9/16--Rainy River Assignment

Spend no more than 40 minutes (without interruptions/distractions) on the following assignment.

Please formulate a topic sentence in answer to the question:

Why is Elroy Berdahl the hero of Tim O’Brien’s life?

After you have written your topic sentence, find three meaty quotations to back up/support it. Type out each quotation and provide a page number.
After each quotation, show how/why the quotation supports your topic sentence.
- IMPORTANT:
  - You must select at least ONE word from each quotation to analyze in detail.
  - For example:

Quotation: “It’s about as real a smile as girls can do for each other, considering we don’t practice real smiling every day, you know, cause maybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries” (6).

Analysis: When Squeaky refers to “real smiling,” she means a smile by which girls actually regard and acknowledge each other as people. Most girls’ smiles, according to Squeaky, are false because the girls are too busy pretending to be weak, girly objects like “flowers,” “fairies” or “strawberries.”

Analysis: This the second time Squeaky refers to strawberries. In both cases, what Squeaky means by a “strawberry” is a girl who is sweet and delicate and little. In other words, a “strawberry” is a girl who aspires to be small, fragile, and weak, all qualities Squeaky abhors.

*** Please place your assignment on Canvas. Make sure to label your assignment clearly (e.g. 9/17--"Rainy River" Assignment).