Character
Describe Mama as a character. Use specific details from the scene to support your answer.
Possible Answers: Mama is unconnected, inattentive, distracted, preoccupied, absent.
Possible Evidence:
In the photograph of a family picnic, Mama looks “silent and unhearing.” She is “looking far off in the distance.”
In Journey’s memory, he falls in the brook and Mama walks away and is somewhere else. It’s his grandfather, not his mother, who picks him up. The text says, “Mama is far ahead and she didn’t look back. She is somewhere else.”
Grandma told Journey that, “Your mama always wished to be somewhere else.”
How many people are interacting in this scene? Who are they?
There are two people in this scene: Grandma and Journey. The scene takes place in Journey’s bedroom. It is a conversation between Journey and his Grandmother. The references to other people do not mean those other people are actually in this scene.
What is Journey beginning to understand? Use details from the text to support your answer.
Sitting and talking with Grandma while looking over the photos helped Journey to see his mother differently. At first, Journey thought there was something wrong with the picture of his mother, or with the camera, but after Grandma pointed out that the camera showed his mother’s true feelings, he began to think about things differently. Sitting and looking over the photos with Grandma stirred up Journey’s memory of falling in the brook. This memory showed the way his mother ignored him even when she was living with him.
How does MacLachlan use flashback to develop the theme of the excerpt? Use details to support your answer.
A flashback is used to show a pattern about Mama. When Journey and Grandma are looking at the photograph of Mama from the picnic, Grandma says, “Your mama always wished to be somewhere else.” Then, when Journey recalls the time in the brook when Mama walked ahead and left him behind, ignoring him when he fell, he thinks, “But Mama is far ahead, and she doesn’t look back. She is somewhere else.”
How do Grandma’s actions help the reader understand her character? Use specific details from the scene to support your answer.
Grandma brought soup and the photo album to Journey. She sat with Journey and looked over old photos of their family. (Another option: She talked with Journey about his mother.)
These actions showed that Grandma was caring, thoughtful, loving, or supportive of Journey. (Another option: These actions showed that Grandma understood that Journey needed to think about and understand his past.)
Approximately how much time passes in this excerpt? How do you know?
This excerpt takes place within an hour or so. In the beginning of the scene the sun is out and grandma brings Journey soup. This shows that it is daytime. At the end of the scene, after Journey and Grandma have looked at the photos, it says, “Birds still sang…” But since the soup was cold we can assume enough time went by that it went from warm to cold. Also, it said Journey “sat there for a long time, staring at Mama’s picture.” But to look over two photos carefully, talk with his grandmother and think back to a memory, probably took an hour or less.
Choose a line of text from the excerpt that seems important. Explain why this line may be important to the story.
“The camera knows.” This is an important part of the scene because Grandma is trying to get Journey to see the truth about his mother. Grandma is trying to get Journey to realize that his mother was always wanting to be somewhere else.
OR
“She is somewhere else.” This is an important part of the scene because both Grandma and Journey say and think this at different points when looking at the photograph of Mama, or when Journey recalls his experience falling in the brook. Journey is beginning to realize that his mother was always wanting to be somewhere else.
How does the author use internal and external dialogue to help the reader envision what Journey is feeling?
The author uses internal and external dialogue to help us see how Journey’s understanding about his mother develops across the scene. In the middle of the text, Journey says, “It’s a nice picture…Except for Mama. It must have been the camera.” This external dialogue shows that Journey thinks his mother looks unhappy in the photo because of the camera. Later in the text, the author uses internal dialogue to show that Journey is beginning to realize that his mother was always unhappy when he thinks, “The expression on Mama’s face was one I knew. One I remembered.” Then he recalls the experience in the brook when Mama ignores him. Across the scene Journey’s words and thoughts show that he is beginning to realize that his mother was not there for him and was often unhappy.
What does Journey begin to realize about his mother at the end of the excerpt? Use specific details from the story to support your answer.
Possible Answers:
Journey begins to realize that Mama didn’t pay much attention to him, even when she was living with them. Evidence: In Journey’s memory, when he fell in the brook Mama walked away and didn’t turn back to help him.
