“Trying to Save Piggy Sneed”
Lesson Plan by David Ambrose, Fall 2010
Literary Term:
Memoir: an autobiography
from the French word for “memory,” the goal of a memoir is to get the reader to feel the same emotions you felt while experiencing the events in your life
Vocabulary:
Vexation: the state of being annoyed, frustrated, or worried.
“With more pity than vexation, she patted my hand…” (21)
Aesthetic: pertaining to a sense of the beautiful
“Fancy answers, especially of an aesthetic nature, are not for her.” (20)
Opener: Journal
“We can always imagine a better detail than the one we can remember. The correct detail is rarely, exactly, what happened; the most truthful detail is what could have happened, or what should have.” Do you agree with Irving? Why or why not?
Divide class into six groups. Each group will be responsible for reporting on each of these literary elements within the story (using examples to illustrate): (10 minute prep, 3-4 minutes for each group to share)
Tone: comic
Tone: nostalgic
Tone: moralizing
Characterization: Piggy Sneed
Characterization: Grandmother
Theme: What is the point of this story?
- “Why, in heaven’s name, have you become a writer?”
- “Failing that, I realize that a writer’s business is setting fire to Piggy Sneed – and trying to save him – again and again; forever.”
Your Own Memoir Free Write: Begin your own memoir in your journal with the following prompt:
With that in mind, I think I have become a ______because of ______and – more specifically – because of ______.
If time allows, share an excerpt from you memoir about dad, “Little Big Man.”
Homework
Continue work on your memoir draft.
Read “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty. Write a one-page letter from one of the other characters in the story (Papa Daddy, Stella-Rondo, Uncle Rondo, Shirley T.) to Sister. Respond to Sister’s version of the events of the story from your own character’s point of view.