Broken Chain by Gary Soto - Tredyffrin/Easttown School ...

1 4 Collection 1 / Telling StoriesPart 1 LITERARY FOCUS: CONFLICTP lotis a series of related events that take place in a story. Through the plot we learn what happens to a story s characters. Most maincharacters in stories grapple with one or more conflicts as the actionunfolds. Conflictis a character s struggle to get what he or she external conflictoccurs when a character struggles against outsideforces. An internal conflictoccurs when a struggle takes place within a character s own mind. As the plot of a story unfolds, the characteracts to resolve the conflicts. Here are some examples of external andinternal conflicts:Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights Chain by Gary SotoLiterary SkillsSummarize astory s thehistory SKILLS: SUMMARIZING A PLOTWhen you summarize a plot,you retell the main events in a a plot helps you clarify what s happened to whom andwhen it happened. As you read Broken Chain , look for Summarizenotes in the margins.

2 Then, use your own words to explain what hastaken ConflictA camper goes on a hike, losesher compass, and can t find herway friends in a spelling beecompete for the grand office worker gets locked ina supply ConflictAn athlete can t decide whetherto try out for the swim team orfor the soccer who once nearlydrowned has to overcome afear of the young actor experiencesstage Chain 5apparent( per nt) adj. was proud that the muscles on hisstomach were (sul n) adj.:grumpy; became sullen when the girls didn t showup for the (im puls ) n. regretted his impulse to clean his bike (ri tr vd ) v.:got retrieved the Chain he had thrown ( m rjd ) v.:came emerged from behind the hedge to meet SELECTION VOCABULARYB efore you read Broken Chain , preview these words from the by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights WORD MEANINGS: LATIN ROOTSA long time ago ancient Romans conquered much of Europe, NorthAfrica, and the Middle East.

3 As a result, their language, Latin, isreflected in many modern-day languages of those places. About 60 percent of the English language, for example, can be traced to Latin. Here are some examples, taken from the Vocabulary words above (the abbreviation Lstands for Latin ).Pause at the Word Study notes as you read Broken Chain to learnabout the Latin origins of more MeaningL apparereL solusL impellereL e out + mergere to appear alone to drive to immerse Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights 1 / Telling StoriesPart 1 Gary Soto1. Aztec:member of an American Indian people of what is now sat on the porch trying to push his crooked teethto where he thought they belonged. He hated the way helooked. Last week he did fifty sit-ups a day, thinking that hewould burn those already apparentripples on his stomachto even deeper ripples, dark ones, so when he went swim-ming at the canal next summer, girls in cut-offs wouldnotice. And the guys would think he was tough, someonewho could take a punch and give it back.

4 He wanted cuts like those he had seen on a calendar of an Aztec1warriorstanding on a pyramid with a woman in his arms. (Evenshe had cuts he could see beneath her thin dress.) The cal-endar hung above the cash register at La Plaza. Orsua, theowner, said Alfonso could have the calendar at the end ofthe year if the waitress, Yolanda, didn t take it studied the magazine pictures of rock stars fora hairstyle. He liked the way Prince looked and the bassplayer from Los Lobos. Alfonso thought he would look coolwith his hair razored into a V in the back and streaked pur-ple. But he knew his mother wouldn t go for it. And his10 Circle the name of the character introduced in thefirst paragraph. Underlinetwo things he is doing to tryto change the way he doesn t Alfonso dare tocolor his hair (lines 15 21)? Broken Chain from Baseball in April andOther Stories by Gary Soto. Copyright 1990by Gary Soto. Reproduced by permission ofHarcourt, ( per nt) adj.

5 :visible; easily seen; obvious. Michael Newman/Photo Edit, , who was puro Mexicano, would sit in his chair afterwork,sullenas a toad, and call him sissy. Alfonso didn t dare color his hair. But one day he hadhad it butched on the top, like in the magazines. His fatherhad come home that evening from a softball game, happythat his team had drilled four homers in a thirteen-to-fivebashing of Color Tile. He d swaggered into the living roombut had stopped cold when he saw Alfonso and asked, notjoking but with real concern, Did you hurt your head atschool? Qu pas ? 2 Alfonso had pretended not to hear his father and hadgone to his room, where he studied his hair from all anglesin the mirror. He liked what he saw until he smiled andrealized for the first time that his teeth were crooked, like a pile of wrecked cars. He grew depressed and turned awayfrom the mirror. He sat on his bed and leafed through therock magazine until he came to the rock star with thebutched top.

