Capricious adjective \kə-ˈpri-shəs, –ˈprē-\
a: changing often and quickly; especially : often changing suddenly in mood or behavior
We survived off him as if he were a capricious and dangerous line of work. I suppose we stopped thinking of him as a human being, certainly as a father.
The Shawl paragraph 11
He was an unpredictable dangerous kind of person who was best avoided.
Lamenting noun \lə-ˈment\
The farther she was from the fence, the more clearly the voices crowded at her. The lamenting voices strummed so convincingly, so passionately, it was impossible to suspect them of being phantoms. The voices told her to h9ld up the shawl, high; the voices told her to shake it, to whip with it, to unfurl it like a flag. Rosa lifted, shook, whipped, unfurled.
Clamor noun \ˈkla-mər\
a : a loud continuous noise (such as the noise made when many people are talking or shouting)
Even when the lice, head lice and body lice, crazed her so that she became as wild as one of the big rats that plundered the barracks at daybreak looking for carrion, she rubbed and scratched and kicked and bit and rolled without a whimper. But now Magda’s mouth was spilling a long viscous rope of clamor.
The Shawl paragraph 10
Magda was now making a loud and continuous noise. She was crying basically like she never did before.
Barracks noun \ˈber-ək, -ik; ˈba-rək, -rik\
a : a structure resembling a shed or barn that provides temporary housing
b : housing characterized by extreme plainness or dreary uniformity —usually used in plural in all senses
No one took it away from her. Magda was mute. She never cried. Rosa hid her in the barracks, under the shawl, but she knew that one day someone would inform; or one day someone, not even Stella, would steal Magda to eat her.
The Shawl paragraph 6
She hid Magda in a shed like structure. I thought barracks meant something like a cellar but it turned out to be a shed/barn.
Powwow noun \ˈpau̇–ˌwau̇\
a : a social gathering of Native Americans that usually includes dancing
b : a meeting for people to discuss something
But the strangest thing of all was the old powwow-dance regalia I saw hanging in the window.
What You Pawn I Will Redeem paragraph 6
After coming across this word a few times in the story I just knew I had to look it up. I was thinking something more along the lines of a festival. Instead it’s a social gathering, a meeting of sorts.
Tumultuously adverb \tu̇–ˈməl-chə-wəs\
a : marked by violent or overwhelming turbulence or upheaval <tumultuous passions>
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously.
The Story Of An Hour paragraph 6
Her chest rose really violently. Like when you run and you start breathing heavy.
Adjective
Monstrous– extremely, unusually large or very wrong or unfair
Definition 2- very ugly, cruel, or vicious
Story of an Hour By Kate Chopin 1984
“She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her.”
The narrator used this word to see if their vicious joy that held her.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monstrous
Adjective
Perilous– Full of Danger
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
“Madga was wavering in the perilous sunlight of the arena,scribbling on such pitiful little bent shins”
The Narrator shows how Magda was in the danger of the sunlight of the arena and how she was feeling.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perilous
Adjective
Ravenous-very hungry
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
“Sometimes Magda sucked air: then she screamed. Stella was Ravenous. Her knees were tumors on sticks, her elbows chicken bones”
The narrator used Ravenous to express the level of hunger that Stella was in, then described it by stating how her legs looked.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ravenous
noun
tubercular of, relating to, or affected with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis -a highly variable communicable disease of humans and some other vertebrates that is caused by the tubercle bacillus and rarely in the United States by a related mycobacterium, that affects especially the lungs but may spread to other areas, and that is characterized by fever, cough, difficulty in breathing, formation of tubercles, caseation, pleural effusions, and fibrosis
The Shawl by Louise Erdrich
“His father’s chest was broad and, although he already spat the tubercular blood that would write the end of his story, he was still a strong man. It would take him many years to die. In those years, the father would tell the boy, who had forgotten this part entirely, that at first when he talked about the shadows the father thought he’d been visited by manidoog”
The narrator explain that Jackson father had a disease Called Tuberculosis and before he passed away he use to spit blood which was a part of the disease.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
