Davis-Porch

ELA - 10th Grade

Monday - Friday

03123 - 0?127

MondayDOL (Correct Errors)

My dependible car who has taken me over 120,000 miles still has a smooth purring engine.

Journal (Write 3-5 sentences...Be sure to restate the journal prompt)

What makes you happy?

TuesdayDOL

it was overcast and drizzly we decided not to go to hampton beach

JournalWhen do you feel most proud of yourself?

WednesdayDOL

Wrestling looks like play it teaches lion cubs important survivel skills

JournalI really wish others knew _ about me because

ThursdayDOL

Whether is one cause of famine but political strife is another cause of famine

JournalMy favorite way to spend the day is ...

FridayDOt

When people have heart attacks you expereince pain in the left arm.

JournalMake a list of people in your life who support you and who can trust. What makes you trust them?

Literature - " And of Clay Are We Created"r Read pages 528-529

o Complete "Vocabulary in Context"r Read pages 530-539'

o Complete "Margin Activities" as you read

Analyze Visuals (Paee 530) G - MonitorA - Author's Perspective H - Author's Perspective

B- Monitor l- Characterization

C - Author's Perspective i - Author's Perspective

D-Monitor K-MonitorE - Characterization L-Author's Perspective

F-Characterization M -Monitoro Complete "After Reading" questions

o #1"-11 (Page 540)' t Complete "Vocabulary in Context" questions

o #1-8/Vocabularv in Writins/#1-S (Pase 541)

Before Reading

And of ClaY Are We CreatedShort Story by lsa bel Allende

&7 r€i rt€rs il.tryn

OB J E,CTIVE,?KEY IDEA Should journalists remain detached and objective when

reporting a tragedy? or should they express their personal feelings

andbecomeinvolvedwithhelpingvictims?whatistheproperroleof the news media?

QUTCKWRTTE lmagine that a reporter is interviewing a victim of a

tragedy, such as a deadly accident or hurricane' What is usually said

in such interviews? wriie a brief dialogue between the reporter and

the person involved. Discuss the true feelings reporters and victims

might have about each other'

528

n

I ttrrr,:, rv ANALY5Is: AUTHoR'5 plRSPEcrlvE

An author's perspective is a unique blend of feelings, values,

and beliefs that a writer brings to a subject. "And of Clay

Are We Created" contains echoes of lsabel Allende's own life

experiences as a former journalist and an exile from her native

country. Her journalistic experience, for example, is reflected

in her descriptions of a disaster scene and her exploration of a

reporter's thoughts and feelings.

Carefully read the informatlon about Allende on this page.

Then, as you read her short story, draw on what you know

of her life to help you understand her perspective on such

subjects as news reporting, exile, suffering, and death.

Revk vt : Characterization

J nraotru* *TRATEGY: MoNlroR

Monitoring is checking your understanding as you read and)t.-- -L.--L^-'. ^- t^ :*^-^.,^ -^".^-^L^^-i^adjusting your reading strategies to improve comprehension.

The following strategies may be useful:

. adjust your reading rate-that is, read more slowly

. reread*go back over the text for cla rification

. visualize-picture characters, events, or settings

. question-ask about events or characters

Asyou read, note the passages that you are having troublestanding, and then decide which of the strategies will

" best improve your comprehension. Organize your notes as in

example shown.

B(J tt,

nde uses the following words to tell her compelling story.'t'l'tthem into the categories "Words I Know Well," "Words I

rrllnk I Know," and "Words I Don't Know at All." Write a brief

definition for each word in the first two categories.

What )Doit lJndustafu, where the uud catae frou

I Should Probabltl,

'aljust rea.drna r^n (!"r@rr@ . vBualzz . queston fi

Creative StorytellerAllende remembershaving "acquired thevice of storytelling at a

rather early age." She

became a respectedmagazine and

television journalist inher native Chile, butonce admitted,"l couldnever be objective.I exaggerated and

twisted reality. . .."

Political Exile ln t973,

lsabel Allendeborn t94z

Allende's uncle Salvador Allende, thepresident of Chile, was assassinated. A

military government seized control, and a

period of terror and violence began. Allende's

family went into exile, moving to Venezuela;

later Allende moved to the United States.

She found it hard to get work as a journalistand turned to creative writing in t98t. Her

first novel, The House of the Spirits, became

a n internationa I bestseller.