6 His mouth was closed, but Alfonso was surehis teeth weren t didn t want to be the handsomest kid at School ,but he was determined to be better looking than next day he spent his lawn-mowing money on a newshirt and, with a pocketknife, scooped the moons of dirtfrom under his spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herdhis teeth into place with his thumb. He asked his mother ifhe could have braces, like Frankie Molina, her godson, buthe asked at the wrong time. She was at the kitchen tablelicking the envelope to the house payment. She glared up at him. Do you think money grows on trees? His mother clipped coupons from magazines andnewspapers, kept a vegetable garden in the summer, and20304050 Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights Chain 72. Qu pas ? (k p s ): Spanish for What happened? Re-read lines 44 55. Based onthese details, what inferencecan you make about thefamily s financial situation?sullen(sul n) adj.

7 :grumpy; do you learn aboutAlfonso s father in lines22 29?shopped at Penney s and K-Mart. Their family ate a lot offrijoles,3which was OK because nothing else tasted so good,though one time Alfonso had had Chinese pot stickers4andthought they were the next best food in the didn t ask his mother for braces again, even whenshe was in a better mood. He decided to fix his teeth bypushing on them with his thumbs. After breakfast thatSaturday he went to his room, closed the door quietly,turned the radio on, and pushed for three hours pushed for ten minutes, rested for five, and everyhalf hour, during a radio commercial, checked to see if hissmile had improved. It hadn he grew bored and went outside with an old gym sock to wipe down his bike, a ten-speed fromMontgomery Ward. His thumbs were tired and wrinkledand pink, the way they got when he stayed in the bathtubtoo s older brother, Ernie, rode up on hisMontgomery Ward bicycle looking depressed.

8 He parked hisbike against the peach tree and sat on the back steps, keep-ing his head down and stepping on ants that came too knew better than to say anything when Ernielooked mad. He turned his bike over, balancing it on thehandlebars and seat, and flossed the spokes with the he was finished, he pressed a knuckle to his teethuntil they groaned and said, Ah, man. Alfonso waited a few minutes before asking, What s thematter? He pretended not to be too interested. He picked upa wad of steel wool and continued cleaning the by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights 1 / Telling StoriesPart 13. frijoles(fr kh l s): Spanish for beans. 4. pot stickers n. at line 68. List threeimportant things you velearned about Alfonso so far. What main idea aboutAlfonso s characterdo thesedetails add up to? State that main idea in a (d prest ), in line70, means gloomy; sad. Itcomes from the Latin rootsde ,meaning down, andpremere,meaning to press.

9 HR2 PSE_G8_P1C1_002-045_ .qxd 4/21/04 2:40 PM Page 8 Ernie hesitated, not sure if Alfonso would laugh. But it came out. Those girls didn t show up. And you betternot laugh. What girls? Then Alfonso remembered his brother bragging abouthow he and Frostie met two girls from Kings Canyon JuniorHigh last week on Halloween night. They were dressed asGypsies, the costume for all poor Chicanas5 they just had toborrow scarves and gaudy red lipstick from their walked over to his brother. He compared theirtwo bikes: His gleamed like a handful of dimes, whileErnie s looked dirty. They said we were supposed to wait at the corner. Butthey didn t show up. Me and Frostie waited and were playing games with us. Alfonso thought that was a pretty dirty trick but sortof funny too. He would have to try that someday. Were they cute? Alfonso asked. I guess so. Do you think you could recognize them? If they were wearing red lipstick, maybe. Alfonso sat with his brother in silence, both of themsmearing ants with their floppy high tops.

10 Girls could sureact weird, especially the ones you meet on that day, Alfonso sat on the porch pressing on histeeth. Press, relax; press, relax. His portable radio was on,but not loud enough to make Mr. Rojas come down thesteps and wave his cane at s father drove up. Alfonso could tell by the wayhe sat in his truck, a Datsun with a different-colored frontfender, that his team had lost their softball game. Alfonso got90100110 Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights Chain 95. Chicanas( i k n z): Mexican American girls and abuelitas( bw l t s) n.:in Spanish, an affectionate term for grandmothers, like grandmasin lines 69 what has happened in the story so the porch in a hurry because he knew his father would bein a bad mood. He went to the back yard, where he unlockedhis bike, sat on it with the kickstand down, and pressed onhis teeth. He punched himself in the stomach, and growled, Cuts. Then he patted his butch and whispered, Fresh.