Analyze and Write – Pick One for Chapter 2
Dillard’s Article (pgs. 20-22)
A. Write a paragraph analyzing Dillard’s action sequences:
1. Skim paragraphs 11-13, circling the action verbs and underlining the prepositional phrases.
2. Think about how this series of prepositional phrases contributes to the effectiveness of the scene.
B. Write a paragraph analyzing Dillard’s use of naming and detailing:
1. Reread paragraph 4, noting the names of her friends and underlining the details she gives to describe each boy. How do these details help you imagine what each boy was like?
2. Look closely at Dillard’s description of an iceball to see how she uses these describing strategies:
I started making an iceball – a perfecticeball, from perfectlywhitesnow, perfectlyspherical, and squeezed perfectlytranslucent so no snow remained all the way though (par 6).
What attributes of the iceball does she point out? Why do you think she repeats the words perfect and perfectly? Notice also that in the next sentence, she tells us that it was against the rules to throw and iceball at someone. So why do you imagine she tries to make such a “perfect” iceball?
C. Write a paragraph or two analyzing Dillard’s use of showing and telling to create autobiographical significance:
1. Skim paragraphs 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, and 20-21, highlighting the details Dillard uses to describe the man, how he dresses, the car he drives, and especially the way he talks when he catches her and her friend. What is the dominant impression you get of the man from these details, and what do they suggest about why he chases the kids?
2. Review paragraphs 13-21, adding notes where Dillard tells us what she thought and felt at the time. Notice also how Dillard conveys her present perspective – for example, by using adult vocabulary such as “perfunctorily,” “redundant,” and “mere formality” (par. 19). Highlight any other details that help convey Dillard’s adult authorial voice. What does Dillard’s telling add to the dominant impression, and how does it help you better understand the event’s significance?
Analyze and Write – Pick One for Chapter 2
Desmond-Harris’ Article (pgs. 25-26)
A. Write a paragraph analyzing how Desmond-Harris uses dialogue:
1. Skim the story, highlighting the dialogue and underlining the speaker tags. Also note where Desmond-Harris summarizes or paraphrases a conversation.
2. Consider each bit of dialogue, paraphrase, or summary to see what role it plays. Does it tell you something about the speaker or her relationship with another person? Does it convey feelings or attitudes? Does it advance the narrative or something else?
B. Write a paragraph or two analyzing Desmond-Harris’s use of a photograph and brand names to enhance her descriptions:
1. Skim paragraphs 5-7, highlighting the specific details in the photo that Desmond-Harris points out as well as the brand names (usually capitalized) and the modifiers that make them more specific (as in skater-inspired).
2. Look closely at the photograph itself, and consider its purpose: Why do you think Desmond-Harris included it? What does the photograph contribute or show us that the text alone does not convey?
3. Consider the effect that the photo and the brand names have on you as a reader (or might have on readers of about Desmond-Harris’s age). How do they help readers envision these girls? What is the dominant impression you get of the young Desmond-Harris from these descriptive details? Where, if anywhere, in this passage do you detect the adult author’s self-irony?
C. Write a paragraph or two analyzing Desmond-Harris’s handling of the complex personal and cultural significance of her remembered event:
1. Skim the last two sections (pars. 8-13), noting passages where Desmond-Harris tells readers her remembered feelings and thoughts at the time and her present perspective as an adult reflecting on the experience. Consider Desmond-Harris’s dual perspective – that of the fifteen-year-old experiencing the event and the thirty-year-old writing about it. How does she use this dual perspective to convey complexity?
2. Look closely at paragraph 8 and highlight the following sentence strategies:
Rhetorical questions (questions answer themselves)
Repeated words and phrases
Stylistic sentence fragments (incomplete sentences used for special effect)
What effect do these sentence strategies have on readers? How do they help convey the significance of the event?
Analyze and Write – Pick One for Chapter 2
Ruprecht’s Article (pgs. 29-30)
A. Write a paragraph or two analyzing the dramatic arc of Ruprecht’s story:
1. Skim the selection and note in the margin where you find the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, or whether any of them is omitted.
2. How effective are Ruprecht’s choices about how to plot his narrative? How does Ruprecht’s emphasis differ from that of Brandt or Dillard?
3. Describe how useful the dramatic arc was for you in terms of understanding Ruprecht’s narrative technique. Did it help you understand how Ruprecht created (or undermined) tension, for example?
B. Write a paragraph or two analyzing Ruprecht’s use of figures of speech:
1. Reread Ruprecht’s story, looking for places in which he uses simile, metaphor, allusion, hyperbole, or another figure of speech.
2. Consider the role that figurative language plays in making the descriptions in this selection vivid. What effect does it have on you as a reader? How appropriate is it given the target audience for this selection? (Remember that it was originally published in the New York Times Magazine).
C. Write a paragraph or two analyzing how Ruprecht’s story comes full circle:
1. Skim paragraph 1, highlighting Ruprecht’s references to his desire to “look cool,” his admiration for the “rugged and handsome” guide, and his feeling that he is being condescended to – treated “as if we actually were kindergartners.”
2. Reread paragraphs 8-10, noting the repetition of these themes. Consider whether this is repetition with a difference or repetition that reinforces the same themes Ruprecht introduced in the opening paragraph.