1a. What is the reason for Aunt Georgiana's visit to Boston?
2a. What jobs did the narrator perform for his aunt and uncle on their farm?
3a. What pleasure does the narrator plan for his aunt?
4a. Identify Aunt Georgiana's life experiences with music.
5a. Which setting, rural Nebraska or cosmopolitan Boston, is described more effectively? Give details to support your answer.
1b. Why does the name "Aunt Georgiana" open before the narrator "a gulf of recollection so wide and deep"? What facts emphasize the hardship of Aunt Georgiana's life on the Nebraska frontier?
2b. What actions on the part of Aunt Georgiana emphasize that the narrator owes to her "most of the good" that came his way in boyhood?
3b. Why doesn't Aunt Georgiana want to leave the concert hall?
4b. Considering the types of experiences Aunt Georgiana has had, what kind of relationship between music and the human soul does Cather describe in this story? What evidence in the selection supports your conclusion?
5b. Describe a time you had to give up something you loved, and explain what that loss meant to you.
Narrator and Point of View.In what ways does the narrator misjudge or underestimate his aunt? How does this affect the first-person point of view of the narrator? Is Clark a reliable narrator?
Simile. Complete the chart below. On the left, list the similes you find in the story. On the right, explain the comparisons. One example has been done for you.
1. Imagine that you are Aunt Georgiana. Write a letter to your nephew, Clark, thanking him for taking you to the Wagner matinee, explaining what the concert experience has meant to you.
2. Imagine that you are Clark's uncle. Write a journal entry dating back to when you founded your homestead. Talk about the house you built, how you measured the land, and the work you do each day.
3. Aunt Georgiana warned her nephew when he was a boy, "Don't love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you." Write a monologue in which Aunt Georgiana finishes her thought by sharing her own experience.
Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers. Rewrite each of the following sentences, correcting the dangling or misplaced modifiers.
1. Carefully folded in half, he removed the important letter from the envelope.
2. The young woman moved to the silent and faraway plains who wished to avoid her family's reproach.
3. To keep from feeling homesick, the cow herd occupied most of the young boy's time.
4. Before moving to the Nebraska frontier, Boston had been Georgiana's home while studying music at the conservatory.
5. Having left her music career behind, he understood why she seldom talked to him about music.
Base Words and Suffixes. Rewrite the following words, bracketing the base word once and starring (*) suffix. Next, look up each suffix in a dictionary and write two additional words that end with the same suffix.
1. reverential
2. mythology
3. martyrdom
4. glistening
5. immobility
Researching Setting on the Internet. Research Red Cloud, Nebraska, on the Internet. One site that you will find useful is http://willacather.org. Record your findings in the Research Log below.
Notes on Red Willow, Nebraska:
Sources Used:
