Spring 2015 Thematic Unit: Identity
Essential Questions
1. Where does our sense of identity come from?
2. How does environment shape our identity?
3. What identities, if any, are permanent and which do we have the power to change?
4. Do decisions taken cumulatively in the past form the very basis of an individual’s
character?
Prompt
While many individuals embrace who they are and what they stand for, others resist or
question their uniqueness. Nevertheless, everybody has a sense of self or sense of personal
identity and developing a stable sense of self is an essential part of every mature individual.
Drawing from your research and reading in literature, biology, math, computer science, and
current affairs, write a well-organized essay that addresses the above notion and analyze
how or when an individual forms his or her identity. Basing your analysis on the approach to
adolescence, examine how the adolescent “identity crisis” is depicted in two of the texts we
have read. What constitutes this “crisis” for the protagonist? What constitutes “identity” in
the world in which he/she lives? Does the protagonist’s identity ultimately play a role in
achieving a stable sense of self? Do times of trouble, when we are faced with adversities,
alter an individual’s character? How do genetics and heredity play a role in determining or
developing ones identity? Is identity or a stable sense of self inherited? Can it be changed?
Can one change their genetic material or inherited trait? How are cells involved in creating
an individual and their identity?
While we read, consider what characters learn about
the world? About themselves? How do they grow as a
result of their experiences?
1
Vocabulary
1. Identity
2. Stereotype
3. Socio-Economic Status
4. Social Norm
5. Heredity (Inherited)
6. Genetics
7. Orientation
8. Blending
9. Culture
10. Roots
11. Factor
12. Innate
13. Instinctual
14. Biological
15. Pigmentation
16. Ethnic (Ethnicity)
17. Personality
18. Attribute
19. Crisis (Identity Crisis)
20. Nature
21. Nurture
22. Cognitive Development
23. Psychosocial Development
24. Id/ Ego/ Superego
25. Butterfly Effect
26. Nominative Determinism
What does it mean to “come of age”?
Use the web organizer below to
explore different aspects of what
coming of age involves.
Coming
of
Age
2
1.
Vocabulary
Identity
Definition
The fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
2.
Stereotype
a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular
type of person or thing.
3.
Socio-economic
status
The economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's
work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social
position in relation to others, based on income, education, and
occupation.
4.
Social norm
5.
Heredity (inherited)
There are norms defining appropriate behavior for every social group.
For example, students, neighbors and patients in a hospital are all aware
of the norms governing behavior. And as the individual moves from
one group to another, their behavior changes accordingly. Norms
provide order in society.
The passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from
one generation to another.
6.
Genetics
7.
Orientation
8.
Blending
9.
Culture
10.
Ethnicity
11.
Race
12.
Race vs ethnicity
13.
Roots
Where two or more cultures living in close proximity with each other
start to mix their cultures and their way of living together.
the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is
regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc; the
behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age
group.
An ethnic group; a social group that shares a common and distinctive
culture, religion, language, or the like.
Race refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in
biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning
that people treat other people differently because of them.
Race versus ethnicity: While race and ethnicity share an ideology of
common ancestry, they differ in several ways. First of all, race is
primarily unitary. You can only have one race, while you can claim
multiple ethnic affiliations. You can identify ethnically as Irish and
Polish, but you have to be essentially either black or white.
Source of origin; a person or family as the source of offspring
14.
Factor
one of the elements contributing to a particular result or situation
15.
Innate
Existing in one from birth; inborn; native. I inherent in the essential
character of something.
16.
Instinctual
Prompted by or resulting from or as if from instinct; natural; unlearned.
17.
Pigmentation
coloration, especially of the skin
18.
Personality
The combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's
distinctive character.
19.
Attribute
A quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of
someone or something.
20.
Character
A quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of
someone or something.
Example from text
The study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics. The
genetic properties or features of an organism, characteristic, etc.
The determination of the relative position of something or someone
(especially oneself).
3
21.
Crisis (Identity
crisis)
22.
Nature
23.
Nurture
24.
Cognitive
development
A period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of
identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their
expected aims or role in society.
Jean Piaget
25.
