Teaching Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
FAMILIES
Thinking about relationships and experiences within their own families will help students to prepare for reading the selections in this chapter. You might consider having students begin with a brief writing describing an incident or a tradition that is a part of their family experience and have them analyze in what ways this has given them new insights about themselves or about others in their family. In “My Papa’s Waltz” an adult son looks at his connections with his father and mother, focusing on remembered (and often painful) scenes from childhood. "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood” shows a daughter’s warm memories, not only of her mother, but also of her extended family of female relatives. In contrast to these warm memories, “My Father's Life” reveals a son's painful recollection of his father's struggle with alcohol. “My Son, My Executioner" provides an intriguing view of a father's relationship to his newborn son, while both "Everyday Use" and "Who's Irish?" offer thoughtful, and sometimes humorous, views of two different mothers' relationships with their adult daughters. Mothers also contemplate the complexities of their roles in their children’s lives in “I Stand Here Ironing,” “Shopping,” and “The Possessive.” The problems and misunderstandings often present in nontraditional family structures are examined in “How Far She Went.” "Oedipus Rex" and "Soul Gone Home" are plays that look at parents and children (from very different cultures and times) struggling with questions of identity and changing family dynamics. And characters in “I Stand Here Ironing," “Shopping,” and "Who's Irish?" face issues of growth and independence as the child develops a life apart from the parent (or the parent develops a life apart from the child). “I Stand Here Ironing” and “How Far She Went” both provide rich opportunities for looking at the impact of economic circumstances and societal pressures on relationships within the family
FAMILIES
Thinking about relationships and experiences within their own families will help students to prepare for reading the selections in this chapter. You might consider having students begin with a brief writing describing an incident or a tradition that is a part of their family experience and have them analyze in what ways this has given them new insights about themselves or about others in their family. In “My Papa’s Waltz” an adult son looks at his connections with his father and mother, focusing on remembered (and often painful) scenes from childhood. "A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood” shows a daughter’s warm memories, not only of her mother, but also of her extended family of female relatives. In contrast to these warm memories, “My Father's Life” reveals a son's painful recollection of his father's struggle with alcohol. “My Son, My Executioner" provides an intriguing view of a father's relationship to his newborn son, while both "Everyday Use" and "Who's Irish?" offer thoughtful, and sometimes humorous, views of two different mothers' relationships with their adult daughters. Mothers also contemplate the complexities of their roles in their children’s lives in “I Stand Here Ironing,” “Shopping,” and “The Possessive.” The problems and misunderstandings often present in nontraditional family structures are examined in “How Far She Went.” "Oedipus Rex" and "Soul Gone Home" are plays that look at parents and children (from very different cultures and times) struggling with questions of identity and changing family dynamics. And characters in “I Stand Here Ironing," “Shopping,” and "Who's Irish?" face issues of growth and independence as the child develops a life apart from the parent (or the parent develops a life apart from the child). “I Stand Here Ironing” and “How Far She Went” both provide rich opportunities for looking at the impact of economic circumstances and societal pressures on relationships within the family