study guide

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Name:
Date:
Period:
To Da-duh, in Memoriam
By: Paule Marshall
Previewing Texts
1. Preview the text by looking at the pictures and reading the captions. What do
you predict this story will be about?
2. Fill out the first two boxes of the K-W- L Chart below. Now that you’ve previewed the
text, write down what you know about the topic in Box #1. Write down what you want
to find out in Box #2. When you finish reading the story, write what you’ve learned or
discovered in Box#3.
What I KNOW now
Box #1
What I WANT to find out
Box #2
What I LEARNED
Box #3
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2. 2
Pre-reading Vocabulary
Directions: Write the definition next to each of the following words. Next, write a
sentence that properly uses each word in context.
1. Unrelenting: not letting up or weakening
2. Formidable:
3. Reproved:
4. Truculent:
5. Decrepit:
6. Admonished:
7. Perennial:

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8. Austere:
9. Protracted:
10. Menacing:
Questions for Thought
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Be sure to
proofread your answers and be prepared to share.
1. Judging from the first sentence, how do you know that this story takes place in
the past?
2. What is the setting of the story?
3. Describe what the old woman is like. How does the narrator’s mother respond to
seeing the old woman? What can the reader infer?

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4. How does Da-duh address the narrator’s mother? What does it mean when the
narrator says that her mother “had suddenly been reduced to [the narrator’s]
status?” What can be inferred?
5. What types of people do Da-duh prefer? What can the reader infer about her
character?
6. How does Da-duh respond when she first meets the narrator? What might this
foreshadow?
7. How do the “St. Andrews people” regard the narrator and her family when they
first meet? What can you infer about them?
8. How does Da-duh respond to the “St. Andrews people?”
9. Why does Da-duh grip the narrator’s hand tightly? What do we discover about
Da-duh? How might this impact the reader’s understanding of Da-duh?

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10. How does the narrator regard the cane field?
11. Why do you suppose Da-duh repeatedly says that she doubts there is, “anything
like these in New York” to the narrator when they are touring the trees?
12. Based on what we have read so far, how do you suppose Da-duh feels about New
York? Use evidence from the text to support your claim.
13. Why is the narrator so dramatic when she describes snow to Da-duh? What is
the conflict among these two characters?
14. What is Da-duh’s great fear?
15. Why is Da-duh so shocked that the narrator “beat up a white girl”?
16. Why does Da-duh take the narrator to see the royal palm?

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17. Why does Da-duh become angry when the narrator describes the Empire State
Building? What can you infer about Da-duh from her reaction?
18. How does the narrator feel after she is “triumphant” concerning her
description of the Empire State Building?
19. Why does the narrator go to live alone? Why does she feel like she was one
“doing penance”?
Literary Focus
Directions: Answer the following questions about the following literary terms.
1. What is indirect characterization? How does the author employ indirect
characterization in this story?
2. What type of narration does the author use? How does this point of view
enhance the story?

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Critical Thinking
Directions: In the end, we discover that Da-duh does not live to see the post card
of the Empire State Building. How do you think she would have reacted? Do you
think that she would have gotten even more disturbed or do you think that she
would have come to accept the New York culture? Provide evidence to support your
claim.