A Mother's Loss ln r99r, Allende's daughterPaula was stricken with an incurable disease.

During the months of hospitalization thatfollowed, Allende began a memoir for Paula,

who eventually died. ln Paula, considered

her finest and most revealing work, Allende

explores sickness, loss, and tragedy. She says

that the book may have been "written withtears, but [they were] very healing tears."

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORFor more on lsabel Allende, visit theLiterature Center at ClassZone.com.

BackgroundVolcanic Disaster Allende's story is based

on a real event. On November t3, t985,

the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia

erupted. The intense heat from the eruption

melted the mountain's icecap and sent a

torrent of water, ash, mud, and rocks intothe valley below and onto the town ofArmero. More than 2o,ooo people died.

(See Reading for lnformation on page 542.)

AND oF cLAY ARE \rE cREATED 529

lYs3*lrt?

embody resignation

fortitude stratagem

pandemonium stupor

tenacity

trib u latio n

#*&€**'

Ar{D OF €

ARE W'E

l.FirstCommunionname:anametraditionallygiventoaRomanCatholicchildatthetimeof the child's first participation in the rite of Holy Communion'

2. Azucena (ii-soo-sE'ne).

l. Rolf Ca116 (rdlf kbr'la).

4. subterranean (sUb'te-ra'ne-en): underground'

5. seismographs (srz'ma-gr5fs'): instruments that record the intensity and duration of earthquakes'

' 6. telluric (te-lo-or'ik): relating to the earth'

530 uNIT t: AUTHoR's PURPoSE

They discovered the girl's head Protruding from the mud.pit' eyes wide oPen'

.alling soundlessly. Sf,e had a First Communion name,1 Azttcena'} Lily' In that

vast c;metery where the odor of death was already attracting vultures from

far away,ani where the weeping of orphans and wails of the injured filled the

air, the little girl obstin",.ty .li'girrg t; [fe became the symbol of the tragedy'

The television cameras transmitiedio oft".r the unbearable image of the_head

budding like a black squash from the clay that there was no one who did not

,*"g"ii. her and know her name. And every time we saw her on the screen,

,ighlbehi.,d her was Rolf Carid,r who had gone there_ on assignment,.never

,o ,rr-rp...irrg that he would find' a fragment of his past' iost thirry years before'

First a subrerraneana sob .ocked the corton fields, curling them like waves I A

of foam. Geologists had set up their seismographst weeks before and knew

that rhe mountain had awakened again. For some time they had predicted ^

that the heat of the eruprion could-det"ch the eternal ice from the slopes of

the volcano, but no one h.eded their warnings; they sounded like the tales of

frightened old women. The towns in the valley went about their daily life, deaf

,o?h. moaning of the earth, until that fateful \Tednesday night in November

*h.., "

p.olo.r!.d roar announced the end of the world, and walls of snow

broke loose, rolling in an avalanche of clay, stones, and water that descended

20 on rhe villages a.riburied them beneath unfathomable meters of telluric6

vomit. As soon as the survivors emerged from the paralysis of that first awd:l

rerror, they could see that houses, plazas, churches, white cotton plantations,

dark coffee forests, caftle Pastures-all had disappeared' Much later' after

soldiers and volunte.r, hrd arrived to rescue the living and try to assess the

ANALYZT VISUAi:Study the painting.

How do you interPretthe girl's exPression?

AIJ]HCR''gERSPECT!VT

Think about Allende's

former job as a jourrralist'

How is her background

reflected in the following

paragraPh? Cite sPecific

details to suPPort Youranswer5.

Niia t1943)' lulie fri'L: r-)ilon

cmvr' l0 cm ^ J< cnr' Ctrurre5l

of rhe Julia Diaz Founrlirrtslr'

magnirude of dre caraclysm,'it was caiculated that beneath the mud lay more

th^i w..rty thousand human beings and an indefinite number of animals

putrefuing ir, "

,rir.o,r, soup.S Fo..sts and rivers had also been swept alvay, and

ih... *"rlothing ro be seen but an immense desert of mire.

