Question: In “The Courage That My Mother Had,” what is the meaning of the lines The courage that my mother had / Went with her, and is with her still: mean?

Answer: The speaker lacks her mother’s courage.

Question: How does the third stanza of “The Courage That My Mother Had” contribute to the meaning of the poem?

Answer: It confirms that the speaker values her mother’s courage above all else.

Question: What is a central idea in “The White Umbrella”?

Answer: The narrator finds it challenging to fit in because her family has different cultural values.

Question: Part A

What inference can be made based on what happens in “The White Umbrella”?

Answer: The narrator desperately wants to fit in and feel a part of American culture.

Question: Part B

Which two details from the story best support the inference in Part A?

Answer: “I wanted to tell her that I was the school spelling bee champion, that I wasn’t ticklish, that I could do karate.”

“I wanted to open it, twirl it around by its slender silver handle; I wanted to dangle it from my wrist on the way to school the way the other girls did.”