1. How would you describe Constancia's attitude toward her grandmother? Cite evidence to support your answer.

“You made me feel like a zero, like a nothing,” she says in Spanish, un cero,

nada. She is trembling, an angry little old woman lost in a heavy winter coat

that belongs to my mother. And I end up being sent to my room, like I was a

child, to think about my grandmother’s idea of math.

It all began with Abuela coming from the Island1

for a visit—her first

time in the United States. My mother and father paid her way here so that

she wouldn’t die without seeing snow, though if you asked me, and nobody

has, the dirty slush in this city is not worth the price of a ticket. But I guess

she deserves some kind of award for having had ten kids and survived to tell

about it. My mother is the youngest of the bunch. Right up to the time when

we’re supposed to pick up the old lady at the airport, my mother is telling me

stories about how hard times were for la familia on la isla,2

and how la abuela

worked night and day to support them after their father died of a heart attack.

I’d die of a heart attack too if I had a troop like that to support. Anyway, I

had seen her only three or four times in my entire life, whenever we would go

for somebody’s funeral. I was born here and I have lived in this building all

my life. But when Mami says, “Connie, please be nice to Abuela. She doesn’t

have too many years left. Do you promise me, Constancia?”—when she uses

my full name, I know she means business. So I say, “Sure.” Why wouldn’t I be

nice? I’m not a monster, after all.

So we go to Kennedy3

to get la abuela and she is the last to come out of the

airplane, on the arm of the cabin attendant, all wrapped up in a black shawl.

He hands her over to my parents like she was a package sent airmail. It is

January, two feet of snow on the ground, and she’s wearing a shawl over a thin

black dress. That’s just the start.

Once home, she refuses to let my mother buy her a coat because it’s a

waste of money for the two weeks she’ll be in el Polo Norte, as she calls

New Jersey, the North Pole. So since she’s only four feet eleven inches tall, she

walks around in my mother’s big black coat looking ridiculous. I try to walk

far behind them in public so that no one will think we’re together. I plan to

Explanation:

hello,

your answer is a) the metaphor suggests that the poetic themes are serious and dark.

collins is comparing the poem to a dark room. he is suggesting that the poems theme is serious and wants you to understand it. you don't need to understand the poet in order to understand the poem. you also don't need to move around while reading it. he is simply saying the poem has a dark and serious theme.

- i.a -