Psychosocial
development
Erik Erikson
26.
Id/ego/superego
Sigmund Freud
27.
Butterfly effect
Edward Lorenz
28.
Nominal
determinism
4
Talking about Voice
If several different people were asked to describe pizza, you might expect to get a
variety of responses. Even though the subject would be the same, the descriptions
might be quite different because each person uses a different voice. Voice is a result
of a writer’s or speaker’s use of language and it may be so unique that it’s almost
like a fingerprint: a sign of the writer’s or speaker’s identity. This fingerprint results
from three central aspects of how language is used in the text.



Diction- Word choice intended to convey a certain effect
Syntax- sentence structure; the arrangement of words and the order of
grammatical elements in a sentence
Imagery- the words or phrases, including specific details and figurative
language, that a writer uses to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings,
and ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Academic Vocabulary
 Coming of Age
 Bildungsroman
 Voice
 Tone
 Diction
 Syntax
 Imagery
 Infer (inference)
Experienced writers choose language carefully knowing that readers draw conclusions or inferences based on
their diction, imagery, and syntax.
Inferences are justifiable only if they can be supported by textual evidence. Read speakers’ descriptions with a
partner, highlighting and annotating each passage for the diction, syntax, and imagery that contribute to the
voice and tone. Fill in the graphic organizer, citing details on the speaker’s voice, to justify your inference about
the speaker.
Speaker 1: Eating pizza is rather like embarking on a transcontinental excursion. You embark on the journey
without being quite certain of what you will encounter. A well-made pizza contains the aromatic essence of
fresh basil, oregano, and garlic that beckon invitingly. Once you bite into a perfectly sliced piece of pizza, your
taste buds awaken and celebrate. When properly prepared, pizza is an extraordinary culinary creation.
Speaker 2: It’s yummy. I like it when the cheese is really gooey. My mom makes it for dinner on the weekends.
When it’s too hot, I have to wait for it to cool. Mom says if I don’t wait I will burn my tongue. I like the way
pizza smells. When I smell pizza cooking it always makes me want to eat it right up!
Speaker 3: As long as not one speck of gross, disgusting animal flesh comes anywhere near my pizza, I can eat
it. I prefer pizza with mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach. Goat cheese is especially nice too. A thin wholewheat crush topped with imported cheese and organic vegetables makes a satisfying meal.
Speaker 4: Pizza is, like, one of the basic food groups, right? I mean, dude, who doesn’t eat pizza? Me and my
friends order it like every day. We usually get pepperoni, and it’s great when they are, like, covering the whole
top! Dude, hot steamy pizza dripping with cheese and loaded with pepperoni is awesome.
5
Speaker
Inferences About the Speaker
(What might you infer about the
speaker’s age, status,
preferences?)
Diction
(What word choices does the
speaker make? Formal or
informal?)
Define words you do not know
Syntax
(Are the sentences short,
long, simple, complex?)
Imagery
(What words and phrases
include sensory details to
create images?)
Tone
(What can you conclude
about the speaker’s
attitude toward the
subject?
1
2
3
4
6
Narrative Voices
Character types:
A character can be DYNAMIC or STATIC (but not both)
and ROUND or FLAT (but not both)
1. Dynamic: Character grows, matures, and changes as a result of their experience over the
course of the novel.
2. Static: Character does not change- typically, not the protagonist or antagonist.
3. Round: Complex character that portrays both positive and negative qualities- not easily
defined or described.
4. Flat: simplified character and only has a few distinct qualities- typically fits a stereotype.
Main Characters:
The dominant characters in a story about whom the plot is centered around.
1. Protagonist: The main or central character of a work of literature.
2. Antagonist- the opponent of enemy of the protagonist
Characterization:
The means through which an author reveals characters’ traits through S.T.E.A.L
(Speech, Thoughts, Effects on others, Actions, Looks)
1. Direct: the author TELLS what the character is like. The reader does not have to infer
the identity of the character’s trait.
2. Indirect: the author SHOWS what the character is like. The reader will often have to
infer the identity the character’s trait.
Voice versus Tone:


Mood – A feeling that a literary work conveys to a reader. Word choice, dialogue,
description, and plot can all help an author establish mood.
