Easter Rising
Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. "Ireland?" I felt sick at just the thought of it. Ireland was the last place on earth I wanted to see. And now, when I was only calling to borrow money, Grandpa was making me promise I'd use his loan to go there.
2. I couldn't imagine growing up in a place like this instead of Old Colony Project. To me it was like being in a cartoon or a dream. That shade of green I'd never imagined, the bearded goat, the clouds that seemed to move faster than a speeding bus, breaking open to funnel columns of sun, like searchlights that raced across faraway fields.
3. I found out that the Irish didn't really celebrate Saint Paddy's the way they did in Southie but they were starting to bring in the green beer as an American thing, along with the over - the top parades. But corned beef, Oweney told me, was basically meat you might feed the dog.
4. Minuted after we got onto the bus, Ma let out a big sigh."My God, they're really not over it, huh?" In my community work with mothers whose kids had died, I'd learned that talk of getting "over it" was just about the worst thing they could ever hear from friends who didn't have a clue.
5. Just moments before getting out of the car for the church, when I saw Ma still had her accordian slung over her shoulder. I had wanted to ask,"What the hell are you going to do with that on Easter Sunday?" But I no longer had to. I understood that you never know when you'll need to give whatever you've got to give.
questions -
1. Why was Michael so against going to Ireland when his Grandfather suggested it?
2. Why did Michael say he couldn't imagine groweing up in a place like Ireland?
3. Why did Ma bring the accordian to play for strangeres in Ireland?
4. Why didn't Ma feel the connection os loss with the mothers of Ireland who had lost children of their own?
vocabulary -
1. mesmerized -page 188 to hypnotize.
2. elaborate -page 231 worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness.
3. bamboozled -page 231 to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink
literary terms -
1. setting - Ireland, specifically, Kery, Donegal and Castleisland.
2 .exposition - Michael takes his mother to Ireland to see their herritage ands relatives.
outline -
Michael and Ma go to Ireland and visit with and meet relatives for the first time. Michael finds a connection to his family and their homeland that he never dreamed was possible. He also was able to bond and come to have a better understanding of his mother and her ways.