For Mon, 9/8—Quotation Exercise on “The Man of the House” (see instructions below). Please post this assignment on Canvas.
Man of the House Quotation Exercise
Time for assignment (assuming you’ve put away your phone and any other devices that might distract you): 30-40 minutes
1) Please pick 3 “meaty” quotations from “Man of the House” and re-type them on a word document (and please save this!). At least one of your quotations should concern the narrator.
a. You might want to look at passages in which Flurry describes how he feels (e.g., how he feels about missing school, about his mother). What do those passages tell you about his character?
b. You might also look at passages that suggest a theme of the story.
c. You could also consider the narrator’s descriptions of other characters; what details does she use to describe a certain character and what do those details tell us about that character’s personality? About the narrator’s personality?
2) After each quotation, write an analysis. Remember that in your analysis, you should dig into the quotation and infer information; tell us something that’s not plainly stated but that’s implied. A rich quotation will give the reader much more information than it directly states on the surface.
3) Also, don’t forget the page number of your quotation. Look at the example on the other side of the page for how to place the page number correctly.
4) As a rule of thumb, your analysis of the quotation should be roughly two times the length of the quotation.
5) Try to insert specific words from the quotations into your analyses (see example below).
Example from “Raymond’s Run”:
Quotation: “You’d think they’d know better than to encourage that kind of nonsense. I am not a strawberry. I do not dance on my toes. I run. That is what I am all about” (3).
Analysis: Here, the narrator is essentially refusing to be a girl, in the traditional sense that 1970s America expects of her. When she says she “is not a strawberry,” what she is really saying is that she is not harmless, soft, pretty, and sweet like the fruit. Rather, she wants to “run.” Running, for Squeaky, means freedom, independence, strength, and endurance—not qualities normally associated with girls and women at the time. The narrator, in sum, rejects gender stereotypes and declares that she will decide what kind of person she becomes.
One quotation for you to start with:
"Somehow, I couldn't refuse her. I was swept from my anchorage into an unfamiliar world of spires and towers, trees, steps, shadowy laneways, and little girls with red hair and green eyes. I took a drink myself and gave her another. Then I began to panic. "'Tis nearly gone," I said. "What am I going to do now?" (34).