Post the short essay taking its topic from "Maggie and Louis." We will complete the book this week and write an essay next week.
In class today, in small groups students looked at the story "Maggie and Louis" and discussed the elements one looks at when discussing literature from Writing about Literature. We also read a published student essay.
Some students were able to complete the essay from Dance Boots, others were not. For the collaborative essay on "Maggie and Louis," put all the names in the heading.
The essay was to look at one of the elements and write a compelling essay (Gardner 57-60). Each paragraph needs to use a citation: short quote, block quote and free paraphrase (not necessarily in that order.)
Post the essay here. Do not forget the works cited.
For Thursday, students are to read the next two stories and as a freewrite, students have a choice whether to respond to "Refugees Living and Dying" or "Shonnud's Girl" (59 or 77).
We reviewed chapters 3 and 4 in Writing about Literature (43 and 57). Purchase the book on-line by next week. Next week we will start Girl Interrupted and I will give you a more detailed assignment schedule as well by then, if not sooner.
Students can read ahead in Dance Boots. Thursday's homework will be to write a response to "Ojibwe Boys." Tuesday students will have an opportunity to discuss the entire work and talk about essay ideas.
Essay 1 on short fiction is due next Thursday for a peer review. The final draft is due either Friday or the following Monday by 12 noon. We can talk about this.
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12 comments:
Joe Quattrocchi
In Maggie and Louis, Linda LeGarde Grover uses hair color to create an analogy between white supremacy and the destruction of Native American culture in the early 20th century. As Maggie is teaching a young squadron of Indian girls to sew at the Harrod School, she asks if the girls may sing while they work, to which the supervising Matron suggests, “Yes, that would be fun, wouldn’t it? [...] Do you know the Song ‘Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair?’”(LeGarde Grover, 44). Throughout this story, LeGarde Grover makes it a point to express the significance of contrasts between the dark Native American hair and lighter or blonde hair of most white folks.
The Matron recommended they sing about the life of a beautiful young caucasian girl “borne like a vapor of summer soft air, [...] Jeanie with light brown hair, is as happy as dancing daisies,” something that would have been extremely difficult for the Native American girls to relate to as they are at boarding school laboring to mend torn stockings (LeGarde Grover, 45). The dark physical features of these young girls are a symbol of their heritage, to which white society it attempting to debunk. Attempting to assimilate them through humiliation, these girls are forced to partake in a foreign society without consent.
A more extreme example of hair color conveying the dichotomy of Native American and white culture is used as Louis attempts to escape Harrod.
The brown plaid grew smaller and smaller as the boy ran towards the brush at the edge of the school grounds, blurring into the dull dusty brown of dried leaves. Except for the color of his hair he might have become lost to the sight of Mr. Greeney and the young Indian man in pursuit. The color was his betrayal, a near-black copper that the intensity of the oblique late-day sun lit into a red beacon (LeGarde Grover, 46).
The clash of Native American physical qualities, specifically hair color, to those of whites sets them apart from one another. Although the reasons for whites wanting to assimilate the “uncivilized” natives is much deeper than the physical, LeGarde Grover creates the strong imagery to reinforce the struggles that Native Americans endured in boarding school in these years. Later on in the story, the Matron attempts to sympathize with the students by saying she understands their disobedience, and does not blame them as it is a consequence of their parents poor values. She takes it upon herself to to fix what she is able to in there time at Harrod (LeGarde Grover, 49). The Matron reiterates the argument that white ignorance to Native American culture exacerbates the hardships of Native American children in boarding schools, and Linda LeGarde Grover takes a creative approach in Maggie and Louis by using hair color to emphasize this dichotomy.
Work Cited Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots: Three Seasons. Athens: Georgia, 2010. Print.
Jacob Stabler
Professor Sabir
English 1B
6 September 2011
Maggie and Louis
Seen by white men as one of the solutions to the so-called Indian problem in early America, tens of thousands of children were torn from their families and shipped off for slave labor in government run boarding schools, desecrating what was left of their culture. In Maggie and Louis, we read the tale of two children in similar circumstances. Maggie, able to conform to her surroundings, had a much different experience than her new friend Louis, who would attempt escape every chance he got.
