Libertyby Julia Alvarez

Introducing the Selection

Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

Reading Focus: Analyzing Details

Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer

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Liberty Introducing the Selection

Why might a person or a family need to escape from their homeland?

Click on the title to start the video.

Liberty Introducing the Selection

Liberty Introducing the Selection

When a family gets a new dog, the playful puppy creates tension. The narrator adores the puppy, but it annoys her mother.

Still, a bratty puppy is nothing compared to the big change the narrator and her family will soon experience.

Liberty Introducing the Selection

Where is the narrator going?

And why must she leave Liberty behind?

When the narrator is forced to abandon her home late one night, she is devastated to learn that she can’t take the puppy, Liberty, with her.

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A story’s setting is more than a place.

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

Social and historical conditions also form part of a story’s setting.

A setting’s social and historical conditions may affect characters’ attitudes about how people should live, dress, eat, and behave. Those attitudes may lead characters to

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

• think certain thoughts, and

• hold certain beliefs,

• act in certain ways.

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

Sometimes a story’s characters may struggle against the societal expectations revealed in the setting, igniting conflicts for those characters.

As was the case for most young women in her town, Erin was expected to join the tennis team. Instead, she fought to become the first woman on her high school’s football team.

In the following passage, what social and historical conditions are revealed by the setting?

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

Grace pressed her hands on the boardroom table and braced herself. She was the only woman in the room.

A portrait of the company’s first president seemed to frown at her. Some of the men seated at the table rolled their eyes, while others doodled on their notepads.

Grace cleared her throat and began her presentation. I’ll prove them wrong, she thought. I’m a mother and a professional.

Grace pressed her hands on the boardroom table and braced herself. She was the only woman in the room.

A portrait of the company’s first president seemed to frown at her. Some of the men seated at the table rolled their eyes, while others doodled on their notepads.

Grace cleared her throat and began her presentation. I’ll prove them wrong, she thought. I’m a mother and a professional.

The setting hints that social conditions do not yet support women in the business world.

Uninterested men sit at a table near a frowning man’s portrait: They may consider women like Grace unimportant or unwelcome.

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

What conflicts might the setting create for Grace?

• She might struggle to overcome biases against her.

• She might fight temptations to back down and quit.

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

Read, then listen to, the following passage from “Liberty.”

The American consul wanted to thank us for all we’d done for him since he’d been assigned to our country. “If he wanted to thank us, he’d give us our visas,” Mami grumbled. For a while now, my parents had been talking about going to the United States so Papi could return to school.

What can you tell about the setting’s social and historical conditions? How does the setting spark conflict?

Liberty Literary Focus: Setting and Conflict

People sometimes take pictures or make videos to help them remember special places.

As you read, make a list of the things about the narrator’s home that she might want to remember.

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The details a writer uses in a story can tell you many things.

Liberty Reading Focus: Analyzing Details

Details about time and place help create setting.

Outside in San Francisco, CA, at night

The details a writer uses in a story can tell you many things.

Liberty Reading Focus: Analyzing Details

Details about a character’s thoughts or feelings

help you understand conflict.

The doctor has struggled against his fear of giving bad news.

The details a writer uses in a story can tell you many things. Read this passage from “Liberty.”

Liberty Reading Focus: Analyzing Details

The image of the two men in mirror glasses flashed through my head. So as not to think about them, I put my arm around Liberty and buried my face in his neck.

What details does the author use to tell you how the narrator feels?

Into Action: Use a chart to record and analyze details in “Liberty.”

Liberty Reading Focus: Analyzing Details

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Into Action: Details

Detail What It Tells Me

Papi and Mami look scared when talking about leaving their country.

The situation is dangerous; they are worried about what might happen.

Find It in Your Reading

Liberty Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer

In “Liberty,” Alvarez uses her powers of description to bring the narrator’s dog to life. Read, then listen, to this passage from “Liberty.”

How would you describe the dog, Liberty? What details in the passage led you to your description?

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He ate all of Mami’s orchids, and that little hyperactive baton of a tail knocked things off the low coffee table whenever Liberty climbed on the couch to leave his footprints in among the flower prints. He tore up Mami’s garden looking for buried treasure. Mami screamed at Liberty and stamped her foot. “Perro sin verguenza!” But Liberty just barked back at her.

