The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida

Transcription

The Bracelet
by Yoshiko Uchida
LITERARY FOCUS: CHARACTER AND POINT OF VIEW
The story you are about to read is told from the first-person point of
view. The main character, Ruri, is also the narrator, who speaks as “I.”
You learn only what Ruri tells you. As she tells her story, Ruri reveals
something about her personality. She also reveals her inner thoughts
and feelings.
READING SKILLS: MAKING PREDICTIONS
Part of the fun of reading is making predictions—guessing what will
happen next. You base your guesses on clues that the writer gives you
and on what you know from your own experiences. Since predictions
are guesses, some of your predictions will not prove to be correct.
When this happens, simply adjust your predictions, and read on.
To keep track of your predictions, use a chart like the one below. You can
copy the chart and make notes as you read. Then, after you have read
My Prediction
My Adjusted
Prediction
Literary Skills
Understand
character and
point of view.
Reading Skills
Make
predictions.
Vocabulary
Skills
Clarify word
meanings by
recognizing
word roots.
60
Part 1
Collection 2 / Characters: The People You’ll Meet
What Actually
Happened
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
the story, evaluate your predictions. Were you right most of the time?
PREVIEW SELECTION VOCABULARY
The following words are from “The Bracelet.” Get to know these
words before you read the story.
evacuated (≤·vak√yº·†t≈id) v.: removed
aliens (†l√y¥nz) n.: foreigners.
from an area.
The U.S. government treated Japanese
Americans as if they were enemy aliens.
During the war, Japanese Americans were
evacuated from the West Coast. Their removal
had tragic consequences.
forsaken (fôr·s†√k¥n) adj.: abandoned;
deserted.
interned (in·t∞rnd√) v.: imprisoned or
The garden looked as forsaken as Ruri felt when
she had to leave home.
confined, especially during a war.
Ruri’s father was interned in a prisoner-of-war
camp.
CLARIFYING WORD MEANINGS: THE ROOTS OF ENGLISH
Do you ever wonder where a word comes from? Many words in
English come from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. Some words
come from Old English, the language spoken in England between
about the 400s and about 1066. Following is a chart that pairs Latin
and Old English words with vocabulary words that are listed above.
Word Origin and Meaning
Vocabulary Word
Old English: forsacan, “to oppose”
forsaken
Latin: alienus, “other”
aliens
Latin: internus, “inward”
interned
Latin: vacuare, “to make empty”
evacuated
The Bracelet
61
Yoshiko Uchida
BACKGROUND: Literature and Social Studies
Shortly after the United States entered World War II against Japan, more than 110,000
people of Japanese ancestry who were living in the United States were forced to
move to guarded camps. Most were American citizens who had been born here
and had done nothing wrong. But the U.S. government feared that they might give
support to Japan. When they were finally allowed to leave the camps, after the war,
many Japanese Americans found that other people had taken over their homes and
businesses. In 1989, the U.S. government issued a formal apology to Japanese
Americans for the injustice that had been done to them.
“Mama, is it time to go?”
and I wiped them away with the back of my hand. I didn’t
want my older sister to see me crying.
“It’s almost time, Ruri,” my mother said gently. Her
face was filled with a kind of sadness I had never seen
before.
I looked around at my empty room. The clothes that
Mama always told me to hang up in the closet, the junk
10
piled on my dresser, the old rag doll I could never bear to
part with—they were all gone. There was nothing left in my
room, and there was nothing left in the rest of the house.
The rugs and furniture were gone, the pictures and drapes
were down, and the closets and cupboards were empty. The
“The Bracelet” by Yoshiko Uchida from The
Scribner Anthology for Young People, edited
by Anne Diven. Copyright © 1976 by Yoshiko
Uchida. Reproduced by permission of
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an
imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s
Publishing Division.
62
Part 1
house was like a gift box after the nice thing inside was
gone; just a lot of nothingness.
