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AP TIP images are visual: he sees the grasshoppers jumping and the tall
®
1
grasses waving. Let’s take a closer look at this description in
Although imagery often
makes prose more vivid, particular:
that’s not its sole purpose.
Make sure you can explain Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around
what vivid imagery conveys me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots.
about the narrator, the
DIFFERENTIATION characters, the setting, The imagery tells us that these are little red bugs with black spots,
and so on. but consider what is added with the words “squadrons” and
Scaffolding “polished vermilion,” both figurative descriptions. Our imagination
Analyzing Short Fiction
In small groups, ask students to track is piqued by the self-sufficiency of an army of bugs, painted bright red, going about
and discuss the connotations of specific their business, oblivious to the human presence of the narrator. With such striking
words in the Gatsby passage that might images, the narrator suggests a heightened sensory awareness of his experience.
create a line of reasoning that leads
to characterization. Ask them how the
meaning shifts or changes by circling these KEY QUESTIONS
words, and then drawing a line between Analyzing Figurative Language
the words. For example, what is the
difference between glowing and burning? • Which words and/or phrases are used literally, and which are used figuratively?
How does the order of the words intensify • What images do you find? How do they convey a larger meaning?
the situation? How might that order or • In what ways does the figurative language evoke a specific feeling or mood?
the shifts suggest characterization or • Is the figurative language consistent throughout the passage, or does it shift? If you
e
something thematic? Ask students to shar
something thematic? Ask students to share detect a shift, how does it develop meaning?
their observations with the class. from Monkey Bridgereview purposes only. Do not distribute.
TRM Suggested Responses
Suggested responses to the activity on activity Analyzing Figurative Language
this page can be found in the Teacher’s Following is an excerpt from the novel Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao. In this passage, the
Resource Materials.
main character, a young refugee from Vietnam who has come to the United States to
live with her adoptive family, describes the experience of learning English. Identify the
figurative language in the passage and discuss what it conveys about the narrator’s
TRM Annotation Handout
complex attitude toward her newly acquired language skills.
A student handout for annotating this text
© Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For
can be found in the Teacher’s Resource
Materials.
Lan Cao
I followed Aunt Mary around the house, rubbed and polished by the waves of a warm
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING collecting words like a beggar gathering rain summer beach. She could swim straight through
with an earthen pan. She opened her mouth and her syllables. On days when we studied together,
You may wish to remind students that out came a constellation of gorgeous sounds. I almost convinced myself that we would
at a very base level, complexity means Each word she uttered was a round stone, with continue that way forever, playing with the
more than one. Ask them to consider how the smoothness of something that had been movement of sound itself. I would listen as she
using figurative language itself — a shift
from connotation to denotation — perhaps 30
opens up a window to exploring
complexity.
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30 chapter 1 / Analyzing Short Fiction
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