Potomac's eighth grade English students read and discuss The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The book is a series of short vignettes that together capture the characters, setting, and stories of a particular neighborhood in Chicago. The vignettes are written from the perspective of a fictional narrator and are based loosely on Cisneros's own experiences as well as those of her students. Some of the vignettes are humorous or action-packed; some are heart-wrenching or shocking. All are deliberate in their use of figurative language, poetic elements, grammar conventions, and pacing.Each eighth grader composed at least one vignette for inclusion in this digital collection. They wrote in the style of Sandra Cisneros, as they interpreted it based on their notes and our class discussions, yet they set it in a time and place of their own choosing. While some of these vignettes are based on the author's personal experience, many of them are purely fiction, an imagining of characters and circumstances that seemed ripe for this assignment. Students also used this assignment to experiment with new vocabulary words and techniques involving punctuation and sentence structure.We encourage you to leave comments below vignettes that strike you in some way. Please keep your comments positive and specific; this is not the place for critiques or suggestions. Enjoy the creativity and vibrancy of these students' literary efforts.
The Boy Next Door
He moved in alone, but he did not speak. Not to her or Clara or John. He cordially shook their hands and smiled, but a forced smile. He sat in a chair in his yard drinking lemonade with a shot of something from his hip flask. Never looking up from under his big baseball hat. She saw him the next day on her block, tapping his foot nervously. He was new here, obviously nervous. She and her friends walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to go downtown with them. He nodded quietly and they started to walk. All of this time not one word spoken. They passed a police officer in another poor neighborhood and he got nervous, he took out a switchblade and started to flick it, open closed open closed. He looked at his feet and started to walk quicker. It was too late, the officer had noticed him and a look of familiarity came across the cop’s face. His brown eyes darted about for a place to run, three cop cars pulled up. The cops threw him in the back of the car. She glanced at her wallet to make sure she had her ID in case she was questioned. It wasn’t there. Clara’s and John’s were gone too, not the wallet, the ID. All of a sudden it was clear to her who this boy was. She had read an article in the paper about him last week.
~ Simon M.
At first I did not understand why he was nervous, but as the story continued, I figured it out. I liked how you left the story not letting us know who he was. That is good because we have to figure out who he is.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job leaving me in suspense at the end, trying to comprehend what just happened, making me think who stole their IDs
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite vignettes. I loved the suspense and how you didn't reveal who he really was until the end. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you developed the character of "the boy next door" through subtle actions.
ReplyDelete