Tone- describes the author’s perspective or attitude toward his/her subject, specific
character, place or development. Tone can portray a variety of emotions ranging from solemn, grave,
and critical to witty, wry and humorous.
7
Narrative Voices
Novel Excerpt
From
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
SPOTLIGHT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in 1961, Laurie Halse Anderson always loved reading and
writing. Even as a child, she made up stories and wrote for fun. As
an adult, she did freelance reporting until she began publishing her
work. Her novel Speak, which won numerous awards and was a
best seller, was made into a movie. In 2009, she won the Margaret
A. Edwards award for Catalyst, Fever 1793, and Speak. She
continues to write historical fiction, like chains, and young adult
novels like Wintergirls. She says she is inspired by her readers,
who write to her with comments or come to her readings.
I find my locker after social studies. The lock sticks a little, but I open it. I dive into the stream of
fourth-period lunch students and swim down the hall to the cafeteria.
I know enough not to bring lunch on the first day of high school. There is no way of telling what
the acceptable fashion will be. Brown bags — humble testament to suburbia, or terminal geek
gear? Insulated lunch bags — hip way to save the planet, or sign of an over involved mother?
Buying is the only solution. And it gives me time to scan the cafeteria for a friendly face or an
inconspicuous corner.
The hot lunch is turkey with reconstituted dried mashed potatoes and gravy, a damp green
vegetable, and a cookie. I'm not sure how to order anything else, so I just slide my tray along and
let the lunch drones fill it. This eight-foot senior in front of me somehow gets three
cheeseburgers, French fries, and two Ho-Hos without saying a word. Some sort of Morse code
with his eyes, maybe. Must study this further. I follow the Basketball Pole into the cafeteria.
I see a few friends — people I used to think were my friends — but they look away. Think fast,
think fast. There's that new girl, Heather, reading by the window. I could sit across from her. Or I
could crawl behind a trash can. Or maybe I could dump my lunch straight into the trash and keep
moving right on out the door.
The Basketball Pole waves to a table of friends. Of course. The basketball team. They all swear
at him — a bizarre greeting practiced by athletic boys with zits. He smiles and throws a Ho-Ho. I
try to scoot around him.
Thwap! A lump of potatoes and gravy hits me square in the center of my chest. All conversation
stops as the entire lunchroom gawks, my face burning into their retinas. I will be forever known
as "that girl who got nailed by potatoes the first day." The Basketball Pole apologizes and says
something else, but four hundred people explode in laughter and I can't read lips. I ditch my tray
and bolt for the door.
8
I motor so fast out of the lunchroom the track coach would draft me for varsity if he were
around. But no, Mr. Neck has cafeteria duty. And Mr. Neck has no use for girls who can run the
one hundred in under ten seconds, unless they're willing to do it while holding on to a football.
Mr. Neck: "We meet again."
Me: Would he listen to "I need to go home and change," or "Did you see what that bozo did"?
Not a chance. I keep my mouth shut.
Mr. Neck: "Where do you think you're going?"
Me: It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear
on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what
you have to say.
Mr. Neck makes a note in his book. "I knew you were trouble the first time I saw you. I've taught
here for twenty-four years and I can tell what's going on in a kid's head just by looking in their
eyes. No more warnings. You just earned a demerit for wandering the halls without a pass."
Academic Vocabulary
 Narrative
o Character
development
o Plot structure
o theme

Narrator
o Protagonist
o Main character
begin say, mean, & matter
9
Latina Narrative Voice
Novel Excerpt
From
The House on
Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros paints a
vivid picture of Latino culture in the United States through a
series of vignettes. Cisneros tells the story of her experience
growing up and coming of age in the impoverished
immigrant communities of Chicago during the 1960's and
70's through the eyes of Esperanza, a young child. The book
was written nearly thirty years ago when Cisneros was
emerging as a professional author and expresses the cultural
barriers she struggled with that many in her community
could not overcome in pursuing the American Dream.
Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the
story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty.
Esperanza doesn’t want to belong—not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low
expectations the world has for her. Esperanza’s story is that of a young girl coming into her power,
and inventing for herself what she will become.
