Inferences in Literature
Read the following passages from The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and answer the questions about what you can infer from each excerpt:
“I never believed in Santa Claus. None of us kids did. Mom and Dad refused to let us. They couldn’t afford expensive presents, and they didn’t want us to think we weren’t as good as other kids…So they told us all about how other kids were deceived by their parents…” (39).
What can you infer about the narrator’s parents? ______
______
Which part of the text led you to infer this? ______
______
“When she turned seven that year, I told Brian and Lori that she needed a special birthday celebration. We know Mom and Dad wouldn’t get her presents, so we saved for months, went to the Dollar General Store, and bought her a toy set of kitchen appliances that were pretty realistic…We figured when she was playing, she could at least pretend to have clean clothes and regular meals” (206).
What can you infer about this family and their relationships? ______
______
Which part of the text led you to infer this? ______
______
“We were always doing the skedaddle, usually in the middle of the night. I sometimes heard Mom and Dad discussing the people who were after us. Dad called them henchmen, bloodsuckers, and the gestapo” (19).
What can you infer that the “skedaddle” that the narrator and her family do is?______
Why do they probably do this? ______
Why do they do this at night? ______
What diction, or word choice, does the narrator’s father use to describe the individuals that are after his family? ______
______
What does this diction demonstrate? ______
______
For each of the following Aesop’s Fables, summarize the fable in one sentence, give the story a title based on what you think the main idea was, and then write what you can infer is the message that that authors wanted to teach from the fable.
A miser sold all that he had and bought a fist-sized lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at it daily. One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the miser’s hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the precious lump, and stole it quickly. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and make very loud lamentations, cursing the fates for his lot. A neighbor of very modest means, but of major wit, seeing his grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray, do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that your gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for, when the gold was there, you treated it like a stone, and now, a stone is what it is."
Summarize the fable in one sentence: ______
______
Give this story a title based on what you can infer is the main idea: ______
What can you infer is the moral lesson of this story? ______
______
A MAN had a donkey, and a Maltese Lapdog, a very great beauty. The donkey was left in a stable and had plenty of oats and hay to eat, just as any other donkey would. The Lapdog knew many tricks and was a great favorite with his master, who often fondled him and seldom went out to dine without bringing him home some tidbit to eat. The donkey, on the contrary, had much work to do in grinding the corn-mill and in carrying wood from the forest or burdens from the farm. He often lamented his own hard fate and contrasted it with the luxury and idleness of the Lapdog, till at last one day he broke his cords and halter, and galloped into his master's house, kicking up his heels without measure, and frisking and fawning as well as he could. He next tried to jump about his master as he had seen the Lapdog do, but he broke the table and smashed all the dishes upon it to atoms. He then attempted to lick his master, and jumped upon his back. The servants, hearing the strange hubbub and perceiving the danger of their master, quickly relieved him, and drove out the donkey to his stable with kicks and clubs and cuffs. The donkey, as he returned to his stall, beaten nearly to death, thus lamented: "I have brought it all on myself! Why could I not have been content to labor with my friends, and not wish to be idle all day like that useless little lapdog!"
Summarize the fable in one sentence: ______
______
Give this story a title based on what you can infer is the main idea: ______
What can you infer is the moral lesson of this story? ______
______