Finny’s injury ends his athletic career.
Overcome with guilt, Gene tries to confess,
but Finny refuses to believe that his friend
would deliberately hurt him. When Finny
recovers and returns to Devon, he tries to
enjoy sports vicariously through Gene.
He also faces the fact that he cannot enlist
in the armed forces. Finny reacts by
pretending that the war is not real. The
war becomes all too real for Leper, the first
student to enlist: he suffers an emotional
breakdown at boot camp.
When rumors grow that Finny’s fall may
not have been accidental, Brinker Hadley
holds a mock trial to find out if Gene
intentionally caused the “accident.” The
trial so upsets Finny that in his haste to
leave he falls and breaks his leg again.
Later Finny reveals that he knows Gene
caused his accident. The two make peace
before Finny dies during an operation.
Gene eventually finishes school and
enlists. As the novel comes to a close,
readers come to realize that Gene is
reliving the events of his youth in order
to find the “separate peace” that he knew
in the summer of 1942.
A S e p a r a te Pea c e
27
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
Word Pictures
Show students that imagery can
communicate ideas and emotions.
• Remind students that writers use words
to create images that express emotions.
Ask students to identify the emotion
expressed in the following example:
“The empty house moaned in the night
wind, wishing for a face in its dark,
broken windows; carpet on its cold
floor; children to fill its empty rooms
with laughter.” (Students might say that
the image expresses loneliness,
unhappiness, or longing.)
• Tell students that John Knowles uses
images throughout A Separate Peace to
convey emotions. Alert students to pay
special attention to images of school
buildings and school grounds.
The Home Front
Discuss the effects of World War II
on people in the United States.
• Tell students that the main events of
A Separate Peace take place in 1942, the
year after the United States officially
entered World War II. Explain that the
government and the media attempted to
generate public support for the war with
movies, posters, and news coverage.
• Show students articles or photographs
that reveal something about life in the
United States during the 1940s.
• After reviewing the materials, students
should be able to identify the country’s
general attitude toward the war. (They
should notice that people seemed
supportive and willing to make sacrifices
28
and that soldiers were seen as heroes.)
Tell students that most of the characters
in the novel are not directly involved in
the war, but they are deeply affected by
wartime attitudes.
On the Road to Adulthood
Help students recognize literary themes
related to adolescence, or coming-of-age.
• Adolescence—the period between
childhood and adulthood—is the time
frame of novels known as coming-of-age
novels. In these novels, the main
character goes through a time of rapid
physical and emotional change and must
make choices that can affect the rest of
his or her life.
• Ask students to name novels in which
a young character had to make choices
that had a far-reaching impact.
Peer Pressure
Prepare students for the novel’s focus on
peer and social pressures.
• Ask students to give examples of peer
and social pressures that they sometimes
face. If students are reluctant to make
their experiences public, you might ask
them to write a journal entry about their
experiences.
• Explain that A Separate Peace is set at
an exclusive and highly competitive
all-boys’ boarding school during a time
in which eighteen-year-old males were
subject to the draft. Ask students to
predict the kinds of peer and social
pressures that the teenagers in the
novel might face.
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
Envy: Is It Hurting
or (Surprise)
Helping You?
by Julie Taylor
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 25)
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO A Separate Peace
Envy is a major theme in this reading and in the novel.
• Before students read, ask them how people act when they are secretly jealous
of someone. Do they use body language to convey unspoken feelings? Encourage
students to describe or act out a jealous encounter.
• After students read, discuss how the novel might have changed if Gene had
followed the article’s advice. Do students think that the advice is worth following?
Selected Poems
by Lillian Morrison,
Shiro Murano, George
Abbe, Robert Wallace,
and Constance Carrier
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 26)
Like John Knowles, these poets use imagery and symbolism to set moods and
express emotions about athletes.
• Ask students to identify specific emotions associated with sports. Write their
responses on the board.
• Ask students to identify examples of imagery and symbolism as they read.
• Have the class compare the emotions they listed with the emotions, images, and
symbols described in the poems. In what ways are the students’ emotions similar
to the poets’? different? Which images and symbols did the students find the most
powerful or memorable? Why?
• from In Search of
Light: The Broadcasts
of Edward R. Murrow,
1938–1961
These two readings about World War II give more information about the historical
backdrop of the novel.
• Before students read, have them imagine that they are reporters who will be
interviewing Murrow and Case for a feature article on World War II.
• As a class, come up with a list of interview questions. Students should attempt to
answer these questions as they read.
• After they read, see how many questions they were able to answer. Discuss any
unanswered questions with the class.
edited by Edward
Bliss Jr.
• The Home Front in
Upstate New York
by Josephine E. Case
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 27)
D-Day: June 6, 1944
by Robert Mason
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 28)
There Really Was a
Super Suicide Society
by Bernard Carragher
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 29)
This first-person account of the preparations for battle conveys a sense of what
Gene and other boys may have had to face in the war.
• Ask students to keep Leper and the other Devon boys in mind as they read.
• Clear up any confusion students have about historical details in the reading.
• Using information from the reading, lead a discussion on Leper’s decision to
enlist and on his experiences in the war. Because the novel is told from Gene’s
perspective, you may need to guide students in making inferences about Leper’s
perspective and experiences.
This article, about the movie version of A Separate Peace, explores the places,
people, and events that inspired the novel.
• Ask students to discuss how attending other types of high schools might have
affected Gene’s coming-of-age experiences. Review the many types of high
schools.
• After students read, have them compare Knowles’s interpretation of Gene’s
transformation at the end of the novel with their own interpretations.
A S e p a r a te Pea c e
29
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
CHAPTERS 1–5
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Many prep schools and colleges have exclusive groups
called secret societies that sometimes practice unusual
rituals.
ACTIVE READING
Sports: Gene: solid athlete, but not a natural;
Studies: Finny: weak student, tries casually, needs
tutoring, unconcerned, assumes good students perform
effortlessly; Gene: hard worker, aspires to the top,
worries about goals, resents Finny’s interruptions;
Rules: Finny: tries to be good, but largely ignores school
rules in pursuit of his own goals; has a set of personal
rules of conduct; Gene: weighs consequences of rules
violations; amazed by Finny’s ability to “get away with”
things, observes Finny’s personal rules closely;
Outlook on life: Finny: assumes the world is a place
to be enjoyed; regards what comes to him easily as
normal, assumes same for others; seems not to focus
on difficult or unpleasant things; Gene: constant brooder,
turning over almost every possibility; analytical and
worrier, has deep feelings
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Reliable/Unreliable Narrator
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
narrator was afraid to say that he and Finny would not
be friends anymore if the narrator was head of the class.
Literary Element: Reliable/Unreliable Narrator
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Finny
really was joking and that Finny really doesn’t care
whether or not the narrator becomes head of the class.
Reading Strategy: Apply Background Knowledge
Answers will vary. Students may respond that these
words reflect the attitude of many young people at that
point in history. The narrator is young and can’t
remember knowing anything else about war, so he
assumes things will always stay the same.
Reading Strategy: Apply Background Knowledge
Answers will vary. Students may respond that they
know that most people are not able to swim as easily as
Finny and that it is very unusual for someone to break a
school record on a first try.
30
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Energy of Everyday
Answers will vary. Students may say that Finny’s
outlook on life is a positive one, as when he says,
“You always win at sports,” meaning everyone wins
at sports. This shows that he thinks playing sports is
a winning experience, a “perfect beauty.”
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Gene returns in late fall, near the end of November.
The atmosphere is gloomy and depressing.
Descriptions such as “It was . . . the kind of wet,
self-pitying November day when every speck of dirt
stands out clearly” and “this day [the wind] blew
wet, moody gusts all around” (Chapter 1) suggest
that Gene feels self-pity, is keenly aware of the “dirt”
in his own past, and experiences a variety of moods
as he revisits the past.
2. Although Finny is a poor student who rarely studies,
he has a good relationship with his teachers, who
seem disarmed and amused by his self-confidence,
candor, and easy grace. The teachers’ attitude
suggests that Finny is as charming as Gene
describes him to be.
3. Blitzball is a free-form type of football or rugby,
played in a group but without teams. The game
reflects Finny’s individuality, endurance, playfulness,
speed, and cleverness, as do the few and everchanging rules.
4. Although some students may feel that no one who
has suffered such a profound loss could possibly
respond with such grace, generosity, and
innocence, most students will probably agree that
Finny’s response is consistent with his personality
and character. Knowles carefully prepares readers
for the response by showing Finny to be a true
sportsman who, unlike the other students at Devon,
is extraordinarily free of feelings of rivalry and might
therefore find it difficult to detect such feelings in
others. Students may also point out that Finny’s
affection for Gene may blind him to the truth or that
Fiinny is so free of evil intent that he cannot admit
evil in others.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
summer was much more relaxed and, in some ways,
more exciting than the regular school year.
ANSWER KEY
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
background information helped them understand the
exclusive and secretive nature of the students’
meetings.
Literary Element: Reliable/Unreliable Narrator
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
narrator’s questionable role in Finny’s accident makes
the reader especially suspicious of the reliability of
his voice.
Reading Strategy: Apply Background Knowledge
Answers will vary. Students may respond that this
knowledge helps the reader feel that the setting and
descriptions of school life are accurate and realistic.
Vocabulary Practice
1. anarchy, 2. indulgent, 3. nondescript, 4. sedate,
5. muted
Academic Vocabulary
academy
a school, usually above the elementary level, especially
a private school
Writing
Write an Incident Report
Incident reports should
• include the kinds of information usually included on
a real incident report
• be based upon specific information and events from
the text
• be written from the point of view of Finny.
Speaking and Listening
Literature Groups
During discussion the students should
• respect others’ viewpoints
• listen attentively to each other
• take turns expressing their opinions
• use examples from the text to support their opinions
• do their best to reach a consensus
CHAPTERS 6–10
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
This World War II poster reminded the public that
everyone’s help was needed during the war.
