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from The Round House
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TRM Annotation Handout Louise Erdrich
A student handout for annotating this text
can be found in the Teacher’s Resource Small trees had attacked my parents’ house at convenient holes in the mortar for next year’s
Materials. Analyzing Short Fiction the foundation. They were just seedlings with seedlings.
one or two rigid, healthy leaves. Nevertheless, Whenever I succeeded in working loose a tiny
the stalky shoots had managed to squeeze tree, I placed it like a trophy beside me on the
through knife cracks in the decorative brown narrow sidewalk that surrounded the house.
CLOSE READING shingles covering the cement blocks. They had There were ash shoots, elm, maple, box elder,
Ask students to consider how the first line, grown into the unseen wall and it was difficult to even a good-sized catalpa, which my father placed
“Small trees had attacked my parents’ pry them loose. My father wiped his palm across in an ice cream bucket and watered, thinking that
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
house at the foundation,” might be his forehead and damned their toughness. I was he might find a place to replant it. I thought it was
connected to additional images through- using a rusted old dandelion fork with a a wonder the treelets had persisted through a
out the excerpt. Specifically, ask students splintered handle; he wielded a long, slim iron North Dakota winter. They’d had water perhaps,
to consider how the narrator’s emotional fireplace poker that was probably doing more but only feeble light and a few crumbs of earth. Yet
attitude toward the plant imagery and harm than good. As my father prodded away each seed had managed to sink the hasp of a root
the foundation of the house might be an blindly at the places where he sensed roots deep and a probing tendril outward.
appropriate metaphor for the home culture. might have penetrated, he was surely making 2012

CLOSE READING Putting It All Together:
Ask students to make a claim about a Interpreting Major Elements of Fiction
possible theme found as they consider
what the set of images — specifically that As you analyze literature, you have not only the challenge of comprehending what
of the plant imagery — have in common. happens in the story but also of understanding how characters, plot, setting, point of
You may wish to first suggest theme words view, and perspective come together to raise questions, explore issues, and ultimately
such as “identity,” “struggle,” and “per- convey meaning. When you put forth your understanding of the text, you are making a
sistence.” Then, ask students to develop claim about its deeper meaning, or theme(s). A claim must be arguable, which is
questions that might lead to an articulation where your interpretation will come in. If the plot, characters, and setting are the what
of a thematic statement. For example, “To
what extent does shared struggle lead to of a story, then your interpretation is the so what. Developing an interpretation is not
greater insight about the meaning of life?” a simple process, and you might even feel as though you have to make it up by using
your imagination — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, literary critic Northrop
Frye used the term “the educated imagination” to describe the intersection of skills and
knowledge with creativity. In a way, this chapter so far has educated your imagination —
what you’ve learned about the basic building blocks of stories such as character, pers pec-
tive, point of view, plot, and setting all give you ways to exercise your imagination as
you think about what these stories mean. The complexity of this process of inter-
pretation means that while others may develop similar interpretations, yours is still
unique. That is why you will also need to provide evidence from the text to back the
claims you make as you explain and support your interpretation. All of these pieces,
when put together, essentially form a literary argument.
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18 chapter 1 / Analyzing Short Fiction

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