The development of a strong Latina voice in the United States is partially
reaction to the ages of 'Machismo' suppression. This is why we will examine the
Latina voice as a theme.
“My Name” 10
“Smart Cookie” 90
“Hips” 49
“Alicia Who Sees Mice” 31
“Marin” 26
Academic Vocabulary
 Machismo
 Vignette
 Simile
 Metaphor
 Personification
“Sire” 72
“The First Job” 53
“Beautiful and Cruel” 88
Machismo is not so subtly portrayed within The House on Mango Street. Although machismo is never explicitly
cited for trapping women in the book, it is clear in the vignettes it highlight that the power men have given
themselves come at the cost of women's freedom.
1. Machismo- mäˈCHēzmō/ (noun): strong or aggressive masculine pride.
2. Male Chauvinism- male chau·vin·ism/ (noun):male prejudice against women; the belief that men are superior
in terms of ability, intelligence, etc.
10
Sotomayor is the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. The
Supreme Court of the United States is the highest
judicial body in the United States. Its membership
consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and
eight associate justices. The justices are nominated by
the President of the United States and appointed after
confirmation by the United States Senate.
A Judge’s
View of
Judging is on the Record
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: May 14, 2009
WASHINGTON — In 2001, Sonia Sotomayor, an appeals court judge, gave a speech declaring
that the ethnicity and sex of a judge “may and will make a difference in our judging.”
In her speech, Judge Sotomayor questioned the famous notion — often invoked by Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day O’Connor — that a wise
old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases.
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often
than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” said Judge
Sotomayor, who is now considered to be near the top of President Obama’s list of potential
Supreme Court nominees.
Her remarks, at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the
University of California, Berkeley, were not the only instance in which she has publicly
described her view of judging in terms that could provoke sharp questioning in a confirmation
hearing.
This month, for example, a video surfaced of Judge Sotomayor asserting in 2005 that a “court of
appeals is where policy is made.” She then immediately adds: “And I know — I know this is on
tape, and I should never say that because we don’t make law. I know. O.K. I know. I’m not
promoting it. I’m not advocating it. I’m — you know.”
The video was of a panel discussion for law students interested in becoming clerks, and she was
explaining the different experiences gained when working at district courts and appeals courts.
Her remarks caught the eye of conservative bloggers who accused her of being a “judicial
activist,” although Jonathan H. Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University law
school, argued that critics were reading far too much into those remarks.
Republicans have signaled that they intend to put the eventual nominee under a microscope, and
they say they were put on guard by Mr. Obama’s statement that judges should have “empathy,” a
word they suggest could be code for injecting liberal ideology into the law.
Judge Sotomayor has given several speeches about the importance of diversity. But her 2001
remarks at Berkeley, which were published by the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, went further,
asserting that judges’ identities will affect legal outcomes.
11
“Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences,” she said, for
jurists who are women and nonwhite, “our gender and national origins may and will make a
difference in our judging.”
Her remarks came in the context of reflecting her own life experiences as a Hispanic female
judge and on how the increasing diversity on the federal bench “will have an effect on the
development of the law and on judging.”
In making her argument, Judge Sotomayor sounded many cautionary notes. She said there was
no uniform perspective that all women or members of a minority group have, and emphasized
that she was not talking about any individual case.
She also noted that the Supreme Court was uniformly white and male when it delivered historic
rulings against racial and sexual discrimination. And she said she tried to question her own
“opinions, sympathies and prejudices,” and aspired to impartiality.
Still, Judge Sotomayor questioned whether achieving impartiality “is possible in all, or even, in
most, cases.” She added, “And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men
of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.”
She also approvingly quoted several law professors who said that “to judge is an exercise of
power” and that “there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives.”
“Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see,” she said.
Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard law professor and an adviser to Mr. Obama, said Judge
Sotomayor’s remarks were appropriate. Professor Ogletree said it was “obvious that people’s life
experiences will inform their judgments in life as lawyers and judges” because law is more than
“a technical exercise,” citing Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous aphorism: “The life of
the law has not been logic; it has been experience.”