ACTIVE READING
Answers will vary. Possible responses:
Sight: “it was ugly, saline, fringed with marsh, mud,
and seaweed”
Sound: “the sharp groupings of noises sounded to my
ears like rifles being fired in the distance”
Touch: “In the air there was only an edge of coolness”
Taste: “. . . I got one of the jugs . . . opened it, sampled it,
choked”
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Setting
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
description reinforces the idea that the school is place
where there is a false sense of propriety.
Literary Element: Setting
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the cold
weather has also chilled the mood of the novel.
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Answers will vary. Students may respond that phrases
like “battleship gray” and “rattling up and down the
staircase” give sensory details that help the reader
imagine the scene.
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Answers will vary. Students may respond “heavily
carved, “ “black walnut,” or “arms ended in two
lions’ heads.”
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Loves and Losses
Answers will vary. Students may say that Leper’s
experience of becoming a soldier causes him to lose
his sense of self and his friendships. Leper’s sense of
loss is visible through his sobbing and his rejection of
Brinker and his former friendships.
A S e p a r a te Pea c e
31
ANSWER KEY
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Gene beomes angry and hits Quackenbush in the
face. Gene says that “the realization that there
was someone who was [maimed] flashed over me”
and that the fight with Quackenbush was the “first
skirmish of a long campaign, for Finny” (Chapter 6).
Students may also feel that Gene becomes angry
because Quackenbush’s comment cuts too close
to the truth. Although physically healthy, Gene is
spiritually maimed by the realization that he caused
Finny’s accident.
2. Finny thinks that the war is not real, but rather a lie
concocted by leaders. He might be trying to
convince himself and others that the war is
insignificant because he can’t participate.
3. Leper always seems lost in his own world and
uninterested in fighting. Other boys talk of enlisting,
but Leper actually does it on impulse.
4. Students might mention the parachute riggers on
campus, the talk of enlisting, and the recruiting
videos.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that Gene
didn’t want to acknowledge the loss of innocence
that occurs when a young man enrolls in the military.
Difference: one has to do with people while the other
has to do with words on a page
Write with Style
Apply Description
Students’ descriptions should
• describe their school
• convey a specific mood
• be organized
• show careful attention to word choice
Speaking and Listening
Performance
Performances should
• show the emotions of the characters through body
language and/or tone of voice
• be performed in a voice loud enough for everyone
to hear
CHAPTERS 11–13
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
Roosevelt and Churchill were both important leaders
during World War II.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
background information helped them understand how
insulated the Devon School students were from the
reality of war all around them.
Literary Element: Setting
Answer will vary. Students may respond that the
narrator refers to death because his visit to Leper’s
house is Gene’s first significant encounter with the
reality of war.
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Gene
doesn’t want to hear about Leper’s visions of a man
holding a leg that had been cut off and “arms and legs
and heads everywhere.”
Vocabulary Practice
1. none, 2. idiosyncratic, 3. none, 4. gullible, 5. extrovert,
6. sultriness, 7. implausible
Academic Vocabulary
draft
Definition: a first or preliminary form of any writing,
subject to revision
32
ACTIVE READING
Brinker’s leadership: Brinker convenes the “kangaroo
court” as a prank that fails; Lepellier: his army experience
makes him deadly serious about harm in the world;
School rules: frequent practice of students going where
they shouldn’t when they shouldn’t; Finny’s personality:
refuses to hold Gene responsible for his injury; when
forced to confront Gene’s actions, he becomes upset
and bolts; What happens: the fun of the mock trial fails
miserably; Gene is unable to treat it lightly; Leper’s
testimony upsets Finny, who has refused to blame his
friend; Finny walks out, falls, rebreaks his leg, then
dies in surgery to reset the shattered limb
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Diction
“Hot air” means words that don’t have any significance.
Literary Element: Diction
Answers will vary. Phineas has a joking, sarcastic
manner, as illustrated by his flippant “Thanks a lot.”
Brinker is quite serious, like a lawyer questioning a
witness, as illustrated by direct and matter-of-fact
questions and comments.
ANSWER KEY
Reading Strategy: Analyze Text Structure
Apply Background
In this passage, “now” refers to the time of Gene’s
graduation, so this passage is still part of the flashback.
At the same time, the narrator hints at what will soon
come.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
author information helped them recognize that much of
the story was based on the author’s actual experience
as a student during World War II.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Text Structure
Literary Element: Diction
Gene’s military service came after graduation but
before his visit to Devon School. In the final chapter of
the novel there are numerous references to his military
service that place it as having occurred soon after his
high school graduation.
Answer will vary. Students may find similarities between
the sarcasm and humor in the language of the Devon
students and the language that students use today.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Issues of Identity
Answers will vary. Students may say that Gene has
become a strong enough person to speak the truth and
that his friendship with Finny can still go on in spite of
what he had done to him. This is the point where it
becomes clear that Gene is his own person and no
longer dependent on Finny to define himself. The fact
that he can describe Finny’s personality as different
from his own—”You’d make a terrible mess, Finny, out
of the war,” because he would get the two sides to get
along—shows that he accepts these differences.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Brinker has friends sneak into their room late at
night. Students will probably say he wants to hurt the
friendship between Finny and Gene out of jealousy.
2. Leper says he saw the boys move up and down like
a set of pistons. Finny does not want to face the fact
that Gene might have hurt him.
3. Gene believes that Finny would have trouble taking
the fighting seriously. He would be off socializing
with the enemy troops. Finny is too bound by his own
rules to exist under military rules. He is also too fond
of people to build hatred toward an enemy.
4. Some students will feel that Gene started the chain
of events that lead to his friend’s death. Others may
feel that Gene is only really responsible for the
original injury.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that because
Gene feels responsible for Finny’s death, he feels like
what is good or strong in him is dying as well.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Text Structure
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Gene, the
narrator had to be looking back and reflecting on what
happened in order to be able to understand it.
Vocabulary Practice
1. forlornly forbid: Forbid means to exclude. Both
words have to do with keeping away.
2. impervious pervade: Pervade means to spread out.
Both words have to do with the outward movement
of things.
3. incomprehensible compare: Compare means to
consider the similarities. Both words have to do with
understanding.
4. incongruity and abnormality: Abnormality means a
deviation. Both words have to do with the condition
of things.
5. latent potential: Potential means capable of being.
Both words have to do with a state of being.
Academic Vocabulary
justify
Answers will vary.
Write with Style
Apply Diction
Reflections should
• include dialogue
• be organized in a logical pattern
• show careful consideration of word choice
Speaking and Listening
Oral Report
During discussion the students should
• respect others’ viewpoints by listening attentively
• provide specific examples to support opinions
A S e p a r a te Pea c e
33
ANSWER KEY
NOVEL AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
Envy: Is It Hurting or (Surprise) Helping You?
Gene internalized his feelings, didn’t speak of them,
didn’t use them to change his life, and let his feelings
against Finny grow. Students should use examples from
the text to support their opinions.
The Sprinters/Pole Vault/The Passer/A Snapshot
for Miss Bricka . . ./Black Water and Bright Air
Students should use their knowledge of Knowles’s
characters and their understanding of the poems to
make their choices.
In Search of Light/The Home Front in
Upstate New York
Students may respond that the reader learns of the
profound effect the war had at home on young men
who tried to decide whether to enlist, men who did
enlist and were changed, school curriculum, and other
aspects of life.
D-Day: June 6, 1944
Students may respond that Leper was testing himself
(if he had been “evolving in the right way” he would
“survive”). He did not know what to expect, as shown
in his naïve belief in the recruiter’s movie and his
terrible disillusionment after he deserts the army.
There Really Was a Super Suicide Society
Students may respond that Knowles’s history and
interpretation of his novel provided insight into the text.
34
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
1. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
narrator of Creatures is unreliable because he
seems to see things that are not there and that this
is somewhat similar to Gene in A Separate Peace
because Gene saw jealousy in Finny when there
was none.
2. Answers will vary. Students may respond that both
literary works take place in two time periods, the
present and the narrator’s childhood.
3. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
dialogue in creatures is unnaturally formal, using
words like “fissure” and “twisted beak.” This is, for
the most part, different from the casual language of
the Devon students, with the exception of Brinker,
who tended to be more formal.
Talk About It
Discussions will vary.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Expository Essay
Students’ essays should
• support viewpoints with detailed references to
the text
• be well organized and follow a logical sequence
• include few errors in grammar and spelling
Our Town
Thornton Wilder
Ou r To wn
35
ABOUT THE WORK
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
Our Town was first performed in Princeton,
New Jersey, on January 22, 1938, and
followed with a brief run in Boston,
Massachusetts. The play’s tryout
performances met with negative reviews.
But Our Town opened in New York to rave
reviews and won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize
for drama.
Our Town follows the age-old cycle of
birth, love, and death. The play employs
a number of theatrical innovations
considered experimental in the 1930s.
Our Town has few props, no scenery,
and shifts in chronology, and a narrator
addresses the audience directly.
Our Town has been widely performed
in high chools and by theater groups
worldwide. A film version appeared in
1940. A television version aired in 1977,
and in 1987 the play was adapted as the
musical Grover’s Corners. The timeless
message of Wilder’s play has made it
a classic.
The play presents one character who is
an alcoholic and commits suicide; another
character dies in childbirth. Teachers can
remind students that Wilder creates a
model of life that includes both joy
and tragedy.
Synopsis
Our Town is set in Grover’s Corners, a
fictional New Hampshire town. Act I
opens on May 7, 1901. The Stage Manager
describes a few landmarks in town and
introduces the Webb and Gibbs families.
36
The Stage Manager asks Professor Willard
and Charles Webb, the editor of the
Sentinel, to relate information about
the town. Emily Webb and George Gibbs
come home after school. Emily helps
George with his homework that evening,
while their mothers attend choir practice.
On their way home, Mrs. Gibbs,
Mrs. Webb, and Mrs. Soames gossip
about Mr. Stimson’s drinking problem.
The constable makes his rounds, and
Mr. Webb returns home after work.
