Yesterday morning in class, as models for your own literacy narrative, we examined David Sedaris‘s “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “The Day Language Came into My Life,” Chapter Four of Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life.
In groups of three, you and your classmates collaboratively addressed the following questions:
- Which of Helen Keller’s paragraphs present scene, and which provide summary?
- Where does Davis Sedaris first shift from summary to scene?
- Where does Sedaris use figurative language?
- Where does he employ hyperbole?
- Bonus: Where does Keller include a biblical allusion?
Here are the answers to those questions:
- The first, third, and ninth paragraphs of Helen Keller’s chapter provide summary. The majority of the chapter’s paragraphs–six of the nine, or two-thirds–present scene.
- Sedaris’s first shifts from summary to scene when his French teacher says, “If you have not meimslsxp or lpgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room” (167).
- He employs similes when he writes “not unlike Pa Kettle trapped backstage at a fashion show” (167) and “like a translation of one of those Playmate of the Month data sheets” (168). Also, he includes a metaphor when he writes, “everybody into the language pool, sink or swim” (167).
- Sedaris turns to hyperbole when he writes that one student had “front teeth the size of tombstones” (168). Due to our time constraints, I did not ask you to address figurative langauge in Keller’s chapter, but note that she uses it as well when she writes, “I was like that ship before my education began” (par. 3).
- In the final paragraph of Keller’s chapter, she presents a biblical allusion with the words “like Aaron’s rod, with flowers” (par. 9). That line from the book of Numbers refers to the sprouting of flowers from the staff of Aaron. For Aaron and his brother, Moses, that flowering signified that their family was chosen to do the work of God. Similarly, for Keller, the blossoming of the world through language served as a revelation: the knowledge that words could give meaning to all that she could neither hear nor see.
For that exercise yesterday, I asked you to focus first on summary and scene because they are important methods of treating time in narratives. Simply put, scene shows the reader what is taking place, while summary tells the reader what has happened over time. Secondly, I asked you to examine details of language. Scene is to time what concrete details are to the senses. The specifics of figurative language–what the metaphors and similes show us–allow readers to experience a story as if they are looking over the narrator’s shoulder.
As you begin planning your own literacy narrative, look back at these notes and reread “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and “The Day that Language Came into My Life.” The acts of rereading model essays and analyzing their elements will strengthen your ability to craft your own literacy narrative.
Works Cited
Keller, Helen. “The Day that Language Came into My Life.” The Story of My Life. https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html.
Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little Brown, 2000. pp. 166-73.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, look to the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, and review the posts devoted to Scrabble tips.
Jane Lucas 