Short Stories
English 8H/English 8
Ms. Sbarra
Name________________________________________
Period ________
Short Story Unit
Anticipation Guide……………………………………………………………………….…………………………………….……. 3
Literary Elements Worksheet………………………………….………….………………………………………….... 4
Vocabulary Activity…………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………. 6
Raft Activity…………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………….……13
Final Essay Assignment …………………………………………………………………………………………………………14
All Summer in a Day………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16
Raymond’s Run………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………...20
The Kitten………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………26
The Lie………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..31
The Thanksgiving Visitor…………………………………………………………………………………………………….40
A Christmas Memory………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………69
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Anticipation Guide
DIRECTIONS: Before you begin reading, think about your values and beliefs using the Anticipation
Guide. Respond to each statement by circling the number that best fits your opinion of each statement.
For example, a “1” would signify you strongly disagree, and a “5” would signify you strongly agree.
Once we finish the unit, we will revisit these ideas and see what, if any, has changed for you.
Before Statement After
1 2 3 4 5 Life experiences can change who a person is. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 Sometimes you need to be unkind to another person. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 You should always treat others the way you want to be treated. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 Fair and equal are not the same thing. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 True equality for all people does exist. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 We should take special care of how we treat those with 1 2 3 4 5
disabilities- whether mental or physical.
1 2 3 4 5 Who a person is comes from their nature, or biology. 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 Who a person is comes from nurture, or the environment around 1 2 3 4 5
them.
1 2 3 4 5 It is okay to let our friends sway our actions, even if we don’t 1 2 3 4 5
believe those actions are right.
1 2 3 4 5 It is okay to do something we know is wrong if it teaches a lesson. 1 2 3 4 5
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Literary Elements Worksheet
Protagonist:
Antagonist:
Characterization:
Conflict:
Theme:
Setting:
Plot:
Mood/Tone:
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Irony:
Foreshadowing:
Alliteration:
Metaphor:
Simile:
Flashback:
Symbol:
Imagery:
Personification:
5
Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS: Below you will find a list of vocabulary words for each of the short stories we will
read. As we read each story, define the word in the space provided. Then, come up with an original
sentence in which you clearly show you know the word’s meaning.
From All Summer in a Day: FromThe Lie:
Compounded Unrepentant
Frail Inconceivable
Concussion Absently
Immense Abreast
Savagely Lamely
From Raymond’s Run: From The Thanksgiving Visitor:
Impediment Cameo
Clutch Reluctant
Prodigy Deliberate
Liable Bystander
Organdy Ruddy
From The Kitten: From A Christmas Memory:
Tenement Commenced
Bleak Pitifully
Lurk Inhibit
Persistent Exhilarates
Criticism Concealing
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Raft Activity
DIRECTIONS: During the course of this unit, you will need to complete two RAFT activities (due dates
and guidelines to follow). For each, Chose one “ROLE”. Then move across the squares to complete the
writing activity. This should take up at least one page, and must include three of the five vocabulary words
from the story. It must also prove you read and understood the story by making use of literary
elements important to the story (like theme, characterization, conflict, metaphor, simile, irony, symbol,
etc.).
**** You must write each RAFT on a different story!****
ROLE AUDIENCE FORMAT TOPIC
How she felt while she
Margot Her classmates Letter
was stuck in the closet
What has happened to
Margot and why the
Margot’s Mother Herself Diary
family must move
back to Earth
The pride I felt seeing
Sqeaky’s Father Raymond Poem both you, and your
sister, win the race
My plans to coach
Raymond and make
Squeaky Herself Diary
Gretchen my assistant
coach and friend
The narrator of The How I realized killing
The Kitten Apology Letter
Kitten you was wrong
The mother in The
The Public Obituary The Kitten’s Death
Kitten
The Board of Attempting to “buy”
Dr. Remenzel Letter of Apology
Overseers my son’s acceptance
My anger over you
Eli Remenzel Dr. Remenzel Poem trying to “buy” my
acceptance
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Final essay assignment: Thematic Essay
A Thematic Essay is similar to many types of essays required in school. However, a Thematic
Essay has several specific requirements. A Thematic Essay:
*Identifies a theme, or moral, similar to multiple works of literature
*Presents a general statement regarding that theme.
*States a specific task which must be addressed in an essay response.
Theme: Identity and Humanity
In each of the short stories we have studied, characters are forced to interact with and learn from
themselves and the world around them. Together, we will construct similar theme concepts together.
List the three major theme concepts we chose here:
1._________________________________________________________
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2._________________________________________________________
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3._________________________________________________________
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Task:
Choose two texts from the ones we have read that connect best to the theme concept you
have chosen.
Complete the graphic organizer with your partner, giving supporting details for each topic
sentence.
Meet with another pair who chose a similar theme concept and compare graphic organizers,
adding ideas you hadn’t thought of.
Complete a rough draft AND final copy of your final essay
Guidelines:
Your final essay must be typed, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font with
one-inch margins. Please see following page for heading requirements.