I hadn’t planned to cry, but the tears came suddenly,
Pause at line 7. Who is this
story’s narrator? Circle the
clues in lines 1–6 that reveal
this story has a first-person
narrator.
Chang Park/HRW Illustration.
Notes
It was almost time to leave our home, but we weren’t
moving to a nicer house or to a new town. It was April 21,
1942. The United States and Japan were at war, and every
20
Japanese person on the West Coast was being evacuated by
the government to a concentration camp. Mama, my sister
Keiko, and I were being sent from our home, and out of
Berkeley, and eventually out of California.
The doorbell rang, and I ran to answer it before my
sister could. I thought maybe by some miracle a messenger
from the government might be standing there, tall and
proper and buttoned into a uniform, come to tell us it was
all a terrible mistake, that we wouldn’t have to leave after all.
Or maybe the messenger would have a telegram from Papa,
30
who was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Montana
because he had worked for a Japanese business firm.
evacuated (≤·vak√yº·†t≈id) v.:
removed from an area.
interned (in·t∞rnd√) v.: imprisoned or confined, especially
during a war.
The Bracelet
63
The FBI had come to pick up Papa and hundreds of
other Japanese community leaders on the very day that
Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor. The government
aliens (†l√y¥nz) n.: foreigners.
thought they were dangerous enemy aliens. If it weren’t
so sad, it would have been funny. Papa could no more be
dangerous than the mayor of our city, and he was every bit
Re-read lines 19–38. Based
on the details in these lines,
describe the way Japanese
Americans were treated
during World War II.
as loyal to the United States. He had lived here since 1917.
When I opened the door, it wasn’t a messenger from
40
anywhere. It was my best friend, Laurie Madison, from next
door. She was holding a package wrapped up like a birthday
present, but she wasn’t wearing her party dress, and her face
drooped like a wilted tulip.
“Hi,” she said. “I came to say goodbye.”
She thrust the present at me and told me it was something to take to camp. “It’s a bracelet,” she said before I
could open the package. “Put it on so you won’t have to
pack it.” She knew I didn’t have one inch of space left in
my suitcase. We had been instructed to take only what
50
we could carry into camp, and Mama had told us that
we could each take only two suitcases.
Chang Park / HRW Illustration.
Re-read lines 39–51. What
kind of relationship do Ruri
and Laurie have? How can
you tell?
64
Part 1
Pause at line 51. Underline
the words that tell you what
Laurie gives Ruri.
“Then how are we ever going to pack the dishes and
blankets and sheets they’ve told us to bring with us?”
Keiko worried.
“I don’t really know,” Mama said, and she simply began
packing those big impossible things into an enormous duffel
What does a heart usually
symbolize, or stand for? Why
does Ruri say she will never
take the bracelet off (lines
64–65)?
bag—along with umbrellas, boots, a kettle, hot plate, and
flashlight.
“Who’s going to carry that huge sack?” I asked.
60
But Mama didn’t worry about things like that.
“Someone will help us,” she said. “Don’t worry.” So I didn’t.
Laurie wanted me to open her package and put on the
bracelet before she left. It was a thin gold chain with a heart
dangling on it. She helped me put it on, and I told her I’d
never take it off, ever.
“Well, goodbye then,” Laurie said awkwardly. “Come
home soon.”
“I will,” I said, although I didn’t know if I would ever
get back to Berkeley again.
70
I watched Laurie go down the block, her long blond
pigtails bouncing as she walked. I wondered who would be
sitting in my desk at Lincoln Junior High now that I was
gone. Laurie kept turning and waving, even walking back-
Why does Ruri slam the door
shut after Laurie leaves (lines
74–75)?
ward for a while, until she got to the corner. I didn’t want
to watch anymore, and I slammed the door shut.
The next time the doorbell rang, it was Mrs. Simpson,
our other neighbor. She was going to drive us to the
Congregational Church, which was the Civil Control
Station where all the Japanese of Berkeley were supposed
80
to report.
