4/21

a)     What is the narrator DOING and NOT doing?

b)    Where is the narrator’s attention?

c)     What do you notice about how the narrator speaks and refers to things? Notice his language, slang, and/or dialogue...you might even pay attention to his commas and what they do to his sentence flow. 

So far, how is the narrator teaching us to read him?  What should we expect?  How will he make us feel?

  The narrator  and Rafa seem particularly focused on Ysrael’s face.  I say this because throughout the rest of the story there are few things he tends to look at and describe for this long, with this amount of attention.  But let’s dig in.  What about Ysrael’s face does the narrator focus on? Be specific.  Flesh out your thinking.

What is Rafa doing while the narrator looks on?  Be specific.  How does it compare to what the narrator is doing?

What does this scene continue to teach us about how to read this narrator?  What it suggesting to us about how he’ll narrate, or handle information?  Or about his tone?

1. While reading the text, because of how the author has wrote it, it is harder to break down so I can understand what he is trying to say or the point he is trying to convey. As the reader, I need to identify what is not stated which is how the characters actions and thoughts lead to their emotions. Also, in the story the narrator likes to use Spanish phrases and he doesn't really give a good job of describing characters so trying to find their emotions is hard because they are like a mirror. Everything just reflects back and it is hard to see anything inside.

Notes:
When it focuses on Ysrael's face, it is talking about:
-his left ear being numb
- sore eyes
-there is a whole on his cheek that exposes his tongue
-and strain or cords on his neck

All of these parts are on the head but the narrator only focuses on parts like the side of his head, his neck, ears, etc. And, when it says cords in the text, I believe that it is referring to veins or popped blood vessels in his neck. Additionally, this is when he takes off his mask and then his face is exposed.

FFW: This scene makes me feel sorry for him and how he has to go through that but I noticed that the author made it so there was bruises and scratches under the mask to shift the reader's attention to expose what is really happening. Based on how the other characters reacted, they didn't really want to look or touch him because they felt disgusted in a way. For example, Yunior only uses his two fingers because he doesn't want to get to close to him.