Act II takes place on July 7, 1904. The
Webb and Gibbs families prepare for
George and Emily’s wedding. George tries
to see Emily, but Mrs. Webb reminds him
that the groom may not see his bride
before the ceremony. Mr. Webb shares
marital advice he got from his own father
but then tells George to ignore it. The
Stage Manager interrupts the action to
explain how Emily and George discovered
their love for one another. Then, the Stage
Manager, acting as the minister, performs
the ceremony.
Act III is set in the cemetery at Emily’s
funeral in 1913. Emily has died in
childbirth. Sam Craig, Emily’s cousin,
learns what happened to other townspeople
who have died. Emily joins the dead,
including Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames, and
Simon Stimson. When the Stage Manager
allows Emily to relive her twelfth birthday,
she realizes that most people live without
fully appreciating life. Distressed, she
returns to her new place among the dead.
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
In the Granite State
Help students understand the setting of
Our Town.
• Tell students that Our Town is set in
Grover’s Corners, a fictional town in
New Hampshire. Display a U.S. map
and ask students to find New Hampshire.
• Ask students to use print or online
resources to find out more about New
Hampshire. Have them research the state’s
history, culture, politics, and so forth.
• Encourage students who live in or may
have visited a small New England town
to share their impressions with the class.
Now and Then
Help students appreciate the historical
context of the play.
• Explain to students that Our Town takes
place from 1901 to 1913. Have the class
create a bulletin board display to show
what American life was like at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
Tell students to include photographs,
illustrations, and cartoons depicting
everyday life.
• Have students research what life was
like 100 years ago. Have them use a
variety of resources to gather information
about fashion, technology, family
relationships, jobs, education, and so on.
• Ask students to compare life today
with life in the early 1900s. Have them
hold a discussion about similarities and
differences between life now and then.
create a web of words and phrases that
identify what they think is important in
life. As they read Our Town, have them
compare and contrast the web words
and phrases with things the different
characters value most in life.
• Read this quote from Emily in the last
act of Our Town:
Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover’s
Corners . . . Mama and Papa. Good-by to
clocks ticking . . . and Mama’s sunflowers.
And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses
and hot baths . . . and sleeping and waking up.
Have students list five people, places, or
things that are important to them. Then
have the class work together to make a
collage illustrating some of the items on
their lists.
The Play’s the Thing
Prepare students to read the script of
a play.
• Write the following terms on the board:
act, scene, dialogue, stage directions, scenery,
props, costumes, music, and sound effects.
Discuss the meaning of each term with
students. Make sure they understand
how a playwright and actors bring a
play script to life.
• Invite small groups of students to write
and perform a skit called “My Town.”
Tell them to dramatize an important
event in their community. Have them
create fictional characters and use
dialogue, costumes, and props to show
how these characters act, speak, and look.
What’s Important?
Introduce students to a major theme
introduced in the play: learning to value
the commonplace aspects of life.
• Write the question “What’s important
in life?” on the board. Invite students to
Ou r To wn
37
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
from White Lilacs
by Carolyn Meyer
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 24)
Because I could not
stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson and
Lucinda Matlock
by Edgar Lee Masters
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 25)
from Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 26)
Review of Our Town
by Brooks Atkinson
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 27)
Prologue for The
Comstock Journals
(or Sotol City Blues)
by Olivia Castellano
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 28)
38
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO Our Town
This novel excerpt depicts a fictional African American community in 1921.
• Before students read, discuss the causes and effects of these historical and
political issues: slavery, the Civil War, and segregation. Explain that many African
Americans in the 1920s faced racial prejudice.
• As students read, have them jot down specific details the author uses to bring the
community of Freedomtown to life. Have them create a chart of sensory details,
using the headings Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch, and Smell.
• After students finish reading, have them think about the ways in which
Freedomtown and Grover’s Corners are alike and different.
These poems present different views of life and death.
• Before students read, review the literary concept of personification. Point out that
Dickinson personifies death in “Because I could not stop for Death.”
• As they read the poems, have students make inferences about the attitude toward
death of the speaker in Dickinson’s poem and about Lucinda Matlock’s approach to life.
• After students read, have them discuss which characters in Our Town hold similar
attitudes to those expressed by the speaker in Dickinson’s poem and by Lucinda
Matlock.
This novel excerpt depicts two contrasting views of daily life on Main Street in a
small Midwestern town in the early 1900s.
• Before students read, invite them to name different kinds of businesses that might
be found on Main Street in an American town today.
• Have students reread Act I of Our Town. Then have them read this novel excerpt,
noting similarities and differences between Main Street in Grover’s Corners and
Main Street in Gopher Prairie.
• After students finish reading, have them create Venn diagrams to compare Carol
Kennicott’s view of Main Street with that of Bea Sorenson. Ask them what might
account for the characters’ vastly different points of view.
This review of Our Town appeared the day after the play opened in New York
on February 4, 1938.
• You may wish to use this review as a prereading activity.
• As students read the review, have them note persuasive language the critic uses to
sway his readers’ opinions.
• After students read, ask them to summarize how the critic responded to the play
and why he felt this way.
In this novel excerpt, a character shares bittersweet childhood memories of her
Texas hometown.
• Before students read, help them understand the setting. Point out Comstock on a
map of Texas, and invite students to share any impressions they may have of the
people, places, and customs in this borderland region.
• As students read, ask them to make a web of words that help them picture
Comstock in their minds.
• After they read, have students make comparisons between Odilia in The Comstock
Journals and Simon Stimson, Rebecca Gibbs, or Emily Webb in Our Town and
between Comstock and Grover’s Corners.
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
ACT I
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
Thornton Wilder borrowed elements of Japanese
theater, which uses few props and simple scenery.
ACTIVE READING
Possible answers include: “Mr. Morgan’s drugstore,”
“big butternut tree,” “sound of clinking milk bottles,”
“strawberry phosphates,” “eighty-six percent
Republicans,” “eighty-five percent Protestants,”
“chopping wood,” “sound of crickets,” “smell of
Mrs. Gibbs’ heliotrope”
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Plot
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information about the first automobile helps put the
setting in a historic context. The information about
Banker Cartwright establishes who is the wealthiest
person in Grover’s Corners.
Literary Element: Plot
Exposition; there is no suspense or development
of conflicts.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Plot and Setting
Students may respond that, on the surface, this
information does not seem significant at all. The
significance is in the contrast between the daily life of
the residents and the hundreds of millions of years of
history of this land. The effect on the plot is that it
makes the actions of the current residents seem small
and insignificant.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Act I is set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, on
May 7, 1901. Students might say that the sounds of
daily life, the Stage Manager’s description of the
town buildings, and Wilder’s use of dialect help them
picture the setting.
2. The families live next door to one another, are
middle-class, and each have a son and daughter.
Dr. Gibbs, whose older child is a boy, is the town’s
doctor, while Mr. Webb, whose older child is a girl,
edits the town’s newspaper.
3. Two activities that signify routine and domesticity
are Howie’s delivering milk and the children’s getting
ready for school. These activities establish the
setting, show audiences what daily life is like in a
small town, and illustrate the theme that even trivial
events are important.
4. Wilder creates a calm, peaceful mood with ordinary
conversation between Howie and Dr. Gibbs and the
idyllic sound effects, such as a distant train whistle
and crickets.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
Stimson’s joke about “leave loudness to the
Methodists” tells us that there is a good-natured
competition between the different church
congregations.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the fact
that Wilder once played the part of the Stage Manager
gives them a better understanding of the ways that role
reflects the author’s own opinions and views.
Literary Element: Plot
Answers will vary. Students may respond that there
is rising action in the developing relationship between
Emily and George.
Reading Strategy: Analyze Plot and Setting
Reading Strategy: Analyze Plot and Setting
Students may respond that the town is run by men and
men have more influence and power in the community
than do the women.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that since the
address ends with “the Mind of God,” the author may
be trying to communicate a spiritual or religious
message.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Portraits of Real Life
Answers will vary. Students may suggest that the
conversation between George and Emily as children
seems realistic.
Vocabulary Practice
1. B, 2. A, 3. A, 4. B, 5. A
Academic Vocabulary
cycle
Definition: any complete round or series of occurrences
that repeats
Ou r To wn
39
ANSWER KEY
Writing
Reading Strategy: Make and Verify Predictions
Write a Guidebook Entry
Students’ guidebooks should
• be based on information about Grover’s Corners
found in the text of Our Town
• follow the style of a conventional guidebook, based on
research
• establish a thesis or main idea
• include supporting details
• use language that creates interest
Answers will vary. Students may predict that George
and Emily will have troubles similar to their parents’,
such as worries about how to get their children to
behave and stay safe.
Speaking and Listening
Literature Groups
During discussion students should
• respect others’ viewpoints by listening attentively
• provide specific examples to support opinions
ACT II
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
A young bride and groom are married in an outdoor
wedding ceremony.
ACTIVE READING
Answers will vary. Possible responses include:
George Gibbs: wishes he could keep playing baseball,
wonders about going away to school
Emily Webb: afraid that George doesn’t love her, wants
to stay with her father
Both: want to stay young, wish things could stay
the same
40
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Portraits of Real Life
Answers will vary. Students might suggest that Wilder
makes weddings seem realistic by portraying a mix of
emotions, such as joy, sadness, and confusion.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Act II takes place on July 7, 1904. Two repeated
activities, the milk and paper deliveries, provide
continuity and demonstrate how little life in a small
town changes over time.
2. Emily tells George he has become conceited.
George acts grateful for her candor and uses their
discussion as an opportunity to reveal his deep
feelings for her.
3. George decides not to attend Agricultural School
because he realizes that he loves Emily and does not
want to leave her behind in Grover’s Corners.
4. Despite fears, Emily and George feel obligated to
go through with their wedding. Some students
might say that they will have a successful marriage
because they have known and loved each other a
long time. Others might say that they are too young
to handle the responsibilities of marriage.