It was time to go. “Come on, Ruri. Get your things,”
my sister called to me.
It was a warm day, but I put on a sweater and my coat
so I wouldn’t have to carry them, and I picked up my two
The Bracelet
65
suitcases. Each one had a tag with my name and our family
number on it. Every Japanese family had to register and get
a number. We were Family Number 13453.
Pause at line 87. Retell what
has happened to Ruri and
her family up to this point in
the story.
Mama was taking one last look around our house. She
was going from room to room, as though she were trying
90
to take a mental picture of the house she had lived in for
fifteen years, so she would never forget it.
I saw her take a long last look at the garden that Papa
loved. The irises beside the fish pond were just beginning to
bloom. If Papa had been home, he would have cut the first
iris blossom and brought it inside to Mama. “This one is
for you,” he would have said. And Mama would have smiled
and said, “Thank you, Papa San”° and put it in her favorite
cut-glass vase.
Based on lines 88–98, what
inference can you make
about Ruri’s parents?
But the garden looked shabby and forsaken now that
100
Papa was gone and Mama was too busy to take care of it.
It looked the way I felt, sort of empty and lonely and
abandoned.
When Mrs. Simpson took us to the Civil Control
thought I was going to lose my breakfast right in front of
everybody. There must have been over a thousand Japanese
people gathered at the church. Some were old and some
forsaken (fôr·s†√k¥n) adj.:
abandoned; deserted.
were young. Some were talking and laughing, and some
were crying. I guess everybody else was scared too. No one
110
Read the boxed passage
aloud. Use a voice that
shows how scared Ruri feels.
When you read the passage
carefully, you’ll notice other
feelings too. For instance,
Ruri’s amazed to see how
many Japanese people have
gathered. See if your voice
can capture all of Ruri’s
different feelings.
knew exactly what was going to happen to us. We just knew
we were being taken to the Tanforan Racetracks, which the
army had turned into a camp for the Japanese. There were
fourteen other camps like ours along the West Coast.
What scared me most were the soldiers standing at the
doorway of the church hall. They were carrying guns with
mounted bayonets. I wondered if they thought we would
° San: Japanese term added to names to indicate respect.
66
Part 1
Station, I felt even worse. I was scared, and for a minute I
try to run away and whether they’d shoot us or come after
us with their bayonets if we did.
A long line of buses waited to take us to camp. There
120
were trucks, too, for our baggage. And Mama was right;
some men were there to help us load our duffel bag. When
Pause at line 134. Were
the Japanese Americans
evacuated because they
were disloyal or because
they were Japanese? Explain.
it was time to board the buses, I sat with Keiko, and Mama
sat behind us. The bus went down Grove Street and passed
the small Japanese food store where Mama used to order
her bean-curd cakes and pickled radish. The windows were
all boarded up, but there was a sign still hanging on the
door that read, “We are loyal Americans.”
The crazy thing about the whole evacuation was that
we were all loyal Americans. Most of us were citizens
130
because we had been born here. But our parents, who had
come from Japan, couldn’t become citizens because there
was a law that prevented any Asian from becoming a
citizen. Now everybody with a Japanese face was being
shipped off to concentration camps.
“It’s stupid,” Keiko muttered as we saw the racetrack
looming up beside the highway. “If there were any Japanese
spies around, they’d have gone back to Japan long ago.”
“I’ll say,” I agreed. My sister was in high school and she
ought to know, I thought.
140
When the bus turned into Tanforan, there were more
armed guards at the gate, and I saw barbed wire strung
around the entire grounds. I felt as though I were going
into a prison, but I hadn’t done anything wrong.
We streamed off the buses and poured into a huge
room, where doctors looked down our throats and peeled
back our eyelids to see if we had any diseases. Then we
were given our housing assignments. The man in charge
gave Mama a slip of paper. We were in Barrack 16,
Apartment 40.
