Page 132 - The Language of Composition 4e Teacher Edition Sample.indd

It is 1941, the war begins and Shura, the man teeth bared, a click of tongue, a hiss. He does
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who adopted my father, volunteers to go to the not know why he is here — why he is happy,
BUILDING CONTEXT Identity front. It is 1941, and his adopted mother, Natalia, free. He doesn’t know why he bought his ticket
takes a tram to the outskirts to dig trenches to Odessa. If his parents are dead, what is here
As noted in the photograph on page 239, around the city. It is 1941 when a 4-year-old boy for him, in this empty city?
1941 was the year that Odessa fell to the has his first memory: a fat Ukrainian man saving
Germans and Romanians. You might direct him from foreign soldiers. Neighbors open the •
students to that photo, or have them do windows and watch Natalia weep in the snow. Father has no stories. Over and over, the same
some quick research into the fall of Odessa 1941 is the first year my father remembers. memory of the occupied city is repeated.
during World War II to help them under- Axis planes are bombing the vodka factory. The
Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used for this sample chapter.
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stand the importance of that year in Kamin- neighbors are running out with teakettles, pans. German and Romanian soldiers march in 1941.
sky’s father’s memory. There are no letters from Shura in 1941 because
They drink vodka from cobblestones. I am the no one writes letters from the bombed-out
deaf boy watching my father’s lips. regiments in 1941. Natalia sews dresses because
He bends to tie his shoes and the story even in the occupied city people buy dresses.
DIFFERENTIATION stops. She buys apples because boys in 1941 eat apples.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
He straightens up and the people are run- And there are still no letters from Shura. No
Scaffolding ning with teakettles dripping with vodka — one knows he was sent on a horse, to attack
Among Kaminsky’s rhetorical choices in everyone is happy, if only for a moment. German tanks.
this essay is his use of rhetorical questions In my father’s story, it is always 1941. Old 25 It is 1941 and Odessa is a city emptied of its 30
and his repetition of short statements. They women drink shots of vodka from their little pill Jews. Germans march in the streets of the city
can give you the opportunity to remind stu- bottles. They turn away, as if trying to hide where life goes on, people buy dresses. My
dents that one technique can have many something. What do they hide in 1941? The father has no stories. He is a young boy shaved
different purposes and effects. You could silence of their men who do not write from war- bald so his dark hair doesn’t call attention to
ask them to examine the questions in para- torn territories? It is 1941, father’s lips say. The him. There are no stories from 1941.
graphs 25, 28, and 33 on this page (and vodka factory is bombed. The women clink Each morning is the smell of fresh bread. It
then elsewhere), and ask them to explain glasses. The spit flies like a tiny bird. isn’t for the boy. Natalia is baking bread for the
how they differ. Start by focusing them on neighbors each week so they won’t report the
the immediate rhetorical situation: Who is • family. Slap. Don’t eat the bread, boy. Slap.
asking the questions? To whom are they My father is long dead. In the Odessa streets, That year, 1941, in the occupied city,
directed? Then, ask students to comment there are new cars, new noises. People shout in Shura appears on their apartment steps. There
on their function within the paragraph. They
on their function within the paragraph. They a different language now, new buildings are are no stories, only this image. A runaway
could then look at the repetition of phrases erected and quickly slip into ruin. soldier always knocks on the door. It is always
such as “It is 1941” and other references to I take off my American-made hearing aids. 1941 in the occupied city, and Shura always
1941, and to phrases that begin with “No,” Now I am the deaf boy who tries to walk faster in appears on the apartment steps. That, and the
such as in paragraph 27. Students often the snow of the Odessa streets. Lips open but no smell of bread the boy isn’t allowed to put in
need help moving beyond making a generic sound comes out. No footsteps of my father as his mouth.
need help moving beyond making a generic
claim that they are there “for emphasis.” he drags our grocery bags. No pigeons clacking •
on the sill. No screams of passing sirens.
I am a man who comes back after 20 years There are no stories. The man they thought dead
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING and finds everyone dead. I am an aging man stands in front of them in the living room. There
who takes off his jacket on a bench, sees dogs’ was bombardment? There were horses? Tanks?
You might call students’ attention to the He gives no details. He was captured by German
point-of-view shift in the middle of para- soldiers. Loaded into a train. He jumped in the
The Axis powers in World War II; principally Germany, Italy, and
graph 28. What is the effect of Kaminsky 2 Japan. Romania also aided Germany in the invasion of Ukraine. — Eds. middle of the night.
shifting from using the first person to
referring to himself in the third person? You 238
might connect to his questions of identity
and purpose in paragraph 17.

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238 chapter 4 / Identity

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