In a forward to a 2007 book, “The International Judge” (U.P.N.E.), Judge Sotomayor seemed to
put a greater emphasis on a need for judges to seek to transcend their identities, writing that “all
judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining
impartial” and letting reason rule. Courts, she added, “are in large part the product of their
membership and their judges’ ability to think through and across their own intellectual and
professional backgrounds” to find common ground.
Academic Vocabulary
Synthesize
Dichotomy
Autonomy
Judicial activist
Empathy
Impartial






12
ON
Our Choices
THE
SIDEWALK BLEEDING
by Evan Hunter
The boy lay on the sidewalk bleeding in the rain. He was sixteen years old, and he wore a bright purple jacket and the lettering across the back of the jacket
read THE ROYALS. The boy's name was Andy and the name was delicately scripted in black thread on the front of the jacket, just over the heart. ANDY.
He had been stabbed ten minutes ago. The knife entered just below his rib cage and had been drawn across his body violently, tearing a wide gap in his flesh.
He lay on the sidewalk with the March rain drilling his jacket and drilling his body and washing away the blood that poured from his open wound. He had
known excruciating pain when the knife had torn across his body and then sudden comparative relief when the blade was pulled away. He had heard the voice
saying, 'That's for you Royal!" and then the sound of footsteps hurrying into the rain, and then he had fallen to the sidewalk, clutching his stomach, trying to
stop the flow of blood.
He tried to yell for help, but he had no voice. He did not know why his voice had deserted him, or why there was an open hole in his body from which his life
ran readily, steadily, or why the rain had become so suddenly fierce. It was 11:13 p.m. but he did not know the time.
There was another thing he did not know.
He did not know he was dying. He lay on the sidewalk, bleeding, and he thought only: That was a fierce rumble. They got me good that time, but he did not
know he was dying. He would have been frightened had he known. In his ignorance he lay bleeding and wishing he could cry out for help, but there was no
voice in his throat. There was only the bubbling of blood from between his lips whenever he opened his mouth to speak. He lay in his pain, waiting, waiting
for someone to find him.
He could hear the sound of automobile tires hushed on the rain swept streets, far away at the other end of the long alley. He lay with his face pressed to the
sidewalk, and he could see the splash of neon far away at the other end of the alley, tinting the pavement red and green, slickly brilliant in the rain.
He wondered if Laura would be angry. He had left the jump to get a package of cigarettes. He had told her he would be back in a few minutes, and then he
had gone downstairs and found the candy store closed. He knew that Alfredo's on the next block would be open. He had started through the alley, and that was
when he had been ambushed.
He could hear the faint sound of music now, coming from a long, long way off. He wondered if Laura was dancing, wondered if she had missed him yet.
Maybe she thought he wasn't coming back. Maybe she thought he'd cut out for good. Maybe she had already left the jump and gone home. He thought of her
face, the brown eyes and the jet-black hair, and thinking of her he forgot his pain a little, forgot that blood was rushing from his body.
Someday he would marry Laura. Someday he would marry her, and they would have a lot of kids, and then they would get out of the neighborhood. They
would move to a clean project in the Bronx, or maybe they would move to Staten Island. When they were married, they had kids.
He heard footsteps at the other end of the alley, and he lifted his cheek from the sidewalk and looked into the darkness and tried to cry out, but again there was
only a soft hissing bubble of blood on his mouth. The man came down the alley. He had not seen Andy yet. He walked, and then stopped to lean against the
brick of the building, and then walked again. He saw Andy then and came toward him, and he stood over him for a longtime, the minutes ticking, ticking,
watching him and not speaking.
Then he said, "What's the matter, buddy'?"
Andy could not speak, and he could barely move. He lifted his face slightly and looked up at the man, and in the rain swept alley he smelled the sickening
odor of alcohol. The man was drunk.
The man was smiling.
"Did you fall down, buddy?" he asked. "You must be as drunk as I am." He squatted alongside Andy.
'You gonna catch cold there," he said. "What's the matter? You like layin' in the wet?"
Andy could not answer. The rain spattered around them.
You like a drink?"
Andy shook his head.
