October 15, 2003
English 1A Study Notes

Passage Analysis

As you read "Chapter 3" of Always Running, continue to look for the relationship between the themes of the text and the author's techniques. How do the latter develop the former? Together we have discussed the "Preface" and the first two chpaters, but the challenge for Wednesday will be for you to make these connections on your own. Read actively--margin notes, underlines and circles, etc.--and prepare for a quiz that will select a passage from "Chapter 3" and ask you to analyze it closely.

Passage Analysis Questions

With this quiz, I will introduce you to a question format that you will encounter regularly in this class and in other reading based classes. In these one paragraph answers, you respond to an extended quote from the text. You should achieve three goals in your answer:

1) demonstrate that you have read and understood the text by explaining in a sentence the who, what, and when of the text (what is happening in the passage, who is involved, when does the scene take place in the text);

2) demonstrate your mastery of the various writing techniques we have discussed in the class by using and correctly applying the terms and concepts in SMG; and

3) demonstrate your understanding of the broader cultural themes and issues of the text by explaining how the technique or techniques you discuss from the passage develop what Rodriguez has to say about these cultural and social issues and ideas.

Let's look at an example:

Question: Complete a passage analysis of the following extended quotation from Luis Rodriguez's Always Running.

"Tino and I raced toward the dark boxes called classrooms. The rooms lay there, hauntingly still without the voices of children, the commands of irate teachers or the clapping sounds of books as they were closed. The rooms were empty, forbidden places at night. We scurried around the structures toward a courtyard filled with benches next to the cafeteria building."

Answer:

In these lines, Rodriquez describes the scene when the police chase him and Tino inside the schoolyard. These particular lines occur just before Tino falls to his death through one of the school skylights. Although the scene has strong visuals, the auditory impressions particularly stand out. By highlighting the sounds of school--"voice of children, the commands of irate teachers or the clapping sounds of books being closed"--Rodriguez underscores the irony of Tino being chased to his death at the one place in the community that should provide him with refuge, escape, and hope. Specific narrative actions supplement these sensory depictions by adding urgency to the chase, the "running" that Luis and his peers never stop doing. The boys 'race' and 'scurry,' almost insect-like through "the empty, forbidden places at night." When this scene ends with image of Tino's dead body covered with pieces of shattered glass, Rodriguez has successfully bookended his critique of education and police authority in America between auditory and visual images. Both of these American institutions fail Luis, his family, his cultural group, and, eventually, even Luis's son.

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Page last updated: 13 October, 2003