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About This Passage
Burnett pivots from Mary's long catalogue of possessions in India to what she has never possessed — an animal she could love. The sentence names, almost shyly, the novel's first positive feeling inside Mary: a 'slight interest' that the narrator upgrades to 'the dawning of a healthy sentiment.' Notice the quiet diagnostic voice — Burnett is tracking moral development the way a doctor tracks a pulse.
Mary had never possessed an animal pet of her own and had always thought she should like one. So she began to feel a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one b...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 4 in five to seven sentences. Track Mary's first morning at Misselthwaite — the tapestry room, Martha's Yorkshire speech, the walled gardens, Ben Weatherstaff, and the robin — and notice where Mary's feelings about herself begin to shift.
Discussion Questions
- Martha tells Mary, 'It'll do thee good to wait on thysen a bit.' Based on everything Martha says about her own mother and her eleven brothers and sisters at Misselthwaite, what theory of character formation does Martha hold, and how does it differ from the one Mary was raised under in India?
- When Ben Weatherstaff tells Mary, 'Tha' an' me are a good bit alike. We was wove out of th' same cloth,' Mary 'felt uncomfortable.' Why is being compared to an old Yorkshire gardener more disturbing to Mary than being scolded, and what does her discomfort reveal about the self-image she still carries from India?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Owned or had as a belonging; held something as one's own property or attribute.
Item 2
Small in degree or amount; not very strong, serious, or noticeable.
Item 3
A feeling or attitude toward something, especially one shaped by emotion rather than pure reason.
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Critical Thinking
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