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Copywork
About This Passage
Baby Lincoln, the silent dissenter of two books, finally speaks her own joy in a single sentence. She borrows her sister's favorite scolding word ('folly') and redeems it into a word for delight. The reversal is the chapter's hinge — and one of the quietest acts of word-reclamation in children's literature.
'What folly! What fun! What adventure!' Baby Lincoln cried.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Give a concise summary, then identify the most important moment.
Discussion Questions
- Baby Lincoln, the silent dissenter of two books, finally takes an adventure. Augustine in Confessions Book VIII argues that conversion is sudden but prepared by long interior longing. Is Baby's adventure an Augustinian conversion in miniature?
- Baby borrows Eugenia's scolding word 'folly' and uses it as a word for joy. The redemption of a negative word is one of the most ancient rhetorical moves in religious and political literature. Where else have you seen the technique deployed?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
the act of taking back a word once used negatively and giving it positive meaning
Item 2
the literary moment when a familiar pattern breaks
Item 3
a sudden interior change of orientation
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Critical Thinking
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