Write 1 paragraph of analysis on back of t- chart to “Roselily”
Follow the formula in some way:
1. identify a technique (maybe even with the definition of
technique built in but not in a dictionary way)
2. illustrate by using a quote or reference to the story
3. explain how the use of this technique adds to the meaning
(perhaps the characterization of a person, perhaps the overall
sense of theme or mood, perhaps influences the way you see the
ending or what they are talking about…)
Example
Walker uses the symbol of the cinders to represent how people
feel righteous and vindicated when judging other people, even
though we all have scars; we have all made mistakes. The first
instance is when Roselily is thinking about her new life in
Chicago and thinking about her new husband’s description of a
cinder and applying this description to her own neighbors,
watching her now. “She sees hovering over the heads of the clean
neighbors in her front yard black specks falling, clinging, from
the sky”. (1) She imagines their dirty little secrets dirtying their
shirts, clinging to them as she imagines they see hers cling to her
at this moment. The second instance is when she is thinking
about her son, adopted by his father and wife, and living in New
England. A land she feels is holier than thou and where pretense
and keeping up with the Jones’ is paramount. This is why the
cinders are described as “…big as hailstones; heavy, weighing on
the people” (1) because their happiness, their authenticity is
“roped” off because they are so worried about keeping up
appearances and not being judged by their neighbors.