What do you make of the alternating letter-writer/narrators? How are they related to one another? How are they different in tone (attitude), imagery, vocabulary? Compare and contrast pages 10-12 of the building crises (on the boat for him and at home for her). How do the narrators sound different in terms of their attitude? Why is hers in bold and without capital letters (this is written before texting language)? Explain and provide quotations to show the difference.

CHILDREN OF THE SEA QUESTIONS (100-150 WORDS EACH QUESTION)
1. What do you make of the alternating letter-writer/narrators? How are they related to one another? How are they different in tone (attitude), imagery, vocabulary? Compare and contrast pages 10-12 of the building crises (on the boat for him and at home for her). How do the narrators sound different in terms of their attitude? Why is hers in bold and without capital letters (this is written before texting language)? Explain and provide quotations to show the difference.
2. How do the people on the boat relate to one another, and how does the father’s fear and unwillingness to help the neighbor compare? Explain and provide evidence from the text.
3. Everyone must comment on the ending: How do you see the ending? In most epistolary works, the letters do not disappear and the illusion that is created is that we are reading letters that have remained. What does it mean that in this story, the letters have perished? And comment on the girl’s ending and the final images of the mountains that repeat from the beginning. Why the repetition?

BAG OF THE NATION (100-150 WORDS EACH QUESTION) Article is below:
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/bag-of-the-nation

Think about metaphor and irony. Clearly the grandfather’s bag is a metaphor. The bag is a recurring image in art and literature about migrants, refugees, exiles. Lately, because crossings are so precarious, even bags are luxuries for migrants who set out to cross waters (e.g. the Mediterranean) and deserts (e.g. in Arizona). Still, everyone has at least at a metaphoric bag, things they carry with them invisible and visible.

1. The first-person narrator’s showing up at the public square to gain attention is also a metaphor–clearly this is not what refugees and exiles do. What do you think this act stands for? When the narrator asks what he did to his country, what do you think he means? Is it also a metaphor? How do you know? Explain and provide evidence from the text.

2. How would you characterize the narrator’s tone? Is it ironic? Is it triumphant? Sad? Distant? Does it change from the beginning to the end, and if so, how? Explain and provide evidence from the text.

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