13
"I gotta bottle. Here," the man said. He pulled a pint bottle from his inside jacket pocket. Andy tried to move, but pain wrenched him back flat against the
sidewalk.
Take it," the man said. He kept watching Andy. "Take it." When Andy did not move, he said, "Nev' mind, I'll have one m'self." He tilted the bottle to his lips,
and then wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "You too young to be drinkin' anyway. Should be 'shamed of yourself, drunk and layin 'in a alley, all
wet. Shame on you. I gotta good mind to call a cop."
Andy nodded. Yes, he tried to say. Yes, call a cop. Please call one.
"Oh, you don' like that, huh?" the drunk said. "You don' wanna cop to fin' you all drunk an' wet in an alley, huh: Okay, buddy. This time you get off easy." He
got to his feet. "This time you get off easy," he said again. He waved broadly at Andy, and then almost lost his footing. "S'long, buddy," he said.
Wait, Andy thought. Wait, please, I'm bleeding.
"S'long," the drunk said again, "I see you around," and the he staggered off up the alley.
Andy lay and thought: Laura, Laura. Are you dancing?
The couple came into the alley suddenly. They ran into the alley together, running from the rain, the boy holding the girl's elbow, the girl spreading a
newspaper over her head to protect her hair. Andy watched them run into the alley laughing, and then duck into the doorway not ten feet from him.
"Man, what rain!" the boy said. 'You could drown out there."
"I have to get home," the girl said. "It's late, Freddie. I have to get home."
"We got time," Freddie said. 'Your people won't raise a fuss if you're a little late. Not with this with kind of weather."
"It's dark," the girl said, and she giggled.
'Yeah," the boy answered, his voice very low.
"Freddie . . . . ?
"Um?"
"You're ... standing very close to me."
"Um."
There was a long silence. Then the girl said, "Oh," only that single word, and Andy knew she had been kissed , and he suddenly hungered for Laura's mouth.
It was then that he wondered if he would ever kiss Laura again. It was then that he wondered if he was dying.
No, he thought, I can't be dying, not from a little street rumble, not from just being cut. Guys get cut all the time in rumbles. I can't be dying. No, that's stupid.
That don't make any sense at all.
"You shouldn't," the girl said.
"Why not?"
"Do you like it?"
"Yes."
"So?"
"I don't know."
"I love you, Angela," the boy said.
"I love you, too, Freddie," the girl said, and Andy listened and thought: I love you, Laura. Laura, I think maybe I'm dying. Laura, this is stupid but I think
maybe I'm dying. Laura, I think I'm dying
He tried to speak. He tried to move. He tried to crawl toward the doorway. He tried to make a noise, a sound, and a grunt came, a low animal grunt of pain.
"What was that?" the girl said, suddenly alarmed, breaking away from the boy.
"I don't know," he answered.
14
"Go look, Freddie."
"No. Wait."
Andy moved his lips again. Again the sound came from him.
Freddie!"
"What?"
"I'm scared."
"I'll go see," the boy said.
He stepped into the alley. He walked over to where Andy lay on the ground. He stood over him, watching him.
"You all right?" he asked.
"What is it?" Angela said from the doorway.
"Somebody's hurt," Freddie said.
"Let's get out of here," Angela said.
"No. Wait a minute." He knelt down beside Andy. "You cut?" he asked.
Andy nodded. The boy kept looking at him. He saw the lettering on the jacket then. THE ROYALS. He turned to Angela.
"He's a Royal," he said.
"Let's what. . . .what . . . do you want to do, Freddie?"
"I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to get mixed up in this. He's a Royal. We help him, and the Guardians'll be down on our necks. I don't want to get
mixed up in this, Angela."
"Is he . . . is he hurt bad?"
"Yeah, it looks that way."
"What shall we do?"
"I don't know."
"We can't leave him here in the rain," Angela hesitated. "Can we?"
"If we get a copy, the Guardians'll find out who," Freddie said. "I don't know, Angela. I don't know."
Angela hesitated a long time before answering. Then she said, "I want to go home, Freddie. My people will begin to worry."