5. Answers will vary. Students may infer that George
and Emily probably started dating and had a quiet,
uneventful courtship.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Conflict
Answers will vary. Students may respond that George
wants to stay a teenager who hangs around with his
friends and plays baseball.
Apply Background
Literary Element: Conflict
Literary Element: Conflict
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Emily
thinks she will change into a wife and mother like her
own mother; Both: an internal conflict—her desire to
stay young—and an external conflict—society’s
expectations for her to grow up and get married.
Answer will vary. Students may respond that George
and Emily truly love each other and that it is normal to
have last-minute doubts before a big event like a
wedding. Students should identify a monologue,
soliloquy, or aside that expresses doubts.
Reading Strategy: Make and Verify Predictions
Reading Strategy: Make and Verify Predictions
Answers will vary. Students may say they expect
George to be happy but nervous at the wedding.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the Stage
Manager is trying to engage the audience and
emphasize that each act of the play is about an
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
background information helped them understand that it
was not unusual for people as young as George and
Emily to get married in the early 1900s.
ANSWER KEY
important part of the life cycle. He may be implying that
the final act of the play will be about death.
about life, one that we all try to resist and turn away
from but is always there.
Vocabulary Practice
Literary Element: Allegory
1. f, 2. g, 3. b, 4. c, 5. d
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the stars
represent God. The effect is to add to the somber mood.
Academic Vocabulary
normal
definition: conforming to the standard; usual
synonyms: average, commonplace, ordinary, typical
antonyms: unusual, abnormal, odd, unexpected
sentence/image: On a normal day, I take the bus
to school.
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences About
Characters
Writing
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Emily
feels uncomfortable but not all that upset.
Write a Diary Entry
Students’ diary entries should
• describe the character’s internal conflicts
• include words and phrases that re-create the
character’s voice
Speaking and Listening
Performance
Performances should
• show the emotions of the characters through tone of
voice of voice, expressions, and gestures
• be performed in a voice loud enough for everyone
to hear
ACT III
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
In the early 1900s, many women died during childbirth,
due to factors such as the lack of effective sterilization
techniques.
ACTIVE READING
Character: Emily
Stands for: love
Place or object: Grover’s Corners
Stands for: all of the earth
Event: Emily’s visit to her childhood
Stands for: regret
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Allegory
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Simon
Stimson represents a dark and pessimistic attitude
Answers will vary. Students may respond that
Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Soames have a very practical
and objective attitude toward death.
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences About
Characters
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Loyalty and Betrayal
Answers will vary. Students may suggest that Emily still
has attachments to her life, and so her loyalties are
with an existence she no longer has.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Act III is set in the cemetery in the summer of 1913,
a logical place for the play to end because death
ends the cycle of life.
2. Mrs. Gibbs, Simon Stimson, and Mrs. Soames have
died. Bewildered, Emily feels out of place when she
joins them. The dead respond calmly, some
comforting her, others indifferent to her.
3. Emily wants to return to the living world. The dead
warn her that it will be painful to watch her life
unfold knowing what will happen.
4. After observing her family, Emily realizes people do
not fully “realize life while they live it” because they
are too preoccupied to appreciate it.
5. Answers will vary. Emily responds by saying, “They
don’t understand, do they?” Students may respond
that Emily does not react with compassion to George
because she now understands that regret and grief
are just a waste of energy.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
introduction to the play helped them understand that
the story is an allegory.
Ou r To wn
41
ANSWER KEY
Literary Element: Allegory
Answer will vary. Students may respond that Wilder is
trying to teach the audience that each human being is a
small and unimportant part of the broad universe.
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences About
Characters
Answers will vary. Students may respond that in a
novel, the reader would probably find out many more
details about each character from the narrator and this
would result in the reader’s having to make fewer
inferences.
Vocabulary Practice
1. mowing a lawn, 2. weeping, 3. official,
4. on a sidewalk, 5. villain
Academic Vocabulary
The differences between the two meanings of stress:
One is a verb and one is a noun; one means “to
emphasize” and the other means “pressure” or
“tension.”
Writing
Write Slogans
Students’ slogans should
• be based upon the characterizations in Our Town
• capture a particular view of life
Research and Report
Literary Criticism
Students’ paragraphs should
• include a thesis statement
• include details from the play that support the thesis
PLAY AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
from White Lilacs
Students might list specific people, places, and events
reminiscent of both works, such as the undertakers
Mr. Morgan and Joe Stoddard, Pastor Mobley and the
Stage Manager/ Clergyman, the buildings and gardens
in Freedomtown and Grover’s Corners, and the joys and
sorrows of daily life—working, moving to a new
location, births, marriages, deaths.
Because I could not stop for Death;
Lucinda Matlock
These poems and the play express the ideas that death
is an inevitable part of life and that life is full of precious
moments and passes by quickly. Dickinson’s poem
42
focuses on the passage from life to death, while
Masters’s poem and the play focus on the daily
events that make up life.
from Main Street
Students might mention that both are small towns with
busy Main Streets, although Gopher Prairie is in the
Midwest, and Grover’s Corners is located in New
England. Gopher Prairie seems to be the more
developed town.
The Play: A Review of Our Town
Students might say the review would definitely have
convinced audiences to see the play because it is full of
boundless praise. They may find Atkinson’s language
insincere or his viewpoint too one-sided.
Prologue for The Comstock Journals
(or Sotol City Blues)
In Act III, Emily seeks comfort in her childhood memories.
Though she finds some comfort, her memories also bring
home sharply how she failed to appreciate her life.
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
1. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
two plays are quite different because Our Town
opens with ordinary, everyday events while
A Marriage Proposal opens with a special and
unusual conversation.
2. Answers will vary. Students may respond that both
Lomov and George have doubts about marriage, but
George, unlike Lomov, seems to truly love his bride.
3. Answers will vary. Students may respond that there
are no clear indications that A Marriage Proposal is
an allegory because the characters seem to have
unique voices and characteristics.
Talk About It
Discussions will vary.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Expository Essay
Students’ essays should
• document Emily’s internal conflicts in her significant
relationships
• identify similarities between the conflicts in the
relationships
• include references to the text that support the
viewpoints
• identify complexities in the text
The Way to
Rainy Mountain
N. Scott Momaday
The Way to R a in y Mo u n ta in
43
ABOUT THE WORK
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
The Way to Rainy Mountain is not an easy
book to classify. It tells of a long journey
taken by the Kiowa people: their
emergence from the Rocky Mountains
around 1700; their golden age on the
Great Plains, centered around Rainy
Mountain in Oklahoma; and their decline
in the mid-1800s. Momaday weaves his
story from myths, historical accounts,
reminiscences, illustrations, and poetry.
This rich, imaginative mixture suggests
other journeys—a journey of self-discovery,
a journey of creativity, and a journey
through life itself, from birth to death.
The Way to Rainy Mountain tells of an epic
journey, yet it is less than ninety pages
long, with many pages left half blank.
An average student will take no more than
two hours to read the book. Most will put
the book down interested but puzzled, for
this is a work that requires rereading.
Students will have immediate questions.
Why does the book consist of so many
short passages? Why does it jump around
in time? Why does the author change the
tone so abruptly?
Note that the book contains a brief account
of domestic violence and a description of a
peyote ritual. Before assigning your class
to read the book, you may wish to explain
that the Kiowas ingested peyote only as
part of a religious ceremony.
Synopsis
The Way to Rainy Mountain does not have
a conventional plot; the story it tells
unfolds indirectly. The Kiowa people,
Momaday’s paternal ancestors, once
44
lived in the mountains near Yellowstone.
Beginning around 1700, they descended to
the Great Plains, where exposure to other
Native American groups and the acquisition
of horses transformed them into nomadic
buffalo hunters. For nearly a hundred
years, they experienced their great days
as proud horsemen and joyous participants
in the annual Sun Dance. Then decline set
in. As settlers of European descent rolled
steadily westward, disputes erupted and
buffalo stocks declined. Along with their
fellow Plains Indians, the Kiowas were
left with fading memories to sustain them
after they lost their independence. This
was the world into which the author was
born, near the slopes of Rainy Mountain
in Oklahoma.
Momaday frames his book with poems,
the first entitled “Headwaters” and the
second “Rainy Mountain Cemetery.”
A Prologue and an Introduction provide
enough information to help readers make
sense of the multifaceted narrative that
follows. Twenty-four numbered sections
make up the bulk of the book. Each section
covers two facing pages and consists of
three passages set in different typefaces.
The first passage is a myth, legend, or
family story; the second usually represents
a detached, historical voice;
and the third relates Momaday’s own
experience or reflection. A common
theme or subject links the three passages—
dogs, tornadoes, or the Sun Dance, for
instance. The sections are grouped into
three parts arranged chronologically.
Eleven illustrations by Al Momaday, the
author’s father, accompany the text.
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
The Way I See It
When I Was Your Age . . .
Prepare students to look at life from
different viewpoints.
• Suggest to students that how we
describe something depends not just
on what we see but also on who we are.
Our experiences and preconceptions
affect our point of view.
• Ask students to imagine how they
might appear to others. How would
the following people describe them:
a parent, a stranger on the bus, the
school principal, a younger sibling?
• Have students share their points of view.
Ask them which descriptions they
believe to be more accurate. Lead them
to understand that reality is often too
complex to be understood completely
from a single point of view.
Encourage students to consider the role of
older generations in sharing experiences.
• Ask students how well they know older
members of their families. Encourage
them to describe the experiences of
family members who have lived through
difficult or interesting times.
• Invite students to share with the class
the recollections of their grandparents
or other people they know from older
generations. Ask them how they
respond to this information.
• Point out that in some cultures, the
elderly are greatly respected and
esteemed simply because of their age.
Encourage the class to discuss this idea.
Myth Making
Invite students to examine and
experience the process of myth making.
• Ask students what the word myth means
to them. Point out that to the people
who created them, myths served a
purpose—instruction, warning, or
information. They were more than just
colorful tales; they represented the truth.
• Have students recall and retell myths
that they have encountered in their
reading or schoolwork. Remind them
that they have probably heard stories
from Native American, African, Greek,
Roman, or Scandinavian mythology.
• Have students speculate why it might be
possible for someone who doesn’t
believe in certain myths to find them
enjoyable and meaningful.
The Silent Treatment
Encourage students to assess the merits of
silent observation.
• Point out that when a public speaker
calls for a minute of silence, the time
elapsed rarely exceeds thirty seconds.
Ask students when they last experienced
a full waking minute of silence.
• Have students experience a minute of
silence with their eyes closed. Urge them
to let go of conscious thoughts. Afterward,
invite them to share their thoughts and
feelings. Was it restful? Stressful?
Boring? Enlightening?
• Suggest that by spending so much
of our lives in confusion and noise,
we lose an opportunity to gain an
intimate knowledge of our surroundings
and ourselves. Point out that silent
observation is one of the techniques
employed by N. Scott Momaday in The
Way to Rainy Mountain.
The Way to R a in y Mo u n ta in
45
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
Stairway to Heaven
by Karen J. Coates
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 24)
Moments and Journeys
by John Haines
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 25)
The Names of Women
by Louise Erdrich
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 26)
In Response to a
Question
by William Stafford
Credo
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO The Way To Rainy Mountain
• To pique students’ interest before they read, you might mention that Devils Tower was
the site of an alien landing in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• Before students read, ask them what they know about current conflicts between
Native Americans and other ethnic groups. Lead them to understand that the issue
of land use, which led to warfare more than a century ago, still causes friction today.
• Ask students to shut their eyes and visualize a natural scene that is special to
them—perhaps a lake, mountain, or urban park. Invite volunteers to describe their
landscapes and to explain what makes them special.
• After students read, discuss the different attitudes toward land characteristic of
Native Americans and those who took land from them.
• Before students read, point out that John Haines lived in rural Alaska from 1954 to
1969. Ask students to imagine what his life there was like.
• Invite students to share their own experiences of living simply. How did they
respond to the experience? Did they learn anything about themselves?
• After students read, encourage them to make comparisons between Haines’s views
about life and Momaday’s views in The Way to Rainy Mountain.
• Before students read, ask them to think about the lives their ancestors lived. Invite
them to compare their own lives with those of their great-grandparents. What were
the advantages and disadvantages of their great-grandparents’ way of life?
• Point out that life has changed greatly for many Native Americans in the last
century. Ask students how such changes might affect the way a person feels about
the history of his or her people.
• After students read, ask them to compare the attitudes of Erdrich and Momaday
toward their ancestors.
• Point out that one of the most persistent themes in poetry is the power of nature to
nurture and enlighten us.
• Have students take a moment to write down a few words of advice or warning that
the natural world might give to human beings. Invite them to share their thoughts
with the class.
by Maxine Kumin
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 27)
from The Trip to
Bountiful
by Horton Foote
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 28)
46
• Ask students how many places they have called home during their lives. How many
homes have their parents or guardians had? Do the students still refer to
somewhere they have previously lived as home?
• Have students spend a few minutes making a word web. Ask them to write down
anything they associate with the word home.
• After students read, compare Momaday’s idea of home with Mrs. Watts’s in
this selection.
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
PROLOGUE/INTRODUCTION/THE SETTING OUT
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Peyote, a drug that comes from a cactus plant, was
used by Native Americans in religious rituals and is still
used today in some Native American communities.
ACTIVE READING
I. Kiowas emerge from a log; explains how the early
names of the Kiowas are related to the myth; II. Chiefs
fight over antelope; importance of antelope in Kiowa
history; III. Dogs befriend humans; Kiowa respect
for dogs; IV. Girl in tree is brought up to the sun; the
mountain landscape seems to touch the sky;
V. Sun’s wife digs through root of bush and is killed
while climbing down to earth; the root is an important
food source for the Kiowa, who didn’t farm; VI. Sun’s
child adopted by grandmother spider; prevalence of
spiders on the plains; VII. Falling ring splits sun’s child in
two; pleasure of seeing one’s own image; VIII. Twins
use word to escape giant’s cave; Kiowas appreciate the
power of words; IX. After twins kill grandfather snake,
they are honored among the Kiowas; the twins are
revered for their healing powers; X. Tai-me appears to
hungry man; detailed descriptions of Tai-me; XI. Man is
transformed into water beast after eating mysterious
meat; the Kiowas are transformed by the visions they
get from eating peyote.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Myth
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
question the Kiowa people asked was, “Where did
we come from?”
Literary Element: Myth
Answers will vary. Students may respond that both
the myth and the author’s reflections have to do with
“coming out” and arriving at a new place.
Reading Strategy: Identify Sequence
Students may respond “the years went by,” “but one
day,” “and then,” and “when she saw them.”
Reading Strategy: Identify Sequence
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
event occurred at the end of Mammedaty’s life.
They may infer the sequence based on the finality
of the language.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Acts of Courage
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the Kiowa
people showed courage in both small and large ways.
In small ways, they bravely faced daily challenges,
such as raising children. They also faced large
challenges, such as facing troops in battle.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Rainy Mountain is in Oklahoma. It is where the
author’s family lived and marks the end of the
Kiowa people’s long journey from the west.
2. The author makes a pilgrimage from Yellowstone
to Oklahoma, following the route of his ancestors.
He might have made this journey to understand his
people’s history.
3. The four pictures all include animals. This suggests
that the Kiowas had a close connection with nature.
4. Answers will vary.
5. Answers will vary. The acts of courage include the
sun’s child meeting grandmother spider, the twins
discovering a giant, and the hungry man searching
for food and encountering Tai-me. Students may
respond that these acts of courage show that the
Kiowa people believe courage is often needed in
unexpected or surprising situations.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
information about the author and his many influences
helped them understand why the book is organized in
different parts.
Literary Element: Myth
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
stories explain the contradictions and conflicts people
face in everyday life, or the conflict between good and
evil. In the myths about the twins, the two brothers make
similar choices, but in the myth of the two brothers who
searched for food, one brother makes a wise choice
and the other makes an unfortunate choice.
The Way to R a in y Mo u n ta in
47
ANSWER KEY
Reading Strategy: Identify Sequence
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the myth
sections take place very long ago, before time was
measured. This is implied in the opening (“everything
had to begin, and this is how it was . . .”) The nonfiction,
historical section includes specific times and dates,
such as “winter of 1848.” The timing of the author’s
reflections are not identified specifically (“one
morning”), but the reader knows they must have taken
place recently, because of the information shared in the
Prologue.
Vocabulary Practice
1. two rivers, 2. a nightlight, 3. a lullaby, 4. in a box,
5. sucking their thumbs
Academic Vocabulary
emerge
Answers will vary. Students may give a factual
response, such as “a squirrel,” or “a raccoon,”
or students may give a fanciful response, such as
“a demon,” or “an elf.”
Writing
Write a Myth and a Scientific Explanation
Students’ myths and explanations should
• focus on one natural feature
• contain two contrasting explanations
• incorporate language that is appropriate for
each explanation
Connect to Content Areas
Art
Students’ art should
• include 11 sketches that correspond to the 11 myths
in “The Setting Out”
• show the influence of Native American artists
• be accompanied by a bibliography
• be presented to the class with confidence
THE GOING ON
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
This drawing is part of the huge collection of art
created by George Catlin.
48
ACTIVE READING
Student responses will vary. XII: The Kiowas are
resourceful; XIII: Old people remain productive in
Kiowa society; XIV: The Kiowas love nature even when
it turns violent; XV: Quoetotai has proved his worth to
Many Bears by roaming for so long with the Comanches;
XVI: It took courage and resourcefulness to hunt
buffalo; XVII: Although Kiowa women were generally
subservient to men, it was possible for a strong and
determined women to escape this role; XVIII: Horses
allowed the Kiowas to embark on great adventures.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Dialogue
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
dialogue reveals that the man is cool-headed, clever,
and brave.
Literary Element: Dialogue
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
author did not include dialogue because he wanted
to emphasize the reflective silence at the end of
the passage.
Reading Strategy: Clarify Meaning
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the men
were demonstrating the old way to hunt and kill a
buffalo so that the old ways would not be forgotten.
Reading Strategy: Clarify Meaning
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
author means you must have the experience of facing
danger in order to feel truly alive.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Acts of Courage
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
bravery of the Kiowa people in the face of violent
storms parallels their bravery in the face of battle.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. The enemies promise not to kill them if they are fed.
They think that the enemies will break their promise.
2. A cow chases them away from her newborn calf.
Students may respond that the recollection of a
cow protecting her infant provides an interesting
contrast to the depictions of buffalo in the previous
two passages.
ANSWER KEY
3. The “small men” are probably monkeys. The Kiowa
men may have traveled so far south that they have
entered a completely new environment.
4. Many students will argue that women were secondclass citizens in Kiowa society. Some will feel that
this was unfortunate but typical of the day.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
the woman who was left outside to freeze must
have had the courage to face her fate and that
Mammedaty’s grandmother must have been
courageous to have risen from a slave to a
respected position in the tribe.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
background information helped them understand
the art and artist the author referred to in part XV.
Literary Element: Dialogue
Answer will vary. Students may respond that, in a way,
the whole book is a dialogue and that each section is
written in a different voice. In this format, additional
dialogue would be confusing or unnecessary.
Reading Strategy: Clarify Meaning
Answers will vary. Students may respond that they
drew upon previous knowledge and experience from
reading myths and folktales from other cultures or
from reading about Native American history.
Speaking and Listening
Oral Interpretation
Performances should
• show the emotions of the characters through tone of
voice of voice, expressions, and gestures
• be performed in a voice loud enough for everyone
to hear
THE CLOSING IN / EPILOGUE
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
The Sun Dance is a Native American ritual celebration.
ACTIVE READING
Myths and Legends: In many European fairy tales, a
special dress can have magical powers.
Native American Culture: Beadwork often has spiritual
and cultural significance.