vhen the station called before daw'n, Rolf carld and I r,vere together. I

:o crawled out of bed, dazed with sleep, and went to prepare coflee rvhile he

hurriedly dressed. He stuffed his gear in the green canYas backpack he alr'vays

carried, and we said goodbve, as \trre had so many times before. I had no

presentiments. I sat in rh. kitchen, sipping my cofTee and- planning the long

Lours without him, sure that he would be back the next da.v' El

He was one of the first ro reach the scene, because while other reporters

were fighting rheir way to the edges of that morass in jeeps, bicycles, or on

foot, .J.h g.tting there however he could, Rolf Carld had the advantage of rhe

television li.li.opt.., which fler,v him over the avaianche. \7e watched on our

screens rh. foot"ge captured by his assistant's camera, in which he lvas up to

+o his knees in mu&, a microphone in his hand, in the midst of a bedlam of lost

children, wounded survivors, corpses, and devastation. The story came to us in

his calm voice. For years he had been a familiar figure in newscasts' reporting

live at the scene of battles and catastrophes with awesome tenacity' Nothing

could. stop him, and I was alr,vays amazedat his equanimiry in the face of

danger and suffering; it seemed as if nothing could shake his fortitude or deter

his Juriosity. Fear seemed never to touch him, although he had confessed to

me that he was not a courageous man, far from it. I believe thar the lens of a

camera had a strange effect on him; it was as if it transported him to a different

time from which he could watch events without actuallv participating in them.

io .When I knelv him better, I came to realize that this fictive distance seemed to

protect him from his own emotions. $Rolf Carld was in on the story of Azucena from the beginning. He fi1med

the volunteers who discovered her, and the first Persons who tried to reach

her; his camera zoomed in on the girl, her dark face, her large desolate eyes,

the plastered-down tangle of her hair. The mud was like quicksand around

her, and anyone artempting to reach her was in danger of sinking. They

threw a rope to her that she made no effort to grasP undl thev shouted to

her to catch it; then she puiled a hand from the mire and tried to move but

immediately sank a little deeper. Rolf threw down his knapsack and the rest of

oo his equipment and waded into the quagmire, commenting for his assistant's

*i.rophore that it w,as cold and that one could begin to smeli the stench

of corpses."\x/h"t', your name?" he asked the girl, and she told him her flower name.

"Don't move, Azucena," Rolf Carld directed, and kept talking to her, without a

thought for r.,.hat he was saying, just to distract her, while slowly he worked his

*"y ior*"rd in mud up to his waist. The air around him seemed as murkv as

the mud.

7. cataclysm (k5t'e-klYz'em): a violent and sudden change in the earth's crust

8. putrefying (pyoo'traJl'Yng) in a viscous soup: rotting in a thick soup'

532 uNIT t: ,qu'rrlon's PURPosE

B MONTTORReread lines z9-34.Who is the narratorof the story?

tenacity (te-nEs'i-te) n.

the quality of holdingpersistently to something;

firm determination

fortitude (f0r'ti-tdod' ) n.

strength of mind; courage

Si &u':"H0R'sPTR:PIE:iV:Based on the narrator's

comments about the

effect of a lens on Rolf

Ca116, what would You saY

is Allende's persPective

on news rePorting?

':*

{t was impossible to reach her from the approach he was artempdng, so he

retreated and circled around where there seemed to be firmer footing. Vtren

'o fin,rliy he was close enough, he took the rope and tied it beneath her arms, so

they could pull her out. He smiled at her with that smile that crinkles his eyes

"r,i .rr^k., hi- look like a little boy; he told her that every.thing was fine, that

he was here with her now, that soon they would have her out. He signaled the

others to pull, but as soon as the cord tensed, the girl screamed. They tried

again, and her shoulders and arms appeared, but they could move her no

fi.th..; she was trapped. Someone suggested that her legs might be caught in

the collapsed walls of her house, but she said it was not just rubble, that she

was also held by the bodies of her brothers and sisters clinging to her legs. [t,,Dont worry, we'1i get you out of here," Rolf promised. Despite the quality

so of the transmission, I could hear his voice break, and I loved him more than

ever. Azucena looked at him but said nothing.