"Yeah," Freddie said. He looked at Andy again. "You all right?" he asked. Andy lifted his face from the sidewalk, and his eyes said: Please, please help me,
and maybe Freddie read what his eyes were saying, and maybe he didn't.
Behind him, Angela said, "Freddie, let's get out of here! Please!" Freddie stood up. He looked at Andy again, and then mumbled, "I'm sorry." He took
Angela's arm and together they ran towards the neon splash at the other end of the alley.
Why, they're afraid of the Guardians, Andy thought in amazement. By why should they be? I wasn't afraid of the Guardians. I never chickened out of a rumble
with the Guardians. I got heart. But I'm bleeding.
The rain was soothing somehow. It was a cold rain, but his body was hot all over, and the rain helped cool him. He had always liked rain. He could remember
sitting in Laura's house one time, the rain running down the windows, and just looking out over the street, watching the people running from the rain. That
was when he'd first joined the Royals.
He could remember how happy he was when the Royals had taken him. The Royals and the Guardians, two of the biggest. He was a Royal. There had been
meaning to the title.
15
Now, in the alley, with the cold rain washing his hot body, he wondered about the meaning. If he died, he was Andy. He was not a Royal. He was simply
Andy, and he was dead. And he wondered suddenly if the Guardians who had ambushed him and knifed him had ever once realized he was Andy? Had they
known that he was Andy or had they simply known that he was Royal wearing a purple silk jacket? Had they stabbed him, Andy, or had they only stabbed the
jacket and the title and what good was the title if you were dying?
I'm Andy, he screamed wordlessly, I'm Andy.
An old lady stopped at the other end of the alley. The garbage cans were stacked there, beating noisily in the rain. The old lady carried an umbrella with
broken ribs, carried it like a queen. She stepped into the mouth of the alley, shopping bag over one arm. She lifted the lids of the garbage cans. She did not
hear Andy grunt because she was a little deaf and because the rain was beating on the cans. She collected her string and her newspapers, and an old hat with a
feather on it from one of the garbage cans, and a broken footstool from another of the cans. And then she replaced the lids and lifted her umbrella high and
walked out of the alley mouth. She had worked quickly and soundlessly, and now she was gone.
The alley looked very long now. He could see people passing at the other end of it, and he wondered who the people were, and he wondered if he would ever
get to know them, wondered who it was of the Guardians who had stabbed him, who had plunged the knife into his body.
"That's for you, Royal!" the voice had said. "That's for you, Royal!" Even in his pain, there had been some sort of pride in knowing he was a Royal. Now there
was no pride at all. With the rain beginning to chill him, with the blood pouring steadily between his fingers, he knew only a sort of dizziness. He could only
think: I want to be Andy.
It was not very much to ask of the world.
He watched the world passing at the other end of the alley. The world didn't know he was Andy. The world didn't know he was alive. He wanted to say, "Hey,
I'm alive! Hey, look at me! I'm alive! Don't you know I'm alive? Don't you know I exist?"
He felt weak and very tired. He felt alone, and wet and feverish and chilled. He knew he was going to die now. That made him suddenly sad. He was filled
with sadness that his life would be over at sixteen. He felt all at once as if he had never done anything, never seen anything, never been anywhere. There were
so many things to do. He wondered why he'd never thought of them before, wondered why the rumbles and the jumps and the purple jackets had always
seemed so important to him before. Now they seemed like such small things in a world he was missing, a world that was rushing past at the other end of the
alley.
I don't want to die, he thought. I haven't lived yet. It seemed very important to him that he take off the purple jacket. He was very close to dying, and when
they found him, he did not want them to say, "Oh, it's a Royal." With great effort, he rolled over onto his back. He felt the pain tearing at his stomach when he
moved. If he never did another thing, he wanted to take off the jacket. The jacket had only one meaning now, and that was a very simple meaning.
If he had not been wearing the jacket, he wouldn't have been stabbed. The knife had not been plunged in hatred of Andy. The knife hated only the purple
jacket. The jacket was as stupid meaningless thing that was robbing him of his life.