Your rough draft may be hand-written, but must be legible, in ink, and double-spaced.
You will receive points for completing the graphic organizer. Please see me if you are absent
during this day.
You must include two different texts from the unit
Each body paragraph MUST include the use of three supporting details and two literary
terms/elements (HINT: Check pages 3 and 4 of this packet!
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Graphic Organizer
Literary Work #1: Literary Work #2:
____________________ ____________________
Supporting Details: Supporting Details:
Theme
Concept
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“All Summer in a day” Focus on:
About the author Simile:_____________________________
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Metaphor:_________________________
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Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, Imagery:__________________________
essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born ___________________________________
August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated
from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his ___________________________________
formal education ended there, he became a "student of ___________________________________
life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from
___________________________________
1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library
and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time
writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories
to periodicals before publishing a collection of them,
Themes:
Dark Carnival, in 1947.
Isolation/Loneliness:_____________
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was
established with the publication of The Martian ___________________________________
Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of ___________________________________
Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the
___________________________________
unintended consequences. In all, Bradbury has
published more than thirty books, close to 600 short ___________________________________
stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His ___________________________________
short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school
curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies. ___________________________________
On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Exclusion/discrimination:_________
Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been
getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter ___________________________________
because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have ___________________________________
every day is very much the same as it was when I was
twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling
___________________________________
no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for ___________________________________
the long life that has been allowed me. I have good ___________________________________
plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll
come along." ___________________________________
16
I think the sun is a flower,That blooms for just one hour.
All Summer in a Day
That was Margot’s poem, read in a quiet voice
Ray Bradbury in the still classroom while the rain was falling
outside.
"Ready?" "Aw, you didn’t write that!" protested one of
"Ready." the boys.
"Now?" "I did," said Margot. "I did."
"Soon." "William!" said the teacher.
"Do the scientists really know? Will it happen But that was yesterday. Now the rain was
today, will it?" slackening, and the children were crushed in the
"Look, look; see for yourself!" great thick windows.
The children pressed to each other like so many Where’s teacher?"
roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for "She’ll be back."
a look at the hidden sun. "She’d better hurry, we’ll miss it!"
It rained. They turned on themselves, like a feverish
It had been raining for seven years; thousands wheel, all tumbling spokes. Margot stood alone.
upon thousands of days compounded and filled She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had
from one end to the other with rain, with the been lost in the rain for years and the rain had
drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall washed out the blue from her eyes and the red
of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She
they were tidal waves come over the islands. A was an old photograph dusted from an album,
thousand forests had been crushed under the rain whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice
and grown up a thousand times to be crushed would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate,
again. And this was the way life was forever on the staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond
planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the the huge glass.
children of the rocket men and women who had "What’re you looking at?" said William.
come to a raining world to set up civilization and Margot said nothing.
live out their lives. "Speak when you’re spoken to."
"It’s stopping, it’s stopping!" He gave her a shove. But she did not move;
"Yes, yes!" rather she let herself be moved only by him and
Margot stood apart from them, from these nothing else. They edged away from her, they
children who could never remember a time when would not look at her. She felt them go away. And
there wasn’t rain and rain and rain. They were all this was because she would play no games with
nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven them in the echoing tunnels of the underground
years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking
showed its face to the stunned world, they could after them and did not follow. When the class
not recall. Sometimes, at night, she heard them sang songs about happiness and life and games
stir, in remembrance, and she knew they were her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about
dreaming and remembering gold or a yellow the sun and the summer did her lips move as she
crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world watched the drenched windows. And then, of
with. She knew they thought they remembered a course, the biggest crime of all was that she had
warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, come here only five years ago from Earth, and she
in the arms and legs and trembling hands. But remembered the sun and the way the sun was and
then they always awoke to the tatting drum, the the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they,
endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces they had been on Venus all their lives, and they
upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests, had been only two years old when last the sun
and their dreams were gone. came out and had long since forgotten the color
All day yesterday they had read in class about and heat of it and the way it really was.
the sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how But Margot remembered.
hot. And they had written small stories or essays "It’s like a penny," she said once, eyes closed.
or poems about it: "No it’s not!" the children cried.
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"It’s like a fire," she said, "in the stove." "Yes !"
"You’re lying, you don’t remember!" cried the The rain slacked still more.
children. They crowded to the huge door.
But she remembered and stood quietly apart The rain stopped.
from all of them and watched the patterning It was as if, in the midst of a film concerning an
windows. And once, a month ago, she had refused avalanche, a tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic
to shower in the school shower rooms, had eruption, something had, first, gone wrong with
clutched her hands to her ears and over her head, the sound apparatus, thus muffling and finally
screaming the water mustn’t touch her head. So cutting off all noise, all of the blasts and
after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was repercussions and thunders, and then, second,
different and they knew her difference and kept ripped the film from the projector and inserted in
away. There was talk that her father and mother its place a beautiful tropical slide which did not
were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed move or tremor. The world ground to a standstill.
vital to her that they do so, though it would mean The silence was so immense and unbelievable that
the loss of thousands of dollars to her family. And you felt your ears had been stuffed or you had lost
so, the children hated her for all these reasons of your hearing altogether. The children put their
big and little consequence. They hated her pale hands to their ears. They stood apart. The door
snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and slid back and the smell of the silent, waiting world
her possible future. came in to them.
"Get away!" The boy gave her another push. The sun came out.
"What’re you waiting for?" It was the color of flaming bronze and it was
Then, for the first time, she turned and looked very large. And the sky around it was a blazing
at him. And what she was waiting for was in her blue tile color. And the jungle burned with
eyes. sunlight as the children, released from their spell,
"Well, don’t wait around here!" cried the boy rushed out, yelling into the springtime.
savagely. "You won’t see nothing!" "Now, don’t go too far," called the teacher after
Her lips moved. them. "You’ve only two hours, you know. You
"Nothing!" he cried. "It was all a joke, wasn’t wouldn’t want to get caught out !"
it?" He turned to the other children. "Nothing’s But they were running and turning their faces
happening today. Is it ?" up to the sky and feeling the sun on their cheeks
They all blinked at him and then, like a warm iron; they were taking off their jackets
understanding, laughed and shook their heads. and letting the sun burn their arms.
"Nothing, nothing!" "Oh, it’s better than the sun lamps, isn’t it ?"
"Oh, but," Margot whispered, her eyes helpless. "Much, much better!"
"But this is the day, the scientists predict, they say, They stopped running and stood in the great
they know, the sun…" jungle that covered Venus, that grew and never
"All a joke !" said the boy, and seized her stopped growing, tumultuously, even as you
roughly. "Hey, everyone, let’s put her in a closet watched it. It was a nest of octopi, clustering up
before the teacher comes !" great arms of fleshlike weed, wavering, flowering
"No," said Margot, falling back. in this brief spring. It was the color of rubber and
They surged about her, caught her up and bore ash, this jungle, from the many years without sun.
her, protesting, and then pleading, and then It was the color of stones and white cheeses and
crying, back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where ink, and it was the color of the moon.
they slammed and locked the door. They stood The children lay out, laughing, on the jungle
looking at the door and saw it tremble from her mattress, and heard it sigh and squeak under them
beating and throwing herself against it. They heard resilient and alive. They ran among the trees, they
her muffled cries. Then, smiling, the turned and slipped and fell, they pushed each other, they
went out and back down the tunnel, just as the played hide-and-seek and tag, but most of all they
teacher arrived. squinted at the sun until the tears ran down their
"Ready, children?" She glanced at her watch. faces; they put their hands up to that yellowness
"Yes !" said everyone. and that amazing blueness and they breathed of
"Are we all here?" the fresh, fresh air and listened and listened to the
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silence which suspended them in a blessed sea of "Go on," whispered the girl.
no sound and no motion. They looked at They walked slowly down the hall in the sound
everything and savored everything. Then, wildly, of cold rain. They turned through the doorway to
like animals escaped from their caves, they ran and the room in the sound of the storm and thunder,
ran in shouting circles. They ran for an hour and lightning on their faces, blue and terrible. They
did not stop running. walked over to the closet door slowly and stood
And then - by it.
In the midst of their running one of the girls Behind the closet door was only silence.
wailed. They unlocked the door, even more slowly, and
Everyone stopped. let Margot out.
The girl, standing in the open, held out her
hand.
"Oh, look, look," she said, trembling.
They came slowly to look at her opened palm. Story courtesy of:
In the center of it, cupped and huge, was a http://www.dodea.edu/instruction/curriculum/la
single raindrop. She began to cry, looking at it. rs/ela_lab/PreK-
They glanced quietly at the sun. Grade6/Guided%20Reading/AllSummerinaDay.d
"Oh. Oh." oc
A few cold drops fell on their noses and their
cheeks and their mouths. The sun faded behind a
stir of mist. A wind blew cold around them. They
turned and started to walk back toward the
underground house, their hands at their sides,
their smiles vanishing away.
A boom of thunder startled them and like
leaves before a new hurricane, they tumbled upon
each other and ran. Lightning struck ten miles
away, five miles away, a mile, a half mile. The sky
darkened into midnight in a flash.
They stood in the doorway of the underground
for a moment until it was raining hard. Then they
closed the door and heard the gigantic sound of
the rain falling in tons and avalanches, everywhere
and forever.
"Will it be seven more years?"
"Yes. Seven."
Then one of them gave a little cry.
"Margot."
"What?"
"She’s still in the closet where we locked her."
"Margot."
They stood as if someone had driven them, like
so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at
each other and then looked away. They glanced
out at the world that was raining now and raining
and raining steadily. They could not meet each
other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale.
They looked at their hands and feet, their faces
down.
"Margot."
One of the girls said, "Well…?"
No one moved.
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“Raymond’s Run” Focus On:
Idiomatic Narration:
About the Author
_______________________________________
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Coming of age/Bildungsroman:
Toni Cade Bambara (born March 25, 1939, New _______________________________________
York, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1995, Philadelphia, Pa.)
American writer, civil-rights activist, and teacher who _______________________________________
wrote about the concerns of the African-American _______________________________________
community.
_______________________________________
Reared by her mother in Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, _______________________________________
and Queens, N.Y., Bambara (a surname she adopted in
1970) was educated at Queens College (B.A., 1959). In _______________________________________
1961 she went to Europe, studying acting and mime in
Italy and in France. She received an M.A. in 1964 from
City College of the City University of New York. She Characterization:___________________
was a frequent lecturer and teacher at universities and a _______________________________________
political activist who worked to raise black American
consciousness and pride. In the 1970s she was active in _______________________________________
both the black liberation and the women's movements. _______________________________________
Bambara's fiction, which is set in the rural South as well _______________________________________
as the urban North, is written in black street dialect and _______________________________________
presents sharply drawn characters whom she portrayed
with affection. She published the short-story collections
Gorilla, My Love (1972) and The Sea Birds Are Still Alive Direct:_________________________
(1977), as well as the novels The Salt Eaters (1980) and If
Blessing Comes (1987). She edited and contributed to The _______________________________________
Black Woman: An Anthology (1970) and to Tales and _______________________________________
Stories for Black Folks (1971). She also collaborated on
several television documentaries. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
Themes: _______________________________________
Identity:______________________________ Indirect:_______________________
_______________________________________ _______________________________________
_______________________________________ _______________________________________
_______________________________________ _______________________________________
_______________________________________ _______________________________________
_______________________________________ ______________________________________
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freckles. In the first place, no one can beat me and
Raymond's Run that’s all there is to it.
Toni Cade Bambara
I’m standing on the corner admiring the weather
and about to take a stroll down Broadway so I can
I don’t have much work to do around the house
practice my breathing exercises, and I’ve got
like some girls. My mother does that. And I don’t
Raymond walking on the inside close to the
have to earn my pocket money by hustling;
buildings, cause he’s subject to fits of fantasy and
George runs errands for the big boys and sells
Christmas cards. And anything else that’s got to starts thinking he’s a circus performer and that the
get done, my father does. All I have to do in life is curb is a tightrope strung high in the air. And
mind my brother Raymond, which is enough. sometimes after a rain he likes to step down off
his tightrope right into the gutter and slosh around
getting his shoes and cuffs wet. Then I get hit
Sometimes I slip and say my little brother
when I get home. Or sometimes if you don’t
Raymond. But as any fool can see he’s much
watch him he’ll dash across traffic to the island in
bigger and he’s older too. But a lot of people call
the middle of Broadway and give the pigeons a fit.
him my little brother cause he needs looking after
cause he’s not quite right. And a lot of smart Then I have to go behind him apologizing to all
mouths got lots to say about that too, especially the old people sitting around trying to get some
when George was minding him. But now, if sun and getting all upset with the pigeons
anybody has anything to say to Raymond, fluttering around them, scattering their
newspapers and upsetting the waxpaper lunches in
anything to say about his big head, they have to
their laps. So I keep Raymond on the inside of me,
come by me. And I don’t play the dozens or
and he plays like he’s driving a stage coach which
believe in standing around with somebody in my
is OK by me so long as he doesn’t run me over or
face doing a lot of talking. I much rather just
knock you down and take my chances even if I am interrupt my breathing exercises, which I have to
a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, do on account of I’m serious about my running,
and I don’t care who knows it.
which is how I got the name Squeaky. And if
things get too rough, I run. And as anybody can
tell you, I’m the fastest thing on two feet. Now some people like to act like things come easy
to them, won’t let on that they practice. Not me.
There is no track meet that I don’t win the first- I’ll high-prance down 34th Street like a rodeo
place medal. I used to win the twenty-yard dash pony to keep my knees strong even if it does get
when I was a little kid in kindergarten. Nowadays, my mother uptight so that she walks ahead like
it’s the fifty-yard dash. And tomorrow I’m subject she’s not with me, don’t know me, is all by herself
to run the quarter-meter relay all by myself and on a shopping trip, and I am somebody else’s
come in first, second, and third. The big kids call crazy child. Now you take Cynthia Procter for
me Mercury cause I’m the swiftest thing in the instance. She’s just the opposite. If there’s a test
neighborhood. Everybody knows that—except tomorrow, she’ll say something like, “Oh, I guess
two people who know better, my father and me. I’ll play handball this afternoon and watch
He can beat me to Amsterdam Avenue with me television tonight,” just to let you know she ain’t
having a two-fire-hydrant headstart and him thinking about the test. Or like last week when she
running with his hands in his pockets and won the spelling bee for the millionth time, “A
whistling. But that’s private information. Cause good thing you got ‘receive,’ Squeaky, cause I
can you imagine some thirty-five-year-old man would have got it wrong. I completely forgot
stuffing himself into PAL shorts to race little kids? about the spelling bee.” And she’ll clutch the lace
So as far as everyone’s concerned, I’m the fastest on her blouse like it was a narrow escape. Oh,
and that goes for Gretchen, too, who has put out brother. But of course when I pass her house on
the tale that she is going to win the first-place my early morning trots around the block, she is
medal this year. Ridiculous. In the second place, practicing the scales on the piano over and over
she’s got short legs. In the third place, she’s got and over and over. Then in music class she always
lets herself get bumped around so she falls
accidentally on purpose onto the piano stool and
21
is so surprised to find herself sitting there that she “I don’t think you’re going to win this time,” says
decides just for fun to try out the ole keys. And Rosie, trying to signify with her hands on her hips
what do you know—Chopin’s waltzes just spring all salty, completely forgetting that I have
out of her fingertips and she’s the most surprised whupped her behind many times for less salt than
thing in the world. A regular prodigy. I could kill that.
people like that. I stay up all night studying the
words for the spelling bee. And you can see me “I always win cause I’m the best,” I say straight at
any time of day practicing running. I never walk if Gretchen who is, as far as I’m concerned, the only
I can trot, and shame on Raymond if he can’t keep one talking in this ventrilo-quist-dummy routine.
up. But of course he does, cause if he hangs back Gretchen smiles, but it’s not a smile, and I’m
someone’s liable to walk up to him and get smart, thinking that girls never really smile at each other
or take his allowance from him, or ask him where because they don’t know how and don’t want to
he got that great big pumpkin head. People are so know how and there’s probably no one to teach
stupid sometimes. us how, cause grown-up girls don’t know either.
Then they all look at Raymond who has just
So I’m strolling down Broadway breathing out and brought his mule team to a standstill. And they’re
breathing in on counts of seven, which is my lucky about to see what trouble they can get into
number, and here comes Gretchen and her through him.
sidekicks: Mary Louise, who used to be a friend of
mine when she first moved to Harlem from “What grade you in now, Raymond?”
Baltimore and got beat up by everybody till I took
up for her on account of her mother and my “You got anything to say to my brother, you say it
mother used to sing in the same choir when they to me, Mary Louise Williams of Raggedy Town,
were young girls, but people ain’t grateful, so now Baltimore.”
she hangs out with the new girl Gretchen and
talks about me like a dog; and Rosie, who is as fat “What are you, his mother?” sasses Rosie.
as I am skinny and has a big mouth where
Raymond is concerned and is too stupid to know “That’s right, Fatso. And the next word out of
that there is not a big deal of difference between anybody and I’ll be their mother too.” So they just
herself and Raymond and that she can’t afford to stand there and Gretchen shifts from one leg to
throw stones. So they are steady coming up the other and so do they. Then Gretchen puts her
Broadway and I see right away that it’s going to be hands on her hips and is about to say something
one of those Dodge City scenes cause the street with her freckle-face self but doesn’t. Then she
ain’t that big and they’re close to the buildings just walks around me looking me up and down but
as we are. First I think I’ll step into the candy keeps walking up Broadway, and her sidekicks
store and look over the new comics and let them follow her. So me and Raymond smile at each
pass. But that’s chicken and I’ve got a reputation other and he says, “Gidyap” to his team and I
to consider. So then I think I’ll just walk straight continue with my breathing exercises, strolling
on through them or even over them if necessary. down Broadway toward the ice man on 145th
But as they get to me, they slow down. I’m ready with not a care in the world cause I am Miss
to fight, cause like I said I don’t feature a whole Quicksilver herself.
lot of chit-chat, I much prefer to just knock you
down right from the jump and save everybody a I take my time getting to the park on May Day
lotta precious time. because the track meet is the last thing on the
program. The biggest thing on the program is the
“You signing up for the May Day races?” smiles May Pole dancing, which I can do without, thank
Mary Louise, only it’s not a smile at all. A dumb you, even if my mother thinks it’s a shame I don’t
question like that doesn’t deserve an answer. take part and act like a girl for a change. You’d
Besides, there’s just me and Gretchen standing think my mother’d be grateful not to have to
there really, so no use wasting my breath talking to make me a white organdy dress with a big satin
shadows. sash and buy me new white baby-doll shoes that
can’t be taken out of the box till the big day.
22
You’d think she’d be glad her daughter ain’t out
there prancing around a May Pole getting the new “Well, Squeaky,” he says, checking my name off
clothes all dirty and sweaty and trying to act like a the list and handing me number seven and two
fairy or a flower or whatever you’re supposed to pins. And I’m thinking he’s got no right to call me
be when you should be trying to be yourself, Squeaky, if I can’t call him Beanstalk.
whatever that is, which is, as far as I am
concerned, a poor black girl who really can’t “Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker,” I correct him
afford to buy shoes and a new dress you only wear and tell him to write it down on his board.
once a lifetime cause it won’t fit next year.
“Well, Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker, going to
I was once a strawberry in a Hansel and Gretel give someone else a break this year?” I squint at
pageant when I was in nursery school and didn’t him real hard to see if he is seriously thinking I
have no better sense than to dance on tiptoe with should lose the race on purpose just to give
my arms in a circle over my head doing umbrella someone else a break. “Only six girls running this
steps and being a perfect fool just so my mother time,” he continues, shaking his head sadly like it’s
and father could come dressed up and clap. You’d my fault all of New York didn’t turn out in
think they’d know better than to encourage that sneakers. “That new girl should give you a run for
kind of nonsense. I am not a strawberry. I do not your money.” He looks around the park for
dance on my toes. I run. That is what I am all Gretchen like a periscope in a submarine movie.
about. So I always come late to the May Day “Wouldn’t it be a nice gesture if you were . . . to
program, just in time to get my number pinned on ahhh . . .”
and lay in the grass till they announce the fifty-
yard dash. I give him such a look he couldn’t finish putting
that idea into words. Grown-ups got a lot of nerve
I put Raymond in the little swings, which is a tight sometimes. I pin number seven to myself and
squeeze this year and will be impossible next year. stomp away, I’m so burnt. And I go straight for
Then I look around for Mr. Pearson, who pins the the track and stretch out on the grass while the
numbers on. I’m really looking for Gretchen if band winds up with “Oh, the Monkey Wrapped
you want to know the truth, but she’s not around. His Tail Around the Flag Pole,” which my teacher
The park is jam-packed. Parents in hats and calls by some other name. The man on the
corsages and breast-pocket handkerchiefs peeking loudspeaker is calling everyone over to the track
up. Kids in white dresses and light-blue suits. The and I’m on my back looking at the sky, trying to
parkees unfolding chairs and chasing the rowdy pretend I’m in the country, but I can’t, because
kids from Lenox as if they had no right to be even grass in the city feels hard as sidewalk, and
there. The big guys with their caps on backwards, there’s just no pretending you are anywhere but in
leaning against the fence swirling the basketballs a “concrete jungle” as my grandfather says.
on the tips of their fingers, waiting for all these
crazy people to clear out the park so they can play. The twenty-yard dash takes all of two minutes
Most of the kids in my class are carrying bass cause most of the little kids don’t know no better
drums and glockenspiels and flutes. You’d think than to run off the track or run the wrong way or
they’d put in a few bongos or something for real run smack into the fence and fall down and cry.
like that. One little kid, though, has got the good sense to
run straight for the white ribbon up ahead so he
Then here comes Mr. Pearson with his clipboard wins. Then the second-graders line up for the
and his cards and pencils and whistles and safety thirty-yard dash and I don’t even bother to turn
pins and fifty million other things he’s always my head to watch cause Raphael Perez always
dropping all over the place with his clumsy self. wins. He wins before he even begins by psyching
He sticks out in a crowd because he’s on stilts. We the runners, telling them they’re going to trip on
used to call him Jack and the Beanstalk to get him their shoelaces and fall on their faces or lose their
mad. But I’m the only one that can outrun him shorts or something, which he doesn’t really have
and get away, and I’m too grown for that silliness to do since he is very fast, almost as fast as I am.
now. After that is the forty-yard dash which I used to
23
run when I was in first grade. Raymond is their own start digging up footfuls of dirt and
hollering from the swings cause he knows I’m brake me short. Then all the kids standing on the
about to do my thing cause the man on the side pile on me, banging me on the back and
loudspeaker has just announced the fifty-yard slapping my head with their May Day programs,
dash, although he might just as well be giving a for I have won again and everybody on 151st
recipe for angel food cake cause you can hardly Street can walk tall for another year.
make out what he’s sayin for the static. I get up
and slip off my sweat pants and then I see “In first place . . .” the man on the loudspeaker is
Gretchen standing at the starting line, kicking her clear as a bell now. But then he pauses and the
legs out like a pro. Then as I get into place I see loudspeaker starts to whine. Then static. And I
that ole Raymond is on line on the other side of lean down to catch my breath and here comes
the fence, bending down with his fingers on the Gretchen walking back, for she’s overshot the
ground just like he knew what he was doing. I was finish line too, huffing and puffing with her hands
going to yell at him but then I didn’t. It burns up on her hips taking it slow, breathing in steady time
your energy to holler. like a real pro and I sort of like her a little for the
first time. “In first place . . .” and then three or
Every time, just before I take off in a race, I four voices get all mixed up on the loudspeaker
always feel like I’m in a dream, the kind of dream and I dig my sneaker into the grass and stare at
you have when you’re sick with fever and feel all Gretchen who’s staring back, we both wondering
hot and weightless. I dream I’m flying over a just who did win. I can hear old Beanstalk arguing
sandy beach in the early morning sun, kissing the with the man on the loudspeaker and then a few
leaves of the trees as I fly by. And there’s always others running their mouths about what the
the smell of apples, just like in the country when I stopwatches say. Then I hear Raymond yanking at
was little and used to think I was a choo-choo the fence to call me and I wave to shush him, but
train, running through the fields of corn and he keeps rattling the fence like a gorilla in a cage
chugging up the hill to the orchard. And all the like in them gorilla movies, but then like a dancer
time I’m dreaming this, I get lighter and lighter or something he starts climbing up nice and easy
until I’m flying over the beach again, getting but very fast. And it occurs to me, watching how
blown through the sky like a feather that weighs smoothly he climbs hand over hand and
nothing at all. But once I spread my fingers in the remembering how he looked running with his
dirt and crouch over the Get on Your Mark, the arms down to his side and with the wind pulling
dream goes and I am solid again and am telling his mouth back and his teeth showing and all, it
myself, Squeaky you must win, you must win, you occurred to me that Raymond would make a very
are the fastest thing in the world, you can even fine runner. Doesn’t he always keep up with me
beat your father up Amsterdam if you really try. on my trots? And he surely knows how to breathe
And then I feel my weight coming back just in counts of seven cause he’s always doing it at the
behind my knees then down to my feet then into dinner table, which drives my brother George up
the earth and the pistol shot explodes in my blood the wall. And I’m smiling to beat the band cause if
and I am off and weightless again, flying past the I’ve lost this race, or if me and Gretchen tied, or
other runners, my arms pumping up and down even if I’ve won, I can always retire as a runner
and the whole world is quiet except for the crunch and begin a whole new career as a coach with
as I zoom over the gravel in the track. I glance to Raymond as my champion. After all, with a little
my left and there is no one. To the right, a blurred more study I can beat Cynthia and her phony self
Gretchen, who’s got her chin jutting out as if it at the spelling bee. And if I bugged my mother, I
would win the race all by itself. And on the other could get piano lessons and become a star. And I
side of the fence is Raymond with his arms down have a big rep as the baddest thing around. And
to his side and the palms tucked up behind him, I’ve got a roomful of ribbons and medals and
running in his very own style, and it’s the first time awards. But what has Raymond got to call his
I ever saw that and I almost stop to watch my own?
brother Raymond on his first run. But the white So I stand there with my new plans, laughing out
ribbon is bouncing toward me and I tear past it, loud by this time as Raymond jumps down from
racing into the distance till my feet with a mind of the fence and runs over with his teeth showing
24
and his arms down to the side, which no one
before him has quite mastered as a running style.
And by the time he comes over I’m jumping up
and down so glad to see him—my brother
Raymond, a great runner in the family tradition.
But of course everyone thinks I’m jumping up and
down because the men on the loudspeaker have
finally gotten themselves together and compared
notes and are announcing “In first place—Miss
Hazel Elizabeth Deborah Parker.” (Dig that.) “In
second place—Miss Gretchen P. Lewis.” And I
look over at Gretchen wondering what the “P”
stands for. And I smile. Cause she’s good, no
doubt about it. Maybe she’d like to help me coach
Raymond; she obviously is serious about running,
as any fool can see. And she nods to congratulate
me and then she smiles. And I smile. We stand
there with this big smile of respect between us. It’s
about as real a smile as girls can do for each other,
considering we don’t practice real smiling every
day, you know, cause maybe we too busy being
flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of
something honest and worthy of respect… you
know . . . like being people.
25
“The KiTTen” FOCUS on:
About the Author Tone:_________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Conflict:_____________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Writer, poet. Born Richard Nathaniel Wright on _______________________________________
September 4, 1908 near Natchez, Mississippi. The
grandson of slaves and the son of an illiterate
Themes:
sharecropper, he went to school in Jackson, Mississippi
only until the ninth grade, but had a story published at Isolation:____________________________
age 16 while working at various jobs in the South. In _______________________________________
1927 he went to Chicago and worked briefly in the post _______________________________________
office, but forced on relief by the Depression, he joined _______________________________________
the Communist Party (1932).
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
With two more minor works published, he found
employment with the Federal Writers Project, and his _______________________________________
Uncle Tom's Children (1938), a collection of four stories,
was highly acclaimed. In 1937 he moved to New York The Power of
City, where he was an editor on the Communist Language:____________________________
newspaper, Daily Worker, but the publication of Native
_______________________________________
Son (1940) brought him overnight fame and freedom to
write. A stage version (by Wright and Paul Green)
_______________________________________
followed in 1941 (and Wright himself later played the _______________________________________
title role in a film version made in Argentina). _______________________________________
_______________________________________
Black Boy, published in 1945, is a moving account of his _______________________________________
childhood and youth in the South and depicts extreme
poverty and his accounts of racial violence against
blacks. The autobiography advanced Wright's Guilt:_________________________________
reputation, but after living mainly in Mexico (1940–6) _______________________________________
he had become so disillusioned with both the _______________________________________
Communists and white America that he went off to _______________________________________
Paris, where he lived the rest of his life as an expatriate.
_______________________________________
He continued to write novels and non-fiction, and was
_______________________________________
regarded by African American writers, such as James
Baldwin, as an inspiration. _______________________________________
26
for their dark humor and playful use of science fiction,
“The Lie” as well as their serious moral vision and cutting social
commentary. Although his novels have been criticized
About the Author for being too simplistic, he has a cult following of
readers who love his imagination and sense of humor.
He is at once irreverent and highly moral, and this rare
combination has made his voice integral to American
literature.
Kurt Vonnegut passed away in 2007.
Themes
Equality_______________________
Born in Indianapolis on November 11, 1922, Kurt
Vonnegut went to public high school and there gained ______________________________
early writing experience writing for the high school's ______________________________
daily paper. He enrolled at Cornell University in 1940
where he studied chemistry and biology. He did,
______________________________
however, enjoy working for the Cornell Daily Sun. In ______________________________
1942, Vonnegut left Cornell as the university was
preparing to ask him to leave due to poor academic
Fairness_______________________
performance. He enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of
Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon) in 1943. He studied ______________________________
there only briefly before enlisting in the U.S. Army. His ______________________________
mother killed herself by overdosing on sleeping pills in
May 1944. In 1984, Vonnegut himself would attempt ______________________________
suicide by pills and alcohol. ______________________________
On December 14, 1944, Vonnegut was captured in the
Battle of the Bulge. He was held as a POW in Dresden, Focus On:
where bombings were unexpected. Vonnegut and the
other POWs were some of the only survivors. They
waited out the bombing in a meat cellar deep under the Irony:__________________________
slaughterhouse. Vonnegut was repatriated in May 1945 ______________________________
and worked various jobs during the 1950s.
______________________________
During the 1960s, Vonnegut published a collection of ______________________________
short stories and four more novels, including his sixth
and greatest novel, Slaughterhouse Five. The novel's ______________________________
popularity and broad critical acclaim focused new
attention on Vonnegut's earlier work.
Characterization:___________________
He has continued to write prolifically. His most recent ______________________________
novel is Timequake (1997). With its publication, he
retired from fiction writing. His most recent book of
______________________________
essays is A Man without a Country (2005). He worked as ______________________________
a senior editor at In These Times, a progressive Chicago
magazine, until his death. ______________________________
______________________________
Vonnegut has been an important mentor for young
pacifists since he began writing. His novels are known
27
“The Thanksgiving Visitor” FOCUS on:
Figurative Language:
_______________________________________
About the Author
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Imagery:_____________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Writer. Born Truman Streckfus Persons on _______________________________________
September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
One of the twentieth century's most well-known
American writers, Truman Capote was as
Themes:
fascinating a character as those who appeared in Empathy:_____________________________
his stories. Many of his short stories, novels, plays _______________________________________
and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, _______________________________________
including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) _______________________________________
and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a
_______________________________________
"nonfiction novel." At least 20 films and television
dramas have been produced from Capote novels, _______________________________________
stories and screenplays.His parents were an odd ______________________________________
pair — a small-town girl named Lillie Mae and a
charming schemer called Arch — and they largely Friendship:___________________________
neglected their son, often leaving him in the care
_______________________________________
of others. Capote spent much of his young life in
_______________________________________
the care of his mother's relatives in Monroeville,
Alabama. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
In Monroeville, Capote befriended Harper Lee _______________________________________
(then known as Nelle Harper Lee). The two were _______________________________________
opposites — Capote was a sensitive boy who was
picked on by other kids for being a wimp while
Evils of
Lee was a rough and tumble tomboy. Lee later
wrote the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird, with Bullying:_____________________________
the character Dill being based on Capote. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
Capote died in Los Angeles on August 25, 1984, _______________________________________
aged 59.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
28
“a ChRisTmas memoRy” FOCUS on:
About the Author Characterization:___________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Historical Context:
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Writer. Born Truman Streckfus Persons on _______________________________________
September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. _______________________________________
One of the twentieth century's most well-known
_______________________________________
American writers, Truman Capote was as
fascinating a character as those who appeared in
his stories. Many of his short stories, novels, plays Themes:
and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, friendship:___________________________
including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)
_______________________________________
and In Cold Blood (1965). At least 20 films and
_______________________________________
television dramas have been produced from
Capote novels, stories and screenplays.His parents _______________________________________
were an odd pair- a small-town girl named Lillie _______________________________________
Mae and a charming schemer called Arch- and _______________________________________
they largely neglected their son, often leaving him
in the care of others. Capote spent much of his
Memory and Nostalgia:
young life in the care of his mother's relatives in
_______________________________________
Monroeville, Alabama.
_______________________________________
In Monroeville, Capote befriended Harper Lee. _______________________________________
The two were opposites — Capote was a sensitive _______________________________________
boy who was picked on by other kids for being a _______________________________________
wimp while Lee was a rough and tumble tomboy.
_______________________________________
Lee later wrote the 1960 novel To Kill a
Mockingbird, with the character Dill being based on
Capote. Capote died in Los Angeles on August 25, The Spirit of Giving:
1984, aged 59. _______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
29
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