During those first hours Rolf Carld exhausted all the resources of his

ingenuity to rescue her. He struggled with poles and ropes, but every tug was

an intolerable torture for the imprisoned girl. It occurred to him to use one ofthe poles as a lever but got no result and had to abandon the idea. He talked

, .o.rpl. of soldiers into working with him for a while, but they had to leave

because so many other victims were calling for help. The girl couid not moYe,

she barely could breathe, but she did not seem desperate, as if an ancesual

resignation allowed her to accePt her fate. The reporter, on the other hand,

9o was determined to snatch her from death. Someone brought him a tire, which

he placed beneath her arms like a life buoy, and then laid a plank near the hole

to hold his weight and allow him to stay closer to her. As it was impossible to

remove the rubble blindly, he tried once or twice to dive toward her feet butemerged frustrated, cor.ered with mud, and spitting gravel. He concluded that

he would have to have a pump to drain the water, and radioed a request forone but received in return a message that there was no available transport and

it could not be sent until the next morning."We can't wait that 1ongl" Roif Carld shouted, but in the pendclqqnluq

no one stopped to commiserate. Manv more hours would go by before hetoo accepted that time had stagnated and realiry had been irreparablv distorted. Q

A military doctor came ro examine the girl and observed that her heartwas firnctioning well and that if she did not get too cold she could survivethe night.

"Hang on, Azucena, we'l| have the pumP tomorrow," Rolf Carld tried toconsole her.

"Don't leave me alone," she begged."No, of aourse I won't leave you."

tu-r* l{ !1* F

Visualize Azucena, Rolf,

and the others. Why can't

the rescuers pull Azucena

o ut?

resignation(rEz'ig-na'shen) n.

passive acceptance ofsomething; submission

pandemonium(pEn'de-mo'ne-em) n. a

wild uproar or noise

l' cHARAaTER!zATloruConsider Rolf's efforts tosave Azucena. What do

they suggest about him?

o

AND oF cLAY ARE \rE cREATED 533

Someone brought him coffee, and he helped the girl drink it, sip by sip' The

warm liquid r.rri r-.d her and she began telling him aboutler small life, about

rro her family and her school, about ho* thit gt were in thatlittle bit of world

before the volcano erupted. She was thirteen, and she had never been outside

her village. Rolf carld, buoyed by a premarure oPtimism, was convinced that

everythiig would end wellithe pump would arrive, they would drain the

water, ,,,oI,,. th. rubble, and Arucena would be transported by helicopter to

a hospital where she would recovef rapidly and where_he_ could visit her and

bring h.r gifts. He thought, She's already too old for dolls, and I dont know

*hrl*orrid please her; iraybe a dress. I dont know much about women, he

concluded, amused, ,.fl..ting that although he had known many women in

his lifetime, none had taught him these details. To pass the hours he began

rzo to tell Azucena about his lavels and adventures as a news hound, and when

he exhausted. his memory he called upon imagination, inventing things he_

thought might enrefia-in her. From time to time she dozed, but he kept talking

in the drrk i.sr, to assure her that he was still there and to overcome the

menace of uncertainry. (O

That was a long night.

M*y miles away, I watched Rolf carl6 and the girl on a television screen' I

.o*li not bear tle wait at home, so I went to National Television, where I

& a-! At4aiI*:f ,':,' :NWhat do you learn about

Rolf and Azucena in

lines roS-tz4? What do

the last two sentences

suggest about Rolf's

cha racter?

il

I

ti

sosteniendo elTiempo (1998), SatenikGlryan. Ivlixed media, 95 cm x 80 cm. m.atesur'com/satenik

534 uNIT i: autsoR's PURPoSE

\tY,7

l

l

lI::i

il}i.,,

often spent entire nights with Rolf editing programs. There, I was near his

world, and I could at least get a feeling of what he iived through during those

r.ur rhree decisive days. I called all the important people in the ciry senators,

commanders of the armed forces, the North American ambassador, and the

president of National Petroleum, begging them for a Pump to remove the silt,

but obtained only vague promises. I began to ask for urgent help on radio

and television, to see if there wasn't som€zne u'ho could help us. Berween

calls i would run to rhe newsroom to monitor the satellite transmissions that

periodically brought new details of the catastrophe. While reporters selected

scenes with most impact for the news rePort, I searched for footage that

featured Azucenat mud pit. The screen reduced rhe disaster to a single plane

and accentuated the tremendous distance that separated me from Rolf Carld;