Maggie was a hard and obedient worker. Having earned the trust of the Matron, she was informally in charge of the other girls who were also diligently mending torn stockings. The environment was poor, consisting of “a work table and chairs, the baskets of mending, the ironing table, the gaslight that hung from the ceiling on a heavy chain (45).” Matron’s abysmal personality also contributed to the girls’ poor working conditions:
A duke’s daughter, she danced gracefully in the arms of a tall man - a soldier perhaps, thought Maggie, who had read every novel in the St. Veronique Mission School library – a commoner, who’s feet, in shiny black boots, twirled deft scallops around her ruffled and feathered skirt. Their love was more beautiful because it was doomed, denied. Alone and bereft, Matron would live out her life teaching Indian girls to sit up straight, to make their beds with the sheets pulled and mitered tightly at the corners, to emulate the bleak motions of her existence. Maggie sighed at the poignancy of Matron’s life; the humming girls sighed with her at the poignancy of Stephen Foster’s dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair.
Louis was a different soul altogether. His repeated attempts to escape had failed and now he found himself in solitary confinement; a place with which he had become familiar. It was here that he would become acquainted with Maggie. Maggie’s soft and comforting ways changed Louis’s mind about attempting escape, and inspired him to sing in the wake of her absence (58).
Work Cited Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots: Three Seasons. Athens: Georgia, 2010. Print.
The Dance Boots
By: Linda Legarde Grover
Sabir English 1B
September 7, 2011
Angela Stokes
Maggie shows Louis, a student whom is punished for attempting to run away again both compassion and understanding. She reminisces her days at Indian School (pg47), the scolding, the bruising from the “…grasp of sister Cecils strong and holy fingers” (pg48), and understands what Louis may be thinking and feeling. While Louis is locked away, solitarily confined to a small room in the basement, Maggie is not overly concerned with herself while she brings his supper, but questions the boy’s predicament. “What if the laundry building caught fire? The boy would die.”(pg55)
Although their native tongue is not allowed to be spoken; Maggie tells the boy to eat in the language they both share. Maggie appears, spotless, Louis thinks to himself. Cleans his piss pot, shakes out his blanket, and then asks him to help her turn his soiled mattress before tucking him in. The whole time she’s wondering; will he run away? Doesn’t he realize that she is there to help him? I believe it is at this point the young boy finds hope. Louis thinks to himself. To be working in an awful school and handling a soiled cot, she must be someone special. At the end of the story Louis is dreaming about Maggie, she is held at a higher standard than the other matrons. “…her brilliant shawl rising and falling over her broad shoulders and bent elbows like the wings of a dragon fly.”(pg58) Maggie is looked upon as Christian believers look at Angels, a symbol of hope.
On Maggie’s part; I’m sure it took a lot of strength for her to return to school. Although it is not the mission school she attended as a child the mistreatment of some to the students are all the same. Maybe by her being there, she could change the way the children are treated. From little things like; initiating singing amongst the girls during sewing time. To much larger things for instance; she’s told by one of the matron’s “There is a great deal to be done here, as you have probably guessed, some of the students, the boys in particular but some of the girls, too, are quite wayward. Not completely their fault, of course: their families are so backward. So unfortunate. It is our task to correct what we can” (pg49) Oh how Maggie held her tongue, that is a true testament to strength. She learns to ignore things, just as she ignored matron Julia’s foul smelling feet as Maggie ate.
Maggie’s mission to stay and at Harrod School and endure just to help the other children, far outweighed her complete distain for the school in general. She works her way up through the chain of commands, just so that she would have some sort of impact. Our group (Hsiaolin, Tia, and Ade) all decided to portray Maggie as a symbol. She is a symbol of strength, compassion, hope and understanding.
Jacqueline Diulio
Professor Sabir
English 1B
6 September 2011
Friendship
In the short story, “Maggie and Louis” from the book The Dance Boots, by Linda Legarde Grover, told the story of a friendship that kept Louis, one of the main characters, out of trouble. Through out the story Louis got in trouble multiple times by attempting to escape from the Harrod Boarding School he was being forced to attend. The night after first arriving at the school, Louis tries to flee by telling his prefect he has to use the restroom. The second Louis was out of sight, Louis made a run for the front door only to be caught by Mr. McGoun, one of the school’s faculty (54-55)
Every time Louis was caught for escaping, Mr. McGoun would lock Louis up in a solitary room. One night when Maggie, the main character in the story, brought food to Louis’ cell, Louis plans to trick Maggie and flee.
He had intended, once he maneuvered her into the cell, to push past her and run up the stairs and out of the building. It was nearly dark; she didn’t know where McGoun would be. She did not look as though she would want to scream. She would have to try to find McGoun, to find help. This would take time; he would have a good start (56).