Vocabulary

Liberty Vocabulary

elect v.: choose as a course of action.

admonitions n.: scoldings; warnings.

impression n.: idea; notion.

distracted adj.: not able to concentrate; unfocused.

inconsolable adj.: unable to be comforted; brokenhearted.

resort v.: turn to something when in need.

LibertyVocabulary

The word elect is found in the word election.

An election allows people to choose the candidate they want to put in office.

Sometimes, people vote on a particular question, electing a specific course of action.

What kind of elections take place at school?

After talking to her guidance counselor, Tanya elected to apply to college.

LibertyVocabulary

Which did Tanya’s guidance counselor likely say?

a. “You’re really not prepared for college.”

b. “You should consider taking some time off before applying to college.”

c. “You’ve worked very hard. You should apply to several schools.”

After talking to her guidance counselor, Tanya elected to apply to college.

LibertyVocabulary

Which did Tanya’s guidance counselor likely say?

a. “You’re really not prepared for college.”

b. “You should consider taking some time off before applying to college.”

c. “You’ve worked very hard. You should apply to several schools.”

LibertyVocabulary

When your friend is distracted, you may have trouble getting her attention because she is not focusing on you.

How do you get your friend’s attention when she’s distracted?

Which of the following students appears to be most distracted during class?

LibertyVocabulary

a.

b.

c.

Which of the following students appears to be most distracted during class?

LibertyVocabulary

b.

LibertyVocabulary

Many parents are known for their admonitions—their scoldings or warnings—which they often may

repeat.

“It’s important to earn good grades so you can be successful in the future.”

“Make sure you call me as soon as you get to the game.”

“Just because your friends do something doesn’t mean you should.”

LibertyVocabulary

The basketball coach’s admonition to her players

was to pay attention and learn the plays.

a. They listened carefully.

b. They chatted noisily.

c. They practiced hard.

What did her players probably do to deserve the admonition?

LibertyVocabulary

The basketball coach’s admonition to her players

was to pay attention and learn the plays.

What did her players probably do to deserve the admonition?

a. They listened carefully.

b. They chatted noisily.

c. They practiced hard.

LibertyVocabulary

When you get an impression of someone, you get

an idea of what he or she is like.

First impressions, however, don’t always show all sides of a person.

LibertyVocabulary

Marcus got the impression that his friends were avoiding him. What happened that gave Marcus this idea?

a. They didn’t answer his phone calls.

b. They smiled as he approached their lockers.

c. They invited him to play football.

LibertyVocabulary

Marcus got the impression that his friends were avoiding him. What happened that gave Marcus this idea?

a. They didn’t answer his phone calls.

b. They smiled as he approached their lockers.

c. They invited him to play football.

LibertyVocabulary

No matter what his friends said to try to comfort him, Frank was inconsolable after losing his eight-page research paper.

He knew he’d have to start over from the beginning.

How is Frank feeling right now?

LibertyVocabulary

How did Maria do on the test?

a. She scored higher than she’d hoped.

b. She scored lower than she’d expected.

c. She scored as well as she’d planned.

Despite her mother’s attempts to make her feel better, Maria was inconsolable after receiving her test results.

LibertyVocabulary

Despite her mother’s attempts to make her feel better, Maria was inconsolable after receiving her test results.

How did Maria do on the test?

a. She scored higher than she’d hoped.

b. She scored lower than she’d expected.

c. She scored as well as she’d planned.

LibertyVocabulary

Still, her mother didn’t give in.

Why might Susan have felt the need to turn to pouting to get what she wanted?

Because she wasn’t getting what she wanted, Susan resorted to pouting.

LibertyVocabulary

When Grandma realized that the restaurant was out of salad, she resorted to ordering chicken.

Grandma probably

a. was a little disappointed.

b. felt relieved.

c. didn’t care either way.

LibertyVocabulary

When Grandma realized that the restaurant was out of salad, she resorted to ordering chicken.

Grandma probably

a. was a little disappointed.

b. felt relieved.

c. didn’t care either way.

The End