active reading questions

1. Examine the details Sanders gives about building a wall to divide a room. Can you clearly visualize what Sanders is doing at each step? Is each concept clearly defined? Why, at the end of the essay, does Sanders feel the need to describe so clearly each step in the process?



You have to use the right tools, to do a good job, you have to measure correctly and get all the cuts right. I did not really understand what he did at each step in the process. He probably was rembering his father, he wanted to rember exactly how his dad did things so he doesnt forget.



2. How does Sanders use chronological order in this essay? What objects, images, or ideas connect the different periods of time that he describes?



Sanders really jumps back and forth in the times he is telling about. He starts with the day his father died, and then goes to a time with his father and grandfather telling him about the tools. I think the hammer connects the different times, because it is what he feels connected to when he doesnt have his father.



3. What is a "dawn stone"? Why does Sanders describe it in this essay, and what does it represent to him?



A "dawn stone" is an unworked stones, that served as the hammers.

It represents his ancestors, and makes him realize that he is still connected with them, because it is a "great leap in time, but no great distance in design or imagination."