But, as Maggie cleaned out his cell, remade his bed, and spoke to him in their native tongue, Louis decided not to flee. He even helped Maggie successfully close and lock the cell door so he couldn’t escape, saving her from being punished by the school.
Although it would have been effortless for Louis to escape when Maggie brought him food, he decided against running and instead, to follow Maggie’s example of doing the right thing. Maggie treated Louis with respect and kindness, unlike any of the other faculty at the boarding school. At the end of the story, Louis went to sleep in his cell dreaming of Maggie and her generosity. “Humming, his eyes on the lights, he danced into Maggie’s footprints” (58). The affection and friendship Maggie showed Louis not only stopped him from getting into more trouble, but also stopped Maggie from being punished for Louis’ actions.
Work cited
Grover, Linda Legarde. “Maggie and Louis.” The Dance Boots. Athens: Georgia, 2010. (42-58). Print.
Hum Joe, the hair color imagery as a symbol of racial dominance is a stretch that grows weaker and weaker as you move towards the conclusion where it isn't supported at all. I like the running away example. Nice try.
MLA incorrect.
Jake, is your thesis Maggie as consolation prize for Louis? She makes captivity bearable?
Angela, Hsiaolin, Tia, and Ade
I like the idea of Maggie as symbol, but the writing sounds like plot summary.
There is no thesis indicating what your plan is, to show Maggie as a symbol . . . of what?
Was Maggie's intention to work through the ranks in order to act as a buffer between the matron and other authorities and her peers? Did she act on impulse or was she a Florence Nightingale? I think she acts on impulse.
The MLA is also incorrect from the heading to the parentheticals. Good try though.
Jacqueline
You make several good points without pushing yourself further into the murky depths where perhaps things aren't as clear, but at least they are a lot more interesting. Wade in the deeper water (smile).
Notice where you repeat yourself. The conclusion does not further the argument. Why doesn't Louis run? He still wants to be free. What is it about Maggie that helps him find solace as least for that moment?
He thinks of Maggie when before he thinks of himself. Why is that?
Alexander Jung
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 201 B 9:00-10:50
7 September 7, 2011
Freedom
The short story “Maggie and Louis,” by Linda Legarde Grover, is a story that depicts a meeting between Maggie, a teacher at Harold boarding school, and Louis, a student at the school. Over the course of the story the reader can see how Louis desires to be free from the school. At the start of Louis’s experience at the school he decides to run away after being there for one day. (Grover 53) Even before he had a good sense of what the school would be like Louis already has the mindset of escaping and being free from the school. After being caught he was punished but remained calm the whole time, waiting for the next chance to escape from school. (Grover 55) From then on, Louis continues to seek for freedom which eventually would cause him to cross paths with Maggie.
By the time Maggie arrives and becomes a teacher at Harold boarding school, Louis has made more attempts to escape. As Maggie is supervising the girls while they practice their sewing, one of the girls sees Louis trying to escape and says “Is he going to run again?” (Grover 46) Even after multiple attempts to leave the school and failing in the end, he seems to never lose hope in finally escaping the school. But just like his other attempts he is caught and is forced into solitary confinement. As he is being taken away to where the cell for the confinement is, Maggie notices that Louis’s eyes were calm and were basically saying that “Don’t feel sorry for me. It doesn’t hurt at all. It’s nothing to me at all. I don’t even notice. There is more to life than this.” (Grover 50) The end of this quote reflects how Louis still maintains his goal in seeking freedom. Louis knows that there are greater things in life than going to the boarding school and that freedom will allow him to achieve those greater things in life.
Once Louis is brought to his cell, Maggie is asked to bring him his food. Maggie opens the cell door and delivers him his meal. At this moment in time he debates whether to make an attempt to escape again but Maggie speaks to him in Native American, gives him a blanket, and helps move his mattress that he decides to not run. Even though he had a chance to run, her kindness for him keeps him from making the decision to escape. When Maggie leaves his cell he closes his eyes and imagines Maggie dancing in the night sky. In his imagination it states that
“Above his head the northern lights grew larger and stomped mightily in the sky around Miss LaForce, whose pointed lady shoes kneaded a cloud, toes-heels, toes-heels, Miss LaForce, who pivoted slowly in the sky, her brilliant shawl rising and falling over her broad shoulders and bent elbows, like the wings of a dragonfly. “Ambe niimiwin, come and dance,” come the invitation from the sky. “Ambe nagamon, come and sing.” “Waas noodin, shining wind,” he acknowledged, inhaling cold, icy air, which cleared his lungs and opened his eyes. Humming, with his eyes on the lights, he danced into Maggie’s footprints.” (Grover 58)
In the end, even though he could not escape physically, he found his freedom spiritually from Maggie. Maggie’s involvement in his life allowed him the opportunity to find the freedom that he was seeking for. At that moment he found the freedom away from school and took a look into a new world.
