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Copywork
About This Passage
Two pieces of writing share this passage, and each deserves study. First, Mr. Pendanski's answer — three sentences that cancel each other: you are not looking for anything, but report what you find. The contradiction is delivered with complete confidence, and Stanley's reasonable question simply dissolves against it. Second, the close: three short sentences of free indirect style — we are inside Stanley's head without quotation marks, hearing him sentence himself. Copy the unit attending to the rhythm shift: the counselor's smooth institutional cadence, then the boy's verdict in nine words, each sentence shorter than the last. The chapter will spend its remaining pages overturning that verdict.
“What are we supposed to be looking for?” Stanley asked him. “You’re not looking for anything. You’re digging to build character. It’s just if you find anything, the Warden would like to know about ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter's braid in order — Stanley's hole from bounce to spit, Elya's story from Myra to the lullaby — then name the single sentence you would call the braid's knot: the place where the two stories most clearly speak to each other. Defend your choice with the chapter's words from both strands.
Discussion Questions
- Stanley says, 'It wasn't defective. He was defective.' By the end of the chapter, do you think the digging confirms that judgment, weakens it, or changes it into something more complicated? Use the chapter's words about specific moments from his work on the hole to explain what led you there, and why those moments count.
- Mr. Pendanski says, 'You're not looking for anything. You're digging to build character. It's just if you find anything, the Warden would like to know about it.' What tension do you hear in that explanation? Explain what the chapter suggests the camp really values, and use the detail from this scene that best supports your reading — and say why it does.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Rapid shaking that travels through an object — force coming back at you.
Item 2
A mark made by pressure — or the effect something has on a person.
Item 3
Dug up out of the ground; brought into the open.
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Critical Thinking
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