Enjoy the Long Weekend!

Unfortunately, we still don't have enough copies of Patterns for College Writing to issue, so if you were absent, you won't be able to make up the work until you return.


In class today we read Bonnie Smith-Yackel's "My Mother Never Worked."
Answer the following questions:
1. What point is the writer trying to make? Why do you suppose her thesis is never explicity stated?
2. This essay appeared in Ms. magazine and other publications whose audiences are sympathetic to feminist goals. Could it just as easily have papeared in a magainze whose audience was not? Explain.
3. Is the essay's title effective? If so, why? If not, what alternate title can you suggest?
4. The author could have outlined her mother's life without framing it with the telephone conversation. Why do you think she includes this frame?
5. Definte three of the following words as they are used in the essay: scrounge, shuck, shock, husk, rutted, reclaimed, flax, fodder, intricate and/or sustenance.


This weekend, continue reading The Glass Castle and take annotations on the following:

1. The differences between the way Rex and Mary (the author’s parents) view the world and the way the author views the world, based on the rhetoric she uses to convey the differences between these viewpoints.
2. The contrast in the way the author views her life as she grows older
3. The reversal of roles in the parent/child relationship
4. Appeals to pathos, ethos, and logos
5. The symbolism of events, places, people and things. Specifically, how do the parents and children in the memoir view these events, places, people and things differently?

Due Tuesday, September 7th, 2010:


Read through page 174 and answer the following questions:


1. What does the author mean when she says “We’d out-Okied the Okies” on page 129? What does this statement reflect about her attitude toward the life her parents have created for her and her siblings?
2. What does the author develop Dinitia Hewitt’s role in her life? Why do you think Dinitia was so cruel to Jeannette when the Walls family first moved to Welch?
3. Briefly reflect on Mary’s defense of Erma and Hitler. What conflicting message is she sending her daughter?
4. List three examples from the book that note a reversal of roles in the parent/child relationship.
5. Erma’s actions lead the Walls children to make excuses for their father. Refute or defend the author’s forgiveness for her father due to his upbringing.
6. Have Jeannette’s parents become worse since moving to Welch or has the author developed a different perspective? Justify your answer.
7. List, define and evaluate the effectiveness of THREE rhetorical strategies. (Please include page #).


Be prepared for a five minute quickwrite Tuesday.

Due Friday, September 10th:Finish the memoir answer the following questions:


1. List, define, and evaluate the effectiveness of FIVE rhetorical strategies. (Please include page #).
2. Analyze the metaphor of the glass castle and what it signifies to Jeannette and her father. Why is it important that, just before leaving for New York, Jeannette tells her father that she doesn't believe he'll ever build it? (p. 238).
3. The first flashback Walls shares from her childhood is that of her burning herself severely at age three, and her father dramatically “rescuing” her from the hospital, telling her: "You're safe now" (p. 14). Why does the author open with this anecdote and how did it set the stage for the rest of the memoir?
4. Rex Walls often asked his children, "Have I ever let you down?" Why was this question (and the required "No, Dad" response) so important for him -- and for his kids? On what occasions did he actually come through for them?
5. Which of Jeannette’s parents were worse, and why?
6. Refute or defend the following statement: Though it portrays an incredibly hardscrabble life, the tone of the memoir is never sad or depressing. (Your analysis should discuss the overall tone of the memoir and how you think Walls achieved her intended effect).
7. The two major pieces of the memoir -- one half set in the desert and one half in West Virginia -- feel distinct. Analyze this tone shift.
8. What is the overall purpose and tone of the concluding segment of the memoir, “Thanksgiving”?