He lay struggling with the shiny wet jacket. His arms were heavy. Pain ripped fire across his body whenever he moved. But he squirmed and fought and
twisted until one arm was free and then the other. He rolled away from the jacket and lay quite still, breathing heavily, listening to the sound of his breathing
and the sounds of the rain and thinking: Rain is sweet, I'm Andy.
She found him in the doorway a minute past midnight. She left the dance to look for him, and when she found him, she knelt beside him and said, "Andy, it's
me, Angela."
He did not answer her. She backed away from him, tears springing into her eyes, and then she ran from the alley. She did not stop running until she found a
cop.
And now, standing with the cop, she looked down at him. The cop rose and said, "He's dead." All the crying was out of her now. She stood in the rain and said
nothing, looking at the purple jacket that rested a foot away from his body.
The cop picked up the jacket and turned it over in his hands.
"A Royal, huh?" he said.
She looked at the cop and, very quietly, she said, "His name is Andy."
The cop slung the jacket over his arm. He took out his black pad, and he flipped it open to a blank page.
"A Royal." he said. Then he began writing.
The End
16
Defining Experiences
The Absolutely
True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie:
“Alexie once seemed fated for nothing but early death. A Spokane Indian raised on a reservation about 50 miles
from the Washington city, he was born hydrocephalic, with water on the brain. At six months, he underwent
surgery and wasn’t expected to live. When he did survive, doctors predicted he would be severely retarded.
Instead, he became a prodigy. By age two he could read and by kindergarten he had completed (if not
understood) The Grapes of Wrath.” - quote from The many lives of Sherman Alexie by Hillel Italie.
Novelist, poet, and screen writer Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit,
Washington. Often focusing on the connections between physical places and the stories that occur in them,
Alexie wrote a semi-autobiographical young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian with a
protagonist who chooses to leave the school on his reservation to attend a nearby high school where he is the
only Native American student.
Indian Reservations:
An Indian reservation is a legal designation for an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the
US Bureau of Indian Affairs, rather than the governments of the US states in which they are physically located.
Although many of the roughly 310 Indian reservations in the United States are associated with particular
tribe(s), not all of the country's 550-plus recognized tribes have a reservation—some tribes have more than one
reservation, some share reservations, while others have none.
Navajo Indian Reservation, Arizona (Britannica)
Central Wyoming (NYTimes)
17
Poetry
Poems Dealing with Identity
Mi Problema
by Michele Serros
My sincerity isn’t good enough.
Eyebrows raise
when I request:
“Hable mas despacio, por favor.”
My skin is brown
just like theirs,
but now I’m unworthy of the color
’cause I don’t speak Spanish
the way I should.
Then they laugh and talk about
mi problema
in the language I stumble over.
A white person gets encouragement,
praise,
for weak attempts at a second language.
“Maybe he wants to be brown
like us.”
and that is good.
My earnest attempts
make me look bad,
dumb.
“Perhaps she wanted to be white
like THEM.”
and that is bad.
I keep my flash cards hidden
a practice cassette tape
not labeled
’cause I am ashamed.
I “should know better”
they tell me
Spanish is in your blood.
I search for S.S.L. classes,
(Spanish as a Second Language)
in college catalogs
and practice
with my grandma.
who gives me patience,
permission to learn.
And then one day,
I’ll be a perfected “r” rolling
tilde using Spanish speaker.
A true Mexican at last!
Grace Nichols
“I have crossed an ocean
I have lost my tongue
from the root of the old one
a new one has sprung”
Endless Search
by Alonzo Lopez (American Indian poet)
Searching, forever searching.
Looking, but never finding.
Day and night, my eyes roam the world.
Searching, not knowing how to end.
This search for myself.
Legal Alien
by Pat Mora
Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural,
able to slip from "How's life?"
to "Me'stan volviendo loca,"
able to sit in a paneled office
drafting memos in smooth English,
able to order in fluent Spanish
at a Mexican restaurant,
American but hyphenated,
viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,
perhaps inferior, definitely different,
viewed by Mexicans as alien,
(their eyes say, "You may speak
Spanish but you're not like me")
an American to Mexicans
a Mexican to Americans
a handy token
sliding back and forth
between the fringes of both worlds
by smiling
by masking the discomfort
of being pre-judged
Bi-laterally.
18