Grover, Linda Legarde. “Maggie and Louis.” The Dance Boots. Athens: Georgia, 2010. (42-58). Print.
Adetona Adewale
Professor Sabir
English 1B
06 September 2011
In this essay about Maggie and Louis I will mention the importance of both Maggie’s and Louis’s role in the story. First, I shall bring your attention to the role of Maggie and try to highlight her importance throughout the story. Next, I will briefly introduce the character Louis and the imperativeness of his role as well. Thirdly, I would like show you how these two individuals’ roles in the story are interconnected.
The importance of Maggie in this story begins at the beginning of the text when her very symbolic and model like character first makes an introduction the author points out that, “her body held inches away from the back in order to demonstrate proper posture to the group of girls”( Grover 44). For me this quote directly above says that Maggie is not only a model to the girls but she is the very epitome of what a sophisticated woman is meant to be. Furthermore, that quote symbolizes the very significance of Maggie’s role because her character is a figure to be modeled after.
Louis’s role in the story is a complete opposite when it comes to the behavior of Maggie because his behavior was very savage like and hers was very proper. As the author notes, “I have to go outside” (Grover 54). The previous quote makes me fully aware that Louis was indeed quite the wild one because he did not use the word toilet to refer to the bathroom he just said that he need to go outside. Moreover, Louis had far too many qualities that suggested that he was Maggie’s polar opposite that the very thought of them doing anything together is entirely laughable.
Finally, Maggie and Louis are similar as well as interconnected in many ways such as how they both like to dream and imagine and delve deeply in to their subconscious as they search for their inner truths. The author comments that, “He closed his eyes and imagined stars”, this immediately reminded me off the time when Maggie was day dreaming about her aunt Shirley at the powwow (Grover 57). But what I feel they shared in common the most was their Native American lineage because they were so different yet so oddly the same.
Works Cited
Grover, Linda LeGarde. The Dance Boots. Athens: University of Georgia, 2010. Print.
Jiwon “June” Yee
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1B Tuesday/Thursday, 9:00-10:50 A.M.
September 7, 2011
Linda Legarde Grover's short story, “Maggie and Louis, 1914”, is about two characters, Maggie who is a teacher's assistant at Harrod boarding school, and a young student, Louis, who's main desire it is to escape that school. From Maggie's point of view, the reader is aware and clear about the kind of structure and conformity the school is very strict about and why it is clear that Louis wanted to escape from it. However, it is Maggie and Louis' chance meeting that inspired Louis to stop running due to her kindness.
Louis immediately noticed on his first night that the boarding school is not somewhere he wanted to stay at all; he saw that even the way the boys were supposed to sleep “...on their backs with hands at their sides above the blankets” (54) made them “'look like a bunch of dead people laid out'” (54). It was that absolute structure and conformity that made him want to run far away from the boarding school. He is right to fear being confined in that system, as the boarding school's purpose is to essentially strip these Native American children of their culture and to teach them to be proper members of society as they were seen as savages. It is of course made more clear in Maggie's point of view as an assistant, she is also under the supervision of the matron, Julia, who tells the class to act in an orderly fashion. The matron also furthers the notion of teaching the children at the school to be proper when she told Maggie the following: “'There is a great deal to be done here, and as you have probably guessed, some of the students, the boys in particular but some of the girls, too, are quite wayward. Not completely their fault, of course; their families are so backward. So unfortunate. It is our task to correct what we can.'” (49). Maggie herself also had a sister, Henen, who was actually called Helen at the school who kept all that she learned from home and that she knew would be praised at the school. The reader could assume by that background information that Maggie is still very much tied to the importance of her family and her culture.
