The Contender
by Robert Lipsyte
p. 17
The third time he awoke it was dusk. An
occasional peal of drunken laughter drowned
out the hoarse yells of tired children and the
stoop chatter and the muted noise of a dozen
transistors on different stations. He got up and
went into the kitchen, enjoying the coolness of
the cracked linoleum under his bare feet. The
foldaway bed he usually slept in was tucked
behind the refrigerator. He wondered if Aunt
Pearl had slept in it, or stayed up all night. The
sharp blue slacks he had worn were in a
corner, next to Aunt Pearl’s box of dusting
rags. They were shredded. He put on a pair of
clean cotton pants, and the blue tennis shirt
with the little alligator on the pocket that Mrs.
Elversen had given him for Christmas. He
slipped on the black loafers that Jeff had
outgrown. Cousin Jeff. Be hearing enough
about him tomorrow.
He let himself out of the apartment quietly, so
quietly that he surprised two drug addicts
fumbling in the hall toilet. They looked up,
startled, then saw it was only Alfred, and went
back to their spoons and needles. For a
moment he thought they were lucky, they’d be
getting out of the world for a while, but then he
remembered all the old-looking, sick junkies he
saw on the streets, hunched-up, desperate for
a fix.
Setting a Purpose Lesson
1. Ask students to read the piece and circle with their
pencil whatever they think is important.
2. Ask students to read the piece again and this time use
a yellow highlighter to mark the places in the text a
maid would find important.
3. Have the students read the piece a third time. Ask
them to mark with a pink highlighter the places in the
story that a prospective home buyer might think are
important.
4. Ask students what they have noticed each time they
were asked to reread and highlight.
5. Go over highlights - what did they highlight?
 In yellow
 In pink
6. discuss unknown vocab
 Transistor
 Stoop
