First Grade
My hair was too short and my US Government glasses were horn-rimmed, ugly, and all
that first winter in school, the other Indian boys chased me from one comer of the playground to
the other. They pushed me down, buried me in the snow until I couldn't breathe, thought I'd
never breathe again. They stole my glasses and threw them over my head, around my
outstretched hands, just beyond my reach, until someone tripped me and sent me falling again,
facedown in the snow. I was always falling down; my Indian name was Junior Falls Down.
Sometimes it was Bloody Nose or Steal-His-Lunch. Once, it was Cries-Like-a-White-Boy, even
though none of us had seen a white boy cry.
1. Identify a literary technique the author uses
2. Copy and paste a quote that is an example of the technique you chose
3. Explain the effect of this technique.