The Bracelet
67
150
“Mama!” I said. “We’re going to live in an apartment!”
The only apartment I had ever seen was the one my piano
teacher lived in. It was in an enormous building in San
Pause at line 156. Do you
think Ruri’s “apartment”
will be like her piano
teacher’s? Explain.
Francisco, with an elevator and thick-carpeted hallways.
I thought how wonderful it would be to have our own
elevator. A house was all right, but an apartment seemed
elegant and special.
We walked down the racetrack, looking for Barrack 16.
Mr. Noma, a friend of Papa’s, helped us carry our bags. I
was so busy looking around I slipped and almost fell on the
160
muddy track. Army barracks had been built everywhere, all
around the racetrack and even in the center oval.
Circle the details in lines
169–173 that help you picture Apartment 40. Notice
the phrases like “on each
side of the door” that help
you know where things are
located. Draw a diagram of
the apartment below.
Mr. Noma pointed beyond the track toward the horse
stables. “I think your barrack is out there.”
He was right. We came to a long stable that had once
housed the horses of Tanforan, and we climbed up the wide
ramp. Each stall had a number painted on it, and when we
got to 40, Mr. Noma pushed open the door.
“Well, here it is,” he said, “Apartment 40.”
170
two small windows on each side of the door. Three folded
army cots were on the dust-covered floor, and one light
bulb dangled from the ceiling. That was all. This was our
apartment, and it still smelled of horses.
Mama looked at my sister and then at me. “It won’t be
so bad when we fix it up,” she began. “I’ll ask Mrs. Simpson
to send me some material for curtains. I could make some
Pause at line 178. How would
you describe the character of
the narrator’s mother?
cushions too, and . . . well . . .” She stopped. She couldn’t
think of anything more to say.
Mr. Noma said he’d go get some mattresses for us. “I’d
180
better hurry before they’re all gone.” He rushed off. I think
he wanted to leave so that he wouldn’t have to see Mama
cry. But he needn’t have run off, because Mama didn’t cry.
68
Part 1
The stall was narrow and empty and dark. There were
She just went out to borrow a broom and began sweeping
out the dust and dirt. “Will you girls set up the cots?” she
asked.
It was only after we’d put up the last cot that I noticed
my bracelet was gone. “I’ve lost Laurie’s bracelet!” I screamed.
Pause at line 188. Why does
it take so long for Ruri to
realize that her bracelet is
missing? Do you think she’ll
find it again?
“My bracelet’s gone!”
We looked all over the stall and even down the ramp.
190
I wanted to run back down the track and go over every
inch of ground we’d walked on, but it was getting dark
and Mama wouldn’t let me.
I thought of what I’d promised Laurie. I wasn’t ever
going to take the bracelet off, not even when I went to take
a shower. And now I had lost it on my very first day in
camp. I wanted to cry.
I kept looking for it all the time we were in Tanforan.
I didn’t stop looking until the day we were sent to another
Circle what Mama says in
lines 205–206. She suggests
the story’s theme, its main
idea or special message
about life. State the theme
in your own words.
camp, called Topaz, in the middle of a desert in Utah. And
200
then I gave up.
But Mama told me never mind. She said I didn’t need
a bracelet to remember Laurie, just as I didn’t need anything
to remember Papa or our home in Berkeley or all the people
and things we loved and had left behind.
“Those are things we can carry in our hearts and take
with us no matter where we are sent,” she said.
And I guess she was right. I’ve never forgotten Laurie,
even now.
Yoshiko Uchida said that she
wrote about the internment
of Japanese Americans so
that nothing like that would
ever happen in the United
States again. What seems
most unjust to you about
what happens to Ruri? Give
reasons for your answer.
The Bracelet
69
The Bracelet
Character Map
Literary Skills
Analyze
character and
point of view.
