reading and journal
Under Course Documents, you will find “The Witch’s Husband,” a short story by Judith Ortiz Cofer. For this week, please read this story and, using the guide to reader response journal (also found under Course Documents), write at least one page, double spaced, 12 pt, in response to the story.
7 gencies and hard times. It seems extraordinary that a woman would
lee w {1:11 g l ‘Ugba n A j: Willmgly take on such oblrgatxons. And frankly, I am a blt appalled
at what I have begun to thmk of as “the martyr complex” in Puerto
Rican women, that is, the idea that self-sacrifice is a woman’s lot and
her privilege: a good woman is defined by how much suffering and
i mothering she can do in one lifetime. Abuela is the all-time Cham-
n. He is tr mg to find A
l 1 My grandfather has} Ilzjlsplaced lglisrrllzoreisttargailhis mind hyas become. ‘ plon in my eyes: her life has been entirely devoted to others. Not
t my name m the kalir oscfilfj’SOWho hgas just remembered his lesson. j content to brmg up two sons and three daughters as the Depression
t H 3 HIS £896 brightens 1 e a C l th {S name I smile back and kiss 5- raged on, followed by the war that took one of her sons, she had
He pomts to me and says 11,1}, m; e hat Barges he remembers any, s! also taken on other people’s burdens. This had been the usual pat-
him on the cheekilltdoesn t moanfirszzl his memory slipping back a tern with one exception that I knew of: the year that Abuela spent
z c , z
more. Every ‘day e ifsrmiorehe has no grandchildren yet. Tomorrow m New Yrork, apparently undergomg some kind of treatment for her
1 little turther in time. o ay tin m randmother again, quoting bits heart whlle she was still a young woman. My mother was five or six
p; ” he Wlll be a Young man GEL“ g y ie will begin caning her Mamé’ years old, and there were three other children who had been born by
l Ofpoetry to her’ In mgnt stifling; my mother’s request to help her that time too. They were given into the care of Abuela’s sister, Delia.
p I have trivelelzll to ouleer 14 grandfather is physically healthy, but m The two women traded places for the year. Abuela went to live in her
t deal With t. 6.0 P6 PM’ yndmother,s heart is making Odd sonnds g Slster sq apartment in New York Clty while the younger woman took
hls demenha ls severe’ y gr? . tak- care of the 01d man at a over Abuela’s duties at the house in Puerto Rico. Grandfather was
again in her chest. Yelt she it??? Ofierihlzgse though She has been 5 a shadowy figure in the background during that period. My mother
home herself. Sh}? Wl Hf) hi fail ll; her Sleep without proper moni_ é doesn t say much about what went on during that year, only that her
walned that’her eart’mlgh me or a relative’s care. Her response is f? mother was srck and away for months. Grandfather seemed absent
“3“.ng that IS’ a nursuggt. O C . “Buem n She says, «I will die in my fag};- too, since he worked all of the time. Though they missed Abuela,
typical Of her famous O S ma y’ ’ f they were well taken care of.
l l own bed.” h aitin for my opportunity to talk “sense” 2 l I am sitting on a rocking chair on the porch of her house. She is
1 n I alrln no}: at hzile OCUStZaZLCI if the united States I am supposed é facing me from a hammock she made when her first baby was born.
C
l mto er. S a ‘g f l ic- I have been called in to convince la My mother was rocked on that hammock. Iwas rocked on that ham-
t to represeglt Ehe Trice 0 3g ’ march to Step down__to allow her mock, and when I brought my daughter as a baby to Abuela’s house,
t e arnr s rou ma y
I ablwla’ k y pf her before She kills herself with work. I spent She was held in Abuela s sun browned arms, my porcelain pink baby,
g‘ children to ta e care o hid b t h ve lived in the U. S. for most of and rocked to a peaceful sleep too. She s1ts there and smiles as the
T years at her house as a C l u a h. t woman who breeze of a tropical November brings the scent of her roses and her
g m adult life, Ilearned to love and respectt is s rong , é h b t Sh , d fh
READER RESPONSE JOURNALS
A journal is an informal record of your thoughts and impressions. A reader response journal provides an opportunity for you to write informally about the works that you have read and encourages an expansion of the process of personal writing.