140 nonetheless, I was there with him. The childt every suffering hurt me as itdid him; I felt his frustration, his impotence. Faced with the impossibility

of communicating with him, the fantastic idea came to me that if I tried, Icould reach him by force of mind and in that way give him encouragement. Iconcenrrared until I was dizzy-a frenzied and futile activiqv. At times I wouldbe overcome with compassion and burst out crying; at other times, I was so

drained I felt as if I were staring through a telescope at the light of a star dead

for a million years. @I watched that hell on the first morning broadcast, cadavetse of people and

animals au,ash in the current of new riyers formed overnight from the melted

r50 snow. Above the mud rose the tops of trees and the bell towers of a church

where several people had taken refuge and were patiendy awaiting rescue

teams. Hundreds of soldiers and volunteers from the civil defense were clawingthrough rubble searching for survivors, while long rows of ragged sPecters

awaited their turn for a cup of hot broth. Radio nerworks announced thattheir phones were jammed with calls from families offering shelter to orphanedchildren. Drinking water was in scarce supply, along with gasoline and food.Doctors, resigned to amputating arms and legs without anesthesia, pled thatat least they be sent serum and painkillers and antibiotics; most of the roads,however, were impassable, and worse were the bureaucratic obstacles that

tso stood in the way. To rop it all, the clay contaminated by decomposing bodiesthreatened the living with an outbreak of epidemics. g

Azucena was shivering inside the tire that held her above the surface.Immobility and tension had greatly weakened her, but she was consciousand could still be heard when a microphone was held out to her. Her tonewas humble, as if apolo gizingfor all the fuss. Rolf Carld had a growth ofbeard, and dark.ir.l., b-.rr."1h his eyes; he looked near exhaustion. Even

jt &o.n that enormous distance I co,rli sense the quality of his weariness, so

'':' different from the fatigue of other adventures. He had completely forgotten',..,-- tt carnera; he could ,lot look at the girl through ,1"r,

".ry lorg.r. Th.

''l!t pictures we were receiving were not hls "rsirt".rt's

but those of oih.. reporters

o MCN ITCRReread lines t4tt47 andclarify what the narratorattempts to do. Howdoes the effort make her

feel?

& AUTH0R'SPERSPECTIVEReread lines r3o-t6t. Whatwould you say is Allende's

perspective on politiciansand other officials?

--9. ra.t-.,^..cadavers (ke-dEv,erz): dead bodies.

AND oF cLAY ARE wE cREATED 535

who had appropriated, Azucena, bestowing on her the pathetic responsibiliry

of embodyingih. ho.ro, of what had happened in that place. \With the first

ligk Rolf ;; again to dislodge the obstacles that held the girl in h-er 1omb,^

blt h" had only f,i, hrnd, .o work with; he did not dare use a tool for fear of

injuring h.r. H. fed Azucena a cup of the cornmeal mush and bananas the

"rrrry #, distributing, but she immediately vomited it up. A doctor stated that

,h. irrd a fever but add.d that there was little he could do: antibiotics were

being reserved for cases ofgangrene.l0A priest also passed by and blessed her'

hrrrglrrg a medal of the Virgin around her neck. By evening a gentle, persistent

rao drizzle began to fa1l. ttl,,The sky is weeping," Azucena murmured, and she, too, began to cry.

_ _

.,Dont be afraid," Rolf b.gg.d. "You have to keep your strength up and be

calm. Everyrhing will be fine-. I'm with you, and I'll get you out somehow."

Reporters returned to photograph Azucena and ask her the same questions,

which she no longer tried to ,rrr*... In the meanwhile, more television and

movie reams,r.ir.d with spoois of cable, tapes, film, videos, precision lenses,

recorders, sound consoles, lights, reflecting screens, auxiliary motors, cartons

of supplies, electricians, ,o,'rt d technicians, and cameramen: Azucenas face

*", b."-.d to millions of screens around the world. And all the while Rolf

,o Carld kept pleading for a pump.The improved technical facilities bore results,

and NaJonal Television b.g".r receiving sharper pictures and clearer sound,

the distance seemed suddenly compressed, and I had the horrible sensation

that Azucena and Rolf were by my side, separated from me by impenetrable

glass. I was able to follorv events hour by hour; I knew everYthing my love

iid ,o wrest the girl from her prison and help her endure her suffering; I

overheard fr"g-..rt, of what they said to one another and could guess the rest;