“The Bracelet” is told from the point of view of a
particular character—Ruri. During the course of the story, you learn
about Ruri’s actions and her thoughts and feelings. After you read “The
Bracelet,” fill in this Character Map with details that describe Ruri.
Details showing her thoughts:
Details revealing her actions:
70
Part 1
Details showing her emotions:
Skills Review
The Bracelet
VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION
A. Clarifying Word Meanings: Origins of English Write the word
from the Word Bank that is related to the Latin or Old English word
Word Bank
listed in the first column. Then, list any other related words you can
evacuated
think of. Some have been added for you.
interned
aliens
Latin or
Old English Word
Word Bank Word
Related Words
alienus
inalienable
internus
internal
vacuare
vacuum
forsacan
forsake
forsaken
B. Reading Comprehension Answer each question below.
1. Why does Ruri’s family have to leave their home?
2. What has happened to Ruri’s father?
3. Who is Laurie? What does she give Ruri?
4. What had Apartment 40 once been? What does it look like?
5. What important idea does Ruri learn from her mother?
Vocabulary
Skills
Clarify word
meanings by
recognizing
word roots.
The Bracelet
71
The Bracelet, page 60
Page 62
born in America; most were loyal Americans; most
were no threat to American security.
Page 68
IDENTIFY
PREDICT
The story’s narrator is Ruri. The clue that reveals this
story has a first-person narrator is the personal pronoun “I.”
Possible response: Ruri’s apartment won’t be like her
piano teacher’s because they’re being interned as a
security threat. The word apartment is probably used
to make it sound less like a prison camp.
Page 64
VISUALIZE
INTERPRET
Details that help you picture Apartment 40: “The
stall was narrow and empty and dark. There were
two small windows on each side of the door. Three
folded army cots were on the dust-covered floor, and
one light bulb dangled from the ceiling.” Diagrams
will vary.
Possible response: The government overreacted and
unfairly treated Japanese Americans who were not
dangerous.
IDENTIFY
The words that tell you what Laurie gives Ruri are
“ ‘It’s a bracelet’ ” (line 46).
INTERPRET
CONNECT
Responses will vary. Possible response: Ruri and
Laurie are best friends who care about each other
very much. When Laurie came to say goodbye, her
“face drooped like a wilted tulip” (lines 42–43). She
gave Ruri a bracelet as a goodbye gift.
Page 65
Possible response: The narrator’s mother is very
strong emotionally. She has been separated from her
husband and placed in a horse stall with her children, but she tries to sound positive to keep the girls
from becoming too upset.
Page 69
PREDICT
INFER
Possible response: A heart usually stands for love or
friendship. Ruri says that she will never take the
bracelet off because she does not want to forget
Laurie or the life she and her family are leaving.
Possible response: It takes Ruri a long time to realize
that her bracelet is gone because she has been busy
and upset by other things. Ruri probably won’t find
her bracelet because so much time has passed since
she lost it and it could be anywhere.
INFER
INTERPRET
Possible response: Ruri slammed the door shut
because she didn’t want to watch her best friend disappear down the street. She was probably about to
start crying.
Mama says, “Those are the things we can carry in
our hearts and take with us no matter where we are
sent.” Possible theme statement: Memories of good
times and love can never be taken away or lost.
EVALUATE
Page 66
Answers will vary. Some students may feel that the
most unjust thing that happened to Ruri was being
separated from her father. Others may think being
jailed and treated like a criminal was the most unjust
thing.
RETELL
Possible retelling: It is 1942 and America is at war
with Japan. Japanese Americans are viewed as
threats. Ruri’s father has already been interned, and
she and the rest of the family are packing to leave for
another internment camp. Ruri’s best friend, Laurie,
stops by with a bracelet for Ruri. Ruri vows to wear
it forever. Ruri and her family prepare to leave their
house.
INFER
Possible responses: There is a great deal of love
between Ruri’s parents; they have created a loving
home; they treat each other with love and kindness.
