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Maxine Clair Analysis

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Maxine Clair’s fifth-grade summer world started off with an exploding cherry bomb and a one-eyed friend. The explosion of the cherry bomb would end up leading to the author's first gift on a day other than Christmas, and the authors greatest memory during her fifth-grade summer. As she recalls her summer, now decades later, she not only utilizes the true essence of a fifth grader's language, but also the diction used in her childhood days combined with immense imagery and simile to bring her summer to life. Starting off with a picture of how days were when she experienced her fifth-grade summer, the author adds in details that seem so minuscule, and unimportant to set the setting. The information about the cost of riding a trolley and the ice truck driving around on a hot day with blocks of ice provides the readers with the background of her story. In addition, by using diction that the author used as a child, such as “that-old-thing” and “help-him-out,” she brings the story to life as if it were still the 1900s. Every tiny detail that the author remembers about her childhood shown in this passage proves to the readers how important her fifth-grade summer was to her. …show more content…

When Clair began describing the location of the cherry bomb, she brings back memories that she had regarding the closet. Her memories, described with anecdotes such as the tale of the Hairy Man who comes out at night gives a sneak peak of her childhood. By using stories, it would either engage the reader and allow them to learn about a myth back in the author’s days, or bring back nostalgic memories about their own childhoods. As everyone has had their own Hairy Man tales growing up, the readers would get the same feelings as the author did during her fifth-grade summer and as she was writing this paragraph of the

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