POV Review

Point of View
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
In this selection, the narrator and Mary Alice are sitting at their grandmother’s kitchen table preparing
gooseberries for cooking when a visitor arrives.
from A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories
Richard Peck
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“As you know, this is county fair week,” Mrs. Weidenbach said, “the
annual opportunity for our small community to make its mark.”
Grandma said nothing.
“As you recall,” Mrs. Weidenbach said, “my bread-and-butter pickles have
taken the blue ribbon every year since the fair recommenced after the Great
War.”
If Grandma recalled this, she showed no sign.
“But my cucumbers this year haven’t been up to snuff, not worth the brine
for pickling. How were yours?”
“Didn’t put any in,” Grandma said.
“Ah well, you were wise.” Mrs. Weidenbach’s forehead began to look
slick. It wasn’t just the heat. “Mrs. Dowdel, I’ll come clean. I don’t think I
better enter my bread-and-butter pickles this year, and I’m going to tell you
why. The depression is upon us. Times are hard.”
“They was never easy for me,” Grandma recalled.
“And quite unfairly,” Mrs. Weidenbach said, “people blame the bankers.”
“My stars,” Grandma said. “The bank forecloses1 on people’s farms and
throws them off their land, and they don’t even appreciate it.”
“Now, Mrs. Dowdel, don’t be like that.” Mrs. Weidenbach reached down
the front of her dress and plucked up a lace handkerchief. She dabbed all around
her mouth. “Mr. Weidenbach has asked me not to enter my bread-and-butter
pickles into competition at the fair this year.”
“Keep your head down till the depression blows over?”
“Something like that,” Mrs. Weidenbach murmured. “So I naturally thought
of you. After all, we’ve been neighbors these many years.”
The Weidenbachs lived at the far end of town in the only brick house.
“I said to my husband, Mr. Weidenbach, somebody must carry home a
blue ribbon to keep our town’s name in front of the public. Otherwise, those
county seat women will sweep the field. As you know, Mrs. Cowgill’s
decorative butter pats never do better than Honorable Mention.”
If Grandma knew who won what at the county fair, she showed no sign.
“But there is nobody to touch you for baking with gooseberries. Even those
of us who’ve never had a taste have heard. Word gets around.”
“Try as a person will to keep it quiet,” Grandma said.
“Gooseberries are tricky things,” Mrs. Weidenbach went on. “Now, you
take Mrs. Vottsmeier over at Bement. She wouldn’t take on a gooseberry, but
she’ll pull down a blue ribbon in the Fruit Pies and Cobblers division with her
individual cherry tarts if somebody doesn’t put a stop to her.”
take possession of a property as a result of someone's failure to keep up their payments
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Quiet followed as we listened to Grandma’s wooden spoon scraping the
sides of the stew pan. At length, she said, “I cook to eat, not to show off.”
Mrs. Weidenbach sighed. “Mrs. Dowdel, these are desperate times. Don’t
hide your light under a bushel. It is up to you to hold high the banner for our
town.”
Grandma putting herself out for the fame of the town? I thought Mrs.
Weidenbach was on the wrong track. On the other hand, Grandma liked to win.
Growing frantic, Mrs. Weidenbach let her gaze skim over Mary Alice and
me. “And a day at the fair would be a nice outing for your grandkiddies.”
“Wouldn’t cut any ice with them,” Grandma said. “They’re from Chicago
so they’ve seen everything.”
Instantly, an expression of great boredom fell over Mary Alice’s face. I
thought she might yawn. She was playing along with Grandma. I’d been
thinking a day at the fair would be a welcome change, but I just shrugged and
went on stemming gooseberries.
Grandma turned slightly from the stove. “Wouldn’t have any way to get
there if I wanted to go.”
Mrs. Weidenbach brightened. “I will personally conduct you to the fair on
prize day in my Hupmobile.” She waved a hand in benediction over us. “And
there’ll be plenty of room for your grandkiddies.”
“Oh well,” Grandma said. “If I have an extra pie and it’s not raining that
day . . .”
“Mrs. Dowdel, I knew you would stand and deliver!” Mrs. Weidenbach
clasped her hands. “And remember, even the red ribbon for second prize will
be better than nothing.”
Grandma gazed past her, seeming to count the corpses on the flypaper strip.
Mrs. Weidenbach was dismissed and soon left. We all listened to the powerful
roar as she ground her Hupmobile into gear.
Grandma’s sleeves were already turned back, or she’d be turning them back
now. She pointed at me. “Scoot uptown and bring me a twenty-five-pound sack
of sugar. Tell them to stick it on my bill. After that I want every gooseberry off
them bushes out back.” She turned on Mary Alice. “And you’re going to learn
a thing or two about pie crust.”
Excerpt from A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories © 1998 by Richard Peck. Published by Dial
Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. All rights reserved. Used with
permission of Sheldon Fogelman Agency, Inc.
1. How do you know the story is told from
the first-person point of view?
a. You know Grandma’s thoughts and
feelings.
b. The story is full of dialogue and
descriptive details.
c. You know the thoughts and feelings
of all the characters.
d. The narrator is a character within the
story.
2. If the author told the story from Mrs.
Weidenbach’s point of view, you might
understand—
a. how Grandma made her pies
b. what life was like in Chicago
c. why the bankers had to foreclose
homes
d. why Grandma hid her desire to win
3.
How would this story be different if it
were written in third-person omniscient
point of view?
a. The reader would know the thoughts
of all the characters.
b. The passage would be told by
multiple narrators instead of only
one.
c. The author would reveal more
details about the main characters’
backgrounds.
d. The author would report the details
of the story without revealing the
main characters’ emotions
4. How would this story be different if it
were written in third-person limited point
of view?
a. The story would contain less bias.
b. The narrator would be the main
character in the story.
c. The end of the passage would be
more surprising.
d. Mrs. Weidenbach would become the
narrator, and the reader would
understand her better.
5. If this story were told from a third-person
objective point of view, which of the
following selections could be included in
the passage?
a. Mary Alice and Grandma were
upset, but they were both fighting
desperately to hide that fact from
Mrs. Weidenbach.
b. Mary Alice heard Grandma hiss
under her breath after Mrs.
Weidenbach’s snide remark.
c. Grandma and Mary Alice stepped
back as Mrs. Weidenbach rushed
through the door in the kitchen.
d. Mary Alice looked up at the ceiling
while I continued stirring the stew.
EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER TO NUMBER 5:
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