U.S. History and Geography: U.S. policy toward Native
Americans was often not fair or generous.
Other: My mother keeps her wedding dress in a special
box in the attic.
1. balk, 2. bearing, 3. distracted, 4. loose, 5. strain
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Image Archetype
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
little boy represents innocence and the potential for
a bright future.
Academic Vocabulary
Literary Element: Image Archetype
ethnic
definition: pertaining to a group that shares a common
and distinctive culture, religion, and language
synonyms: racial, tribal, cultural
antonyms: unconnected
sentence/image: The families in my neighborhood
represent many different ethnic groups.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
“powerful medicine” is a circle of earth, which might
represent an understanding of nature’s ways.
Writing
Reading Strategy: Synthesize
Write an Anecdote
Students’ anecdotes should
• be autobiographical
• relate to one of the themes in this section of the book
• be written with a similar style to that of the book
Answers will vary. Students may respond that people
sometimes develop close connections with animals—
particularly horses—and choose to honor them in
death as if they were human.
Vocabulary Practice
Reading Strategy: Synthesize
Answers will vary. Students may respond that this
knowledge helps them understand that the boy may
have been justified in stealing the horse.
The Way to R a in y Mo u n ta in
49
ANSWER KEY
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: Rescuing and Conquering
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
conquering of the Kiowa people resulted in great
suffering. In the myth of the two brothers, however, the
captured brothers are treated with respect and allowed
an opportunity to earn their freedom.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. They were forced to eat their horses. They valued
their horses very highly.
2. A spectacular meteor shower took place in 1833.
Like these “stars,” the Kiowa society seemed strong
and stable, but it fell suddenly.
3. The poem describes a gravestone in Rainy Mountain
Cemetery. Students might respond that the book
celebrates a way of life that has died away.
4. Students might respond that the reflections make
the myths seem more personal and help us
understand their relevance to contemporary life.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
“closing in” refers to the diminishing of the Kiowa
culture, getting smaller and smaller, after they
surrendered at Fort Sill.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
Introduction to the Novel helped them understand the
author’s intentions when writing the book and the
significance of the book in American literature.
land formation with flat top
Spanish mensa, table
Sample Sentence:
On our vacation we hiked across a mesa in Mexico.
3. Definition:
Etymology:
a person who provides
_
Latin providére, to forsee
Sample Sentence:
The shopkeeper was the purveyor of supplies for the
whole town.
4. Definition:
Etymology:
weakly
_
Latin tenuitas, thinness
Sample Sentence:
The very ill woman tenuously held on to life.
5. Definition:
Etymology:
to surpass
_
Latin transcendere, to surmount
Sample Sentence:
Beethoven’s later symphonies transcend his
earlier works.
Academic Vocabulary
region
The differences between the two meanings: One is an
area of land and the other is an area of the body.
Write with Style
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
illustrations are able to evoke feelings and associations
that the text may not be able to describe.
Apply Imagery
Narratives should
• include archetypal images
• incorporate vivid sensory details
• express a strong emotion.
Reading Strategy: Synthesize
Research and Report
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the reader
would not understand that it was not just the Kiowa
tribe that was defeated, it was all Native Americans.
Internet Connection
Oral reports should be
• well organized
• based on accurate internet research
• presented with confidence.
Literary Element: Image Archetype
Vocabulary Practice
1. Definition:
Etymology:
to exist permanently
Latin haerére, to stick
Sample Sentence:
Tall buildings inhere New York City.
50
2. Definition:
Etymology:
ANSWER KEY
NOVEL AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
Stairway to Heaven
Possible responses: the Devils Tower myth; Momaday’s
descriptions of the importance of the Sun Dance in
Native American culture; his reflections on the link
between landscape and spirituality; his account of the
government’s unfair treatment of the Kiowas.
Moments and Journeys
Students may point out the detailed and loving
descriptions of nature, the idea that our lives
rise and fall in a rhythm, and the sense of life as
a journey.
The Names of Women
Students may suggest that both Erdrich and Momaday
speak admiringly and a little sadly about their people.
Both feel a strong connection with their ancestors and
yet are also somewhat removed from the culture.
In Response to a Question; Credo
Students might mention Stafford’s advice to know a place
well and Kumin’s belief in myth or her love of horses.
from The Trip to Bountiful
Both travel back to a place where an old way of life has
largely disappeared. Both feel a strong connection to
nature and gain strength from being in touch with it.
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
Myth: Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
mythological characteristics of The Stealing of Thor’s
Hammer are the inclusion of gods and goddesses and
the transformation of humans or gods into animals.
Dialogue: Answers will vary. Students may respond
that there is much more dialogue in The Stealing of
Thor’s Hammer, it is more informal in tone, and the
dialogue incorporates humor.
Image Archetype: Answers will vary. Students may
respond that archetypes include a hammer, a feather
coat, and mountains. These archetypes are not the
same, but they represent some of the same things as
the archetypes in The Way to Rainy Mountain, such
as power, hope, and strength.
Talk About It
Discussions will vary.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Research Report
Students’ reports should
• include carefully documented facts from primary and
secondary sources
• include a thesis statement that identifies the topic
• present ideas in a coherent order
• contain few grammar and spelling errors.
The Way to R a in y Mo u n ta in
51
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
52
ABOUT THE WORK
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein
explores themes related to ambition,
science, moral responsibility, social
isolation, and psychological balance.
With its wild and desolate settings and
its supernatural being, Frankenstein is
an example of the gothic novel. With a
scientific fantasy at the center of its plot,
the novel is also regarded as a forerunner
of science fiction.
Parts of the novel refer to people of
various racial and religious groups in
ways that students may find offensive.
You may wish to point out that at the time
when Shelley was writing, people typically
had little access to information about other
cultures, and it was not uncommon for
people to hold negative views toward
cultures they didn’t understand.
Synopsis
Frankenstein is a frame story, a plot structure
that includes the telling of a story within
a story. The novel opens and ends with
the letters of an explorer named Robert
Walton, who is searching for the source of
magnetism in the northern polar regions.
There he finds and rescues Dr. Victor
Frankenstein. Frankenstein tells Walton
the story of his life.
Frankenstein tells of becoming obsessed
with the idea of bestowing life on inanimate
matter. Using the body parts from corpses,
Frankenstein creates a large manlike being
and brings it to life with an electric spark.
Finding the creature grotesquely ugly when
it is animated, Frankenstein runs away
from it. The creature quickly disappears.
For months afterward, Frankenstein suffers
from what he calls a “nervous fever” in
which hallucinations involving the
creature torment him.
After his recovery, Frankenstein learns
that his young brother, William, has
been murdered near the family home in
Switzerland. A young woman who lived
with the Frankenstein family is unjustly
accused and hanged for the child’s murder.
On his trip home, Frankenstein sees the
creature and realizes that he killed the
child. Frankenstein seeks solitude high
in the Alps, and there he is confronted
by his creation. The creature persuades
Frankenstein to listen to his tale of
persecution and loneliness.
The creature tells how he hid in a shed
attached to the cottage of a poor family
in the woods. Observing the family, he
learned to speak their language. The
creature also learned about what it means
to be human by reading three books
he found. He gathered his courage to
approach a blind man. He was received
sympathetically, but when the others
returned, they drove him away in fear.
From that moment, the creature vowed
revenge against humankind and especially
his creator. The creature demands that
Dr. Frankenstein make a companion for
him. Frankenstein agrees, but on the verge
of animating the female creature, he
destroys it. The creature responds by
killing Frankenstein’s closest friend and,
later, Frankenstein’s bride. Frankenstein
pursues the creature all the way to the
Arctic but then dies on Walton’s ship. The
creature comes to Frankenstein’s deathbed,
confesses his remorse, and vows he will
end his own life.
Fr a n ken stein
53
OP TIONS FOR MOTIVATI N G STU DE NTS
A Dark and Stormy Night . . .
Help students connect the novel to
popular depictions of the monster.
• Many students will be familiar with
movie versions of Frankenstein’s
creature, such as the 1931 classic
Frankenstein, with Boris Karloff as the
monster, and Young Frankenstein (1974),
a comic parody starring Gene Wilder as
Dr. Frankenstein. Even students who
haven’t seen the movies may have
preconceived ideas about the monster.
Have students discuss what they know
about Frankenstein’s creature and
note their responses on the board. Then
ask how many students have seen a
movie about Frankenstein’s monster.
Encourage them to describe the monster,
the other main characters, and the
plot as you continue to note their
descriptions on the board.
• Point out that while Shelley’s novel has
inspired filmmakers, cartoonists, and
storytellers of all kinds, the resulting
interpretations are often very different
from the original in terms of character,
plot, and theme. Tell students that the
novel is both a spine-tingling thriller
and a serious meditation on important
issues. Would they characterize the other
interpretations of Frankenstein that
way? Why or why not?
Biological Research
Encourage students to research
contemporary issues in biological
science. (Interdisciplinary: Science)
• Ask students to list examples of recent
developments in biological research,
such as organ transplants, genetic
engineering of plants, gender selection
54
of babies, and cloning. Have students
form small groups and select one of the
listed topics to investigate. Encourage
them to look for print and Internet
sources of information that discuss
the ethical issues raised by their topic.
• Have groups present brief oral reports
based on their findings. Point out to
students that the novel they are about
to read may touch on ethical issues
similar to those raised by biological
research today.
Just Like Life
Help draw students into the story by
having them reenact everyday situations
that parallel those in the novel.
• Divide the class into pairs. Ask each pair
to devise and rehearse a skit based on
one of the following situations.
– A person becomes so caught up in a
project that he or she becomes sick and
neglects family and friends.
– A person feels that another person has
treated him or her unjustly.
– A person is feeling lonely and rejected
and wants to be liked by others.
• After each skit, discuss how each of
the characters might have been feeling,
and why. At the end of the activity, tell
students that reading Frankenstein will
require them to see an issue from
multiple points of view.
