Literary Essays: Writing About Reading, Fig.V-2 Max’s entry reflects his exploration of “Eleven.”
©2006 by Lucy Calkins and Kathy Collins from Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3–5
(Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann) This page may be reproduced for classroom use only.
All the elements of this story are about imagining
something that isn’t really true. Jenny thinks the boar is
this really wild, scary beast but in fact he’s hurt and
scared. So the message is that we shouldn’t make
assumptions about people. The title, “Boar Out There”
shows that the boar isn’t a part of Jenny’s world; he’s
“out there,” which is why she imagines him to be
something he’s not.
The beginning of the story shows this, too: “Everyone in
Glen Morgan knew there was a wild boar in the woods
over by the Miller farm.” Right away Cynthia Rylant
shows that all the people in the town, not just Jenny,
know there’s a wild boar. Cynthia goes on to describe
the boar that everyone knows exists, but then she says,
“No one in Glen Morgan had ever gone past the old back
Dodge and beyond, as far as she knew,” so we know
that what these people think about the boar has
nothing to do with the way things actually are.
The setting shows that fear is big in the story. The rail
fence that separates the boar from the town is
“splintery,” the trees are “awful,” the leaves are “damp”
and “dark” and the air of the woods presses “deep into”
Jenny’s skin. This isn’t a warm friendly place. It’s an
uncomfortable, heavy, dark place.
Jenny changes from a scared girl to a caring girl. She
cries when she sees that the boar is hurt and from
then on she doesn’t fear him anymore, she just feels
bad for him.
The end of this story shows that it’s possible to think
new things about people or animals. Jenny realizes that
the boar has as little to fear about the people of Glen
Morgan (the “bluejays and little girls”) as the people
have to fear about the boar.
From this story I can learn to not judge people too
quickly, before getting to know them and I can learn to
be more sympathetic to people who are strangers. I hope
I’ll keep this in mind as I meet new people.
Literary Essays: Writing About Reading, page 78, Jose’s essay
©2006 by Lucy Calkins and Kathy Collins from Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3–5
(Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann) This page may be reproduced for classroom use only.