Or
Another possible answer: Journey realizes that although he was abandoned earlier by his mother, he still needs to carry on. He can’t fall apart. Evidence: After remembering the fall in the brook when Mama ignored him, Journey got up and ate his soup. He went on with life.
A third of the way into the excerpt, Grandma says, “The camera knows.” What does she mean? Use specific lines from the text to support your answers.
Grandma means that a camera captures the real story of a person, a family. For example, in the photograph of Grandma she is happy, presumably because it was the day she met Grandpa. In contrast, the photo of Mama shows her looking unhappy when everyone around her is happy. When Journey suggests the problem was with the camera, Grandma insists, “No, it wasn’t the camera, Journey. It was your Mama.” She is saying that the camera shows Mama’s unhappiness.
Why does MacLachlan use a compare-and-contrast structure in this scene?
MacLachlan uses compare-and-contrast to highlight the differences between Journey’s mother and his grandparents. Grandma takes care of Journey by bringing him soup, sitting with him, and talking with him about his mother. Grandpa takes care of Journey by helping him when he falls in the brook. In contrast, Mama ignores Journey when he falls and leaves him altogether. Journey’s grandparents are present and supportive, while his mother is not.
When describing the photo of Mama at the picnic, why and how are the details important?
MacLachlan describes the scene at the picnic, especially Lancie, Uncle Minor, and the dog in order to show that Mama was different from everyone else. All of the details in the photo show that the picnic was fun, people are laughing and talking in the background, Lancie is making faces, Uncle Minor is eating cookies, and someone is throwing a ball for the dog. All of these details show that it was a fun event, but Mama, in contrast, sat in the middle of the picnic as though she was alone or somewhere else. These details are used to show how unhappy Mama was in comparison to everyone else’s happiness.
Explain how Grandma is different from Mama. Use specific details from the story in your explanation.
Grandma is supportive and comforting while Mama is distant and absent. For example, Grandma sits down with Journey to look over the photo album and talks with him about the past. When she had something hard to say to Journey, Journey describes what she did this way: “Grandma sighed and took my hand.” These examples show the way Grandma tries to support Journey. Mama, on the other hand, was distant. When describing Mama in the family photo, the text says, “But my mother looked silent and unhearing.” In Journey’s memory, Mama doesn’t help him when he falls into the brook, she keeps on walking “But Mama is far ahead, and she doesn’t look back. She is somewhere else.
or
Grandma is present and caring while Mama is absent and emotionless. Grandma comes up to Journey’s bedroom, brings him soup, and looks over family photos with him. She sits with him and holds his hand when she talks about his mother. In contrast, in the photo of Mama she is looking far off in the distance. As Grandma says, “…Mama always wished to be somewhere else.”
What does Journey begin to realize about his mother by the end of the scene? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
Journey begins to realize that his mother was never there for him emotionally or physically. When he looks at the photos and thinks back to his experience falling in the brook he realizes that his mother was not there for him. When he fell in the brook he was angry because he wanted his mother, not his grandfather, but she wasn’t there for him.
Or
Journey begins to realize that his mother was always longing to be elsewhere. He begins to realize this when he looks at the photographs with his grandmother. Grandmother says, “Your mama always wished to be somewhere else.” During the flashback, he thinks about when he fell in the brook and Mama was far ahead and didn’t look back because she was “somewhere else.” This shows that Journey was beginning to realize that Mama always wished for something different.
What is the mood in the scene? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
The mood in this scene is somber. It says that the room is quiet and Journey is alone in his room when Grandma brings him the bowl of soup. They sit quietly looking at and talking about the photos in the album. At the end of the scene the mood seems more hopeful because Journey gets up and looks out the window. He sees birds singing and flowers blooming, and he eats his soup.
The author shows multiple perspectives with the photo album. Compare the two perspectives using text-based details.
MacLachlan shows us the ways in which Journey and his grandmother view the pictures in the photo album. Journey and Grandma have different perspectives about the photos and about Mama. When looking at the photos, Grandma says “The camera knows.” She means that the camera shows a person’s true emotions. Grandma trusts the pictures. When Journey looks at the pictures, he does not trust that they show life. He thinks that something is wrong with the camera—“It must have been the camera,” he says when he sees his mother looking off into the distance looking “silent and unhearing.” This shows how Grandma and Journey view the mother differently.