ESL STATION

	ESL Station		Language Depot
	Grammar	Syntax/Writing	Punctuation	Vocabulary	Pronunciation	ESL Station

Dreams From My Father, Chapter 3

This third chapter on Origins introduces many changes in the life of nine-year-old Barack. The transition back to his Grandparents in Hawaii presents daunting causing fear and loss of confidence challenges that would be disconcerting to a person of far more advanced years.

Your assignment is to read the quotations that follow and interpret them. To do so you will need to do two things:
♦ give background information for the quote to describe the circumstances, event, and/or person referred to

♦ describe the impact of the circumstance or event on the person(s) involved.

1. "I realized that I was to live with strangers." (p. 54) [Hint: In what ways had Barack's grandparents changed?]

2. "I could hear the desperation A strong feeling that what he's doing isn't helping to change his bad financial situation creeping out of his voice,...Gramps's heavy sigh after he had hung up the phone, his hands fumbling through the files in his lap like those of a cardplayer who's deep in the hole." (p. 55) [Note the simile beginning with the word "like." Do you think the comparison is apteffective?]

3. "I saw that the plans grew bolder the further they receded The plans became more unrealistic from possibility." (P. 55)

4. "Slowly she had risen, playing by the rules, until she reached the threshold She had reached a level in her career where competence should have mattered, but it wasn't enough to advance further. where competence didn't suffice." (p. 56)

5. "What Toot believed kept her going were the needs of her grandchildren and the stoicism the strength to show patience and calmness in bad times rather than to complain of her ancestors." (p. 57)

6. "I was considered only because of the intervention of Gramps's boss, who was an alumnus graduate of the school(my first experience with affirmative actionracial preference in hiring or school admissions , it seems, had little to do with race.)" (p. 58)

7. "I sat, embarrassed, until the doors finally opened and we went up the stairs to our classroom. At the door, Gramps slapped both of us on the back." (p. 59)

8. "So how was it? Isn't it terrific that Miss Hefty used to live in Kenya? Makes the first day a little easier, I'll bet." (p. 60) [Was it really "terrific"? How had the first day actually gone?]

9. "I left the school building, feeling like a condemned One sentenced to severe punishment or even death One sentenced to severe punishment or even death man." (p. 64)

10. "There was a fragility A fragile look, as if he could be easily harmed physically about his frame." (p. 65)

11. "...[B]oys and their fathers don't always have much to say to each other unless and until they trust - and this may come closer to the mark to be more accurate or correct , for I often felt mute before him, and he never pushed me to speak." (p. 67)

12. "Images and his effect on other people. For whenever he spoke...I would see a sudden change take place in the family." (p. 67)

13. "We all stood accused...I felt as if something had cracked open between all of us." (p. 68)

14. "I couldn't imagine worse news." (p. 69)

15. "Come, Barry,...You will learn from the master." (p. 71)