O P TI O NS FOR US I N G R E L ATE D R E A D I N GS
RELATED READINGS
Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein
by Roger Ebert
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 33)
A Frankenstein
Monster Ended Up
Being a Lamb
by Ed Regis
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 34)
A New Life
by Ramsey Campbell
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 35)
The Golem
by Isaac Bashevis
Singer
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 36)
. . . That Thou Art
Mindful of Him
by Isaac Asimov
(Glencoe’s Literature
Library, BLM page 37)
MAKING CONNECTIONS TO Frankenstein
In this movie review, critic Roger Ebert compares a recent film version of
Frankenstein with both the novel and other film productions.
• Before students read, have them discuss the kinds of decisions a screenwriter and
a director have to make when turning a novel into a movie.
• As students read the review, ask them to note similarities that seem to exist
between the movie and the novel.
• After students read, ask them whether or not Ebert’s review makes them want to
see Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Encourage them to explain their reaction using
specific quotes from the review.
In this book review, Regis summarizes how a scientific fantasy became a reality.
• Before students read, write on the chalkboard a definition of cloning (creating an
individual that is a genetic copy of its parent from a single body cell of that parent).
Note that the first cloning of a mammal, a sheep named Dolly, took place in 1997
in Scotland.
• After students read, ask them if the book review made them reconsider
their current attitude toward cloning. If so, how? Did the review add to their
understanding of the science of cloning?
This modern gothic short story contains many allusions, both direct and indirect,
to Frankenstein.
• Lead a brief discussion about point of view. Frankenstein is told from the point of
view of three different characters: Walton, Frankenstein, and the creature. Each
serves as narrator for part of the novel.
• Note that the point of view in Ramsey’s story is much more limited. In fact, the
third-person narrator’s limited point of view is the source of the story’s mystery
and suspense.
• After students read the story, have them list allusions to Frankenstein.
This retelling of an old European legend features a character with striking
similarities to Shelley’s creature.
• Before students read, tell them that when Mary Shelley wrote her novel, she
was probably aware of the European legend of the golem. She may have been
influenced by this and similar legends of manlike giants or monsters.
• Point out that the legend of the golem inspired a German silent film, The Golem
(1920), which influenced the creators of the orginal Hollywood Frankenstein film
in the 1930s.
• After students read, ask them what insights the legend and Frankenstein offer
about the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.
In this science fiction story, two robots plot to outwit their makers. Like
Frankenstein’s creature, robots are popular images in the media.
• Remind students of the many ways the Frankenstein image is used in popular
culture. With students, list on the board situations in which they have been
entertained by the image since their earliest schooldays (e.g., Halloween costumes,
party themes, comic strips, cartoons, games, toys).
• List some roles of humanlike robots in film and television productions. Talk about
the human attributes that often are given to robots. Discuss why Shelley’s
superhuman creature and intelligent robots might be so appealing to readers.
Fr a n ken stein
55
ANSWER KEY
All answers are sample answers except those
for Vocabulary Practice.
LETTERS 1–4
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
More than half the surface of the Arctic Ocean is
frozen at all times.
ACTIVE READING
Setting Details:
remote, cold
Character Details:
A strange man has appeared, and he has a mysterious
story to tell.
Quotations:
“I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks,
which braces my nerves and fills me with delight.”
“It is impossible to communicate to you a conception
of the trembling sensation, half pleasurable and half
fearful, with which I am preparing to depart.”
“So strange an accident has happened to us that
I cannot forbear recording it . . .”
“. . . a being which had the shape of a man, but
apparently of gigantic stature, sat at the sledge and
guided the dogs.”
Other Observations:
Answers will vary.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Point of View
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
passage reveals the narrator’s intent to travel to
the North Pole and his excitement about going there.
Literary Element: Point of View
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
author wants to establish credibility for the story by
opening with the voice of a man familiar with hard
work and deep study.
Reading Strategy: Identify Genre
Answers will vary. Students may respond that
the ways the stranger describes his story (“wild and
mysterious”) are the same ways a reader might
describe a gothic novel.
56
Reading Strategy: Identify Genre
Answers will vary. Students may respond that
the expectation is that the story will be fascinating,
exciting, and difficult to believe.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Extraordinary and Fantastic
Answers will vary. The page tells that a man “of gigantic
stature” has been seen on a sledge and, a short time
later, the crew rescues a mysterious stranger.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Walton is an explorer searching for the source of
magnetism near the North Pole. He is curious,
enthusiastic, and determined. Students might say
he is intelligent and daring.
2. Walton longs for a friend. He (probably) believes the
sailors are uneducated and beneath him.
3. At first Walton is surprised that the stranger, who
is near death, questions where the ship is going.
As Walton nurses him back to health, he comes to
admire the stranger’s intelligence and gentleness.
Walton has been wishing for a friend and the
stranger shows an interest in the project.
4. The poem inspired Walton’s interest in unexplored
regions. Like the mariner, the stranger wants to warn
Walton not to follow in his path. The harsh, remote
setting and the theme of guilt suggest an ominous,
gloomy mood.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
opening is similar to old horror movies they have
seen on television because it introduces the story
as something told by a mysterious stranger.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
Introduction helped them better understand the
somewhat melodramatic tone of Gothic novels.
Literary Element: Point of View
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Shelley
creates a situation in which the narrator begins writing
down the stranger’s story, which might segue into a
first-person account by the stranger.
Reading Strategy: Identify Genre
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
setting of the Arctic Circle is indeed characteristic
of a gothic novel because it is a mysterious place
that few people have visited. But there are no ancient
castles or windblown moors.
ANSWER KEY
Vocabulary Practice
1. e, 2. f, 3. b, 4. c, 5. g
Academic Vocabulary
Answers will vary. Students may respond that they
chose to undertake the task of creating a science fair
project because they wanted to learn something new.
Writing
Write a Letter
Students’ letters should
• describe a personal experience or experiences
• include details
• include personal reflection
Speaking and Listening
Literature Groups
During discussion the students should
• respect others’ viewpoints by listening attentively
• provide specific examples to support opinions
CHAPTERS 1–10
BEFORE YOU READ
Write a Caption
Alchemy, a field that speculates on natural processes
with chemical experiments, is not a true science, but it
has yielded some important discoveries.
ACTIVE READING
Answers will vary. Possible responses:
Responsibilities to family: to marry Elizabeth and fulfill
his mother’s deathbed wish
Responsibilities to science: to discover ideas that no
one else has ever discovered
Both: to solve the mystery of life
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Motivation
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Victor
doesn’t think anyone will believe him if he tells what
he knows.
Literary Element: Motivation
Answers will vary. Students may respond that Victor is
now convinced that Justine will be acquitted.
Reading Strategy: Compare and Contrast Events
and Ideas
Answers will vary. Students may respond that his
responsibilities to his family come first because of the
power of his love for Elizabeth and his family.
Reading Strategy: Compare and Contrast Events
and Ideas
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
narrator now regrets ever having left his family to study
and, with hindsight, thinks that it was the power of evil
that took him away from his family.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Extraordinary and Fantastic
Answers will vary. Based on the description of details
and emotions in the excerpt, readers can imagine the
haunting yellow eyes of the creature after it comes
to life.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. Elizabeth was adopted by Frankenstein’s parents
and may someday be his bride. Frankenstein seems
to love her, but he also stays away from her for a
long time. He values his work more than family ties.
2. He imagines creating a noble new species that
would be grateful to him. He studies chemistry,
galvanism, death, and decay. When he sees how
ugly the creature is, he is disappointed, frustrated,
and frightened.
3. He stays away from his family and from his
schoolmates. He senses that he may be doing
something evil. He could be described as singleminded.
4. He feels despair and guilt. “I considered the being
whom I had cast among mankind . . . my own spirit
let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all
that was dear to me.”
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
the creature is actually much more intelligent and
emotional than Victor assumed he was.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that knowing
Mary Shelley created the novel as a ghost story for
friends helps them appreciate the mysterious and
frightening qualities of the work. Knowing that she lost
several children may help them understand her interest
in bringing the dead back to life.
Fr a n ken stein
57
ANSWER KEY
Literary Element: Motivation
Answer will vary. Students may respond that
Frankenstein was seeking a peace and solitude
that he believed could be found only in a natural
environment.
Reading Strategy: Compare and Contrast Events
and Ideas
Answers will vary. Students may respond that both
Frankenstein and the creature are lonely and isolated.
Vocabulary Practice
1. liberal, 2. commiserate, 3. pity, 4. fiend, 5. omen
Academic Vocabulary
definition: to bring into existence
synonyms: create, produce, cause
antonyms: kill, end, destroy
sentence/image: The science student will generate
ideas for her science fair project.
Writing
Create a Storyboard
Students’ storyboards should
• show a scene between Frankenstein and the monster
• show a logical sequence of actions
Speaking and Listening
Interview
Students’ interview reports should
• be based on an organized list of questions
• include interesting and relevant information
• accurately represent the information shared during
the interview
CHAPTERS 11–16
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Milton’s poem Paradise Lost is a retelling of the story
of Adam and Eve and a significant influence on the
character of the monster in Frankenstein.
ACTIVE READING
Characters—
Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein and the monster
Adam and Eve: God, Adam, Eve
58
Actions—
Frankenstein: Victor uses body parts to create
the monster
Adam and Eve: God uses Adam’s rib to create Eve
Images and Ideas—
Frankenstein: science
Adam and Eve: the apple, the snake
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Analogy
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
creature and Adam are similar in that they were each
the first of their kind. They are different because
Adam was “a perfect creature” and the creature is
“wretched.”
Literary Element: Analogy
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
creature tells Victor he is not really like God and is very
limited in his power to create a living thing. He used
what he could find and was perhaps more concerned
with completing his experiment than with the aesthetic
appearance of his creation.
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
Answers will vary. Students may describe the mood as
hopeful, optimistic, or encouraging.
