"The Long Rain" Chapter 8

Reading Points

• Annie realizes that the only way she can have her own life is to leave her parents and Antigua forever.
• Annie decides to permanently leave Antigua for a new life in England to go to nursing school.
• Annie looks back on all the things she doesn’t want her identity & life to be.
• She says good-bye to Gwen who tells her she is engaged to be married.
• Annie's mother reminds her that she can never escape her and her home.
  

Literary Points

• Identifying Annie John’s voice/independence (pre-writing mini-lessons)
• Final metaphor: “the vessel filled with liquid had been placed on its side and no was lowly emptying out” (148).

Guiding Questions

• What were the important and influential things from Annie’s adolescence?
• What is Annie John trying to escape?
• Why was Annie’s adolescence important for her? What did she learn from her adolescence?
  

Pages to Read

• Read pages 132 – middle of 134; pages 136 (last paragraph) – 137; pages middle of 146 – end.
  

As you read . . .

• What is Annie running away from? What is she trying to escape? Collect the important events, people, and things that Annie wants to leave behind her. Record your thoughts on the brain organizer handed out in class.
• Put a star by the three things that are most interesting or most important to you.
• Using the three things you starred, explain why you think they are important to Annie’s life. You may want to ask yourself: What did Annie learn from these things?
• Use the T-Chart to organize your explanations.