I was present-when she taught Rolf to prav and when he distracted her rvith

the stories I had told him in a thousand and one nights beneath the white

mosquito netting of our bed' O200 tX4r.n darkness came on the second day, Rolf tried to sing Azucena to sleep

with old Austrian folk songs he had iearned from his mother, but she was

far beyond. sleep. They rp.rr, ,r-ror, of the night talkin$, each in a stuPor of

exhaustion andhunger and shaking with cold. That night, imperceptibly, the

unyielding floodgates that had contained Rolf Carld's past for so many yeaIs

began.o op..r, ,.rd ,h. rorrenr of all that had lain hidden in the deepest and

11Jr, ,..r.i lavers of memorv Poured out, leveling before it the obstacles that

had blocked his consciousness for so long. He could not tell it all to Azucena;

she perhaps did not know there was a r,vorld beyond the sea or dme previous to

h., t*n; ih" *r, not capable of imagining Europe in the years of the rvar. So

:ro he could not rell her of Jef."t, nor of the afternoon t}re Russians had led them

to the concentration camP to bury prisoners dead from starvation' \X4ry should

he describe to her ho* tL. naked bodies piled like a mountain of firewood

resembled fragile china? How could he tell this dying child about ovens and

gallows? Xo, did he mention the night that he had seen his mother naked'

embody (6m-bdd'e) v. togive shape to or visiblyreprese nt

O cH ARA{TE RtzATir.:.1i

Reread lines t65-t8o.What do theseobservations suggesthas happened to Rolf?

Explain your answer.

0,c*rxot'lFTR5PT{TIV'Allende gives a behind-the-scenes view ofbroadcasting a news

story. What criticisnlsof the media does she

seem to be suggesting?

stupor (stoo'Par) n.

a state of mentalnumbness, as from shock

10. gangrene:deathanddecayofbodytissue,usuallyresultingfrominjuryordisease

536 uNIT i: -q.utuon's PURPosE

:

!t.1

.. .'.':

oi&o-

Steyie Taylor. Pastel on paper' Private Collection' Ihoto @ Bridgeman Alt Library

shod in stiletto-heeled red. boots, sobbing N'ith humiliation'.There was much

he did not tell, but in those hours he relivJ for the first dme all the things his

mind had tried to erase. Azucena had surrendered her fear to him and so' w-ithout

*ishing ir. had,bli;;Jiliro confronr1-.,is ornn. There. beside rhat hellhole

of mud, ir u,as i*;;ib[ for Rolf to flee from himself anv longer, and. the

::o visceral terror n. fr^a tl".a as a bov suddenly invaded him. He reverted to

thel's215whenhe$'astheageofAzucenaand'vounger'and'likeher'foundhin-iself trapped in a pit .r,.ithout escaPe, buried in life, his head barely above

gror-rndl he sarv bti;; his e1'es the boots and iegs of his father' n'ho had

removed his belt ,nd *,", whipping it in rhe "i,

*ith the neYer-forgoften hi:::fa viper coiled ,o ,..ik.. So.,o* floJded through him' intact and precise' as if it

h"i1l,, "i*'^,t,

in his mind, u''aiting' Ht """o"te again in the armoirerrwhere

his father locked 6l.- ;; f.,,-rirh hlri fo, imagined misbehavior, there u'here

for eternal tto.rm ft. t "d .ro,"hed with his t]"' tlostd' not to see the darkless'

with his hands over his ears ro shut out the beating of his heart, trembling'

:30 hucl,lled like a cornered animal. Vrandering in the mist of his memories he

AND oF cLAY ARE !7E cREATED 537 t

i.l

'll. ari,roire 1a:n.-rt,ar'):a large wardrobe or cabinet

found his sister, Katharina, a sweet, retarded child who sPent her life hiding,

with the hope that her father would forget the disgrace of her having been

born. with Katharina, Rolf cra.,vled beneath the dining room table, and with

her hid there under the long white tablecloth, two children forever embraced,

alert to footsteps "nd,

voicesl Katharinas scent melded with his own sweat, with

aromas of .ookirg, garlic, soup, freshly baked bread' and the unexpected odor

of putrescent,, .lr'y."Hi, ,irt.r', hand in his, her frightened breathing, her silk

h"i, "g^i.rrt

his chlek, the candid gaze of her eyes. Katharina . . . Katharina

-rt..Idir.d before him, floating on the air like a flag, clothed in the white

240 tableclorh, now a winding ,h..t, and at last he could weep for her death

and for the guilt of havin"g abandoned her. He understood then that all his

exploits ,, , r.pora.., th.'f.rt, that had r,von him such recognition and fame,

*.r. .rr...iy rr, ,,r...rpa to keep his most ancient fears at l:at1, a stfatagem fo.r

taking ,.frg. behind , l.n, ,o iest *h.ther realiry was more tolerable from that

p.rrp"..,ir.l He took excessiye risks as an exercise of courage, training by day to