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
imagery evokes the emotions of fear, surprise,
disappointment, or anger.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Extraordinary and Fantastic
Answers will vary. The excerpt tells how a creature
with a horrible appearance can actually have tender
feelings and yearn to be treated kindly.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. He hides in a small shelter attached to the family’s
cottage and observes them daily. They are loving
and attractive. The family’s fear and horror at the
sight of him make him angry. He feels hatred for
the first time.
2. He strangles William and puts evidence of the
murder on Justine. The creature knows he can
harm his enemies. He demands that Frankenstein
create a companion for him.
ANSWER KEY
3. Both characters suffer. Students may sympathize
with the creature more because he wants to be good
and has no hope of love.
4. Students may say that it is unlikely the creature
could learn to read from such difficult books.
They might also find the sudden appearance of
Safie farfetched.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
creature’s intelligence and ability to learn are
extraordinary, as well as his emotional sensitivity.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that knowing
about Paradise Lost helped them understand the
relevance of the Adam and Eve analogy.
Literary Element: Analogy
Answer will vary. Students may respond that the
analogy helps them predict that Frankenstein will agree
to the monster’s request that he create a companion
for him.
Reading Strategy: Interpret Imagery
Answers will vary. Students may respond that some
examples of imagery include their sad faces, their
coarse food, the gift of a white flower from Felix
to Agatha. The impression these images create is
a sympathetic one. The reader likes and admires
the family.
Vocabulary Practice
CHAPTERS 17–21
BEFORE YOU READ
Summarize
Great Britain and Ireland make up the British Isles.
ACTIVE READING
Hint or clues:
1. Victor creates a lab on a barren rock of an island.
2. Victor is afraid to look up during his work.
3. The creature says “I shall be with you on your
wedding night.”
What you think might happen:
1. The creature will find him to this desolate place.
2. The creature is watching him.
3. The creature will kill Victor’s bride on their
wedding night.
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Foreshadowing
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
comment foreshadows Victor’s own suffering and
his own growing “coarseness.”
Literary Element: Foreshadowing
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
passage foreshadows the moment when Victor will
look up and see the creature.
1. B, 2. A, 3. A, 4. B, 5. B
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Academic Vocabulary
Answers will vary. A sample answer: “to ask
for justice.”
Answers will vary. Students may respond that they see
a dark, dreary room, a pale corpse, and Victor wailing
in agony.
Write with Style
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Apply Figurative Language
Students’ paragraphs should
• contain a clear analogy comparing one person or
character to another
• be based on a metaphor or simile.
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
prison cell has filthy stone walls and one small, high
window. The air in the cell is still and foul-smelling.
There is just one thick blanket on the narrow bed.
Speaking and Listening
Debate
Students’ debate summaries should
• evaluate the performance of each team
• include a conclusion.
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Extraordinary and Fantastic
Answers will vary. Frankenstein is terrified, but he also
firmly resolves never to create another monster again.
Fr a n ken stein
59
ANSWER KEY
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. He says Frankenstein alone has the power to grant
him happiness. If he can be happy, he will not hate
and destroy others. Victor becomes depressed. He
postpones his wedding.
2. He fears the new creature might be more evil than
her mate, refuse to leave Europe, or help create a
“race of devils.” Students might say that Frankenstein
denied companionship to the creature, and the
creature wants to hurt Frankenstein in the same way.
3. After dumping the remains of the second creature
into the sea, he sleeps and his boat is driven off
course. He is accused of murdering a man found
strangled. He recalls that William was also
strangled. This second murder by strangulation
causes Frankenstein to connect the murder to the
creature and to himself as the creature’s creator.
4. Unlikely events include Frankenstein’s sailing
hundreds of miles in less than a day and the
creature’s ability to locate Henry and carry the body
to the place where Frankenstein landed.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
creature’s face is a made up of pieces of different
human and animal faces all stitched together.
Apply Background
Answers will vary. Students may respond that knowing
the location of the Orkney Islands helped them visualize
the setting.
Literary Element: Foreshadowing
Answer will vary. Students may respond that the
reader might feel very curious, anxious, and frightened.
The reader’s expectations might be that something
especially dreadful will happen to Victor.
Reading Strategy: Visualize
Answers will vary.
Vocabulary Practice
1. opposite, 2. same, 3. opposite, 4. opposite, 5. same
Academic Vocabulary
Answers will vary, but students might suggest when
they are ill, are in an accident, have a tooth ache, etc.
Writing
Write a Soundtrack List
Students’ lists should
• correspond to major scenes in Chapters 17–21
• include music that conveys the mood of the scene.
60
Connect to Content Areas
Math
Students’ map and report should
• correspond to the travels described in the novel
• accurately represent the distances traveled.
CHAPTERS 22–24
BEFORE YOU READ
Write the Caption
The story of Frankenstein and his monster has
frequently been presented as a movie.
ACTIVE READING
Sample quotes: Frankenstein: “I was cursed by
some devil, and carried about with me my eternal hell.”
“Yet, when I am dead, if he should appear; . . . swear
that he shall not live.”
The creature: “My reign is not yet over.” “Oh,
Frankenstein! generous and self-devoted being!” “Do
you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse?”
INTERACTIVE READING
Literary Element: Moral
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the moral
is “Do not try to be more than what you really are.”
Literary Element: Moral
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the moral
is “He who creates life must destroy it.” Students may
not agree with the moral, because they may feel killing
will further perpetuate the evil and destruction.
Reading Strategy: Connect to
Contemporary Issues
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
invention of nuclear weapons was an accomplishment
that some feel did more harm than good. This issue is
related to the story because the scientists who worked
on the bombs may now be horrified by what happened
as a result of their work.
Reading Strategy: Connect to
Contemporary Issues
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the
monster’s argument is similar to arguments heard in
courtrooms today that suggest that if the defendant has
been abused in some way, he is not fully responsible for
his actions.
ANSWER KEY
ON-PAGE NOTE-TAKING
BIG Idea: The Extraordinary and Fantastic
Answers will vary. The excerpt tells how the magistrate
pretends to believe Frankenstein’s story while he
actually believes that Frankenstein is going insane.
AFTER YOU READ
Respond and Think Critically
1. He promises to tell her his terrible secret after
they are married. He pretends to be happy while
preparing himself for a conflict with the creature.
The creature has sworn to ruin his wedding night.
2. Elizabeth is murdered by the creature. Frankenstein
had thought that the creature’s threat applied to
him, not his wife. He vows to destroy the creature
or die trying.
3. Frankenstein endures cold and fatigue but never
slackens in his pursuit. The creature taunts
Frankenstein with written messages and leaves food
to draw out Frankenstein’s suffering. Neither of them
achieve the satisfation of winning. They both die.
4. After Frankenstein dies, Walton resumes the
narrative in his letters. Shelley shows both
characters through the eyes of a third person and
contrasts the ambitions of the two.
5. Answers will vary. Students may respond that
Victor Frankenstein was extraordinary because
he had the intelligence, talent, vision, and drive to
invent the monster in the first place.
Apply Background
Students may say that knowing about the many movie
versions of the story helps them comprehend its
timeless and universal qualities.
Literary Element: Moral
Answers will vary. Students may respond that the most
important moral is “Everyone deserves to be loved,”
because it was being deprived of someone to love and
love them that drove both Victor and the monster to
seek revenge and destroy themselves and others.
Reading Strategy: Connect to
Contemporary Issues
Answers will vary. Students may respond that a
contemporary issue is cloning. Frankenstein’s creation
of the monster is very similar to the creation of a living
thing through cloning. Many people believe that only
God can create life and that cloning is wrong.
Vocabulary Practice
1. consternation, 2. none, 3. adversary, 4. omnipotent,
5. pilgrimage, 6. none, 7. illustrious
Academic Vocabulary
Context Clues: skills, conduct, experiments
Definition: peculiar to or characteristic of a particular
art, science, profession, trade, etc.
Writing
Personal Response
Answers will vary.
Speaking and Listening
Performance
Students’ performances should
• reveal each character’s feelings about the other and
about himself
• accurately reflect the characterizations in the novel
• be presented with confidence
NOVEL AFTER YOU READ
WORK WITH RELATED READINGS
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Students may expect the movie’s creature to
display the same loneliness and articulate sensitivity
that the novel’s creature does. They may expect the
movie’s creature to be smaller and less violent than
the book’s creature.
A Frankenstein Monster Ended Up Being a Lamb
The reviewer seems to approve of cloning and is
excited about the possibilities. Shelley, whose novel
warns about scientific excesses, would probably be
less enthusiastic.
A New Life
In both works, a scientist has created a manlike
creature that he sees as a failure. Both are made
from corpses; in the short story, the creature retains
the memory of the brain “donor.” The mood in both is
dark and brooding, and the setting is Germany in the
late 1700s.
The Golem
The rabbi feels compassion for the golem, but his
sense of duty to God and to society makes him put
the golem to rest when his job is done. Frankenstein
rejects his creature, which has disappointed him by
being ugly. Later Frankenstein briefly sympathizes with
Fr a n ken stein
61
ANSWER KEY
the creature and starts to create a female creature.
In the end, he becomes vengeful toward his creature.
Unlike Frankenstein’s creature, the golem finds a
human being who loves him.
. . . That Thou Art Mindful of Him
Students might say society should give the creatures
an education and protect them from harrassment, while
forbidding the creatures to hurt humans or each other.
CONNECT TO OTHER LITERATURE
Motivation Answers will vary. Students may respond
that it seems Eckels’s motivation is simply entertainment.
This is very different from Frankenstein, who was
motivated by his desire to advance science.
Foreshadowing Answers will vary. Students may
respond that Bradbury’s use of foreshadowing seems
to be more subtle and less dramatic than Shelley’s.
62
Moral Answers will vary. Students may respond that
the moral is “It’s dangerous to go back in time.” This
is similar to Frankenstein’s morals in that they both
discourage going to extremes in attempts to achieve
scientific discovery.
Talk About It
Discussions will vary.
RESPOND THROUGH WRITING
Persuasive Essay
Students’ essays should
• contain a clear thesis
• include paragraphs with topic sentences
• include references to the text that support
the argument
• have few grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors