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Analyze the Image

What events led up to this
crime scene?

Get hooked by the unit topic.

Stream to Start Video

194 UNIT 3
 UNIT
3

Crime
Scenes
“Crime is terribly revealing . . . .
Your tastes, your habits, your
attitude of mind, and your soul is
revealed by your actions.”
— Agatha Christie

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a crime
is committed?
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195
 Spark Your
Learning
As you read, you can
use the Response Log
Here are some opportunities to think about the (page R3) to track your
topics and themes of Unit 3: Crime Scenes. thinking about the
Essential Question.

Think About the

Essential Question
Who suffers when a crime is committed?
List as many possibilities as you can.

Make the Connection

The word crime has a negative
connotation, but many of us can’t
get enough of movies, podcasts
and stories about true crime. Why
do stories about crime capture our
imagination? Discuss your ideas
with a partner.

Build Academic Vocabulary

You can use these Academic Vocabulary words to write and talk
about the topics and themes in the unit. Which of these words do
Prove It! you already feel comfortable using when speaking or writing?
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Imagine you had to defend

someone accused of a crime. I can use it! I understand it. I‘ll look it up.
Use one of the Academic
capacity
Vocabulary words in a
statement arguing for the confer
person’s innocence.
emerge

generate

trace

196 UNIT 3
 Preview the Texts
Look over the images, titles, and descriptions of the texts in the unit. Mark
the title of the text that most interests you

Entwined Why Are We Obsessed with from The 57 Bus

Short Story by Brian Tobin True Crime? Literary Nonfiction by Dashka Slater
A fatal collision leads to shocking Informational Text by Laura Hensley A bad decision shatters the lives of
aftereffects for everyone involved. Find out why we can’t resist true two teenagers.
stories about wrongdoing.

Gift-Wrapped Fathers Bully Unsolved “Vigilante”

Poem by Eduardo (Echo) Martinez Podcast from Radiotopia/PRX Murder in the Heartland
An imprisoned parent struggles to A bully terrorizes a small town until News Article by C.M. Frankie
maintain a bond with his son. citizens decide they’ve had enough. What are the consequences
when someone is cruel to
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everyone he meets?
Getty Images; (tr) ©Chloe Aftel; (bl) ©Cultura Creative/Alamy; ©GCapture/Shutterstock; ©advertorial/Shutterstock;

Think Outside the Box

Why is it important for someone accused of a crime to be considered
innocent until proven guilty? Jot down some of your ideas.
(bc) ©Larry W. Smith/Stringer/Getty Images; (br) ©AP Images

197
 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a

Entwined crime is committed?

Short Story by Brian Tobin

Engage Your Brain

What Makes It a Crime Story?
Choose one or more of these activities to start
Have you read any crime stories or watched
connecting with the story you’re about to read.
shows or movies that focus on crime?
1. Make a list of stories or shows you
remember.
Nothing but the Truth
2. Compare lists with a partner.
Is not telling the whole truth ever justifiable?
3. Discuss the common features of crime
• Write about a time when you felt that you
had a good reason to not tell the whole truth.
stories.

• Include a description of how the situation

turned out.
Crime stories usually have . . .

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Exploring a Key Word
Entwine means “to wind or twist together.”
• What kind of images does the word
“entwined” suggest to you?

• Draw a picture or make some notes.

198 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Analyze Universal Themes

Literature conveys lessons through themes, the messages about life or
human nature that writers share with readers.
Focus on Genre
In some stories, the theme is explicit, or stated directly in the text. In most
cases, the theme is implicit, or not stated directly. Readers must infer, or
Short Story
make an educated guess about, the theme based on clues in the text. • includes the basic elements
of fiction—plot, character,
When the theme of the text applies to people across cultures and time setting, conflict
periods, or comments on what it means to be human, it’s a universal • creates suspense to maintain
theme. For example, many literary works share the theme of an readers’ interest
individual’s struggle toward understanding. • expresses a theme, or message
about life
The chart lists some clues to look for. As you read, fill it out so you can pin
down the theme of “Entwined.”

Clues to a Story’s Theme Clues in “Entwined”

The work’s title

What characters say

Interactions between characters

Key events

Analyze Characterization
The way a writer creates and develops characters’ personalities is known as characterization.
Authors develop complex yet believable characters by describing what they do, say, and think,
as well as how they interact with other characters. Complex characters advance the plot and
shape the story’s themes. As you read “Entwined,” use a chart to record text details that reveal
the main character’s personality. Then, make an inference or ask a question about each detail.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Text Evidence Examples Inferences and Questions

Character’s words and actions

Character’s thoughts and observations

What others say about the character

Lessons the main character learns.

(Pay close attention to wise words and
advice given to the main character.)

Entwined 199
 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of notes a student made about this paragraph
from “Entwined.” As you read, highlight words that reveal the
narrator’s character traits.

If only I could go back in time and slam the brake pedal, so Narrator takes
that nothing more would have happened except Pearl Jam, the responsibility for what
orange traffic cones, the young woman in white short shorts, the happened
sound of kids playing.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or listening.

negligent

condolence
With a partner, write a short description of a crime and
empathy its aftermath with as many of the words as you can.
As you read “Entwined,” use the definitions in the
irrevocably
side column to learn the vocabulary words you don’t
ineffably
already know.

liability

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Background
Brian Tobin is the author of four novels: The Ransom, The
Missing Person, Below the Line, and A Victimless Crime. In 2015,
his short story “Teddy” was nominated for an Edgar Award.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Vickie. “Entwined” was
inspired by an episode of This American Life. “Plotting is usually
difficult for me,” he said about the story, “involving many false
starts and wrong turns. I was listening to This American Life
during a morning walk. By the time I reached home, I had the
story fully formed in my imagination.”

200 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Entwined
Short Story by Brian Tobin

A fatal collision leads to shocking aftereffects for NOTICE & NOTE

As you read, use the side
everyone involved.
margins to make notes
about the text.
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2
O n September 12, 1994, in my second week of college, I killed
Russell Gramercy.
In the last eighteen years, how often have I gone over it all? Pearl
Jam, the orange traffic cones, the young woman in white short shorts,
the sound of kids playing, and then . . .
3 I had been driving alone back to my dorm from the lake. Despite
what people claimed later, I had not been drinking—not one drop.
I want to be clear about that. Even though there were coolers full of
beer at our blanket, I was not intoxicated. It was about five-thirty on
a beautiful balmy afternoon, the last twinge of summer in upstate
New York. I wasn’t speeding, nor was I driving in a “careless, reckless,
or negligent manner,” which is the criteria for negligent homicide. negligent
(n≈g´l∆-j∂nt) adj. characterized by
paying little attention to or failing
to care for properly.

Entwined 201
 4 A song I loved, Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” came on the radio, and I took
my hand off the two position of the ten-and-two driving stance
I had so recently been taught in driver’s ed. I reached down and
turned the volume up from loud to really loud. I was barely aware of
the pedestrians on the sidewalk; they were indistinct, background.
Vaguely I registered the sign ROAD WORK AHEAD. However, my
registering Daria Gramercy’s figure was anything but vague. She was
wearing white short shorts; seen from behind, she was breathtaking.
This figure of lust (I can’t describe it in any nicer way that reflects
better on me) was walking with two males. All three had been forced
to abandon the sidewalk that paralleled Beach Road because of
construction—for fifty yards the sidewalk had been jackhammered
and it was cordoned off with orange traffic cones and yellow caution
tape. Later, when I went back to the scene, I saw the clearly marked
signs that warned pedestrians to cross to the other side of the road,
that clearly told them not to walk on the shoulder. Weren’t those signs
implicit—no, definite—warnings that to proceed was dangerous?
5 At the time, I have to admit, I didn’t notice those signs. Even
though the radio was blaring “Alive,” I could also faintly hear children
playing: a Pee Wee League soccer match was just beginning.
6 If only it could have stopped there. If only I could go back in time
and slam the brake pedal, so that nothing more would have happened
except Pearl Jam, the orange traffic cones, the young woman in white
short shorts, the sound of kids playing. Then it all would have just
faded, one of millions of trivial sense memories that disappeared.
7 But time didn’t stand still.
ANALYZE CHARACTERIZATION 8 My car—actually, the 1979 Impala my father had handed down
Annotate: In paragraphs 8 and to me—was going around forty miles per hour. I know I lied about it
9, mark the details the narrator later to the police, telling them that I was doing the posted thirty-five,
describes. but I can honestly say I was going about forty. At that speed, a car
Infer: What can you infer travels fifty-nine feet a second. (In my support group, everyone, every
about the narrator from his last person regardless of education, has done the calculations, the feet
observations? per second, the reaction times.) The three figures on the road outside
the cones and caution tape, one with an extremely sexy sashay, were
approaching rapidly. (I know they weren’t approaching, that in fact I
was overtaking them, but that’s how it seemed to me.) And then the
largest of them, a man in khaki shorts, a navy blue T-shirt, and Chuck
Taylor Converse sneakers, stumbled beyond the white line into the
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

road. Into the path of my thirty-five-hundred-pound lethal weapon

going fifty-nine feet per second.
9 What happened took only milliseconds. There was a sickening
jolt to the car; Russell Gramercy flew up over the hood. His shoulder
and head shattered my windshield, then he disappeared over the
roof of the Impala. I did not slam on the brakes until he had already
landed on the highway behind me.

202 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 10 There was a faint whiff of something burnt—my tires on the Don’t forget to
asphalt—and Pearl Jam was still playing on the radio. Behind me Notice & Note as you
read the text.
someone was howling in pain and grief. “Oh, my God! Oh, my God!”
Daria Gramercy.
11 Everything seemed in a heightened sense of unreality. I got out
of the Impala, but immediately someone yelled, “Hey, put your car
in gear.” So I got back in the car, which was slowly rolling, and did
so, also turning off the engine. I noticed glass on the passenger’s side
seat; in the next moment I realized that little shards of glass, almost
festively decorative, covered my shirt as well.
12 The body lay in the road fifty yards away—I had traveled half
a football field after hitting him. Another pedestrian stood in the
middle of the road behind Daria and the victim, waving a hot-pink
beach towel to stop oncoming traffic.
13 Racing back, I thought, He’ll have some broken bones. He
may have to go to the hospital. Daria was leaning over her father,
whimpering.
14 Then I got a clear view of Russell Grammercy’s body. This
wasn’t a case of some broken bones. His entire body was broken.
One shoulder and arm were tilted at an impossible angle away from
the rest of him. Blood was pooling behind his head, which also
seemed . . . broken. Daria said, “Hold on, Dad. Hold on.” But it was
obvious to me that he could not hear, would never hear again.
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Register/Getty Images

Entwined 203
 15 And . . . I’m not proud of this, but I want to tell you exactly what
it was like. Daria, in an attempt to stanch the ever-expanding pool
of blood behind her father’s head, took off her pale green sleeveless
T-shirt and used it to compress the wound. She wore a white bikini
top underneath. My eyes were drawn to her chest.
16 I had just killed a man, and I was ogling the daughter I had made
an orphan.
17 There was probably a gap of time, but it seems to me now that the
police cruiser arrived very quickly with short yelps of the siren and
strobing of the Visibar. Walkie-talkies squawked, an ambulance came;
someone shifted the cones from the sidewalk construction to the
road. Daria was sobbing in the arms of her older brother, Chris. With
a start, I realized I knew Chris; I had played baseball against him.
Which meant I knew the victim as well.
18 Russell Gramercy was the coach of the Verplanck American
Legion League baseball team of which his son, Chris, was the star
pitcher. Russell Gramercy was also a chemistry professor at Howland
College, the school I had just started two weeks earlier, though I
wasn’t in any of his classes. The previous year, the American Legion
team I was on had played against Verplanck. Chris had been pitching,
and he struck me out twice. He was by far the best player in our
area, and scouts from the majors as well as LSU and Arizona State
had shown interest in him. His father coached him that day, and
I remembered Russell Gramercy putting his arm around Chris’s
shoulder with pride as he came off the field with another victory.
19 “Are you okay?” the paramedic asked me at one point. “Are you
injured?”
20 “No, I’m fine,” I replied, knowing even then that it was a lie,
though there was nothing physically wrong.
21 Later, as the first ambulance took Russell Gramercy away, I asked
the same paramedic, “He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?”
22 He stared back at me, then, masking his true feelings, said, “Well,
we can only pray.” After that, on instructions from one of the cops, he
took my blood for a blood alcohol level test.
23 I gave my statement to three different police officers. The last
one, a detective named Dave Pedrosian, interviewed me for a long
time.
24 Pedrosian also questioned Chris and Daria. She had not seen the
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

actual impact because she had been walking a few feet in front of her
brother and father on the narrow shoulder. “I just heard this awful
crunch, and by the time I turned around my dad was landing on the
pavement,” I overheard her say. And then she lost control and gave
loud gasping sobs. Her brother put his arms around her.
25 At some point I also heard Chris being interviewed. “We were
walking and my father sort of stumbled. I don’t know if he twisted his
ankle or what. But he veered into the road. I reached out to grab him,
but then . . . just this unbelievable impact with that car . . .”

204 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 26 What I remember most were his next words. “The car just Don’t forget to
slammed him. It was so fast. My dad never had a chance. And neither Notice & Note as you
read the text.
did the driver. It would have been impossible to react. It wasn’t his
fault.”
27 Right after a cop gave me my second field sobriety test and first
Breathalyzer, Chris came up to me. I was wary and I half expected
him to take a swing at me. But in a dazed voice he told me, “There
was nothing you could have done. Don’t beat yourself up. It was just
a horrible accident.” He turned and walked back to his sister, who
glared at me with eyes filled with anger and hate.
28 Detective Pedrosian came by in a while and said, “You‘re not
going to be charged at this time. All the preliminary statements
support yours. A collision-reconstruction unit will continue to
investigate. If everything holds up, you will not be charged. Your
father is here to drive you home.”
29 On the ride home, back to my childhood bedroom, not my new
dorm room, I kept saying, “It happened so fast. There was nothing I
could do.”
30 Russell Gramercy was declared DOA at Verplanck Hospital at
about that same time.
31 The next few days I spent in my bedroom or, when my parents
went to work, roaming the house. I couldn’t eat, sleep, watch
television. Both my parents kept telling me that it wasn’t my fault, that
it had been an accident. I shouldn’t blame myself.
32 My father initially insisted that I go to the Gramercy family
home.
33 “And do what? Upset them more? Apologize for killing their
father?” I did not want to face them, in particular Daria.
34 “Just tell them how sorry you are for their loss,” my mother
replied.
35 I had already put on my suit and was waiting for my parents to
drive me to a condolence visit that I wasn’t sure I could endure when condolence
the phone rang. A few minutes later my father came into the living (k∂n-d∫´l∂ns) n. sympathy with a
room and said, “We’re not going.” person who has experienced pain,
grief, or misfortune.
36 The relief I felt was immense.
37 “Of course we are,” my mother said.
38 “The insurance adjuster just called. He said we’re not to have any
contact with the victim’s family.”
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

39 The victim. His name was Russell Gramercy. He was a beloved

father, a husband, a coach, a teacher. And we weren’t using his name.
He was the victim. And I was the person who had killed him.
40 “That’s just not right,” my mother complained.
41 “He’s on our insurance policy,” my father said, nodding toward
me. “We could lose the house, our savings. Everything. Even a
frivolous case could cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
42 So in the end we didn’t go. And I did not apologize.
43 The funeral was private, so I didn’t go to that either. But when I
returned to Howland College two days later, one of the first things I
noticed was a flier about a memorial service.

Entwined 205
 44 Howland College is a small liberal arts college in Verplanck,
New York, twenty miles from my hometown. Its academic reputation
is slight, its campus charmless—buildings of red brick and glass,
dormitories that look like singles’ apartments. In my area it was the
ultimate backstop school, the place you wound up when your other
scholastic plans didn’t pan out.
45 That next weekend hundreds of students milled about in the
quad. I was handed a slender white candle that reminded me of
fencing foil. People kept glancing my way, it seemed to me with
disgust or pity. Right before the service I overheard two students in
front of me talking.
46 “I heard the kid who ran over Gramercy goes to school here.”
47 “Yeah,” his companion replied. “A freshman. Apparently some
pathetic loser.”
48 Hymns were sung. Speakers came up to a makeshift stage and
talked about Russ or Professor G. It was heartfelt, moving, filled with
the inadequate words we use when confronted with death. Some
were amazingly articulate, others spoke badly, but their clichés and
boilerplate emotions were overlooked because of a collective goodwill
and understanding. One person read a poem that somehow felt
familiar, and it was only years later that I realized he had cribbed the
W. H. Auden work from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral.
49 One speaker stood out for me. “I’m a doctor,” he began. “And
last week, on the day that Russell died, I saved a life.” He went on to
recount that if it hadn’t been for the extraordinary work of Russell
Gramercy, he would never have passed his organic chemistry course,
the bane of all premed students. Gramercy had tutored him, made
clear the obscure, gone way above and beyond for him. “It’s a simple
calculus for me. If it wasn’t for Professor Gramercy, I wouldn’t be a
doctor. If I wasn’t a doctor, that patient would not have been saved.
That spared life, and everything good in it, can be toted up to Russ.
NOTICE & NOTE 50 “There are connections in our lives that we’re often not aware of.
WORDS OF THE WISER We’re entwined. We intersect, like chains, or strands of DNA.”
When you notice a wiser character 51 I did not speak at the service.
giving advice to the main 52 By November I had left college. I eventually moved to New York
character, you’ve found a Words
City; it is a place where not driving a car is the norm. My driver’s
of the Wiser signpost.
license expired when I was twenty-one; I did not renew it, nor have I
Notice & Note: Mark the insight ever driven a car again after that day I killed Professor G.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

offered in paragraph 50.

53 Nightmares plagued me for a decade, though they diminished
Infer: What life lesson is given over time. For years I had to wear an orthodontic device because I
here? How might it relate to the ground my teeth in my sleep.
story’s theme?
54 In my early twenties I aimlessly worked boring, dead-end jobs.
Then, when it became clear that I was not going to resume my
education, my father gave me the fifty thousand dollars he claimed he
would have spent on tuition. So I started a small business, a frozen-
yogurt shop in the West Village that I can walk to. It is a modest
success.

206 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 55 I never married. Relationships never seemed to survive the
mo­ment I had to confess to the accident. The fault for these failed
courtships, I’m sure, is mine. For the most part, the women I’ve been
involved with were understanding, compassionate. (Though one
woman got so angry that she slapped me.) But no matter the degree
of their empathy, I always sensed in their eyes a change. In how they empathy
viewed me. (≈m´p∂-th∏) n. the ability to
56 Years ago, at one of my lousy, mind-shriveling jobs, a coworker identify with or understand the
perspective, experiences, or
asked all the people gathered around the break table, “What’s the
motivations of another individual
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Robert Adrian Hillman/Shutterstock

most memorable or important moment of your life?’’ The answers and to comprehend and share
were predictable: When I met my husband; When I gave birth to my another individual’s emotional
daughter. Or humorous: When I felt up Gina Simmons in sixth grade, state.
or It hasn’t happened yet, but it will be when I get fired from this job.
When it was my turn, I was set to lie: It was when the Giants won the
Super Bowl. Instead, I shocked myself by replying, “When I killed a
man.”
57 There was laughter around the table, and my questioner added,
quoting Johnny Cash, “When you shot a man in Reno, just to watch
him die?”
58 “Yeah,” I answered, relieved. Although I knew that, unlike most
people, I actually had a moment in my life that had irrevocably irrevocably
changed me. (∆-r≈v´∂-k∂-bl∏) adv. in a way that is
59 So that was my existence. Constrained, nowhere near having impossible to retract or revoke.

fulfilled a potential. I always thought that there had been more

than one victim that day, though I would never say that aloud. And
certainly not to the family, not to the woman who had whimpered
and sobbed by the side of Beach Road. Nor to her tall, athletic
brother, who had once struck me out.
•••
Entwined 207
 60 In April 2011 the first body was discovered.
61 Russell Gramercy’s widow had sold the lakeside cabin months
earlier. In upstate New York, the small vacation homes that dot the
many lakes are called camps. The Gramercy camp, sheathed with
cedar clapboards, was small, only sixteen by twenty-four, and had a
half loft. It had been in the family for generations. Russell Gramercy
winterized the structure himself early in his marriage. He liked to
go there to unwind, he said, to write academic articles and prepare
lessons and presentations. Except for a week or two in the summer
when he was accompanied by his family, he went to the camp alone.
62 The new owners had no interest in rustic simplicity or outdoor
showers. An architect drew up plans for some garish monstrosity. It
was a backhoe operator digging trenches for the McMansion’s new
septic system that had uncovered the skeleton.
63 (A rumor went around that the new owners, with visions
of construction delays and permit problems, tried to talk the
construction­workers out of reporting the discovery. I’m not sure I
believe this. What is true is that they sued the Gramercy family.)
64 In the weeks after the grisly find, the police dug up eight other
corpses. All but one were identified, and I can reel off the names by
ineffably memory. I find it ineffably sad that the ninth victim could not be
(∆n-≈f´∂-bl∏) adv. in a way named. Had nobody in his short life felt connected enough to report
that cannot be expressed; him missing?
indescribably or unutterably.
65 There were eight male victims and one female. Four of them were
runaways. Two were thought to have been hitchhiking, a boy­friend
and girlfriend, who had been on their way to a bluegrass festival. One
was reported to have been a male hustler at truck stops, though his
parents vehemently deny it. But one of the vic­tims had also been a
National Merit Scholarship winner. So there didn’t really seem to be a
pattern except the youth they had all shared.
66 Forensics teams found traces of dried blood inside the cabin.
Most of it was too degraded, but one sample proved a DNA match
with one of the victims. I’ve heard that incriminating and very
dis­turbing photos were found, though I don’t know for a fact that
they exist. But other objects that had belonged to the victims were
discovered in a hiding place in the cabin.
ANALYZE UNIVERSAL THEMES 67 The conclusions were inescapable, and a grand jury agreed.
Annotate: Mark the sentences The victims had all been murdered by Russell Gramercy. They had
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

that introduce a major plot event been murdered by Russ. By Professor G. By the man I had killed
in paragraph 67. with my car.
Infer: Why is this discovery 68 On the hottest day of the following summer, my phone rang just
significant? as I was about to go to work. “Hi, this is Daria Gramercy. Do you
remember me?”
69 Startled, I replied, “Yes, I remember.”
70 Your parents gave me your number. I hope I’m not disturbing
you,” she said uncertainly.
71 “No you’re not.”

208 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 72 “I’d like to talk with you. About the accident and everything. If Don’t forget to
you don’t mind. I’d prefer in person, but if you’d rather we could do it Notice & Note as you
read the text.
over the phone.”
73 I had been hoping for and dreading this call for decades. We
made plans to meet at a coffeehouse around the corner from her
midtown hotel.
74 Daria had changed from the sexy teenager I had encountered
briefly one fateful day. She had gained considerable weight, I
saw as she entered the Starbucks. And her hair was cut in an
unflattering style and frizzy from the equatorial humidity that day.
Immedi­ately I felt guilty and somehow disloyal for forming these
unkind impressions. Given what she had been through, it was an
achievement just to be walking around at all. I searched her eyes
for anger or recrimination. My entire body seemed clenched with
tension.
75 “Thanks for seeing me,” Daria said, shaking my hand and sitting
down. She took a deep breath and seemed set to start a prepared talk.
76 “I want to apologize to you,” I interrupted. “I never did . . . back
then.”
77 “You sent a sympathy card,” she replied noncommittally.
78 “I wanted to visit your family, but our legal advisers told us not
to. They were afraid of liability.” Legal advisers? Some insurance liability
company guy and my father’s fraternity brother who was the family (lπ-∂-b∆l´∆-t∏) n. the state of being
lawyer? legally obligated or responsible.

79 She nodded. “I understand.”

80 “I wanted to,” I repeated, protesting too much. Then I blurted
out, “Actually, that’s not accurate. I was dreading the visit; there was
nothing I wanted to do less. When my father told me we couldn’t, it
was like I had gotten a reprieve.”
81 Daria gave a knowing sigh. “Believe me, I understand how
you felt.” ANALYZE CHARACTERIZATION
82 And then I let everything out. I told Daria exactly what I Annotate: Mark what the
remembered. Everything: my inattention, the lies about my actual narrator says to Daria in
speed, my creepy, lascivious stares as she comforted her dying paragraph 80.
father. I’m not a Catholic, but I imagine it was like the sacrament of Infer: What does this tell you
confession. “I’m just so very, very sorry,” I ended, and then, to my about the narrator’s character?
horror but yet relief, for the first time since the accident I broke down
and cried.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

83 She gave me a few moments, then said, “It wasn’t your fault. Even
with everything you’ve told me, there was nothing you could have
done to prevent it. You didn’t have time to react. I understand that.”
Daria handed me a tissue.
84 When I had regained my composure, she gave me a rueful smile
and said, “Well, you’ve sort of stolen my thunder. The reason I’m here
is to apologize to you.”
85 Daria had been going to the families of all her father’s known
victims and asking forgiveness. From how she described it, it sounded
a bit like making amends in a twelve-step program. “After I had seen
all the victims’ families, I knew I also needed to talk with you. My

Entwined 209
 father caused so much pain and horror. If I can do anything to lessen
that legacy, then I want to.”
86 We talked for a while. For years I had imagined just this, I told
her. In my daydreams I had talked with her: I had explained, I had
been succored. And remarkably, something like those fantasies had
just happened.
87 Near the end of our conversation, I asked, “How is your brother,
Chris?”
88 She was momentarily taken aback. “Oh, I thought you knew,”
Daria said uncomfortably. “Chris died in 2004.”
89 “I’m so sorry,” I replied, mortified. “How?”
90 “A traffic accident.”
91 I flinched.
92 “He was living in Arizona. It was a one-car accident, late at night.
Alcohol was involved.”
93 I must have seemed shaken.
94 “It had nothing to do with you,” Daria said. “Believe me. If you’re
tempted to see this as some sort of delayed collateral dam­age from
what you did, don’t. My brother had his own demons.”
95 We were silent a moment, then I said, “I went to the memorial
service for your dad at Howland. The one speaker I remember most
was a former student who your father helped become a doc­tor. And
what he said was that our lives are inexplicably entwined. That many
of the good things that the doctor had done could be added up in
your father’s column in this sort of cosmic ledger. I thought about
that when I heard about the . . . incidents.”
ANALYZE UNIVERSAL THEMES 96 “You thought that by killing my dad,” she said gently, “even
Annotate: Mark the sentences in though inadvertently, you had saved other young people from being
paragraphs 96–98 that describe brutally slaughtered . . . Let’s call it what it is.”
how the actions of characters 97 “Once again, it’s not something I’m real proud of. But yeah.”
intersected or affected one 98 “I understand. More completely than you’ll know. And I think
another. you’re right. I think what happened that day did spare others from my
Interpret: How might these father’s . . . evil.”
passages reveal the story’s theme, 99 We stared at one another for a moment, then she stood. There
or message about life? ensued one of the most awkward hugs in the history of farewells.
Then she went out into the street and disappeared.
•••
100 I discovered the tape by a fluke.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

101 For the first time in years’ I returned to Verplanck. A cousin was
getting married. At the rehearsal party at my aunt’s house, a bunch of
my younger cousins were watching videos of their childhood in the
family room. I was barely paying attention: the charms of children
mugging for the camera is quickly lost if you’re not the one doing the
mugging.
102 “Oh, let me show you this one of Barry playing soccer,” the
brother of the groom said to the bride. “He falls right on his face.”
103 Suddenly my aunt strode into the room from the kitchen and
said, “Tim, that’s enough of the videos.” Her tone was brusque.
104 Tim seemed confused. “What?”

210 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 105 Flustered, my aunt said more insistently, “I asked you to do VOCABULARY
something. Turn off the TV. Not all our guests may be as enthralled Context Clues: The word
as you.” brusque in paragraph 103 is
106 Her last words seemed to have some special meaning, one that surrounded by other words in
her son belatedly understood. paragraphs 103–105 that can help
107 “Okay, Mom, sorry.” He darted a glance my way, then looked you determine its meaning.

away, embarrassed. Analyze: Why does the narrator’s

108 It was only an hour later that it clicked. I took my aunt aside and aunt use this tone?
asked. “That videotape of Barry playing soccer. It was taken that day,
wasn’t it?”
109 Pained, she sighed. “I’m sorry. Tim just wasn’t thinking. I could
smack him sometimes.”
110 “I’m not upset,” I assured her. “But I’d like to see that tape. Not
now, not this weekend.”
111 I returned to New York with the DVD transfer of the VHS tape. It
was in my DVD player even before I had taken off my coat.
112 Seven-year-olds are playing soccer. Way to go, Kyle. Way to
go, some woman keeps calling out. Another faint but discernible
conversation is a woman telling a friend about what a jerk her boss is.
And then.
113 A small thunk. The tinny sound of screeching brakes. Oh, my
God, did you see that?
114 The first time I watched the tape, I didn’t really notice the
accident at all. But on the second, I could see the tiny figures in the
upper left corner of the frame. Pedestrians walking, a hazy blue car
approaching. Then one of those figures flying high into the air, over
the car. One detail, however, didn’t quite fit.
115 Obsessively, I watched the tape over and over, at times my face
just inches from the screen. And every time I thought I saw that
troubling blur.
116 You can find almost anything on the Internet. Two days later I
was in Irving Beckstein’s workshop in Astoria, Queens. Beckstein is
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©matimix/Shutterstock

a forensic video analyst. He has worked for the Defense Depart­ment

and often testifies as an expert witness at trials.

Entwined 211
 NOTICE & NOTE 117 Beckstein had cropped and blown up the footage of the accident.
AHA MOMENT “Forget what you see on TV. Our software can’t miraculously sharpen
When you notice a sudden an image so it looks like a thirty-five-millimeter movie. But we can
realization that shifts a character’s
do quite a bit.” He went on to explain what he had done. His words
actions or understanding, you’ve
found an Aha Moment signpost.
seemed well burnished, as if he had given them many times in front
of juries.
Notice & Note: Mark text in
118 Then he played the images for me on a large, sixty-inch monitor.
paragraph 118 that describes
an important realization by the
Though heavily pixilated, it showed Chris Gramercy shoving his
narrator. father into the path of my oncoming car.
Infer: How might this realization
•••
change the narrator’s feelings or
119 Over the years I’ve attended a number of support groups. Most
behavior? of the people there are like me: someone who has caused a fatal
accident. Most have not been charged because it was determined
that they were not at fault. That it was all a tragic accident. A few of
the group members had slightly different stories. One was a police
ANALYZE UNIVERSAL THEMES of­ficer who had been involved in a suicide-by-cop incident. Another
Annotate: Mark what the was a train engineer who ran over and decapitated a suicidal man
police officer says about guilt in who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s who threw himself in
paragraph 119. front of his train. You would think that they would somehow feel less
Analyze: How does his comment guilty. But they didn’t. Maybe, the cop said, it was because it brought
suggest a universal theme? home how vulnerable, how much at the mercy of unseen forces, we
all are.
120 As far as I know, no member of the groups ever was an
unknowing instrument of a murderer. Except me.
121 I did nothing with the information I discovered from the tape.
But a month ago Daria Gramercy called me late at night.
122 “I’ve been thinking about you,” she said after apologizing for
calling. “I somehow feel that we have unfinished business.”
123 “And why is that?” I asked carefully.
124 “I have nothing definite to go on, but my brother may have been
more involved in the accident.”
125 “How?”
126 “I really don’t know. It was just this impression . . . After the
accident, Chris was never really the same.”
127 “Were any of us?”
128 “I remember times when he was drunk—and he was drunk a lot
near the end. He kept coming back to one theme. Was it ever justified
to kill someone? Stupid stuff about would you go back in time to kill
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Hitler. Would I kill my husband to protect my children?” She sighed,

then added plaintively, “My husband is the kindest, gentlest man in
the world.”
129 There was a long silence on the line, then I heard, “When every-
thing came out about my father, Chris’s words gained a different
meaning.”
130 “I’m not sure I follow,” I said, though of course I did. “Are you
saying that Chris somehow caused your father to fall in front of my
car?”
131 “I don’t know what I mean,” she wailed. “I hope to God that’s not
what happened. But I thought you had the right to know.”

212 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 132 I considered what she had told me, then said, ‘‘I really appreciate
your calling me. And your contacting me has helped me in countless ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

ways, so I’m grateful to you. But I can tell you definitely that your Who suffers when a crime
is committed?
brother did not cause your father’s death. I could clearly see them
both, and Chris was a good two or three feet away from him. Your
father stumbled. That image is etched in my mind permanently.” Review your notes and
133 I heard her crying softly and then, “Thank you.” add your thoughts to your
134 Did I do the right thing? I like to think I did, but who knows? Response Log.
135 The nightmares and my obsessive thoughts about that day have
lessened. I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting better.

COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION
Get together with a partner and talk about whether the narrator
did the right thing by not telling Daria what he knew about Chris.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. What do we never learn about the narrator?

A his name

B whether the accident was his fault or not

C why he didn’t go to the funeral

D whether he was speeding or not

2. What does the family video reveal?

A the narrator not paying attention when he hits the professor

B Chris Gramercy pushing his father in front of the car

C the professor purposefully diving in front of the car

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

D Daria warning her father before the narrator hits the professor

3. Which detail best expresses why Professor Gramercy’s crimes are so shocking?

A He was involved in community activities.

B His students felt he went above and beyond for them.

C He often went to his family’s cabin alone.

D His son was troubled.

Test-Taking Strategies

Entwined 213
 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE
1 ANALYZE From what point of view is this story told? Why do you think the writer Review what
decided to tell it from this point of view? you noticed and
noted as you
read the text. Your
2 INFER How would you characterize the narrator? Refer to the graphic organizer you annotations can
filled out as you read the story. Mark the evidence you found that reveals the narrator’s help you answer
character traits. Then, summarize your inferences in the last box of this chart. these questions.

Text Evidence Examples Inferences and Questions

Character’s words and actions

Character’s thoughts and observations

What others say about the character

My inferences about the narrator’s character traits:

3 INTERPRET Why does the author describe the lives of the Gramercys in great detail in
paragraphs 18 and 49 before revealing the shocking truths later in the story?

4 COMPARE Reread paragraphs 53–56. Then, reread paragraphs 96–98. How do the
narrator’s feelings about the accident change throughout the story? Cite evidence from
the text to support your answer.

5 INTERPRET Think about what the main character realizes during the Aha Moment in
paragraphs 117–118. What does he do with this information when Daria calls him at the
end of the story?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 CRITIQUE Do you think the author has created a complex character in the narrator? Is
he a believable character? Explain.

7 EVALUATE What is the theme of this story?

• Review the chart you filled out on the Get Ready page.

• T hink about how the Words of the Wiser in paragraph 50 as well as the comments
in paragraphs 96 and 119 help reveal the theme.

• Write a theme statement. Is the theme a universal one?

214 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding
of the ideas in this lesson.

Social & Emotional Learning

As you write and discuss,
Advice Column be sure to use the
Before the truth about Russell Gramercy comes out, the Academic Vocabulary
words.
narrator of “Entwined” is unable to develop his career
or relationships because he feels guilty about the car capacity
accident. Suppose you are an advice columnist, and you
have received a letter from him. Write a column in which confer
you offer suggestions for how he can better cope with
emerge
this painful experience in his past. Consider

• the extent of the narrator’s responsibility for causing

the accident
generate

trace
• the narrator’s thoughts about why he should feel
guilty or ashamed

• how other characters view his role in the accident

Speaking & Listening

Debate
Participate in a small-group or whole-class
debate in which you discuss whether the
narrator was right to lie to Daria at the end of
Writing the story.
Discussion: Good vs. Evil • Make notes about examples of cases in
which it’s either acceptable or unacceptable
In a small group, discuss whether good
to lie.
acts can offset, or cancel out, evil acts,
and vice versa. • Establish rules for speaking. Will speakers go
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

in order? When will the rest of the group be

Before you meet: able to respond to a speaker’s points?

• Decide what you think the story says

about the question.
• Hold the discussion with your panel. State
your ideas, and listen and respond to the

• Outline thoughts, feelings, and

experiences you want to share.
ideas and opinions of others.

During your discussion, listen and

respond thoughtfully to others’ opinions.

Entwined 215
 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
Answer the questions to show your understanding of the vocabulary
words. Use a dictionary or thesaurus as needed.

negligent empathy ineffably

condolence irrevocably liability

1. If I am negligent, am I responsible or irresponsible? Why?

2. Which would be a condolence: laughing at someone or sending them flowers? Why?

3. If an action is taken irrevocably, can it be reversed, or is it permanent? Why?

4. Which would be more of a liability: buying a coffee or buying a phone? Why?

5. If I show empathy, am I being compassionate or rude? Why?

6. Which would show ineffable sadness: sitting in silence or crying loudly? Why?

Vocabulary Strategy
Context Clues
When you read, you can use context clues to understand unfamiliar
Interactive Vocabulary
words. Context is how a word relates to the overall meaning of a sentence, Lesson: Using Context
paragraph, or piece of writing. Clues

Here are some types of context clues you may find in texts:

Synonyms or Definitions Contrast Examples

The text may provide a definition The text may give an antonym, or The text may list examples of the
or a synonym. contrasting information. word.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Locate these words in the story: sobriety (paragraph 27), rueful
(paragraph 84), and discernible (paragraph 112).

Then use context clues to write definitions for each word. Check your
definitions in a dictionary.

216 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Colons
Writers use colons to add clarity and structure to
their writing. The primary function of a colon is to
introduce an element or a series of elements that
elaborate on what came before the colon.

Use of a Colon Examples from “Entwined”

This example is one of the simpler

Most of the people there are like me: someone
uses of the colon: to provide an
example of something. who has caused a fatal accident.

In this passage, the writer uses three The answers were predictable: When I met my
colons to do the same thing: to husband; When I gave birth to my daughter. Or
provide quotations or examples that
humorous: When I felt up Gina Simmons in sixth
elaborate on his statements.
grade, or It hasn’t happened yet, but it will be when
I get fired from this job. When it was my turn,
I was set to lie: It was when the Giants won the
Super Bowl.

Colons can also be used like

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Doug Grundy/CartoonStock

semicolons to connect two Even though the radio was blaring “Alive,” I could
independent clauses. This is a stylistic also faintly hear children playing: a Pee Wee
choice. He could have made these League soccer match was just beginning.
separate sentences.

When an independent clause follows a colon, should that clause begin

with a capital letter? Experts disagree. If your assignment is to follow a
Interactive Grammar
certain style (for example, APA, MLA, The Chicago Manual of Style), be sure
Lesson: Colons
to look up the rule in that style manual.

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Write two paragraphs summarizing the main events in “Entwined.” Use
colons in at least three places. At least one colon should introduce a list,
and one should introduce a quotation or an independent clause.

Entwined 217
 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
MENTOR TEXT
Who suffers when a

Why Are We crime is committed?

Obsessed with
True Crime?
Informational Text by Laura Hensley

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or more of these activities to start connecting
with the text you’re about to read.

I Couldn’t Look Away NPR’s Serial

Sometimes we are fascinated by events that may trouble Look up this popular podcast and
others. For example, media photos of organized-crime scroll through the different seasons
murders may rivet us. Make a list of other troubling and episodes. Which one seems
events that may grip our attention. most interesting to you? Compare
your ideas with a partner.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock

Crime—On Screen &

In Print
Think of the games, shows,
books, and movies dedicated
to crime stories. With a
partner, list or draw at least
three examples you are
familiar with.

218 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Analyze Main Idea and Details

Writers of informational text often use main ideas and details
to organize their writing. Main ideas are the most important Focus on Genre
concepts the writer wants readers to understand. Details are Informational Text
facts, reasons, and examples that support or explain the main
ideas. The headings in a text often provide clues to the main • conveys factual information about
real people, places, and events
ideas. Use the chart to note main ideas and details you identify
in each section of “Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime?”
• supports ideas with evidence, such
as quotations from experts
• must be evaluated for accuracy and
completeness

Section Heading Main Idea of Section Key Details

Why are we obsessed with true crime?

People feel like detectives

But how does true crime affect our

well-being?

What about emotional health?

When to tune out

Summarize and Paraphrase Texts

When you summarize a text, you tell the writer’s main ideas and leave out most of the
details. When you paraphrase a text, you retell it using different words, but you include both
the main ideas and the details from the writer’s work. In both cases, you avoid adding your
own opinions.

Summarizing and paraphrasing are good ways to check your understanding of what you
have read. They are also useful when you want to cite another writer’s facts or ideas in
your own writing. However, you must be careful not to plagiarize, or use the other writer’s
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

phrasing as if it were your own. The chart below shows an example.

Original Sentence “People have always been interested in true crime, but now that the
genre is having a moment, public interest has soared.”

Plagiarized Sentence People have always liked true crime, but interest has soared in this
time when the genre is having a moment.

Paraphrase Hensley notes that since true crime is everywhere now—in TV

series, podcasts, and books—more people are interested in the
genre than ever before.

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 219

 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of notes a student made about the opening paragraphs
of “Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime?” As you read, mark main ideas in
each section of the article and several details that support each one.

If you’re a fan of true crime, chances are you’ll be binge- could be two main
watching this year’s latest series. ideas of article
But before you devour the latest crime shows, you might
want to consider how consuming hours of disturbing content is
affecting you—and why you can’t stop watching it.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or listening.

emulate

Turn to a partner and talk about the vocabulary words

reputable
you already know. Then, write a brief news bulletin
petition about a real or imaginary crime story, using as many of
the vocabulary words as you can.
exonerate
As you read the selection, use the definitions in the
side column to learn the vocabulary words you don’t

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Jason Butcher/Cultura/Getty Images
visceral
already know.
normalize

Background
Laura Hensley is a lifestyle reporter based in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. With degrees in fashion communication
and journalism, she writes about a range of topics that
include pop culture, health, and women’s issues. She
enjoys watching documentaries and traveling for both
work and pleasure.

220 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Why Are We Obsessed
with True Crime?
Informational Text by Laura Hensley

Find out why we can’t resist true stories about NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
wrongdoing.
margins to make notes
about the text.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Digital Vision/Getty Images

2
I f you’re a fan of true crime, chances are you’ll be binge-watching
this year’s latest series.
But before you devour the latest crime shows, you might want to
consider how consuming hours of disturbing content is affecting
you—and why you can’t stop watching it. SUMMARIZE AND
3 “Bingeing true crime is not that much different from people PARAPHRASE TEXTS
watching a 24-hour news cycle covering a killing spree or a terrorist Annotate: Mark the exact words
attack,” said Jooyoung Lee, an associate professor of sociology at the spoken by Jooyoung Lee in
University of Toronto. paragraph 4.
4 “I think human beings, in general, are just drawn to extreme Interpret: Write a paraphrase of
cases of violence. And when I say drawn to them, I don’t mean Lee’s statement.
that they watch something and hope to emulate it; there’s just this emulate
fascination.” (≈m´y∂-l∑t) v. to imitate in order to
equal or to excel.

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 221

 Why are we obsessed with true crime?
5 People have always been interested in true crime, but now that the
genre is having a moment, public interest has soared.
6 Lee said that in the past, crime shows like America’s Most Wanted
and Unsolved Mysteries were seen as “tabloid television for crime
junkies.” Low-budget re-enactments and low production quality
reputable made the genre seem less reputable.
(r≈p´y∂-t∂-b∂l) adj. having a good 7 But since the birth of NPR’s wildly popular 2014 podcast Serial,
reputation; honorable. the way people view true crime has changed.
8 “It was a flagship moment for the genre,” Lee said of Serial’s
success. “It sort of signalled to the larger world that you can do [true
crime] in a smart way, in a way that conveyed lots of thought, and in
a way that was captivating for an audience.”
9 Since then, with the advent of on-demand TV options, viewers
can watch an entire series in one go.
10 But why do we have this fascination with the dark side of
humanity? One reason is that we’re curious—especially when it
comes to out-of-the-ordinary events.
11 “A good example would be a car accident,” Lee said. “When you’re
driving on the [highway] and see a pile-up and a bunch of wreckage
. . . you have this kind of curiosity as to what happened, even though
you know in all likelihood, it’s a really tragic story.”
12 Another reason? Crime seems exciting—even if it’s dark. The
suspense when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, or being
shocked by an unexpected turn, are tactics that hold our attention.
ANALYZE MAIN IDEA AND
DETAILS
13 “The average viewer or the average reader is somebody who
is intensely compelled and curious about what happened because,
Annotate: Mark the main idea
in a very [basic] way, it’s exciting . . . and it’s also entertaining,” Lee
of the section “People feel like
detectives” (paragraphs 14–17).
said. “It’s the same reason why we watch fights or tune into boxing
Then mark several details that matches.”
support the main idea.

Evaluate: Has the writer

provided enough details to People feel like detectives
support her main idea in this
section? Explain. 14 Plus, Lee said that consuming real-life horror often makes people feel
like they’re part of the story. Looking for clues in a murder show or
falling down an internet rabbit hole digging into a case gives people a
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

sense of purpose outside of being a consumer.

15 After Making a Murderer came out, many viewers who believed
convicted killers Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were innocent
petition formed support groups and began petitioning for their release.
(p∂-t∆sh´∂n) v. to make a formal 16 “Serial and shows like The Jinx empower the audience in some
request, usually in writing. way—even if it’s not really empowering—but they give the illusion of
empowerment because people at home are in this position where they
feel like they can help crack the case, and are an active part of the
investigation,” Lee said.
exonerate 17 “People think that they can help overturn a ruling, exonerate a
(∆g-z≤n´∂-r∑t) v. to free from blame. person, or crack a cold case. That’s exciting to people.”

222 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Don’t forget to
Notice & Note as you
read the text.

But how does true crime affect our

well-being?
18 Even if you’re a huge fan of the genre, you’ve likely experienced some
side effects after watching a show or reading a scary book, like trouble
falling asleep or nightmares. Disturbing content, after all, can affect
your emotional well-being.
19 “Everybody is different,” Lee explained. “Any time you’re
exposing yourself to extreme violence, you always run the risk of
potentially traumatizing yourself. People have to be aware of that, and
listen to their body’s reactions to these kinds of series.”
20 A 2014 study led by researchers at Mount Sinai in New York
found that violent movies affect people’s brains differently. The
study found that people who are more aggressive were “less upset or
nervous than non-aggressive participants” when watching violent
content.
21 This could help explain why some people are more disturbed
than others when it comes to true crime.
Still, Lee said many of us have a “visceral reaction to violence,” visceral
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©fizkes/Shutterstock

22
which is why we are so captivated by the nature of true crime (v∆s´∂r-∂l) adj. arising from
narratives. sudden emotion rather than from
thought.
23 “It signals the fight or flight response,” he said. “Your heart rate
quickens, [but] you feel compelled to keep watching.”

What about our emotional health?

24 While we may have a hard time turning away, watching dark shows
can also desensitize us, Lee said. He pointed out that over-consuming
content that depicts violence—especially against women—runs the
risk of normalizing crime. normalize
25 “It’s this double-edged sword where on one hand, [true-crime (nôr´m∂-lπz) v. to cause something
shows] raise awareness about a serial killer like Ted Bundy1 who previously regarded as abnormal
to be accepted as normal.

1
Ted Bundy: American serial killer who murdered dozens of girls and young women in the
1970s.

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 223

 SUMMARIZE AND targeted young women. But on the other hand . . . when we are so
PARAPHRASE TEXTS used to consuming these images, when lesser forms of violence occur,
Annotate: Mark words that it doesn’t bother us in the same way because we’ve seen the most
indicate the main idea of extreme examples.”
paragraphs 24–25. 26 Lee said that some true-crime series also put an emphasis on the
Summarize: Write a sentence criminal, and pay less attention to victims or their families. This can
that summarizes these two cause people to “romanticize” a killer, for example, and not consider
paragraphs. the communities affected by these crimes.

When to tune out

27 While there’s nothing wrong with watching true-crime shows or
reading books on gruesome events, it’s important to know when to
stop and take a break. If you’re emotionally feeling unwell or having
troubles functioning as usual, you may benefit from a breather.
28 “Now, you can go really deep into a series and consume seven,
eight hours in a row on a topic that has a potentially negative impact
on your mental health,” he said.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: 29 “People have to understand their own limits, and know that if
Who suffers when a crime they’re good after watching an episode or two, then that’s how they
is committed?
should leave it.”

Review your notes and

COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION
add your thoughts to your
Response Log. Why do people like to watch and listen to true crime stories?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB/LightRocket/Getty

Images

224 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. In what way are today’s true-crime stories different from those of the past?

A They are produced more cheaply and sloppily.

B They are available in many forms and media.

C They focus on the dark side of human nature.

D They feature events that are out of the ordinary.

2. This question has two parts. First, answer Part A. Then, answer Part B.
Part A

What is one possible negative effect of true crime stories?

A People feel like part of the investigation and try to crack the case.

B People are fascinated with violence even if they don’t imitate it.

C People can be traumatized physically and emotionally.

D People may binge-watch an entire true-crime series.

Part B

Select two sentences that provide relevant support for the answer in Part A.

A “‘I think human beings, in general, are just drawn to extreme cases of
violence.’” (paragraph 4)

B “The suspense when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, or being
shocked by an unexpected turn, are tactics that hold our attention.”
(paragraph 12)

C “After Making a Murderer came out, many viewers who believed convicted
killers Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey were innocent formed support
groups and began petitioning for their release.” (paragraph 15)

D “Even if you’re a huge fan of the genre, you’ve likely experienced some side
effects after watching a show or reading a scary book, like trouble falling
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

asleep or nightmares.” (paragraph 18)

E “ ‘When we are so used to consuming these images, when lesser forms of

violence occur, it doesn’t bother us in the same way because we’ve seen the
most extreme examples.’ ” (paragraph 25)

Test-Taking Strategies

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 225

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE

1 COMPARE How is binge-watching a fictional true-crime series on TV Review what

similar to following news coverage of a real violent crime? you noticed and
noted as you read
the text. Your
annotations can
2 CITE EVIDENCE Review the notes you took in the chart on page 219.
help you answer
State the main idea of the section “Why are we obsessed with true crime?” these questions.
What are two details that support this main idea?

3 ANALYZE An analogy is a comparison between two things that are alike

in some way. How does the analogy of the car accident in paragraph 11
develop the main idea of this section (paragraphs 5–13)?

4 INFER Find the quoted words in paragraph 8. Why did the writer quote
from this source, and what idea does the quotation support?

5 INTERPRET Read Jooyoung Lee’s quotation in the chart below.

Paraphrase his statement in your own words, and then write a one-
sentence summary of his statement.

Quotation: “It’s this double-edged sword where on one hand, [true-crime shows] raise awareness about
a serial killer like Ted Bundy who targeted young women. But on the other hand . . . when we are so used
to consuming these images, when lesser forms of violence occur, it doesn’t bother us in the same way
because we’ve seen the most extreme examples.” (paragraph 25)

Paraphrase Summary

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

6 EVALUATE Is the entertainment value of true-crime stories worth the

negative effects people may experience from consuming violent content?
Explain your response.

226 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding
of the ideas in this lesson.

Writing
As you write and discuss,
Script a Scary Scene be sure to use the
The author of “Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime?” Academic Vocabulary
words.
explains that people like to be in suspense when viewing
or listening to something. Script a suspenseful short scene capacity
about a crime—imagined or real. It doesn’t have to be violent
or gruesome, but it should be mysterious and keep your confer
audience at the edge of their seats!
emerge

generate

trace

Media
Anatomy of a Crime Show
View or listen to a show or podcast about
crime. Take notes about the episode and how Speaking & Listening
it kept you engaged. True-Crime Bingeing:
• What was the topic? Thumbs Up or Down?
• What details were included? Reread the paragraphs about how true

• What techniques were used to create

mystery or build suspense?
crime affects our well-being. Do you think
young adults should watch or listen to
true crime? Draft an argument to share
• Were other voices included—
eyewitnesses, experts, victims?
with a small group.
1. Outline your argument.
Share your notes with a partner.
2. Include specific examples.
3. Acknowledge and address opposing
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

points of view.

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 227

 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
To show your understanding of the boldfaced vocabulary words, answer
each question. Then, explain your response.

1. Which of the following would you be more likely to emulate: a classmate who is always
in trouble, or an athlete who shows good sportsmanship? Why?

2. Which of the following is more reputable: a tutor who helps you write a good essay, or a
website that offers essays for sale? Why?

3. Which of the following might you petition to change: your relationship with a friend, or a
school rule? Why?

4. Which kind of person might you try to exonerate: a famous serial killer, or a person
wrongly convicted of a crime? Why?

5. Which of the following would cause a visceral response: being asked a complex
question, or seeing an animal hit by a car? Why?

6. Which kinds of behaviors would most people want to normalize: kind and respectful, or
dishonest and unreliable? Why?

Vocabulary Strategy
Verify Word Meanings
When you encounter an unfamiliar word, you can use context clues and your own knowledge
to guess what it means. Then you can verify its meaning in a dictionary or other reference
source. Follow these steps:

• Examine the word. Is it a version of a word you know? Check to see if any parts of the
word—prefix, base word, root, suffix—are familiar to you. Considering the etymology, or
derivation of a word, can help you understand the word as well as the phrase it appears in.

• Look for context clues in the surrounding text.

• Guess what the word means. Then look it up in a dictionary.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

• If the dictionary entry lists several definitions, select the one that fits the context.

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Locate each boldfaced word below in the text. Apply the steps above. Write both
your definition and the one you verify in a dictionary.
Interactive Vocabulary
1. “an associate professor of sociology” (paragraph 3) Lesson: Using Reference
Sources
2. “low-budget re-enactments” (paragraph 6)
3. “captivating for an audience” (paragraph 8)
4. “in all likelihood” (paragraph 11)

228 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Adjective and Adverb Phrases
A phrase is a group of related words that does not contain a subject
and predicate but functions in a sentence as a single part of speech.
An adjective phrase functions as an adjective by modifying a noun or
pronoun. An adverb phrase functions as an adverb by modifying a verb,
an adjective, or an adverb.

The examples in the chart show how Laura Hensley and Jooyoung Lee
Interactive Grammar
used both adjective and adverb phrases to add variety and detail in “Why Lesson: Adjective Phrases
Are We Obsessed with True Crime?” and Adverb Phrases

Examples Explanations

This participial phrase is an adjective phrase—it modifies

“Bingeing true crime is not that much different
the noun news cycle. The phrase explains exactly what
from people watching a 24-hour news cycle kind of news cycle is similar to binge-watching a true-
covering a killing spree or a terrorist attack.” crime series.

Lee said that in the past, crime shows like This prepositional phrase is an adjective phrase that
America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries modifies the noun crime shows. By giving specific
were seen as “tabloid television for crime examples, the writer connects with readers’ prior
junkies.” knowledge of crime shows.

“Serial and shows like The Jinx empower the This prepositional phrase is an adverb phrase—it
audience in some way—even if it’s not really modifies the verb empower. The phrase helps emphasize
empowering—but they give the illusion of the point that viewers are not literally empowered but
empowerment. . . .” feel as if they are.

“People have to understand their own limits, This prepositional phrase is an adverb phrase that
and know that if they’re good after watching an modifies the adjective good. It gives a concrete example
episode or two, then that’s how they should leave of when a viewer might be ready to take a break from
it.” consuming true crime.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Review the news bulletin about a real or imaginary crime story that you
wrote for Expand Your Vocabulary on the Get Ready page, or another
recent piece of writing. Look for places where you could insert phrases
to add detail and interest to your writing. Include at least one adjective
phrase and one adverb phrase. Then share your work with a partner
to discuss how the added phrases affect the clarity or effectiveness of
your writing.

Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 229

 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a
crime is committed?
from
The 57 Bus
Literary Nonfiction by Dashka Slater

Engage Your Brain

If You Didn’t Know Me . . .
Choose one or more of these
If someone didn’t know you but looked at your
activities to start connecting with
social media accounts, what would they learn
the story you are about
about you? What impression would your posts or
to read.
likes on social media leave with someone? Make
a T-chart listing what people might get right
about who you are on one side and what they
might get wrong on the other side.

Dressed as
the Real Me

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Dusan Savic/Shutterstock

What is your ideal
outfit, the one that says
you? Draw yourself in
the clothes that best What Did You Do?
express who you are.
Have you ever witnessed someone being bullied
or otherwise mistreated? With a partner, discuss
at least one incident you either witnessed or
heard about.
• What was the situation?

• If you witnessed or saw it unfold on social

media, did you intervene? Why or why not?

• What was the outcome?

• In retrospect, do you think witnesses should

have acted differently, or brought in others
to put a stop to the mistreatment?

230 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Make Inferences About Characters

Although The 57 Bus is nonfiction, author Dashka Slater uses
techniques of fiction to make individuals she writes about vivid and Focus on Genre
compelling. Readers can make inferences, or logical guesses, based Literary Nonfiction
on her descriptions of people. To make inferences, use details in the
text along with your own experiences.
• Conveys factual information,
ideas, or experiences
As you read, fill in the chart below. An example has been done for you. • Develops insights based on
factual evidence
• Uses literary techniques such as
characterization and nonlinear
narrative

Character Detail or Description What I Already Know My Inference

Sasha’s Tumblr account: It’s possible to feel more Sasha is OK with

“I like parties/I dislike than one way about complicated, conflicting
parties.” something. feelings

Analyze Literary Techniques

Writers use literary techniques, or devices, to achieve their purposes. Dashka
Slater borrows techniques from journalism, fiction, and other genres to create a
fact-based narrative with the drama and pacing of a film or novel. Here are some
techniques she uses:

Techniques from Journalism or Other Nonfiction

•
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

The account consists of factual information supported by evidence.

• Descriptive details enhance factual information.

Techniques from Fiction

• Events may be presented out of chronological order.

• Narrative pacing varies from slow to fast-moving.

• Individuals at the story’s center are developed like fiction characters.

• Dialogue is used to advance the narrative.

As you read, make notes where you see these techniques used. Ask yourself: How
do these techniques influence my attitude toward the people the author describes?

The 57 Bus 231

 Get Ready

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of an inference a student made based on a description
in the text. As you read, highlight details that help you make inferences
about the people in the excerpt.

Today, like most days, Sasha wears a T-shirt, a black fleece Sasha likes to create
jacket, a gray flat cap, and a gauzy white skirt. an individual look—a
personal style.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you
feel comfortable using when speaking or writing.

surreptitiously

divert With a partner, write a short description of a crime

using at least one of the vocabulary words.
vantage point As you read the excerpt from The 57 Bus, use the
definitions in the side column to learn the vocabulary
transpire
words you don’t already know.
callous

Background

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Fernando Aguila

Dashka Slater is an award-winning journalist who has
also written nine books of fiction and nonfiction. Slater’s
true-crime narrative, The 57 Bus, was based on an article
she wrote for the New York Times Magazine in 2015. Slater
says that while she was writing the article “it seemed
clear to me that teenagers would find the characters
compelling and I wanted them to have a chance to
grapple with the complex issues the story raises: issues
about either/or narratives, about race, gender, class,
justice and forgiveness.” You can read the article, “The Fire
on the 57 Bus in Oakland,” at nytimes.com.

232 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 from
The 57 Bus
Literary Nonfiction by Dashka Slater

A bad decision shatters the lives of two teenagers. NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
margins to make notes
about the text.

Monday, November 4, 2013

1
B y four-thirty in the afternoon, the first mad rush of after-school
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Chloe Aftel

passengers has come and gone. What’s left are stragglers and stay­
laters, swiping their bus passes as they climb onto the 57 bus and take
seats among the coming-home workers, the shoppers and errand-
doers, the other students from high schools and middle schools
around the city. The bus is loud but not as loud as sometimes. A few
clusters of kids are shouting and laughing and an older woman at the
front keeps talking to the driver.
2 Dark is coming on. Daylight savings ended yesterday, and now
evening rushes into the place where afternoon used to be. Every-
thing is duskier, sleepier, wintrier now. Passengers look at their
phones or stare through the scratched and grimy windows at the
waning light.
3 Sasha sits near the back. For much of the journey, the teenager
has been reading a paperback copy of Anna Karenina for a class in
Russian literature. Today, like most days, Sasha wears a T-shirt, a
black fleece jacket, a gray flat cap, and a gauzy white skirt. A senior

The 57 Bus 233

 at a small private high school, the teenager identifies as agender—
neither male nor female. As the bus lumbers through town, Sasha
puts down the book and drifts into sleep, skirt draped over the edge
of the seat.
4 A few feet away, three teenage boys are laughing and joking. One
of them, Richard, wears a black hoodie and an orange-billed New
York Knicks hat. A sixteen-year-old junior at Oakland High School,
he’s got hazel eyes and a slow, sweet grin. He stands with his back to
Sasha, gripping a pole for balance.
5 Sasha sleeps as Richard and his companions goof around, play
fighting. Sleeps as Richard’s cousin Lloyd bounds up and down the
surreptitiously aisle flirting with a girl up front. Sleeps as Richard surreptitiously
(sûr-∂p-tΔsh´∂s-lΠ) adv. done by flicks a lighter and touches it to the hem of that gauzy white skirt.
stealthy or secret means. 6 Wait.
7 In a moment, Sasha will wake inside a ball of flame and begin to
scream.
8 In a moment, everything will be set in motion.
ANALYZE LITERARY 9 Taken by ambulance to a San Francisco burn unit, Sasha will
TECHNIQUES spend the next three and a half weeks undergoing multiple surger­ies
Annotate: Mark the sentences to treat second- and third-degree burns running from calf to thigh.
in paragraphs 9–10 where the 10 Arrested at school the following day, Richard will be charged
author reveals what happens to with two felonies, each with a hate-crime clause that will add time
Sasha and Richard.
to his sentence if he is convicted. Citing the severity of the crime,
Analyze: Why do you think the district attorney will charge him as an adult, stripping him of the
she flash forwards to the story’s protections normally given to juveniles. Before the week is out, he
climax? What is the effect on the
will be facing the possibility of life imprisonment.
reader?
11 But none of that has happened yet. For now, both teenagers are
just taking the bus home from school.
12 Surely it’s not too late to stop things from going wrong. There
divert must be some way to wake Sasha. Divert Richard. Get the driver to
(d∆-vûrt´) v. to turn aside from a stop the bus.
course.
13 There must be something you can do.

Tumbling
14 (Adapted from Sasha’s Tumblr page)

Favorite vegetable: bok choy

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

15
Favorite animals: cat and cuttlefish
Favorite type of movie: dream sequences

16 Three best qualities?

Navigation
My friends seem to like me
Purple

17 Of course I like hats

anyone who doesn’t is wrong
18 I like compliments

234 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 I dislike compliments Don’t forget to
19 I like my hair Notice & Note as you
read the text.
I give good hugs

20 I’m good at finding potential puns.

21 If the whole world was listening, I might just MAKE INFERENCES ABOUT
rant about a bunch of things like gender CHARACTERS
wealth inequality Annotate: Mark what Sasha
why school is important would tell the “whole world.”

Infer: What conclusions can you

22 I like parties draw about Sasha’s character and
I dislike parties personality?

23 I don’t really keep track of disappointments.

24 Ideal vacation spot: prob’ly a city with a nice subway

25 Thinking of things to get me? Try this:

A brass airship
A transit map shower curtain
A medieval cloak
A corset with silver buttons
A chiseled chunk of gallium1 that melts in your palm
A dress swirled with the image of a nebula2
A Victorian house on wheels
Tights painted like a mermaid tail

Book of Faces
26 (Pictures of Richard posted on Facebook)

Smiling beside his cousin’s

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©spe/Shutterstock

27
slit-eyed hilarity.

28 Deadpan in ladies’
tortoiseshell sunglasses.

29 At fourteen, in a beanie:
round-faced, bright-eyed.

30 At sixteen: jaw slack, brows raised,

expression asking, What?

31 Soft-eyed on a sofa,
younger brother cuddled on his chest.

1
gallium: a rare metallic element that is liquid near room temperature.
2
nebula: a diffuse cloud of interstellar dust or gas.

The 57 Bus 235

 32 Standing with Skeet, spines straight,
chins up, peas in a pod.

33 And later, beside Skeet’s picture,

wearing a bandanna in tribute.

34 Mirror selfie: hand lodged

in his waistband, not even looking up.

ANALYZE LITERARY 35 None of it captures

TECHNIQUES
how he looks in conversation
Annotate: Mark the words in
lines 27–36 that describe Richard. 36 how his eyes hold your eyes,
Analyze: How does the author seeing you see him.
use this Facebook entry to convey
Richard’s personality?
37 His own secret power:
that paying attention.

4:52 P.M.
vantage point 38 Every AC Transit bus is equipped with cameras that continu-
(v√n´tΔj point) n. a position ously record sound and video from multiple vantage points. The
that allows for a good view of 57 bus was no exception. The cameras recorded Lloyd and Richard
something.
climbing on at the front a little before five p.m. and walking down the
aisle toward the back—Lloyd chubby in a zipped-up black hoodie,
Richard lean in a black hoodie over a white T-shirt and an orange-
billed New York Knicks hat.
39 The bus was a double-length one, two buses fused together like
conjoined twins by an accordion-pleated rubber seam. Most of the
seats were taken. An older woman who wanted to talk to the bus
driver about her route. A mom holding the hand of a little girl in a
pink hoodie. A gaggle of laughing teenage boys.
40 “How’s everything?” the driver asked a middle-aged man as he
slid his bus pass into the machine.
41 “Long day,” the man replied, shaking his head.
42 Richard recognized a boy named Jamal sitting at the back of the
bus and greeted him with a dap.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

43 “Mali B!” Lloyd shouted, following suit.

44 “What’s up, dude?” Jamal was tall and lanky. He wore jeans and a
white hoodie with a thick horizontal black stripe across the shoulders.
His voice was low and thick, faded.
45 As the bus started up again, the two cousins gripped the silver
pole in front of Jamal. Behind them, Sasha slept. A paperback copy of
Anna Karenina lay closed in their3 lap. Their skirt, gauzy and white,
dangled over the edge of the seat.

3
“Their,” “they,” and “them” are the pronouns Sasha identifies with.

236 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 46 It couldn’t have been easy to sleep with Lloyd nearby. He bounced Don’t forget to
up and down trying to make the bus shake, rapped a snippet of the Notice & Note as you
read the text.
song “Started from the Bottom” by Drake, screeched random words
like “Chinchilla!” and “Obituary!” He shouted down the aisle to a girl
he’d noticed when they climbed on board, “Hey! Girl! Excuse me!”
47 A girl in blue basketball shorts turned to look at him.
48 “No, your friend, the light-skinned one.”
49 Jamal pointed at Sasha, whispered, “Look at this dude.”
50 Lloyd turned and looked over his shoulder. He cackled.
51 On the video, you can’t hear what Jamal says as he hands Richard
the lighter. But you can see him take out his iPhone and point it
toward Sasha as if planning to record. Later Richard would say that it
was supposed to be funny, like that prank show on MTV with Ashton
Kutcher, Punk’d. He thought the fabric would smolder for a minute
and then Sasha would wake up and slap it out, startled.
52 “I need a good laugh,” he’d said just after getting on the bus. Now
he showed the lighter to Lloyd and then swung to the opposite side of
the silver pole, closer to Sasha.
53 He flicked the lighter by the hem of Sasha’s skirt. Nothing
happened.
54 Lloyd was still shouting up to the front of the bus.
55 “Hey! Light-skinned girl!”
56 “Light-skinned girl.” Jamal kept repeating what Lloyd said, his
deep voice like an echo from the bottom of a well.
57 Lloyd bounced up the aisle to where the girls were sitting, perch­
ing on the edge of a nearby seat.
58 “Go ahead, you do it,” Jamal said to Richard. Richard flicked the
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: lighter ©Piyawat Nandeenopparit/Shutterstock, burnt

lighter again. Nothing.

59 Rebuffed by the girls, Lloyd returned to his companions, stop­ping
in front of Sasha’s sleeping form to shout an abrupt, parrotlike “Hey!”
60 Sasha stirred, but didn’t wake.
61 “Whoa. You said, ‘Hey!’ ” Jamal echoed. “Screamin’.”
62 Lloyd leaned close and screeched in Jamal’s ear. Richard laughed
and slapped Lloyd’s head.
edge ©Love the wind/Shutterstock

The 57 Bus 237

 63 “Aw, you just broke my neck,” Lloyd yelled.
64 Richard brandished the lighter, pretending to light Lloyd’s sleeve.
He looked at Jamal.
65 “Do it,” Jamal urged.
66 Lloyd danced between them, landing half on Jamal’s lap.
67 “Move! Get off me,” Jamal grumbled. He kept his eyes on Richard,
his phone poised. “You might as well do it,” he said again.
68 Richard slunk back to Sasha, flicked the lighter. Nothing. He
glanced at Jamal, grinned, and flicked the lighter a fourth time.
69 “Back door! Back door!” Lloyd called to the driver, ready for
them to make their escape.
70 The doors opened. Richard leaped off the bus. Lloyd started to
follow. Then he looked back and stopped, transfixed, as Sasha’s skirt
erupted into a sheet of flame. When the doors closed again, he hadn’t
moved.

Fire
71 The next few seconds of the surveillance video are hard to watch.
72 Sasha leaps up, slapping the flaming skirt. The skirt looks
unearthly, impossible, a ball of white fire.
ANALYZE LITERARY 73 “Ow! Ow!” Sasha screams, voice high and terrified. “I’m on fire!
TECHNIQUES I’m on fire!” Their hands snatch at the skirt, shaking it, waving it.
Annotate: Mark the dialogue Specks of flaming fabric swirl through the air. Sasha runs for the door
in paragraph 73, noticing the and finds it closed. They turn, dance in place, screaming.
length of each sentence in the 74 Jamal howls with laughter. Then, as Sasha careens toward him,
paragraph.
he cringes and climbs onto his seat. “He’s on fire!” he yells. “Put him
Analyze: What is the effect of out!”
these short, choppy sentences on 75 Passengers sprint for the exits, shrieking and coughing. “It’s a fire!
the story’s pace?
It’s a fire!” Some of the other kids on the bus are giggling. The bus
is still moving, the driver just starting to register that something is
going on way back at the far end of his vehicle.
76 “I ain’t got time to be playin’ with y’all, man,” he calls over his
shoulder.
77 Near the middle of the bus, two men leap from their seats and
elbow through the press of people trying to escape. One man is short
and balding; the other is taller, with a walrusy mustache and sad
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

basset-hound eyes.
78 “Get down!” the mustached one yells. “Get on the ground!” The
two men don’t know each other, but they work in unison, shoving
Sasha to the floor. The mustached man smothers Sasha’s flaming skirt
with his coat while the balding man stamps out the burning tatters
that flame around them.
79 It’s over in seconds. The driver pulls the bus to the curb. Sasha
scrambles to a standing position, dazed and in shock. “Oh, Lord.”
80 “That boy was on fire, wasn’t he?” a man remarks as Sasha
pushes through the back doors to the sidewalk. Behind him, Sasha’s
mustached rescuer paces the aisle. “Call an ambulance,” he croaks.

238 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 He goes to the door of the bus and calls to Sasha, who roams the Don’t forget to
sidewalk with a cell phone, charred legs. “You need to call an Notice & Note as you
read the text.
ambulance, man.”
81 The girl in the blue basketball shorts calls to Sasha through the
doors of the bus. “Are you okay?”
82 Sasha doesn’t answer.

Watching
83 After he jumped off the bus, Richard strode away with his hands in
his pockets, trying to look casual. Then he heard Sasha’s screams. He
stopped, turned around, went back.
84 He stared at the bus, mouth open.
85 The bus had begun to move again. The driver, still unaware of the
fire, was continuing along his route.
86 Richard ran after the bus. Suddenly, it lurched to the curb. NOTICE & NOTE
Passengers spilled out, yelling and coughing. Another bus, the NL, CONTRASTS AND
had pulled up behind it, and after a moment, Richard turned around CONTRADICTIONS
and climbed on. A few seconds later he got off again and walked back When you notice a contrast
between what you would expect
to where Sasha now paced the sidewalk on bare, charred legs.
and what the character actually
87 He ambled past, snaking his head to stare at Sasha, then turned does, you’ve found a Contrasts
around and walked past Sasha again, still staring. Then Jamal and and Contradictions signpost.
Lloyd got off the 57 and the three of them half walked, half ran to
Notice & Note: Mark what
the other bus. Richard does in paragraph 86.
88 That night, Jasmine4 noticed that Richard seemed sad.
Interpret: What is unexpected
89 “What’s wrong?” she asked.
about this? Why would he act
90 He wouldn’t tell her. this way?

Phone Call
91 The school day was long over at five o’clock, but Karl was still in his
classroom when Sasha called him on his cell phone.
92 “Dad. I need you to come over here right now. I was on the bus
and I got set on fire.”
93 “What?” Karl said. The reception was terrible. “Say it again.”
94 “You have to pick me up and take me to the hospital because
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

someone set me on fire.”

95 Karl was sure he wasn’t hearing right. He walked around his
classroom closing windows and gathering his things. “Wait. Say it
again. You were on the bus and what happened?”
96 “I need to go to the hospital. Now.”
97 And then Karl was running, still on the phone with Sasha, still
asking the same question over and over as his feet carried him block
after block, down one street and up another until he reached the place

4
Jasmine: Richard’s mother.

The 57 Bus 239

 VOCABULARY where Sasha lay on the sidewalk in their underwear, shivering and
Use Affixes: The word hyperventilating. “Tell me again. What happened?”
hyperventilating contains the 98 Most of the passengers had dispersed by now, but a few lingered
Latin root ventilate, meaning “to with the driver on the sidewalk beside the empty bus. One of them,
inhale or exhale.” The prefix hyper- a teenage girl, had called her mother, who had called 911. The girl’s
means “over.” The suffix -ing means
mother arrived before the ambulance did. She stood with her arm
“action or process.”
around her daughter as Karl called Debbie and told her there had
Analyze: Why would Sasha be been an accident.
hyperventilating at this moment?
99 When Debbie got there, she thought Sasha must have fallen in
mud, because why else would their legs have those black splotches?
And then she understood and began to sob.
100 “Well,” Sasha said. “It came true. What you were always worried
MAKE INFERENCES ABOUT about.”
CHARACTERS 101 The ambulance took a long time to arrive. The police, on the
Analyze: Mark what Sasha says other hand, came right away.
in paragraph 100 when Debbie 102 “Do you know who did this to you?” the officers kept asking
arrives. Sasha.
Infer: What have Sasha’s parents 103 “No.” Sasha’s teeth were chattering. “I was asleep.”
been worried about? 104 They had never been so cold. Their legs were naked to the
November chill. More than naked—skinless, exposed. Karl took off
the outback hat he always wore and used it to shield Sasha’s crotch
from the eyes of passersby.
105 “Don’t you have anything to keep him warm?” Debbie asked the
cops, forgetting all about Sasha’s pronouns. A police officer brought a
sheet of yellow plastic from the squad car—the kind usually used for
covering corpses. Debbie didn’t want to put it over the open wounds
on Sasha’s legs, so she wrapped it around their shoulders.
106 At last, after maybe forty-five minutes, the ambulance arrived.
Paramedics loaded Sasha onto a gurney and hooked up an IV.
Warm fluids flowed into Sasha’s veins. Morphine. The pain and cold
receded. They were safe. Alive. Everything would be okay.
107 Karl climbed in the front of the ambulance that took Sasha to the
hospital. There wasn’t room for Debbie. She stood on the sidewalk
and wept as they drove away. Everyone had left except the teenage girl
and her mother.
108 “They did it because he was wearing a skirt!” Debbie sobbed.
109 Together, the girl and her mother wrapped Debbie in their arms.
“That’s no reason,” they said.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

The Interview, Part 1

110 When Richard arrived at the police station on the day of his arrest,
the officers placed him in interview room 202 and instructed him to
remove his shoelaces, belt, bandanna, and the cord from his hoodie.
Then they left him there.
111 The room was small and shabby, containing only a rectangular
table and three chairs with blue plastic seats. The plaster was pitted
and peeling—pieces littered the floor as if someone had recently

240 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 punched the wall and no one had bothered sweeping up afterward. Don’t forget to
Richard leaned forward and rested his forehead on the edge of the Notice & Note as you
read the text.
table. Minutes ticked by. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with two
fingers. Leaned back in the chair and stared at the floor. Leaned
forward with his chin resting on his arms. Cradled his head in his
hand. Sat up and rested his chin in his palms. Ten minutes went by.
Then twenty. Thirty.
112 After an hour an officer peeked in to hand him a bag lunch.
He unpacked it: a soda, a turkey sandwich, a bag of SunChips. He
smoothed the paper bag flat and placed the sandwich on top. Then he
folded his hands and bowed his head. He crossed himself three times.
Then he ate the sandwich.
113 He had his head down on the table when Officers Anwawn Jones
and Jason Anderson came in, two hours and nineteen minutes after
he’d first been placed in the room. They moved him into the center
seat and settled themselves on either side of him.
114 “You didn’t eat all your chips, man?” Officer Jones asked. He was
tall and African American, with a shaved head, glasses, and an easy,
sympathetic manner.
115 “I was getting a little stomachache,” Richard said.
116 The officers assured him that they wanted to keep things relaxed.
They asked about Richard’s life—where he lived, what sports he
played. “How are you doing in school?” Officer Jones asked.
117 “I was doing okay,” Richard admitted. “But then it started falling MAKE INFERENCES ABOUT
off. The school’s not good for me. There’s too many distractions. I CHARACTERS
need to go to a smaller environment where I can focus.” Annotate: Mark details in
118 “A lot of kids wouldn’t understand that,” Officer Jones said, paragraphs 117–129 that describe
nodding. “I had the same issue when I was younger.” Richard’s recent experiences and
his reaction to them.
119 “Any girlfriend right now?” asked Officer Anderson. He was
white and heavyset, and though he smiled a lot, his friendliness Draw Conclusions: What new
seemed forced. inferences can we make about
Richard based on these details?
120 “I’ve been looking,” Richard said.
121 “Looking?” Anderson grinned. “On the prowl?”
122 “It’s not looking too good,” Richard said.
123 “Were there girls up in Redding?” Anderson asked. “They cool?”
124 Richard looked puzzled. He’d been in a group home5 up there, he
explained, and hadn’t been allowed to mix with girls.
125 Jones sat with one hand resting on his knee, the other on his
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

writing pad. “Did you learn something in the group home? Did you
learn some important lessons, being away from your family?”
126 “It was hard,” Richard admitted. “It took me actually a while. And
then I was doing good. And then my best friend since forever, my
best friend ever, he passed. And then I had a little breakdown.”
127 “What happened to your friend?” Jones asked.
128 “He was murdered.”
129 As the conversation continued, Richard was candid, almost
confiding. He told them about getting robbed, about how he’d been

5
group home: a small supervised residential facility.

The 57 Bus 241

 set up by someone he’d called a friend. “I have trust issues right now,”
he told the officers.
130 “Well, here’s the deal,” Officer Jones said at last. “I’m going to
explain to you why you’re in here. We have some questions we wanted
to ask you. So we can get your side of the story, your version of what
transpire transpired. But before we get into that, I need to read you your
(tr√n-spπr´) v. to come about or rights.”
happen.

The Interview, Part 2

131 “You have a pretty good memory, right?” Officer Jones asked when
he finished reading Richard his rights. “Give me the rundown of what
you were doing, say, yesterday, after, say, school. From the time school
got out till, say, about eight to nine o’clock at night.” Richard told him
about Lloyd meeting him at the gate at the end of the school day and
about going with him to get a phone from someone, a process that
had taken close to two hours. Then he described getting on the bus
and how there was a man on the bus wearing a skirt. He’d just gotten
off the 57 bus to get the express bus, he said, when he heard screams
and ran back. When they opened the door to the bus, he saw that the
man’s skirt was on fire.
132 “What do you think about dudes who dress up in skirts?” Jones asked.
133 “I’m not with that,” Richard said. “I wouldn’t say that I hate gay
people, but I’m very homophobic.”
134 Jones nodded. “Okay. Why would you call yourself homophobic?’’
135 “I don’t have no problem with somebody if they like men. But like
if you do too much? Nobody cares, really.”
136 “Do too much?”
137 “Taking it to the next level,” Richard explained.
138 Jones asked for an example of the next level.
139 “Cross-dressing and like—some people, like they try to make
everybody know that they are that and they try to do too much and—
it’s just a lot.”
140 Jones spun his pencil in circles on his notepad, like the spinner
for a board game. “A lot of people share the same views,” he said.
“People who display stuff outwardly for everybody to see.”
141 Then he asked Richard to go through the events on the bus again.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

142 “I think there’s a couple parts where you haven’t been completely
honest with us,” he said when Richard finished. “You’re a good kid. I
like people to be honest with me. We’re going to be honest with you. I
expect people to be honest with me.”
143 He asked Richard to describe what he and Lloyd and Jamal
had been wearing on the bus the day before. Then he slid some
photographs across the table.
144 Richard. Lloyd. Jamal.
145 Richard picked them up. Looked them over.

242 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 146 “It’s pretty obvious we have some pictures,” Jones said, tucking
the pictures under his notebook. “And mind you, these are not still
pictures. These are pictures from video.”
147 “Both of the buses you were on, they have audio and video
cameras,” Anderson added. “With that in mind, I want you to take
a quick second and I want you to rethink the story that you told us.
And I want you to tell us what really happened.
148 “You’re not a bad kid,” Anderson said. “Sometimes we make NOTICE & NOTE
decisions that are not the best decisions. Keeping in mind that you WORDS OF THE WISER
know we have video, and the video shows everything that happened Words of the Wiser are insights
on that bus. Everything. Right now is a time in your life when you’ve or advice about life offered to the
got to decide, am I going to take responsibility for my actions? Am I narrator.

going to be honest? Because that dude on the bus whose skirt caught Notice & Note: Mark Officer
on fire got burned pretty good.” Anderson’s advice to Richard.
149 “Can I see the video?” Richard asked. Predict: How might this advice
affect what happens to Richard in
the coming weeks?

The Interview, Part 3

150 They only showed him a short snippet of the video, but it was
enough. Richard slumped in his chair, one hand shoved in his pocket.
151 “Why would you set that dress on fire?” Officer Anderson asked.
152 “Being stupid.” Richard’s voice was low.
153 “What was going through your mind?”
154 “Nothin’.”
155 “Have you done this before?”
156 “No.”
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: leg ©Martin Gstoehl/Shutterstock, burnt edge ©Love

157 “What would even remotely make you think about setting
something on fire like that—someone’s clothing?” Anderson
persisted. “That dude got seriously burned. It’s not like he went home.
He’s awaiting surgery at a San Francisco burn center right now. He
got burned real bad. What was going through your mind when you
decided to light that dress on fire?”
158 “Nothing.” It was a whisper now.
159 “Was it because the dude was wearing a dress? Did you have a
problem with him?”
160 “I don’t know.”
161 “People do things for a reason,” the officer said. “We’ve all made
decisions in life that may not have been the best choice to make at a
given time. What we’re trying to figure out is why this happened.”
162 “I’m homophobic,” Richard said at last. “I don’t like gay people.”
163 “Really? And you had a problem seeing him on the bus?”
the wind/Shutterstock

164 “I don’t know what was going through my head,” Richard said. “I
just reacted.”
165 “Did Jamal or your cousin Lloyd tell you to do it?”
166 “No.”
167 “I know you said you didn’t know what was going through your
mind,” Officer Jones said. “But did you get angry because he’s a gay
dude in a skirt, not just being gay but ‘doing too much’?”

The 57 Bus 243

 ANALYZE LITERARY 168 “Actually, I really didn’t know that his skirt was going to do that,
TECHNIQUES I didn’t know that it was going to catch like that,” Richard blurted. “It
Annotate: Mark the sentence was, like, a little flame. I thought it was just going to go out.”
in paragraph 168 where Richard 169 But it was too late to backpedal. On the charging documents,
seems to change his reason for Officer Jones wrote in block capitals, DURING SUSP INTERVIEW,
setting Sasha’s skirt on fire.
THE SUSP STATED HE DID IT BECAUSE HE WAS HOMOPHOBIC.
Analyze: How do the officers’
questions lead Richard to change
his story?
Charges
170 Two days after Richard’s arrest, the district attorney’s office released
his name to the media. He was being charged as an adult, which
meant he no longer had the protections given to juveniles, one of
which is anonymity. They charged him with two felonies: “aggravated
mayhem” and “assault with intent to cause great bodily injury.”
Each charge also contained a hate-crime clause that would increase
Richard’s sentence by an additional one to three years in state
prison. If convicted, he faced a maximum sentence of life in prison,
a punishment he would never have faced if he had been charged as a
juvenile.
171 “[Richard ——’s] violent and senseless criminal conduct resulted
in severe and traumatic injuries to a young and entirely innocent
victim,” Alameda County district attorney Nancy O’Malley said. “The
callous intentional and callous nature of the crime is shocking and will not be
(k√l´∂s) adj. emotionally tolerated in our community.”
hardened; unfeeling. 172 Lloyd and Jamal were never interviewed, arrested, or charged.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: eyes ©sasha2109/Shutterstock, burnt edge ©Love the
wind/Shutterstock

244 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a crime
How do the events in this narrative relate to the unit’s Essential
is committed?
Question: Who suffers when a crime is committed?

Review your notes and

add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. How do the officers determine who set Sasha’s skirt on fire?

A The bus driver tells them.

B Sasha identifies the attacker.

C They have a video recording.

D Other passengers identify Richard.

2. Why is Richard charged with hate crimes?

A He committed the offense with two other young men.

B He told the police officers he was homophobic.

C He hoped Sasha would be severely injured.

D He had a prior criminal record.

3. Which two events does Richard mention to explain his “trust issues”?
A He has been in a group home.

B His mother abandoned him as a child.

C He was recently robbed.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

D He had been falsely arrested.

E His best friend was murdered.

Test-Taking Strategies

The 57 Bus 245

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.

1 DRAW CONCLUSIONS Review the chart you filled out on the Get
NOTICE & NOTE
Ready page. Based on details the author provides and your inferences,
Review what
write character summaries of Sasha and Richard. Which one do you think
you noticed and
you “know” better? Why? noted as you read
the text. Your
annotations can
2 ANALYZE Identify a Contrast and Contradiction you noticed for help you answer
each of the main characters, Sasha and Richard. Why do you think these questions.
each character acted or felt in a way that was different from what you
expected?

3 ANALYZE Identify three examples of the author’s use of literary

techniques, and explain how each supports Dashka Slater’s purposes
for writing.

4 EVALUATE Richard is charged with hate crimes, although he claims he

was just trying to pull a funny prank. Yet either way, Sasha is seriously
injured. Should Richard’s motivation make a difference in how his actions
are judged? Explain the reasons for your opinion.

5 INFER Reread paragraph 162, then paragraphs 164–168. What

differences do you notice between the explanations Richard gives for the
attack on Sasha? How do you explain these different statements?

6 SYNTHESIZE Days after the incident on the 57 bus, Richard wrote two
letters to Sasha. Here is part of the second letter:

I am not a thug, gangster, hoodlum, nor monster. Im a young

African American male who’s made a terrible mistake. Not only
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

did I hurt you but I hurt your family & friends and also my family
& friends for I have brought shame to them and our country and I
shall be punished which is going to be hard for me because I’m not
made to be incarcerated.

How do Richard’s comments relate to the Essential Question, Who suffers

when a crime is committed?

246 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding
of the ideas in this lesson.

Writing
As you write and discuss,
Hate-Crime Factsheet be sure to use the
Richard is charged with two felonies, each of which contains a Academic Vocabulary
words.
hate-crime clause. What is a hate crime? Research information about
hate crimes on the U.S. Department of Justice website. Then review capacity
two or three instances where individuals were convicted of hate
crimes. Prepare a factsheet based on your findings and your own confer
observations. Include the following information:
emerge
• Legal definition
generate
• Summary of one hate crime you read about: What was
the incident and who was involved? What were the legal trace
consequences for the person(s) convicted?

• Was there any kind of restitution for victims or families?

• Your thoughts and impressions, including why hate crimes are

seen as especially vicious

Be sure to cite your sources. Present your factsheet to the class, or

publish it in the form of a blog.

Social & Emotional Learning

Small-Group Discussion
Media
How can we, as a society, better ensure that
Graphic Adaptation
no one is attacked or mistreated because of
Reread paragraphs 150–169, where Richard is prejudice, stereotypes, or bias? What needs to
questioned by the police. What does the author change so that everyone’s rights are respected
want you to know that she doesn’t explicitly and protected?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

say? Create a graphic adaptation of the scene.

With a small group, brainstorm ideas and
Focus on facial expressions and body language
propose solutions.
to accurately portray the subtleties the author
alludes to. • If disagreements arise, determine how they
will be handled.

• Ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

• Summarize your group’s conclusions.

• Reflect on how your group was able to work

together.

The 57 Bus 247

 Respond

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
Use your understanding of the vocabulary words to answer each question.

surreptitiously divert vantage point transpire callous

1. If an action is callous, is it sensitive or heartless? Why?

2. Which action would a person do surreptitiously: Give a gift, or steal from a tip jar?
Explain.

3. If I divert the conversation, do we stay on the same topic, or move to another?

4. When the friends discuss what will transpire after school today, what will they talk
about?

5. If I can see the whole soccer field from my seat, do I have a good vantage point? Explain.

Vocabulary Strategy
Affixes Interactive Vocabulary
Affixes, or word parts that attach to a word before or after the root, Lesson: Common Roots,
Prefixes, and Suffixes
include prefixes and suffixes. Knowing the meaning of affixes helps to
understand technical or discipline-based vocabulary. The word inequality
contains the Latin prefix in-, which means “not.” Here are other examples:

Affix Meaning Example

a- Greek prefix meaning “without” agender

-ion Latin suffix meaning “action” or “process” reception

para- Greek prefix meaning “beside” paramedic

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Follow these steps for each example word in the chart.
1. Define the word using the meaning of the affix.
2. Use a print or online resource, such as a technical dictionary or a
glossary, to clarify or validate the definition.
3. Use the word in a sentence that accurately reflects its meaning.

248 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Watch Your Language!

Sentence Variety
Author Dashka Slater varies her style by using long sentences, short
sentences, and even sentence fragments. Notice how this long sentence
contains several facts in one clear statement.

When Richard arrived at the police station on the day of his

arrest, the officers placed him in interview room 202 and
instructed him to remove his shoelaces, belt, bandanna, and the
cord from his hoodie.

Short sentences can add drama by highlighting a fast-moving sequence

of events.

“Ow! Ow!” Sasha screams, voice high and terrified. “I’m on fire!
I’m on fire!” Their hands snatch at the skirt, shaking it, waving
it. Specks of flaming fabric swirl through the air. Sasha runs
for the door and finds it closed. They turn, dance in place,
screaming.

Fragments are complete thoughts but often lack subjects or predicates.

Notice how the short sentences and fragments in this passage convey
both the drama of the situation and the relief Sasha feels:

Warm fluids flowed into Sasha’s veins. Morphine. The pain and
cold receded. They were safe. Alive. Everything would be okay.

Interactive Grammar
Practice: Sentence
Structure
PRACTICE AND APPLY
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Write a short passage about a part of The 57 Bus excerpt that interests you.
Vary the length of your sentences; try adding a fragment.

Share your writing with a partner and discuss how you incorporated
variety into your writing by varying sentence length.

The 57 Bus 249

 Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a

Gift-Wrapped crime is committed?

Fathers
Poem by Eduardo (Echo) Martinez

Engage Your Brain

Bonds Between Us
Choose one or more of these activities to start
Our relationships with family members and
connecting with the poem you’re about to read.
friends often change over time. Freewrite
about how your relationship with one
friend or relative has evolved since you were
younger. What changed—and why?

As Seen on TV
How are interactions between prison
inmates and their visitors typically
depicted on television or in movies? In

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Giles Clarke/Getty Images
a small group, discuss aspects such as
Like One, Unlike Another
• who visits
Think of the important adults in your life. To whom
• how visits take place (telephone,
in person) and for how long
are you most similar? From whom are you most
different? Make a list of similarities and differences.
• degree of physical separation

• conversation topics

• typical mood or tone

250 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Get Ready

Make Inferences About Theme

Woven into almost any work of literature, including poetry, is theme—an
important message about life experience, human nature, and the world.
Themes are rarely stated outright. Instead, readers must find clues about
Focus on Genre
theme within the text. Such clues can be used to make inferences, or
Poetry
logical guesses supported by evidence. Making inferences about theme
will help you understand the texts you read. • uses figurative language,
including personification,
Here are some other tips to help you infer theme: simile, and metaphor

• Pay attention to figurative language, or language that conveys

meaning beyond the literal meaning of words.
• creates rhythm using line
breaks, rhyme, and alliteration
• includes imagery that appeals
• Identify imagery—descriptive words and phrases that appeal to one
or more of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch).
to the senses and expresses
emotions
Imagery may also suggest theme. • expresses a theme, or the

• Note recurring images or ideas, as they may point to a theme.

Remember that a poem may have one or more themes.
author’s message about life

As you read, use the chart to record words, phrases, and lines from the poem
that may indicate theme. Use these details combined with what you already
know to make inferences about theme. An example has been provided.

Evidence from the Poem What I Already Know Inference About Theme

“you were there . . . / but Separation from a loved

gone . . .” (lines 1–2) loss, abandonment
child is painful
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Gift-Wrapped Fathers 251

 Get Ready

Paraphrase Texts
Poems and other texts often present complex ideas or events.
Paraphrasing is a skill that can help you better understand a text.

When you paraphrase a text, you restate each key idea and detail in
your own words. Paraphrasing helps you clarify the author’s meaning
because you must understand it before you can rephrase it. An effective
paraphrase maintains both the author’s meaning and the logical order in
which the ideas are presented.

As you read the poem:

• Paraphrase every few lines.

• Pay special attention to imagery.

• Review your paraphrases for key ideas and details.

• Write a theme statement based on your paraphrases.

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of notes a student made about several lines in “Gift-
Wrapped Fathers.” As you read, mark details that suggest a theme.

you know, the scene you always view in jail house flicks Prison seems lonely
palm pressed to palm is true and sad.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Luis Fernando Salazar/Exchange for Change
what they don’t show you is the Plexi-glass aftermath
your reflection on the opposite side

Background
In 2019, Eduardo (Echo) Martinez became the Inaugural
Luiz A. Hernandez Florida Prison Poet Laureate. The honorary
position is awarded to a prisoner poet by the organizations
Exchange for Change, which teaches writing to prisoners in
South Florida, and the O, Miami Poetry Festival, which offers
the people of Miami-Dade County opportunities to engage
with poetry. Martinez’s mission involves “increasing visibility
of Florida’s prison population; promoting rehabilitation
through the arts; and asserting the basic humanity of all
living beings.”

In an interview with the advocacy organization PEN America,

Martinez said of his position as prison poet laureate, “My
success is my words escaping this place.”

252 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Gift-Wrapped
Fathers
Poem by Eduardo (Echo) Martinez

An imprisoned parent struggles to maintain NOTICE & NOTE

As you read, use the side
a bond with his son.
margins to make notes
about the text.
you were there for his cute banana Gerber gibberish
but gone before words cartwheeled off his tongue
you held him up in your arms
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (t) ©Cultura Creative/Alamy; (c) ©GCapture/

and showed him off to the world like Simba

5 Hakuna Matata days
before you fell like timber Close Read Screencast
he made a convenience store out of your heart Listen to a modeled close
open all night eyes read of this text.
baby monitor ears by the bedside
10 alert and on patrol to any sound
one minute microwave milk runs
wrist drop temperature checks
proud diaper changes
then baby wiped your own tears when the chains came
Shutterstock; (b) ©advertorial/Shutterstock

15 while he was being potty-trained

you paced in pain inside a cemented port-a-potty
two syllables of a baby’s vocab
“PAPI”
traveling through a sour tapped phone line
20 you know, the scene you always view in jail house flicks
palm pressed to palm is true
what they don’t show you is the Plexi-glass aftermath
your reflection on the opposite side
place a hand on a mirror’s glass

Gift-Wrapped Fathers 253

 25 pretend it’s skin and try not to cry
PARAPHRASE TEXTS by the time you’re convicted and sentenced to prison
Annotate: Read lines 26–30. you’ve missed his first step and birthdays
Mark the words that suggest the he’s a toddler now
father in prison is thinking about and you’re still studying
his own childhood and father. 30 to be a better father than the one you had
Analyze: Paraphrase lines 26–30. scared to answer your own questions
Why is the speaker mentioning his while piggy backin’ a mocking Orangutan
father at this point in the poem? one wearing a loud black market Rolex with a bootleg tick1
like a backpack bomb biting your shoulders
35 you become a terrorist to your emotions
terrorized by self-inflicted “what-if ’s”
praying to one day
see your son rise
then your son set
40 but these cell blocks pull pieces from your soul
like Lego blocks every time your visit finishes
playing chicken with a dim light through tunnel vision
as you sway your way back towards a cage
where you’ll lay and replay every detail
MAKE INFERENCES ABOUT 45 you’ve captured during the 5 hours
THEME you’ve waited 6 months for
Annotate: Mark the words as the only people that really love you
in lines 45–50 that refer to the make a quiet 7 hour ride back home to a house
passage of time. that once was alive with your potential, now it’s haunted
Infer: What is the significance of 50 by each visit he’s grown inches
these references to time? “Papi” is now “Dad”
yet you still talk to him in lullaby
the natural life kind
where good-bye is a common thing
55 some will portray a portrait of you as a bad guy
so you try not to be the bad guy
as you build a bond over a 15 minute collect call
while another man pretends to be his father
not cause he loves your son
60 but out of spite cause he looks like you
even down talks to you
so baby boy doesn’t look up to you
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

for birthdays and holidays

he receives your gifts of apologies
65 so many of them that he no longer opens them
sometimes, he hugs you like a homeboy
maybe cause he’s tired of you saying
that one day, you’ll be home boy
another Lego block removed

1
black market Rolex with a bootleg tick: Black market refers to an illegal trade of goods,
such as items that have been stolen; Rolex is a brand of expensive wristwatch, usually of
the analog type that makes a ticking sound. Bootleg refers to illegally produced goods, in
this case, perhaps a fake Rolex.

254 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 70 another tick terrorizing emotion
another Simba grown without his Mufasa ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a crime
Father’s day hurts
is committed?
so you write in second person
cause you feel like that’s the kind of father you’ve been
75 cause you never should have been here in the first place Review your notes and
but with him add your thoughts to your
just another father gift-wrapped in sorry Response Log.
hoping
his son opens up to him

COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION
When did you figure out the speaker is a father in prison? With a
partner, go back and find the clues in the poem.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on the Analyze the Text
section on the following page.

1. Which description best expresses the father’s attitude toward his infant son in
lines 1–13?

A fearful, wary, ashamed

B delighted, proud, attentive

C distant, cold, threatening

D curious, confident, calm

2. Select two sentences that show how the imprisoned father tries to connect with
his son.
A He has prison visits with his son.

B He asks for advice about raising a son.

C He attends his son’s birthday parties.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

D He calls his son and sends him gifts.

E He tells his son to call him “Papi.”

3. By the end of the poem, the father expresses hope that —

A his son will visit him more often

B his son will learn to love his stepfather

C he can raise another child someday

D his son will learn to trust him

Test-Taking Strategies

Gift-Wrapped Fathers 255

 Respond

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.

1 INTERPRET Reread lines 1–6. How does the poet use imagery to
describe the father’s attitude toward his baby? NOTICE & NOTE

Review what
you noticed and
2 EVALUATE What does the poet achieve by introducing and developing noted as you read
the image of a convenience store in lines 7–13? the text. Your
annotations can
help you answer
3 COMPARE Reread lines 14–19. How does this section compare to lines these questions.
7–13? What shift has occurred in the father’s relationship to his son?

4 INFER Paraphrase lines 1–19 of the poem. What details in the passage
help you understand the father’s emotions?

My Paraphrase Details that Reveal the Father’s Emotions

5 DRAW CONCLUSIONS Reread lines 55–65. What do the unopened “gifts

of apologies” (line 64) say about the relationship between father and son?

6 SYNTHESIZE Review the notes you took in the chart on the Get Ready
page. Use your inferences to create two or more theme statements—
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

messages from the poem about life or human nature. Write at least one
theme statement in the chart.

Theme Statements

256 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY

 Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding
of the ideas in this lesson.

Writing
As you write and discuss,
Future-Tense Letter be sure to use the
Imagine you are the imprisoned father writing a letter to your son, Academic Vocabulary
words.
who is now a teenager. What do you want and need to say to him?
Possible topics: capacity

• the challenges and disappointments of fatherhood behind bars

confer
• lessons learned in prison
emerge
• hopes for the future

• expectations for your son generate

Think about the tone you want your letter to convey, and its overall trace
message. Exchange letters with a classmate and discuss each letter’s
effectiveness.

Research
White Paper: Prison Reforms
Media
Do research on the prison reform movement
Create a Playlist
in the United States and around the world.
Find songs that you think connect to the themes Choose one innovation—for example,
in “Gift-Wrapped Fathers.” Create a playlist and programs that pair inmates with animals, or
publish the list online with links others can use to that teach barista skills for post-prison work
listen to the songs. Explain why you chose each in coffee shops. Summarize your findings in
song and how it connects to the poem. a multimedia presentation to share with the
prison’s board of directors (or your classmates).

• Describe the program and where it has

been tested.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

• Report results: In what ways has the

program been a success? Are changes
planned?

• Present charts and statistics if you have

them, along with photos of inmate
participants.

• Like a good researcher, cite your sources.

Gift-Wrapped Fathers 257

 Collaborate ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a

& Compare
crime is committed?

Compare Accounts
You are about to listen to a podcast and read a news article about tragic
events in one small town. As you explore the two media accounts, notice
the perspectives—points of view—each account presents. Then, think
about how these media accounts help us picture the people and events
by explaining what took place and why.

B
A

Unsolved
Bully /PRX “Vigilante
Murder in ”
Radiotopia

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©Larry W. Smith/Stringer/Getty Images;
m
Podcast fro

page 261 Heartland the

N ews Article by
C.M. Frank
ie
pages 267–
271

After you have compared the two media accounts, you will
collaborate with a small group to create and present your own
podcast or news article about the events described. You will
follow these steps:

•
(r) ©AP Images

Plan your podcast or news article

• Create a draft

• Prepare for sharing

• Share and discuss

258 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A Get Ready

MEDIA

Bully
Podcast from Radiotopia/PRX

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start connecting
with the podcast you’re about to listen to.

Mob Mentality
In the podcast you are about to listen to, a
crime is committed in broad daylight with
multiple witnesses. Yet no one was charged
with the crime. With a partner, talk about Word Association
other instances reported in the media where
What do you think of when you hear the word
a group of people denied knowledge of an
bully? Draw or describe your thoughts below.
event they must have witnessed. What might
motivate people to keep quiet, or not get
involved?
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (t) ©igor_kell/Adobe Stock;

Background
Radiotopia/PRX is a network of podcasts; that is, a collection
of audio shows that people can listen to on electronic devices.
The podcast you are about to hear, “Bully,” was produced for the
podcast series Criminal, which Radiotopia/PRX makes available for
listeners. Criminal is created by a team of media professionals who
(b) ©Shutterstock

make podcasts about true crimes—“stories of people who’ve done

wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle.”

The events in “Bully” took place in the small town of Skidmore,

Missouri, during the 1970s. The central figure in these events is
Ken McElroy. The podcast describes the confirmed facts and poses
questions that are unanswered to this day.

Bully 259
 Get Ready A

Analyze Media Messages

Media refers to the many different methods or materials used to
present information—paintings, books, plays, magazines, movies, Focus on Genre
videoblogs, podcasts, and many more. Each medium differs in how Podcast
it treats, or presents, a subject or topic. For example, podcasts may • an audio file that can be
use sound devices such as music, sound effects, pacing, and tone. listened to on a computer,
smartphone, or other
To analyze media messages, ask: electronic device

• What details and other information are included? • usually made up of a series
of episodes, shows, or stories
• What information is omitted? about one subject or issue

• How is the information presented? • may be fiction, such as a short

story, or nonfiction, such as
• How does the particular treatment shape the message for the
audience?
an interview or fact-based
account

As you listen to the podcast, use the chart to help you analyze the
• often presents a specific point
of view, or perspective, that
podcast and its main messages. is more subjective than news
reporting

Techniques Used

• Narration consists of male and female voices

Key Details in Podcast

• Ken McElroy had a tough childhood.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Messages to Listener

• McElroy’s actions as an adult can be considered in light of details about his childhood.

260 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A Get Ready

Build Active Listening Skills

If you’re not an active listener, you may be missing out on a lot of what you hear! To truly
understand what you hear requires a set of listening skills. Active listeners use techniques
such as these:

• Focusing—They put aside distractions so they can focus on listening, whether to a live
speaker or electronic audio.

• Note-Taking—They jot down important information, memorable phrases, and questions.

For podcasts and other audio files, active listeners hit pause to jot down a note or question.

• Repeated Listening—Active listeners listen to an audio file more than one time. This
helps them grasp information they may have missed and deepen their understanding.

• Sharing—Active listeners paraphrase and summarize what they heard. Then, they share
notes with a partner or group.

As you listen to the podcast, fill out the chart.

What I Learned from My What I Had Missed What I Shared/What

What I Did to Focus
Notes When I Listened Again Others Shared with Me
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Larry W. Smith/Stringer/Getty Images

A bully terrorizes a small

town until citizens decide
they’ve had enough. Bully

Podcast
Listen to “Bully” in your Podcast from Radiotopia/PRX
ebook.

COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION
Share your first impressions of this story with a partner.

Bully 261
 Respond A

Analyze the Podcast

Support your responses with evidence from the podcast.

1 PREDICT Based on the podcast, how would you summarize Ken McElroy’s NOTICE & NOTE
childhood? What circumstances from his childhood might have shaped him as Review the notes
an adult? you took as you
listened to the
podcast. Your
2 INFER Early in the podcast, the narrator says that there was a “myth of . . . notes can help
invincibility” around Ken McElroy. What is the meaning of this description? Why is you answer these
questions.
it significant?

3 SYNTHESIZE Some women and children who knew Ken McElroy said he was
“not a monster” and was a “caring father.” How can a person be loved by some
people and feared by others? Why can people have such differing perspectives
on the same person? Use the chart to help organize your ideas and response.

Family and Friends’ Viewpoint: Who was Ken McElroy? Townspeople’s Viewpoint:

4 ANALYZE After Ken McElroy was convicted, he was released on bond.

According to the narrator, the townspeople “lost complete confidence” in being
protected by the law. Was this lack of trust in the legal system an expected
result? Why or why not?

5 EXPLAIN According to the podcast, there were 40 witnesses to the murder of

Ken McElroy. What most likely explains why “no one saw anything”? Include the
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

perspective of the prosecutor, David Baird, in your response.

6 DRAW CONCLUSIONS Review the first chart you filled out on the Get Ready
page. What do you think the main messages, or central ideas, of the podcast are?

7 EVALUATE The podcast quotes a number of individuals who witnessed the

events in Skidmore as they unfolded. Why might the podcast producers have
chosen to interview so many people? Do the different points of view result in a
balanced, or objective, perspective? Why or why not?

262 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Writing
Movie Treatment
Three decades ago, a movie based on the events described in As you write and discuss,
“Bully” was released. Imagine that now a film studio thinks you have be sure to use the
the talents to create a new mega-hit version. Outline your ideas for Academic Vocabulary
a pitch meeting, including words.

• a title (make it compelling!) capacity

• actors for major roles confer

• aspects of the story you’ll film (McElroy’s early life? other

characters’ stories?)
emerge

• how you will order the events generate

• how you will film the climax trace

In a small group, compare your proposals. Revise your pitch based

on suggestions and new ideas.

Media
Social & Emotional Learning Breaking News
Panel Discussion Imagine it is July 11, 1981—the day after Ken
Organize a panel to discuss practical, moral, and McElroy was killed in downtown Skidmore,
ethical aspects of the action Skidmore’s citizens took. Missouri. What would the newspaper
coverage have been? Mock up a fictitious
Consider these questions:
front page of the local Skidmore newspaper.
• Is it ever justifiable for individuals to take the law
in their own hands? If so, under what conditions?
Include the following:

• What lawful options could the townspeople have • newspaper name and other front-page
elements
considered?
•
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

• Was there an early incident which, if handled

attention-grabbing headline
differently, could have ended Ken McElroy’s crime
spree without bloodshed?
• image(s) that a family newspaper would
print

During the discussion: • brief article summarizing the events

• Cite evidence from the podcast as support. • other brief news items that might have
appeared in July 1981, covering local,
• Listen and respond respectfully to other opinions.
national, and world events
• Ask clarifying questions.
Present your front-page mockup to the class.
• As a group, review your discussion.

Bully 263
 Get Ready B

Unsolved “Vigilante”
Murder in the Heartland
News Article by C.M. Frankie

Engage Your Brain

Choose one or both of these activities to start connecting
with the news article you’re about to read. Still Wondering
If you listened to the podcast “Bully,”
what questions do you still have
about the story? Make a list of what
you’d like to learn—for example,
about Ken McElroy, the facts of the
case, or McElroy’s murder.

Zipped Lips
How good are you at keeping secrets? Have you
ever had to keep a secret with a group of people—
for example, a surprise event for someone? With
a partner, discuss whether the group was able to
prevent leaking the secret to others.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Kzenon/Alamy

264 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B Get Ready

Make Inferences
Making inferences means making logical guesses based on facts
and other details, as well as your own knowledge and experiences. Focus on Genre
Making inferences is essential for understanding. As you read: News Article
• Pause frequently. Think about what you just read. •
•
provides factual information

•
includes evidence to support
Focus on the information presented: What is it telling you? ideas
Why is it important or significant?
• may contain text features to
• Consider what else you know. Then, make your inferences and
write them down (or make a mental note). •
organize ideas
delivered in a variety of
formats—for example, in
Use the chart to help you make inferences as you read the article. paper or online newspapers, in
magazines, or through online
blogs or other media sites

What I Read What I Know What I Think (My Inferences)

There were a lot of Someone must have They must be scared of

witnesses, but no one seen what took place someone or afraid of
said they saw anything. but doesn’t want to say getting into some kind
(paragraph 5) anything. of trouble.

Compare Accounts of a Subject

The podcast “Bully” and this news article each presents its own account,
or version, of the same set of events. Think about how each account
gives you

• Multiple points of view: What is the same about the points of view
they present? What is different?

• Certain facts and other information: What facts and other details
are similar in both accounts? What is different?

• A particular experience based on format: For example, the

podcast includes a narrator and eyewitness interviews. The article
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

includes visual imagery and text features such as headings.

As you read the news article, compare and contrast its account to the
podcast using a Venn diagram or other organizer.

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 265

 Get Ready B

Annotation in Action
Here is an example of an inference a student made based on a passage
in the news article. As you read, mark information you can use to make
inferences about the people and events in the article.

Despite the efforts of police, prosecutors Why? No suspects or not enough

and McElroy’s family, no one has been charged evidence? Another reason it can’t be
in the murder. And it’s likely to stay that way. solved?

Expand Your Vocabulary

Put a check mark next to the vocabulary words that you feel comfortable
using when speaking or writing.

Turn to a partner and talk about the vocabulary words

retribution
you already know. Then, use as many of the vocabulary
taciturn words as you can to write a paragraph or two about your
first thoughts on how a murder in a small town could stay
ire unsolved.

macabre
As you read “Unsolved ‘Vigilante’ Murder in the Heartland,”
use the definitions in the side column to help you learn
vigilante the vocabulary words you don’t already know.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Sundance TV/Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Background
The Heartland—geographically speaking—is the central region
of the United States. It is generally considered to be made up of
these states: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota,
Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

America’s heartland has long been viewed as the symbolic heart

of the country. Many Americans, no matter what state they live
in, think of the heartland as a reflection of the country’s shared
values and ideals.

266 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B

Unsolved
“Vigilante” Murder
in the Heartland NOTICE & NOTE
News Article by C.M. Frankie As you read, use the
side margins to make
notes about the text.
What are the consequences when someone is cruel
to everyone he meets?

1
R etribution was slow coming to Ken McElroy—but lightning fast
when it happened. On a steamy Missouri morning of July 10,
1981, a gunman took aim at the 47-year-old as he sat smoking in his
retribution
(r≈t-r∂-by◊´sh∂n) n. punishment
given in response to a
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©AP Images

wrongdoing.
Silverado pickup truck outside the local bar. The larger-than-life bully
who menaced the farming community of Skidmore died in seconds. MAKE INFERENCES
Witnessing the murder were McElroy’s wife, Trena, screaming in the Annotate: Mark the main idea in
passenger seat and dozens of local residents. paragraph 3.
2 Yet the identity of McElroy’s killer is a public secret Skidmore has Infer: Based on details in the first
kept for 38 years. three paragraphs, why do you
3 Despite the efforts of police, prosecutors and McElroy’s family, no think no one has been charged
one has been charged in the murder. And it’s likely to stay that way. with McElroy’s murder?
4 “Nobody wanted to talk to us,” retired Missouri State Highway
Patrol Trooper Dan Boyer tells A&E Real Crime. Boyer was among
the first responders to arrive outside the D&G tavern where McElroy
was ambushed.
5 A reported crowd of up to 60 men had largely dispersed, taciturn
but some onlookers remained, staring at the pickup. Those who (t√s´î-tûrn) adj. untalkative;
spoke out were taciturn. “‘I didn’t see anything. I don’t know what reserved.
happened,’” Boyer recalls witnesses saying.

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 267

 Hog rustler, sweet talker
6 Ken McElroy was born in 1934, one of 16 children, author Harry
MacLean explains in his book In Broad Daylight, an account of
the case. His father was a tenant farmer,1 his mother a housewife
swamped with feeding and caring for the sprawling family.
VOCABULARY
7 There wasn’t much parental supervision, but McElroy had a
Words from Greek and knack for taking care of himself. He never finished high school but
Latin The word charismatic is
knew how to hunt, drive fast and navigate the back roads of Nodaway
derived from the Greek word
kharisma, which means “grace
County by his early teens. He put those skills to work rustling hogs
or divine favor.” Knowing its and cattle,2 MacLean recounts.
Greek derivation helps readers 8 Charismatic, with jet-black hair and piercing eyes, McElroy could
understand that someone who sweet-talk his way around women and had been married three times
is charismatic has rare or special by his early 40s.
qualities.
9 Police had charged him with various alleged crimes from
Analyze: The word charismatic is stealing hogs to assault, but nothing stuck. One reason was McElroy’s
often used to describe someone lawyer Richard “Gene” McFadin, a skilled defense attorney who ran
who is “magnetic, captivating,
rings around inexperienced prosecutors. Another was McElroy’s
and charming.” Why do you think
the author used charismatic to
intimidation tactics, MacLean writes. Once, a farmer who caught Ken
describe Ken McElroy? red-handed stealing two horses filed charges but “withdrew them
after McElroy smashed him across the face with a rifle.”

Stalked going to church

ire 10 Police also felt McElroy’s ire. One night after he pulled a speeding
(πr) n. anger; fury; wrath. pickup truck over, Boyer came face to face with McElroy. “I had
my service weapon drawn, and I wouldn’t have been the least bit
surprised if he tried to do something,” Boyer recalls. “His eyes just
really put you in defense mode—he really looked like a mean person.”
11 A few days later, a pickup truck showed up in the wee hours
outside Boyer’s remote country house. It cruised up the street,
came back and “just sat there for 20 seconds,” says Boyer, adding
he couldn’t prove it was McElroy but waited behind a tree with his
shotgun just in case.
12 In 1980, after a misunderstanding about a candy purchase from a
Skidmore grocery store involving McElroy’s daughters, McElroy shot
popular owner “Bo” Bowenkamp in the neck.
13 When the call went out, State Police Cpl. Richard Stratton
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

was ready. Stratton knew McElroy from a previous stop when he

threatened the trooper with a shotgun. Anticipating McElroy’s typical
moves, Stratton waited on a back road near the Kansas border. His
hunch paid off, and McElroy found himself handcuffed and charged
with assault.
14 Shortly after, Stratton’s wife Margaret was headed to church when
she saw a strange truck in the driveway.

1
tenant farmer: a person who rents the land they farm; they often have to give the
landlord a share of what they grow.
2
rustling hogs and cattle: stealing pigs and cows.

268 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 15 A man who turned out to be McElroy “pointed a shotgun at me,” Don’t forget to
Margaret tells A&E Real Crime. “I didn’t know what to do. I got in the Notice & Note as you
read the text.
car and was shaking so bad.”
16 She gathered her strength and put the car in reverse. McElroy
began backing out too, then tailed Margaret until she radioed Richard
and squad cars showed up. COMPARE ACCOUNTS OF A
17 “I think he treated the whole town of Skidmore that way,” the SUBJECT
78-year-old said, adding she “didn’t feel brave.” But “it got to the point Annotate: In paragraphs 15–17,
it made me mad.” mark what Margaret Stratton tells
A&E Real Crime.

Evaluate: The “Bully” podcast

Breaking point includes recorded comments from
witnesses and others. What is the
18 Tensions in Skidmore soared as McElroy’s trial neared. McElroy
effect of hearing individuals’ taped
mounted a daily vigil outside Bowenkamp’s house, his daughter voices as opposed to reading their
Cheryl Brown recounts in In Broad Daylight: words in a print article?
19 “The town emptied out every time he came to town. Everyone
was so uncomfortable and scared.”
20 In court, Bowenkamp testified about how McElroy confronted
him in the loading dock of the grocery while he was cutting up
boxes and shot him in the neck. Then McElroy, described by veteran
journalist Phil Conger as “a big brute of a guy with slicked-back hair
like Elvis,” took the stand. He testified that Bowenkamp attacked him
with a knife and he acted in self-defense, MacLean writes.
21 The verdict was second-degree assault and two years.
22 The “final straw for Skidmore was when he was let out on bond.
He went back home and was shot within a couple of days,” explains
Conger, editor of the Bethany Republican-Clipper.

Branded as vigilantes
23 The morning of July 10, 1981, a group of frustrated and angry men
gathered at the Legion Hall in Skidmore, MacLean writes. The
meeting broke up after participants learned McElroy and Trena were
at the D&G Tavern.
24 Boyer was out showing a trainee the ropes when he got the call of
a shooting in Skidmore. He found a macabre scene. McElroy’s “rear macabre
window was shot out and the front window as well. Part of his teeth (m∂-kä´br∂) adj. upsetting or
were lying on the dashboard,” Boyer recalls. horrifying in connection with
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

death or injury; gruesome;

25 Trena McElroy fingered a local rancher as one of the gunmen, but
ghastly.
he denied the claim.
26 Local police, state investigators and FBI agents tried to break
the town’s silence, without success. Meanwhile, major media outlets
descended onto Skidmore and reports of its “vigilantes” became vigilante
water-cooler talk across the U.S. (v∆j-∂-l√n´t∏) n. a person who is
not a law officer, but who pursues
and punishes people suspected of
wrongdoing.

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 269

 “You know what he was like”
27 For some residents, resentment against McElroy was projected onto
the police.
28 Boyer was taking trajectory measurements3 at the crime scene
NOTICE & NOTE when a town official chided him.
QUOTED WORDS 29 The man asked, “what are you doing here?” Boyer remembers.
When an author has quoted the “Why are you doing this? You know what he was like. You know how
opinion of a witness to an event, he oppressed and threatened us. I don’t believe you’re coming now—
you’ve found a Quoted Words after we needed your help all this time.”
signpost.
30 Trena McElroy accused Skidmore residents of turning her
Notice & Note: Mark the husband into a scapegoat.
words of the official quoted in 31 “He was a goodhearted person. He’d help anyone that needed to
paragraph 29.
be helped,” she said in an interview recounted in In Broad Daylight.
Analyze: Why was this person 32 As of 2019, many of the main players in McElroy’s story have
quoted? What did his comment died, including McFadin, Trena McElroy, Bowenkamp and the
add to the story?
rancher accused of pulling the trigger, MacLean writes in his blog.
33 “Theoretically, [the murder] could be re-investigated,” veteran
Kansas City criminal defense attorney J.R. Hobbs tells A&E Real
Crime. “But unless a very credible witness came forward, it’s not likely
to happen.”

3
trajectory measurements: the path and distance a bullet or other projectile traveled.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©Tim Abeln/Shutterstock; (c) ©Tim Abeln/
Shutterstock; (r) ©LanKS/Shutterstock

270 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSION ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
Who suffers when a crime
Get together with a partner and discuss what surprised you most
is committed?
about the events in Skidmore.

Review your notes and

add your thoughts to your
Response Log.

Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the Text
section on the next page.

1. This question has two parts. First, answer Part A. Then, answer Part B.
Part A

What inference can you make about Ken McElroy?

A He had a balance of positive and negative qualities.

B He was liked by most townspeople but not his family.

C He enjoyed causing trouble and breaking the law.

D He tried to help the townspeople, but they did not want it.

Part B

Select two sentences that provide relevant support for the answer in Part A.

A “Despite the efforts of police . . . no one has been charged in the murder.”
(paragraph 3)

B “Ken McElroy was born in 1934, one of 16 children. . . .” (paragraph 6)

C “Police also felt McElroy’s ire.” (paragraph 10)

D “‘You know how he oppressed and threatened us. . . .’” (paragraph 29)

E “‘He was a goodhearted person. He’d help anyone. . . .’” (paragraph 31)

2. What conclusion is most likely shared by the podcast creators of “Bully” and the
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

author of “Unsolved ‘Vigilante’ Murder in the Heartland”?

A An eyewitness will come forward and explain what really happened.

B The murder will be solved once all the investigations are completed.

C The murderer(s) will never be tried and convicted.

D The murderer(s) will soon be tried and convicted.

Test-Taking Strategies

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 271

 Respond B

Analyze the Text

Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE
1 INFER Reread paragraphs 1–3. Why would the author claim so early in the news Review what
article that the murder is likely to stay unsolved? you noticed and
noted as you read
the text. Your
2 SUMMARIZE Review the section “Hog rustler, sweet talker,” which is about the early annotations can
years of Ken McElroy’s life. Write a summary of this section; then state the main idea. help you answer
these questions.

3 SYNTHESIZE Reread the Quoted Words in paragraphs 14–17. How do Margaret

Stratton’s words make both her and the event vivid and believable?

4 ANALYZE Reread paragraph 27. Why do you think some townspeople felt
resentment, or bitterness, toward the police? Cite evidence from the text to support
your answer.

5 COMPARE Think about the news article as a whole. How do the townspeople’s
reactions to McElroy change over time? How are they the same?

6 DRAW CONCLUSIONS After reading this news article, what do you think took place
in the heartland town of Skidmore, and why? Review the notes you took on the Get
Ready page about your inferences. Then use the chart below to explain what you
think took place and why, and the text evidence that supports your explanation.

What I Think Took Place Why I Think This My Evidence from the Text

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

7 COMPARE Review the diagram you created to compare the podcast “Bully” with the
article “Unsolved ‘Vigilante’ Murder in the Heartland.” Briefly summarize your reactions
to the differences in the two accounts: Which did you find easier to understand?
Which was more engaging? Why?

272 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B Respond

Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of the
ideas in this lesson.

Writing
Support for Trauma Survivors
Citizens of Skidmore described daily trauma they experienced As you write and discuss,
during what some called Ken McElroy’s “reign of terror.” Many people be sure to use the
don’t know how to cope with traumatic experiences or where to Academic Vocabulary
seek help. With a group, create an information sheet to help people words.
suffering from them. capacity
Assign group members to these tasks:
confer
• Research about types of trauma

• Help available for people experiencing traumatic disorders emerge

• Resources and support available in your own community generate

Group members will also collaborate to build a website, blog, or trace

social media page with useful information, links, and other citations
for people who want to learn more.

Throughout the task, remind one another to take the perspective

of people suffering from a trauma disorder: You want your final
product to reflect empathy and sensitivity to their needs.

Social & Emotional Learning

Emergency Council Meeting
With classmates, convene a special meeting of
Media
the Skidmore City Council to discuss how to
Timeline of Events manage the situation with Ken McElroy. As a
Create a visual timeline of the events leading ground rule, the Council has agreed that any
up to Ken McElroy’s murder in Skidmore. action must avoid violence. Follow these steps:
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Begin your timeline when McElroy’s bullying 1. Decide on rules for discussion and decision-
first started. Include names of people he making.
encountered and dates of when events took
2. Analyze the situation by reviewing the facts.
place. Present your timeline to the class.
3. Brainstorm possible solutions.
4. Listen respectfully and build on others’
ideas.
5. After the Council agrees on a solution,
decide on a plan for incorporating citizen
feedback before adopting the plan.

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 273

 Respond B

Expand Your Vocabulary

PRACTICE AND APPLY
In each item, mark the phrase that has a connection to each vocabulary
word. Use a dictionary or thesaurus as needed.

1. retribution 2. taciturn 3. ire

asking for favors someone who talks a lot an angry person

acting with kindness someone who is quiet a curious person
taking revenge someone who rents a farm tool
farmland

4. macabre 5. vigilante

a horrifying scene rustles cattle

an unusual costume acts within the law
a type of string art acts outside the law

Vocabulary Strategy
Words from Greek and Latin Interactive Vocabulary
Studying the etymology of words means that you look at word origins and the Lesson: Understanding
Word Origins
ways that words have changed over time. Many words in the English language
come from Greek and Latin roots.

Knowing the meaning of roots, or basic word elements, can help you determine the
meaning of unfamiliar words. For example, the word theoretically contains the Greek
root theoretos that means “observable.” In English, theoretically means “based on theory.”
A theory is a statement that is generally accepted as true because it explains something
that took place and is based on facts. Knowing the meanings of roots can also help you
determine the meanings of derivations, new words made from existing words by adding
affixes. For example, the word vigil is the same as its Latin root, which means “to be
watchful.” Vigilante is a derivation of vigil.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

PRACTICE AND APPLY

Look up these words from the selection in a dictionary. Write the meaning of the Latin
or Greek root word, and then write a sentence using another word with that same root.

Word Root Word Root

identity (paragraph 2) ident- intimidation (paragraph 9) timid-

prosecutor (paragraph 3) prosecut- veteran (paragraph 20) veter-

navigate (paragraph 7) navigat- credible (paragraph 33) cred-

274 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 B Respond

Watch Your Language!

Active and Passive Voice
Writers may express an idea in either the active or the passive voice.
The subject of a sentence may either perform or receive the action
expressed in a verb.

Active voice Example

when the subject does the action She gathered her strength and put the
car in reverse.

Passive voice Example

when the subject is the receiver of Witnessing the murder were McElroy’s
the action (or has the action wife . . . and dozens of local residents.
performed on them)

The active voice is most commonly used. Active voice:

• enables writers to be more direct, concise, and precise in their use of

language, making their writing more effective and powerful

• helps readers feel a greater sense of immediacy—as if actually witnessing

or experiencing the events

The passive voice:

• emphasizes the receiver of the action—“McElroy was ambushed.”

• is used when the doer of the action is unknown—“The hogs and cattle
were rustled.”
Interactive Grammar
Lesson: Active and Passive
PRACTICE AND APPLY Voice

With a partner, write two paragraphs of a news article, reporting on

an event you observed recently such as a basketball game, musical
performance, or family activity. Use the passive and the active voice at
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

least once. Exchange papers with a partner and discuss how active and
passive voice create different effects.

Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 275

 Respond A B

Compare Accounts

Every medium differs in how it treats, or presents, a subject or topic.

Think about how a person’s life might be depicted in a painting, a
documentary, or a book.

Both “Bully” and “Unsolved ‘Vigilante’ Murder in the Heartland” provide

fact-based accounts of the same events. However, the “Bully” podcast
and “Unsolved” news article differ in the information provided and
how it is presented. By comparing these two accounts in different
media, you can gain a deeper understanding of the events surrounding
McElroy’s murder.

In a small group, complete the chart below. Be sure to support your

ideas with evidence from both selections.

A B
Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder
Bully
in the Heartland

What information is
emphasized?

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©Larry W. Smith/Stringer/Getty Images;
How is this
information
emphasized?

What perspectives,
or points of view, are
being presented?

What messages are

being conveyed?
(r) ©AP Images

What techniques are

used to engage the
audience?

276 UNIT 3 COLLABORATE & COMPARE

 A B Respond

Analyze Media and Text

Discuss these questions in your group.

1 COMPARE How is each account organized, or structured? What techniques does

each use to connect people and events? Cite specific examples from the podcast
and the article.

2 DRAW CONCLUSIONS Consider the information each article presents about

Ken McElroy’s childhood. Was it his fate, or destiny, to become a bully? Why or
why not?

3 SYNTHESIZE Both selections describe how the legal system responded to

McElroy’s misdeeds. How do the podcast and news article together give you
greater insight into these responses—and into the legal system in general?

4 EVALUATE Which account provides a more objective, or balanced, perspective

on the events surrounding McElroy’s murder? Support your ideas with evidence
from each account.

Collaborate and Present

Your group can continue exploring the ideas in these media accounts by collaborating
on your own podcast or news article. Follow these steps:

1 DECIDE ON THE MESSAGE First, review your notes on both selections as a

group. Next, discuss what message you most want to convey about McElroy’s
murder.

2 CHOOSE THE MEDIUM Decide which medium—podcast or news article—will

best convey your message. Think about how you will use the strengths of the
medium to convey your message effectively.

3 DEVELOP A PLAN Plan how to use both selections as your sources. What
information will you include—or omit—to best support your message? How will
you grab and hold onto your audience’s interest?

4 MAKE AN OUTLINE Organize your podcast or news article to ensure a logical

structure, or flow, for your audience. Think about how to use transitions to
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

connect events.

5 CREATE A DRAFT Assign sections of your outline to each group member. Work
together to review, revise, and edit each section.

6 PRACTICE AND PRESENT For the podcast, practice it before you record and
share it. For the news article, consider adding text-and-graphic features. Then
proofread it before sharing it.

7 DISCUSS AS A CLASS Based on everyone’s podcasts and news articles, has your
perspective on this murder changed? Why or why not?

Bully/Unsolved “Vigilante” Murder in the Heartland 277

 Reader’s Choice
Continue your exploration of the Essential Question by doing some
independent reading about crime and its consequences. Read the titles ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
and descriptions shown. Then mark the texts that interest you. Who suffers when a
crime is committed?

Short Reads Available on

These texts are available in your ebook. Choose one to read and rate.
Then defend your rating to the class.

My Afterlife on the The Crime of My Life

Lamb to the Slaughter
Body Farm Short Story by Gregg Olsen
Short Story by Roald Dahl
Informational Text by Fawn When the narrator, a true-crime
A loving, resourceful wife uses Fitter writer, confronts a horrific crime in
materials at hand when her his own life, readers are taken along
Want to help fight crime long after
husband comes home with news. for the bizarre and shocking ride.
you’re gone? Donate your remains
Rate It to a body farm! Rate It

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (tl) ©Magdanatka/Shutterstock; (tc) ©Couperfield/
Rate It

Shutterstock; (tr) ©josefkubes/Shutterstock; (bl) ©Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock; (br) ©Ivan Vdovin/Alamy

Why Aren’t Police Prometheus Bound

Solving More Murders Graphic Story adapted from
with Genealogy Aeschylus by Ellis Rosen
Websites? Meet the Greek hero Prometheus—
Science Writing by Adam Janos mythological Titan and world’s first
DNA databases have become wildly lawbreaker.
popular with the general public.
Rate It
Why aren’t crime investigators
using them more?

Rate It

278 UNIT 3 READER’S CHOICE

 Reader’s Choice

Long Reads
Here are three recommended books that connect to this unit topic.
For additional options, ask your teacher, school librarian, or peers.
Which titles spark your interest?

In Cold Blood Murder on the Orient We’ll Fly Away

Express
Nonfiction by Truman Capote Novel by Bryan Bliss
Mystery by Agatha Christie
Four members of the Clutter family Luke and Toby are best friends who
are murdered in a seemingly random On a three-day train ride, a detective want to get away from their abusive
crime. Capote reconstructs the crime must interrogate an array of and complicated families. It almost
and the investigation that led to the international suspects to find the happens, until Luke is convicted of
murderers’ capture. passenger who murdered a gangster murder.
on the Orient Express.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: (l) ©L.Siekier/Shutterstock; (c) ©mediacolor’s/Alamy;

Extension
Connect & Create
CRIME COVER With others or on your own, design a book cover for
one of the texts you read. Decisions to make: NOTICE & NOTE

• Do you want to attract hardcore crime and true-crime fans, or do

you want your cover to appeal to a broader audience? Think about
• Pick one of the texts and
annotate the Notice & Note
an overall look that will persuade your target audience to click on or signposts you find.
pick up the book.
• Then, use the Notice &
• Consider the theme, ideas, and/or atmosphere you want to capture. Note Writing Frames

• What graphics will you use? Photographs, drawings, abstract shapes, to help you write about
the significance of the
(r) ©Roman023_photography/Shutterstock

a collage—or just the title and author?

signposts.
• Assemble the elements into a design, and create a final version to
share with the class. • Compare your findings with
those of other students who
CRIMINAL PREOCCUPATIONS In different ways, this unit asks the read the same text.
question, What is it about crime and its consequences that fascinates
us? Write a response based on the text you read. Then share your
ideas with others who read the same or different texts, recording your Notice & Note Writing
conclusions. Frames

Reader’s Choice 279

 Write an
Informative Essay

Writing Prompt
Using ideas, information, and examples from multiple
texts in this unit, write an informative essay that
examines the impact and effects of crime.
Review the
Mentor Text
Manage your time carefully so that you can

• review the texts in the unit;

For an example of a well-written
informative text you can use as a
• plan your informative essay;
mentor text for your informative essay,
• write your informative essay; and review:
• revise and edit your informative essay.
••“Why Are We Obsessed with True
Be sure to Crime?” (pages 221–225).

• include an introduction with a clear controlling

idea, or thesis statement;
Review your notes and annotations
about this text. Think about how the
• organize ideas logically; author uses evidence to develop ideas.
• support ideas with evidence; and
• sum up the central idea in a logical conclusion.

Consider Your Sources

Review the list of texts in the unit and choose at UNIT 3 SOURCES
least three that you may want to use as sources
of support for your informative essay. Entwined

As you review potential sources, review the Why Are We Obsessed

notes you made on your Response Log and with True Crime?
make additional notes about ideas that might
be useful as you write. Include titles and page from The 57 Bus
numbers so that you can easily find information
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Gift-Wrapped Fathers
later. Accurate text evidence and citations will
support the presentation of your ideas. Bully MEDIA

Unsolved “Vigilante” MurderMEDIA

in the Heartland

280 UNIT 3 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Analyze the Prompt

Review the prompt to make sure you understand the assignment.
Consider Your Audience
1. Mark the phrase in the prompt that identifies the general topic of your
informative essay. Restate the topic in your own words. Ask yourself:

2. Look for words that suggest the purpose and audience of your ••Who will read my essay?
informative essay, and write a sentence describing each. ••What do my readers already
know about my topic?

••What supporting evidence

should I provide in my essay?

What is my topic? What is my writing task?

What is my purpose?

Who is my audience?

Review the Rubric

Your informative essay will be scored using a rubric. As you write, focus on
the characteristics described in the chart. You will learn more about these
characteristics as you work through the lesson.

Purpose, Focus, and Conventions of Standard

Evidence and Elaboration
Organization English

The response includes: The response includes: The response may include:

•• Acontrolling •• Effective •• Some

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

strongly maintained use of evidence and minor errors in usage but

idea sources no patterns of errors

•• Use of transitions to connect •• Effective use of elaboration •• Correct punctuation,

ideas
•• Clear and effective expression of capitalization, sentence

•• Logical progression of ideas ideas formation, and spelling

•• Appropriate style and tone •• Appropriate vocabulary •• Command of basic conventions

•• Varied sentence structure

Write an Informative Essay 281

 Writing Task

1 PLAN YOUR INFORMATIVE ESSAY

Help with Planning
Develop a Controlling Idea Consult Interactive Writing
Lesson: Writing Informative
Think about the many ways crime has been examined and portrayed in Texts
this unit. List possible topics for your essay and the different points of
view you might explore. Then circle the topic of your main focus.

Possible Topics Points of View

Develop Your Key Ideas

Consider what you want to say about your topic. Write a thesis statement
that expresses the controlling idea your informative essay will explore.
Then, jot down key ideas that will help you develop this controlling idea.

Thesis
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

Key Idea 1

Key Idea 2

Key Idea 3

282 UNIT 3 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Identify Evidence
Your evidence should include facts, examples, and concrete details that
support your key ideas. Review the notes in your Response Log and
consider other sources that might help you develop your ideas. Record
your evidence and source information in the chart.

Evidence Source

Use an Effective Structure

Organize Ideas Here are some patterns of
organization:
Think about the most logical and engaging way to structure your
informative essay. Use the chart to help you plan your draft. •• Cause and Effect: explains reasons
for and results of an issue

•• Introduce your topic. •• similarities

Comparison-Contrast: examines
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

INTRODUCTION
and differences related
•• Clearly state your thesis. to an issue
•• Express your purpose. •• important
Main Idea and Details: presents
ideas and develops them
BODY PARAGRAPHS •• Devote a paragraph to each key idea. with details, fact, and examples
•• Support each idea with evidence.
•• Use transitions to connect ideas.
CONCLUSION •• Restate your thesis and its significance.
•• End with a final thought for readers to
consider.

Write an Informative Essay 283

 Writing Task

2 DEVELOP A DRAFT
Drafting Online
Now it is time to draft your essay. Examining how professional writers
Check your assignment list
craft their informational writing can help you develop your own writing for a writing task from your
skills. Read about techniques you might use in your writing. teacher.

Use Evidence DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info”

CorrectionKey=NL-A;FL-A

EXAMINE THE MENTOR TEXT

Notice how the author of “Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime?”
uses evidence to develop ideas about how audiences view the
nonfiction crime genre. Why Are We Obsessed
with True Crime?
Informational Text by Laura Hensley

Find out why we can’t resist true stories about NOTICE & NOTE

Lee said that in the past, crime shows like America’s

As you read, use the side
wrongdoing.
margins to make notes
about the text.

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Digital Vision/Getty Images
1
I f you’re a fan of true crime, chances are you’ll be binge-watching

Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries were seen as “tabloid

this year’s latest series.
2 But before you devour the latest crime shows, you might want to
consider how consuming hours of disturbing content is affecting
you—and why you can’t stop watching it. SUMMARIZE AND
3 “Bingeing true crime is not that much different from people PARAPHRASE TEXTS

television for crime junkies.” Low-budget re-enactments and

watching a 24-hour news cycle covering a killing spree or a terrorist Annotate: Mark the exact words
attack,” said Jooyoung Lee, an associate professor of sociology at the spoken by Jooyoung Lee in
University of Toronto. paragraph 4.
4 “I think human beings, in general, are just drawn to extreme Interpret: Write a paraphrase of
cases of violence. And when I say drawn to them, I don’t mean Lee’s statement.

low production quality made the genre seem less reputable.

that they watch something and hope to emulate it; there’s just this emulate
fascination.” (≈m´y∂-l∑t) v. to imitate in order to
equal or to excel.

But since the birth of NPR’s wildly popular 2014 podcast Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime? 221

The author cites Serial, the way people view true crime has changed. 9_LNLESE416425_U3AAS2.indd 221 9/5/2020 1:50:34 PM

specific examples of “It was a flagship moment for the genre,” Lee said of
the crime genre.
Serial’s success. “It sort of signaled to the larger world She uses concrete details
that you can do [true crime] in a smart way, in a way that and quotations to explain
how the true-crime genre
conveyed lots of thought, and in a way that was captivating has changed.
for an audience.”

Try These Suggestions

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Digital Vision/Getty Images
Vary the way you develop your key
Use this chart to practice developing one of your key ideas.
ideas. Try these out:
Draft sentences that illustrate a key point, explain it, and
elaborate on it. Then apply these techniques to your draft. •• explain
use extended definitions to
complex ideas

•• specific
use concrete details to share
information

Illustrate •• perspective
include quotations to show a

•• use examples to help clarify ideas

Explain

Elaborate

284 UNIT 3 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Organize Ideas
EXAMINE THE MENTOR TEXT
In informative texts, it is important to clarify connections and distinctions among
complex ideas. Notice how the author of “Why Are We Obsessed with True
Crime?” uses evidence and a heading to help show how ideas are organized.

“Serial and shows like The Jinx empower the audience in

some way—even if it’s not really empowering—but they give
The author explores the illusion of empowerment because people at home are in this
reasons why people
watch true crime.
position where they feel like they can help crack the case, and are
an active part of the investigation,” Lee said.
“People think that they can help overturn a ruling, exonerate
a person, or crack a cold case. That’s exciting to people.”

But how does true crime affect our She uses a

well-being? heading to signal

a shift in ideas.

Even if you’re a huge fan of the genre, you’ve likely experienced

some side effects after watching a show or reading a scary book,
She provides examples like trouble falling asleep or nightmares. Disturbing content,
to answer the question after all, can affect your emotional well-being.
in her heading.

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Use the chart to explore ways in which you might use formatting such as
Organize Information
headings or graphics to help clarify key ideas in your essay. As you write,
incorporate these features in your draft. Try these strategies to organize
complex ideas in your essay:

• use headings to guide

readers

Complex Idea Use of Formatting • use a table to show cause/

effect or comparison/
contrast
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

• use bullets to emphasize

key points

• use a chart or graph to

show data

Write an Informative Essay 285

 Writing Task

3 REVISE YOUR INFORMATIVE ESSAY

Professional writers rework their language as they write to make sure Help with Revision
they are communicating their ideas effectively. Use the guide to help you Find a Peer Review Guide
as you revise your informative essay. and Student Models online.

REVISION GUIDE

Ask Yourself Prove it Revise it

Introduction Underline your thesis Reword your thesis statement

Does my introduction clearly state statement. so that your purpose for writing
my controlling idea, or thesis? is clear.

Supporting Evidence Put a star ( ) next to each key Add facts, details, and examples
Do I develop my key ideas with idea. Put a check mark ( ) next to support key ideas.
supporting evidence? to supporting evidence.

Organization Underline transitional words Rearrange paragraphs,

Is the structure of my informative and phrases. if needed, to clarify your
essay clear? organizational structure. Add
transitions to show connections
between ideas.

Style Cross out ( ) any informal words Reword to avoid informal

Have I used a formal style? and phrases. language.

Conclusion Highlight your concluding Add a closing statement, if

Does my conclusion follow statement. needed, to sum up the ideas that
logically from the ideas I present? your informative essay presents.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Reread your informative essay and look for opportunities to improve your writing.

• Check that all evidence clearly relates to your controlling idea.

• Make sure the informative essay flows logically from one idea to the next.
• Be sure your conclusion sums up your key points in a memorable way.

286 UNIT 3 WRITING TASK

 Writing Task

Peer Review in Action

Once you have finished revising your informative essay, you will exchange
papers with a partner in a peer review. During a peer review, you will
give suggestions to improve your partner’s draft.

Read the introduction from a student’s draft and examine the comments
made by the peer reviewer to see how it’s done.

Lasting Impacts of Crime

Draft
By Eugenia Wilkinson, Sherman High School

When you think about it, a violent crime involving a single perpetrator
This sounds a and victim can actually impact a lot of people. You have emergency
little wordy. Try responders, witnesses, lawyers, judges, juries, and even people like
deleting any family and friends of those involved. As you can see, crimes can
unnecessary have far-reaching effects on communities and society. And these
details. impacts can last a really long time after you stop hearing the sirens
and seeing the lights flashing. Your language is
a little informal. I
think you should
avoid using the
pronoun “you” and
Now read the revised introduction below. Notice how the writer has words like “really.”
improved the draft by making revisions based on the reviewer’s comments.

Lasting Impacts of Crime

Revision
By Eugenia Wilkinson, Sherman High School

Nice! This is Every crime has its victims and its perpetrators. In addition,
more concise crimes may involve countless others from witnesses to emergency
and easier to responders. However, crimes also have far-reaching effects on
read. communities and society. The impact of violent crime reverberates Great job. This
long after the lights and sirens stop flashing and wailing. language sounds
more appropriate for
an essay.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

During your peer review, give each other specific suggestions for how
you could make your informative essay more clear or engaging. Use your
revision guide to help you.

When receiving feedback from your partner, listen attentively and ask
questions to make sure you fully understand the revision suggestions.

Write an Informative Essay 287

 Writing Task

4 EDIT YOUR INFORMATIVE ESSAY

Interactive Grammar
Edit your final draft to check for proper use of standard English Lesson: Spelling
conventions and to correct any misspellings or grammatical errors.

Watch Your Language!

SPELL PLURAL NOUNS CORRECTLY
Misspelled plural nouns in your informative essay could confuse your Spelling Plural Nouns
readers. Most plural nouns are formed by adding either -s or -es. Here are some additional rules
Read the sentences from “Why Are We Obsessed with True Crime?” for spelling plural nouns:
• Add -es to form a plural of
certain nouns that end in o,
Lee said that in the past, crime shows like America’s such as hero, tomato, potato,
Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries were seen as and echo, and all nouns that
“tabloid television for crime junkies.” Low-budget end in s, sh, ch, x, or z.
re-enactments and low production quality made the • When a singular noun ends in
genre seem less reputable. y with a consonant before it,
change the y to i and add -es.
• When a singular noun ends
in y with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u)
The plural forms of the words show and enactment are formed by before it, just add -s.
adding -s. For the words mystery and junky, plurals are formed by
changing the y to an i and adding -es.

APPLY TO YOUR DRAFT

Now apply what you’ve learned about spelling to your own work.
1. Read your paper aloud and circle plural nouns.
2. Correct any errors in spelling.
3. Exchange drafts with a peer and edit each other’s work,
looking for spelling errors.

5 PUBLISH YOUR INFORMATIVE ESSAY Ways to Share

••Conduct a panel discussion

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Share It! about your topic with other

classmates or invited guests.
The prompt asks you to write an informative essay. You may also
adapt your informative essay to other formats. ••Design an infographic that
summarizes your key ideas and
evidence.

••Create a podcast. See the next

task for tips on how.

288 UNIT 3 WRITING TASK

 Speaking & Listening

Create a Podcast

With a group of 3–5 classmates, plan and present a ten- to twenty-

minute podcast, or audio recording, in which you discuss the
Essential Question: Who suffers when a crime is committed?

Plan Your Podcast Engage Your Audience

Your group’s podcast will center on a thoughtful discussion of the
question: Who suffers when a crime is committed? The discussion can
••Consider a variety of angles
from which you might
focus on the texts in this unit, or on other aspects or topics related examine the topic.
to the Essential Question. Engage your listeners by conducting your
podcast discussion like a conversation among friends or colleagues. ••Try to discuss ideas you
know will hold your
Tone and voice should be informal, but participants should avoid
listeners’ attention.
nonstandard English and slang.
Use the chart to guide you as you plan your podcast.
Speaking and Listening:
Using Media in a
Presentation

Ask Answers and Notes

How will we introduce the podcast in a

way that captures listeners’ attention?

What should our podcast format be?

Should we have a moderator or other
defined roles? Or a more casual exchange?
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Should we create a tight script, or just

agree on key ideas or topics to explore?

Will music or other sound effects help

convey our ideas?

Create a Podcast 289

 Speaking & Listening

Practice with Your Group

Once you’ve created a plan, rehearse it as a group.

Goal Notes for Final Recording

Make sure your presentation has a clear focus or

perspective based on the Essential Question.

Rehearse a brief introduction and conclusion. Talk

through the main points you plan to discuss.

As you rehearse, make sure all participants speak at

an appropriate volume and rate, or pace. Remind
participants not to interrupt or speak over one
another.

If you are using sound effects, assign a group

member to play them on cue.

Record Your Podcast

With your teacher’s help, plan how to record and share your Share It!
podcast. Use these tips: Listen to other classmates’

• Find a quiet place to record. podcasts. Then:

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• Adjust the positioning of your recording device as needed so

all voices are picked up.
•• showing
Create a concept map
the most interesting

• Review the recording in segments and edit it as needed. or surprising facts that you’ve
learned from the podcasts.

•• the
Have a group discussion about
effectiveness of any music
and sound effects used in the
podcasts.

•• school
Post your podcast on a class or
website.

290 UNIT 3 SPEAKING & LISTENING TASK

 Reflect & Extend
Here are some other ways to show your
understanding of the ideas in Unit 3.

Reflect on the
Essential Question Project-Based Learning
Who suffers when a crime is Create a Sketchnote
committed? You’ve explored different ideas about crime and
Has your answer to the question changed its impact. Now, create a sketchnote to help you
after reading the texts in the unit? Discuss understand a complicated passage or concept
your ideas. from one of the selections. A sketchnote is a form
You can use these sentence starters to of note-taking that combines text with visuals
help you reflect on your learning. such as doodles, arrows, numbers, and boxes to
represent your thought processes.
• My thoughts on the question
Here are some questions to ask yourself as you
changed because . . .
• Now that I’ve considered . . . , I
get started.

realize . . . • What do I want to understand about the

• I also gained insight about . . .

•
passage or concept?
What words, doodles, and markings can I use
to show my thinking?
• How will I show connections between ideas?

Media Projects
To find more help with this
task online, access Create a
Sketchnote.

Writing
Write an Argument
Write an argument to support a claim about nonfiction crime stories.
What impact do these stories have on audiences and the people
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involved in the crimes?

••Make a claim about positive or negative aspects of true-crime

stories.

••Develop the claim with reasons and evidence from “Why Are We
Obsessed with True Crime?” and other sources.

••Address counterclaims with effective responses.

••End with a conclusion that reinforces the claim and support.

Reflect & Extend 291