Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. As bad as Southie was, I was glad I was never allowed to feel sorry for myself the way these kids seemed to do in the pissed-off shouts and chants in unison that made you feel like you were at a football rally.
2. When two cars crashed, the Boston crowd gathered in awe to watch the bloody drivers get out to fight each other. None of the New York kids seemed startled by the crash.
3. When Ma discovered that I hadn't been going to school that year, she told me I'd have to be up every day at the crack of dawn to find a job. But instead of looking for work I went to a stoop on Queensberry street that had become a gathering spot for young punks from all over Boston.
4. The streets of Southie, too were getting worse. The neighborhood I'd once agreed was heaven on earth now felt like hell.
5. More and more, the only talk at home was about who was serving time, or the previous nights gunshots, or who was seen at which kid's wake, and who didn't show up because they were related to the shooter.
Questions -
1. Why did Michael become so down on Southie but not on the people that were creating all the problems like his neighbors and even his own family?
2. How could a whole year go by without Michael's mother or other family members noticing that he quit school, didn't they asdk about report cards?
3. What made Southie seem so much worse to Michael than the rest of the city?
4. Instead of complaining about it, why didn't Michael try to do something about his neighborhood troubles?
vocabulary -
1. transcendent -page108 going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding.
2. awe -page108 an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful.
3. denizens -page117 One that frequents a particular place.
literary terms -
Setting - The Old Colony Project and New York City, where Michael started to sneak, with his new friends.
Exposition - Michael spends more time away from his famil;y by driving with friends to New York City where he spend days at a time.
Outline -
After Michael is caught by his mother for quitting school, she telld him he has to get a job. Michael instead starts sneaking to New York City with his friends but tells his mother he is staying in Jamaica Plain.