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privately about a girl. The awful word that began ducked down or got down on my hands and made me feel as though I existed outside society, Adirondacks I was reading last night,” she 1
1
to occur to me was fast. She’s fast. I wasn’t knees and inched my way to the edge of the some kind of criminal, or didn’t exist at all. I was remarked, “he says this was what the
actually very fast. I was faster than some but not balcony. I think I looked over far enough to annihilating myself even more than him. It was Adirondacks was all about, I mean the Section 2 CLOSE READING chapter 1
as fast as others. The more I imagined the two see him down there on the sidewalk below — an awful violation.” Adirondacks style: things made from things.”
Ask students to consider the relationship
boys talking about me the worse I felt. looking up, as I remember it. Or he had gone She paused, thoughtful. We were sitting A month or so later, when I was home again Ask students to consider the r elationship
between the woman’
s narrative and the
“I liked boys. I liked the boys I knew in a 5 across the street and was looking up. He didn’t inside now, because it was raining. We had and she was back in the city, we were talking on between the woman’s narrative and the
details of the setting in paragraph 12.
way that was much more innocent than they see me. come inside to sit in a sort of lounge or the telephone and she said she had been details of the setting in paragraph 12.
eading, ask students to make a list
After r
probably thought. I trusted them more than “I know that as I crouched there on the recreation room provided for guests of that hunting through one of the old diaries she had After reading, ask students to make a list
of the various elements — or “things” — in
girls. Girls hurt my feelings, girls ganged up on balcony or just back from it I had some lakeside camp. The rain fell every afternoon on her shelf there, which might say exactly what of the various elements — or “things” — in
the setting. Then, ask students to write a
me. I always had boys who were my friends, impression of him being puzzled, disconcerted, there, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for had happened — though of course, she said, she the setting. Then, ask students to write a
Analyzing Short Fiction
paragraph about how the setting — “things
starting back when I was nine and ten and disappointed, at a loss what to do now, not hours. Across the water, the white pines and would just be filling in the details of something paragraph about how the setting — “things
made from things” — may be reflective of
eleven. I didn’t like this feeling that two boys prepared for this — prepared for all sorts of spruces were very still against the gray sky. that did not actually happen. But she couldn’t made fr om things” — may be r eflective of
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.
the way she constructs her story
. Ask stu-
the way she constructs her story. Ask stu-
were talking about me. other ways the date might go, other difficulties, The water was silver. We did not see any of the find this incident written down anywhere, which dents to shar e in small gr oups.
dents to share in small groups.
“Well, when the day came, I didn’t want to but not for no date at all. Maybe he also felt waterbirds we sometimes saw paddling around of course made her wonder if she had gotten the
go out to dinner with this boy. I just didn’t want angry or insulted, if it occurred to him then or the edges of the lake — teals and loons. Inside, a dates really wrong and she wasn’t even in
the difficulty of this date. It scared me — not later that maybe he hadn’t made a mistake but fire burned in the fireplace. Over our heads hung boarding school anymore by then. Maybe she
because there was anything scary about the boy that I had deliberately stood him up, and not the a chandelier made of antlers. Between us stood was in college by then. But she decided to CLOSE READING
but because he was a stranger, I didn’t know way I did it — alone up there in the apartment, a table constructed of a rough slab of wood believe what she had told me. “But I’d forgotten
Ask students to write a paragraph in which
him. I didn’t want to sit there face-to-face in uncomfortable and embarrassed, chickening resting on the legs of a deer, complete with how much I wrote about boys,” she added. “Boys Ask students to write a paragraph in which
they explain the function of a particular
they explain the function of a particular
some restaurant and start from the very out, hiding out — but, he would imagine, in hooves. On the table stood a lamp made from an and books. What I wanted more than anything sequence of events in the plot of the story
sequence of events in the plot of the story
beginning, knowing nothing. It didn’t feel right. collusion with someone else, a girlfriend or old gun. She looked away from the lake and else at the age of sixteen was a great library.” as a way of further understanding the com-
as a way of further understanding the com-
And there was the burden of that boyfriend, confiding in them, snickering over around the room. “In that book about the 2001 plex characterization and reliability of the
eliability of the
plex characterization and r
recommendation — ‘Give her a try.’ him. woman. As they write, ask students to con-
woman. As they write, ask students to con-
“Then again, maybe there were other “I don’t know if he called me, or if I answered 10
sider the woman’
s final observations about
reasons. Maybe I had been alone in that the phone if it rang. I could have given some sider the woman’s final observations about
her tale when she was “back in the city” vs.
her tale when she was “back in the city” vs.
apartment so much by then that I had retreated excuse — I could have said I had gotten sick or being in nature. Ask students to consider
being in natur
e. Ask students to consider
into some kind of inner, unsociable space that had to go out suddenly. Or maybe I hung up how the setting of the country might have
how the setting of the country might have
was hard to come out of. Maybe I felt I had when I heard his voice. In those days I did a lot inspired her to flesh out the narrative.
inspired her to flesh out the narrative.
disappeared and I was comfortable that way and of avoiding that I don’t do now — avoiding
did not want to be forced back into existence. confrontations, avoiding difficult encounters. o far in the chapter, we have explored some of the larger elements of fiction — that
I don’t know. And I did a fair amount of lying that I also don’t Sis, how character, plot, setting, perspective, and point of view all contribute to the
“At six o’clock, the buzzer rang. The boy was do now. meaning of an entire work. In this section, we’ll discuss how a writer expresses these
there, downstairs. I didn’t answer it. It rang “What was strange was how awful this felt. elements in prose, analyzing ways that language choices work together to create
again. Still I did not answer it. I don’t know how I was treating a person like a thing. And I was meaning. By looking at the various parts of a short passage of fiction, we begin to Section 2
many times it rang or how long he leaned on it. betraying not just him but something larger, appreciate different writers’ artistry and understand how they use various literary
I let it ring. At some point, I walked the length of some social contract. When you knew a decent elements to make a statement, suggest an emotion, or convey an idea. In short, we are
the living room to the balcony. The apartment person was waiting downstairs, someone you moving from a panoramic view to a close-up.
was four stories up. Across the street and down a had made an appointment with, you did not just Close reading, sometimes called explication of text, means developing an
flight of stone steps was a park. From the not answer the buzzer. What was even more understanding of a work that is based on its small details and the larger ideas those
balcony on a clear day you could look out over surprising to me was what I felt about myself in details evoke, add up to, or suggest. Essential to close reading is observation — taking
the park and see all the way across town, maybe that instant. I was behaving as though I had no note of what catches your attention as you read and then asking questions about why a
a mile, to the other river. At this point I think I responsibility to anyone or anything, and that phrase or scene strikes you. The texts you are asked to read closely are often not that
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DIFFERENTIATION
Scaffolding
Ask students to engage in a free-writing
exercise for 5 minutes, considering the
significance of the woman’s shift from sharing
details about her story to a discussion about
more philosophical concerns. Ask students
to consider the narrator’s choice of words
that she uses to describe her position,
beginning with this sentence: “[It] made me
feel as though I existed outside society, some
kind of criminal, or didn’t exist at all. I was
annihilating myself even more than him. It
was an awful violation.” Then, ask students to
share in small groups.
chapter 1 / Culminating Activity 23

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