The Flight of the Snowbird - Test 1 - Angélica Riascos

1. Read the story: The Flight of the Snowbird

2. Write four questions based on the story (Think about questions like the ones we used for discussion in our Reading Club meetings.)

Preguntas

- What symbolizes the bird, for the boy, the second time he sees it?
- What thoughts do you think go by the boy's mind when seeing the girl cry?
- What do you think the girl thinks while staring blankly at his brother's friends?
- What do you think the mother thinks is the reason why her boy is so mean to his sister?

3. Establish a relationship between the girl in the story The Flight of the Snowbird and oneof the characters from the stories we read. (The Refugee Hotel, Haircut, And the toilet would not flush, The ones who walk away from Omala, Miss Brill, Prue, A beautiful child.)

I can find a relationship between the little boy in "The ones who walk away from Omala" because he and the girl are never heard. They think and feel but they can't express their pain. The kid used to say he was going to be good until one day he gave up. The girl can't say anything but at the end of the story we find that she is aware of what happens around her, really aware, and his brother is stunned that she can actually feel stuff and express it. In the story, the ones who walk away from Omala, this kid feels but with time he lost the strength to complain, to cry, he knows he is going to be left there to "almost die", but also knows he is going to be well taken care of so he doesn't escape and doesn't die. The girl for her part, never gives signs of pain because she has dissabilities and can't express them unless she is really scared, like at the end of the story, where she starts to recognize her brother. The two of them, seem to fragile for me, they seem to be in their own worlds barely recognizing the people who intercede on their behalf, but they are still alive and don't have anything else to do but confront their own realities. They are alone, because althought the girl has her family around her, she feels like part of the landscape. Both characters move me, because in the end we can't totally infer what is going to happen with the rest of their lives.