.o.rq,r.. the monsters that tormented him by night. But he had to come face

to f".. with the momenr of truth; he could not continue to escape his past' He

was Azucena; he was buried in the clayey mud; his terror was not the distant

emotion of an almost forgoren childhood, it was a ciaw sunk in his throat.

z;o In the flush of his tears hl ,r* his mother, dressed in black and clutching her

imitation-crocodile pocketbook to her bosom, just as he had last seen her on

the dock when she hrd .o-. ro put him on the boat to sourh America. She

had not come ro dry his rears, but ro tell him to pick up a shovel: the war was

over and now they must bury the dead' [l"Don't cry. I don't hurt anymore. I'm fine," Azucena said r'vhen dar'vn came.

,.I,m nor crying for you," Rolf Carld smiled. "I'm crying for myself' I hurt

ali over." $

The third day in the valley of the cataciysm began with a pale light filtering

through ,.or- clouds. The president of the republic visited the area in his

zoo t"iiorJd safari jacket ,o .orfi.- that this was the worst catastrophe of rhe

century; the country was in mourning; sister nations had. offered aid; he had

ordered a stare of si.ge; the armed forces would be merciless; anyone caught

stealing or committiig oth.. ofrenses would be shot on sight. He added.that

it was Imposrible ,o .."-or,. all rhe corpses or count the thousands who had

disappeared; the entire valley would be declared holy ground, and bishops

*o.rtJ come to celebrate a solemn mass for the souls of the victims' He went to

the army field tents to offer relief in the form of vague promises to crowds of

the rescued, then to the improvised hospital to offer aword of encouragement

to doctors and nurses worn down from so many hours of tribulations' Then

zzo he asked to be taken to see Azucena, rhe iitde girl the whole world had seen.

He waved to her with a limp satesman's hand, and microphones recorded his

emorional voice and paternal tone as he told her that her courage had served-

as an exarnple to the l-r"tio.r. Rolf carld interrupted to ask for a pump, and the

ts

stratagem (str5t'e-lem) n.

a clever trick or device forobtaining an advantage

MON !TOR

ln line zzo a flashback

begins in which Rolf

recalls his childhood in

a defeated Austria after

World War ll. Reread

this description, through

line 254. What terriblememories does he have?

o AUTH0R'5PERSPECTIVERolf was exiled from his

homeland, as Allende

was exiled from her

native Chile. Civen Rolf's

experiences, what nright

Allende be saYing about

the consequences ofburying one's Past and

leaving one's familY?

tribulation(trib'ya-la'shen) n. great

distress or suffering

12. putrescent (pyoo-trEs'ent); rotti n g a nd foul-smel li n g'

UNIT t: AUTHOR'S PURPOSE538

nresidenr assured him that he personally would attend to the matter' I caught at*i*Or.

of Rolf fo= f.," ,".o.ds kneeling beside the_ mud pit. On the evening

i.*, b.o"dcasr, he was still in the same position; and I, glued to the screen

lik. "

for.nrre teller to her crystal ball, could tell that something fundamental

1r^.1.h".g"d in him. I knewsomehow that during the night his defenses had

.rrmbl"i"nd. he had given in to grief; finally he was vulnerable. The girl had

,uo ,o*.n"a a parr of him that he himself had no access to, a part he had never

shared with me . Rolf had wanted to console her, but it was Azucena who had

eiven him consolation.o L..ogr,.ized the precise moment at which Rolf gave up th.e fight and

s,-irrendJred ro the io.,rr. of watching the girl die. I was with them, three days

and rwo nights, spying on them from the other side of life. I was there when

she told hii-, th"t i.r al"l her thirteen years no boy had ever loved her and that it

*", , piqr to leave this world without knowing love. Rolf assured her that he

Io.,r.d ir., more than he could ever love anyone, more than he loved his mother,

more than his sister, more than all the women who had slept in his arms,

more than he loved me, his life companion, who would have given anphing

to be trapped. in that well in he. plaie, who would have exchanged her life

fo, Arrr...r"s, and I watched as he leaned down to kiss her poor forehead'

consumed by a sweet, sad emotion he could not name. I felt how in that

instant both were saved from despair, how they were freed from the cla1" how

they rose above the vultures and helicoprers, how together they flew above the

u"r, ,*r*p of corruption and laments' How, finally, they were able to accePt

death. Roif Carld p.ry.d in silence that she would die quickly, because such

pain cannot be borne. ftBy then I had obtain.d "

p,.*p and was in touch with a general who had.