Page 67
CLARIFY
Possible response: Japanese Americans were evacuated because they were Japanese. Many of them were
■
Possible Answers to Skills Practice
Character Map (page 70)
Details showing her thoughts: She thinks it’s unfair
that her father is suspected of disloyalty. She
thinks it might be fun to live in an apartment like
her piano teacher’s.
Details showing her emotions: She cries when she is
forced to move. She misses her father deeply. She
is upset when she loses the bracelet.
Details revealing her actions: She is sent from her
home to a prison camp. She keeps looking for her
bracelet.
Answer Key
9
Possible Answers to Skills Review
Vocabulary and Comprehension (page 71)
A. 1. aliens; Related Word: alienate
2.
3.
4.
B. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
interned; Related Words: intern, internment
evacuated; Related Words: evacuation, vacuous
forsaken; Related Word: forsook
Ruri’s family is being sent to an internment
camp for Japanese Americans because
America is at war with Japan.
Ruri’s father has already been taken to a camp
in Montana because he worked for a Japanese
business.
Laurie is Ruri’s best friend. She gives Ruri a
bracelet.
Apartment 40 had once been a horse stall. It
is a narrow, dark stall with cots and a light
bulb.
Ruri learns that you can carry love and memories in your heart.
Two Japanese Folk Tales, page 72
Page 73
Page 75
IDENTIFY
The new problem that has come up is that “the same
snake that he’d driven away from the spider came up
and slipped inside the bundle of cotton. But Yosaku
didn’t know anything about this. So he carried the
cotton home and gave it to the weaving girl.”
IDENTIFY
“He knew how kind the spider had been to Yosaku
and he felt very sorry for the poor little spider.”
Page 76
CONNECT
The story explains why clouds are soft and white
like cotton.
READ FOR DETAILS
The old man is described as “old” (line 1) and “very
poor” (line 2). The old man says he wants “some rice
cakes to eat on New Year’s Day” (lines 7–8). The old
man “spent every day weaving big hats out of straw”
(line 3) and “would take them to the nearest town to
sell them” (lines 4–5).
Page 77
IDENTIFY
READ FOR DETAILS
“the spider . . . seemed to pause a minute and bow in
thanks toward Yosaku.”
The old man says: “My, my! Now isn’t this a pity”;
“These are only stone statues of Jizo, but even so just
think how cold they must be standing here in the
snow”; “I know what I’ll do!”; “This will be just the
thing”; “Oh, my!”; “I don’t have enough hats.”
Students should box lines 29–36. The old man’s
actions reveal that he is kind, thoughtful, and
unselfish.
INFER
Possible response: Yosaku seems to be a caring person because he saved a spider’s life.
IDENTIFY
The girl is mysterious because she knows Yosaku
needs a weaver and she weaves faster than Yosaku
thought possible.
Page 74
IDENTIFY
The girl says Yosaku must never come into the weaving room while she is at work.
IDENTIFY
The text that directly describes Yosaku’s character is
“But Yosaku was very curious” (line 26).
WORD STUDY
In this tale the spider has been transformed into a
girl.
IDENTIFY
The spider took a human form because “the spider
had been so thankful that it had wanted to do something to help Yosaku” (lines 34–35).
PREDICT
Possible response: The old woman will be upset with
him because he gave his hat away.
Page 78
READ FOR DETAILS
The old woman says: “My! That was a very kind
thing you did for the Jizo”; “It’s better to do a kind
thing like that than to have all the rice cakes in the
world. We’ll get along without any rice cakes for
New Year’s.” Her reaction tells you that she is just as
kind and generous as her husband.
PREDICT
Predictions will vary. Students may predict that the
old couple will be rewarded for their kindness with
riches.
IDENTIFY
The old man and woman find a giant rice cake on
their doorstep.
10
The Holt Reader: Teacher’s Manual
■

The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida

Transcription

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