"A Mother in Mannville"

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Name______________________________________

Pre-reading

  1. Where was Rawlings born?
  2. Where did she go to college?
  3. What was the setting for most of her work?
  4. What prize did she win in 1939? for what book?
  5. For what is Rawlings noted?
  6. What three techniques of characterization does she use?

 

  1. Why was the narrator at the cabin?
  2. What surprises the narrator?
  3. What does the boy look like? To what does the narrator compare him?
  4. In what ways does Jerry show integrity?
  5. What is granite like? What would it mean for a person to be like granite?
  6. How does Jerry feel when the narrator returns?
  7. What does Jerry tell the narrator?
  8. How does the narrator feel?
  9. What is thistledown?
  10. What feelings does the narrator have toward Jerry's mother? Why does she feel this way?

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  11. To what does the narrator compare the human mind? In what way are these two things similar?

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  12. Why do you think Jerry didn't eat or do his work? What might have been troubling him?

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  13. Why might Jerry have made up the stories about his mother and his skates?

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  14. What is probably the reason Jerry created the story about having a mother in Mannville?

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  15. What is setting?

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  16. What is mood?

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  17. Write a lyric poem from Jerry's point of view.