,oo "gr..d

to ship it the next morning on a military cargo plane' But on the night

oithrt third day, beneath the unblinking focus of q,,a671amps and the lens of

a hundred cameras, Azucena gave uP, htr tyet locked with those of the friend

who had sustained her to the"ena. nof Carld removed the life buoy, closed her

eyelids, held her to his chest for a few moments, and then let her go. She sank

slowly, a flower in the mud.

You are back with me, but you are not the salne man' I often accomPany you

to the station, and *. *"..h the videos of Azucena again; you srudy them

intently, looking for something you could have done to save her, something

you did not thiik of in time. 6. r""yb. you study them to see yourself as iftto in a tnirror, naked. Your cameras lie forgotten in a closeu you do not write or

sing; you sit long hours before the window, staring at th-e _mountains.

Beside

you, I wait fo, yo* to complete the voyage into yourself, for the old wounds to

heal. I k.ro* ,(^. *h.., yo., return f.o- yo,r. nightmares, we shall again walk

hand in hand, as before. c,w

Tianslated by Margaret Sayers Peden

El nnorv lronReread lines 284-299.ln what sense are Rolf

and Azucena "saved"

and "freed"?

AND oF cLAY ARE wE cREATED 539

Aftu Reading

Comprehension1. Recall What disaster has happened in the town?

2. Recall Who is Rolf Ca116?

3. Recall What prevents Azucena from being rescued?

4. Clarify What memories disturb Rolf as he waits in the night with Azucena?

Literary Analysis5. Monitor Understanding Look back at the notes you made as you read. What

strategies did you use to increase your understanding?

Analyze Relationships What do Rolf

and Azucenadofor each other? How

would you describe the relationship thatdevelops between them? Use a chart toplan your answer.

Contrast Attitudes Contrast Azucena's

attitude toward her fate with Rolf's

attitude. What might account for thedifference?

ldentify Author's Perspective Do you think Allende values objectivity in

reporting? Support your opinion.

Analyze Point of View How does Allende's choice of narrator contribute tothe story? Consider what this narrator was able to present that Rolf Ca116 as

narrator would not have been able to provide.

lnterpret Theme State what the story suggests to you about the role of themedia in a tragedy. What other messages do you draw from the story?

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Litera ry Criticism11. Biographical Context Allende, in reflecting on a photograph of Omaira

Sanchez, the trapped girl who inspired her story, commented: "We've never

met her and are living at the other end of the world, yet we've been broughttogether because of her. She never dies, this girl. . . . She's born every instant."

What does this statement reveal about Allende's values?

54O uNlT t: luruon's PURPosE

a

:

Zt:: '

I

bulary in ContextABULARY PRACTICE

de whether the words in each pair are synonyms or antonyms'

. tenacity/laziness

2. fortitude/weakness

resi gnation/accePta nce

, pandemonium/chaos

, stupor/enthusiasm

em body/represent

7. stratagem/scheme

8. tribulationihardshiP

ULARY IN WRITING

iefly retell the story from the trapped girl's point of view. Use at least four

cabulary words in your new version. Here is an example of how you

could begin.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE

throughout the Pandeuottiur,ri of mq experlence, lt was coufortlng tohave uq.lourna"J/st friend bq uq srde

ur*rv 5TRATEGY: THE IATIN vl/ORD ROOTfOTf

vocabulary wordfortitude stems from the Latin roolfort,ich means "strong." To understand the meaning of words

hfort, use context clues as well as your knowledge

:,:

Choose the word from the word web that best

letes each sentence. Use context clues to help you or,

ry, consult a dictionary.

ln music, to play a piece is to play in a very loud manner.

. She showed great during her mother's funeral.

. This exercise will the muscles in your upper body.I r! 1linting is her _; she is a very talented artist.

fortissimo

$ta*o L{ST

embody

fortitu d e

pandemonium

resignatio n

stratagem

stu por

tenacity

tribu Iation

fortitude

fortifyforte

- vocaBULARY

fl PRAcrlcEFor more practice, goto the VocabularY Centerat ClassZone.com.ilding a solid will keep enemies at baY.

AND oF CLAY ARE VTE CREATED 541

>---<(fo* )

fortress