Questions for “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones Learning Target: Students will be able to read “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones and analyze how the narrator’s point of view reveals how she feels about her mother.
Use this word document to answer the following three questions by writing your answers below each question.
• Please use complete sentences.
• Please use a specific reference to the text beyond what is stated in the question as part of your answer.

1. In line 37, Jones uses the word vigorously to describe the shaking of the mother’s head. How does this adjective fit with what we learn about the mother from line 1 to line 50 when the author states, “This is my mother: She says, “One monkey don’t stop no show.”?

2. Based on what we learn about the mother in lines 67 – 94 what two adjectives would you use to describe her and why? Please use a phrase from the text to support your adjectives.

3. Given the narrator’s point of view, why does the author end the story with the last line of the story? Please use a phrase from earlier in the text to support your answer.