Before you write each journal entry, read the assigned story carefully (twice, if time permits). Always read with a pen or pencil in hand and annotate the story—make comments in the margins, underline key words/phrases, ask questions, record impressions/reactions. For more tips on how to read a short story productively, see “Guidelines for Close Reading Short Fiction” (Charters, The Story and Its Writer Compact 9th Ed., p. 1044).
After you have read and annotated each assigned story, select one of the prompts below to guide your journal entry. Your journal entry should NOT summarize the story—don’t just say what happened in the story, say what you think about it, say why you think it matters. The prompts below will help you to do that.
Each journal entry must be at least 300 words (feel free to go longer). While this is an informal journal, the basic rules of good writing still apply—i.e., write in full sentences, using proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Journal Prompts for Individual Stories
You may use each prompt only once. Clearly identify the number prompt you are responding to at the beginning of each journal entry.
1. Make text-to-self connections. How did this story speak to you? How does it connect with events or people in your life?
2. Write about what you liked and what you did not like about the story. Did you have strong feelings about this story one way or the other? Why?
3. Make text-to text connections (Did this story remind you of something else you’ve read? How?)
4. Make text-to-world connections (Connect the story to current events, our society, material you’re learning in other classes, etc.)
5. Write a double-entry notebook: Make a table with two columns. In the first column, list at least five quotes from the story (be sure to include page numbers). In the second column, discuss each quote—Why did you pickit? Why is this quote important to the story as a whole? Does something in this quote confuse or intrigue you? Why?
6. Discuss a specific character in the story. Why did you pick this character? How is this character portrayed in the story? Discuss how the author reveals the character—through action? through dialogue? through description? Why does this character matter to the story? Does this character change in the course of the story? If so, how?
7. Respond to a specific event in the story. Why did you pick this event? Why is this event significant? How did this event shape your understanding or response to the story?
8. Respond to an issue presented in the story (e.g., social, political). Clearly identify the issue and discuss how/where the story presents the issue. Do you agree / disagree with how the issue is presented in the story? Why?
9. Read the twork two times. Record your first impression and then your second impression. What did you see on the second reading that you did not see on the first?
10. Select a key passage and do a close reading / analysis. You could focus on literary elements (e.g., metaphors, similes, personification) and/or you could focus on why you selected this passage—what makes it significant to the story as a whole?
11. Write a letter to the author discussing your response to the story and asking a question you have about the story.
12. Write a letter to one of the characters. You might ask a question or discuss shared experiences.
13. Write a prequel or sequel to the story.
14. Turn a scene from the story into a film script.
15. Cast the characters in the story as if you were directing a film. Explain your choices (your explanation should show a clear understanding of each character in the story).
16. If someone was making a film of this story and you were going to be in it, which character would you want to play and why? How would you “get into character”? What would be your main goal in playing the character? What would you want to convey to viewers about this character?
17. Select a key passage and rewrite that passage by changing the point of view—for example, if the story is told in first person, shift to third person. At the end of your revised passage, write a few sentences discussing the role of point of view in the story (how does point of view direct what the reader knows or doesn’t know? how does point of view impact how the reader feels about characters/events?).
18. Create a book cover, portrait of a character, or scene from a work. Write a few sentences explaining your artistic choices, focusing on how your artwork reveals your response to the story and/or specific themes of the story. *Your response for this prompt does not need to be 300 words; the main work for this prompt is creating an image that reflects the story.
19. Write an obituary for a character who died in the story.
20. Write a newspaper account of an event in the story.
21. Write a psychological case study of a character in the story.
Journal Prompts for Connecting Stories
When writing your connecting story journal entires, do not just repeat material from your individual story journal entries. While you may obviously touch on characters, themes, quotes, etc. that you discussed previously, the process of putting the stories side by side and thinking about them together should generate new ideas/observations. Select one of the following prompts to help you focus your connecting journal entries.
You may use the below “connecting” prompts more than once. Clearly identify which prompt you are responding to at the beginning of each journal entry.
22. Compare and contrast a central theme in the two stories.
23. Compare and contrast how the stories present a specific social or political issue.
24. Write a dialogue between two or more characters from different stories. The subject of the dialogue should stem from one or both of the stories, and the speech (dialect, words used, etc.) should be consistent with the speech of the characters in their respective stories.
25. Create a talk show featuring characters from different stories. What talk show would they be on? Why would these characters be invited together on this talk show? What questions would they be asked? How would they respond?