Louis also carries pride for his family and his thoughts about them are what keeps him strong through his numerous punishments for trying to escape; he draws his patience from his mother's side, the Eberts, and resilience from his father's side, the Gallettes (55). So of course his family and culture are things he would never want to let go of which is something he is sure the boarding school would make him do. It is not an unreasonable belief at all, as one of the people who brings food to him, Andre Robineau, a Native American man himself who grew up in the boarding school even begins to carry himself as a white man as noted by Maggie (50). However, when it is Maggie who brings him his food during his punishment, she proves to be an exception when she is kind to him and even speaks some of the Ojibwe language to him. In doing so, it gave Louis a little peace knowing that even someone in a position like Maggie's did not lose her culture entirely which gives him a change of heart.
Grover, Linda Legarde. “Maggie and Louis, 1914.” The Dance Boots. Athens: Georgia, 2010. (42-58). Print.
Tia Gangopadhyay
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 201 B 9-10:50 AM
7 September 2011
Maggie and Louis Analysis
Linda Legarde Grover’s The Dance Boots includes a short story “Maggie and Louis” which uses a third-person narrator to describe Maggie meeting Louis. Throughout the story, Maggie is a symbol of hope, compassion, strength and understanding. Maggie received cruel punishment when she was a student at the Catholic Mission School. Sister Cecile grabbed Maggie with an iron grip whenever Maggie accidentally spoke in her native language. She endured the abuse, as did hundreds of other Native Americans before her who attended Indian schools. Now she has come to Harrod to teach sewing and care for the younger children. She is an emblem of hope for all the young girls who she is teaching how to sew. Because one of the students, Elizabeth, is stifling gasps in her attempt to breathe quietly through her mouth, due to the matron’s scorn, Maggie tells the girls to sing while they sew in order to alleviate tension in the room. Maggie is a symbol of strength when she holds her tongue and does not talk back to the Matron’s rude comments:
There is a great deal to be done here, and as you have probably guessed, some of the students, the boys in particular but some of the girls, too, are quite wayward. Not completely their fault, of course; their families are so backward. So unfortunate. It is our task to correct what we can. (Grover 49)
Similarly, when the matron takes off her shoes and places her feet next to Maggie while she eats, Maggie doesn’t say a word of reproach or disgust.
Maggie is a symbol of understanding in her actions with Louis. While the other teachers scorn him, including Mr. Robineau (another Native American teacher at Harrod), Maggie treats him with understanding. She asks if he has an appetite and speaks to him in their native language, Ojibwe, even though it is forbidden (Grover 56). Her understanding towards this young, struggling boy, is so rare among the other teachers, that she contrasts sharply. It is evident that she symbolizes understanding.
Finally, Maggie is a symbol for compassion. She goes above and beyond her duties toward Louis. While the other teachers and staff at the school simply gave Louis the meager amount of food and left him, Maggie takes time to clean up his cell. She concerns herself with his safety locked in a cell, in light of a fire. Then she turns his mattress so that he doesn’t have to sleep on the side filled with dried blood, urine, and mustard. She pours out the urine and washes out the pot. She wants to ensure that his punishment is still humane. In her eyes, it is one thing to be punished for a wrongdoing, and it is quite something else to be treated inhumanely. Once she is done tidying up his cell to the best of her ability, she tells him “‘This will be more comfortable, I think’” (Grover 57). She shows how compassionate she is in trusting Louis and trying to comfort him, rather than abuse him, like the other teachers and staff at Harrod were doing. These actions exemplify Maggie as a symbol for compassion.
Works Cited
Gardner, Janet E. Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.
Nick Malecek
Professor Sabir
English 1B 9:00-10:50am T/Th
7 September 2011
Maggie and Louis Response
In "Maggie and Louis", we see a younger Maggie working at the Harrod Indian school as a teacher's assistant of some kind. We are also introduced to Louis, a troublesome student at Harrod. The story opens with Maggie assisting the Matron teach the girl students how to mend holes in socks. Their work is abruptly interrupted by Louis as he attempts to escape the school, but he is quickly caught and imprisoned in a locked room in the basement for punishment. Maggie is sent down to bring Louis his meal and clean up the cell.
Louis highlights one of the strongest and more consistent themes in these stories: the desire to be free. The first time Maggie sees Louis, she sees his shirt in the window as he is running away and mistakes it for a bird (page 46). I interpreted this as highly symbolic; birds are meant to be free, and are often associated with freedom. In many ways, Louis can be seen as the embodiment of these Native-American children's desire to escape the Indian schools. It’s not a surprise that these children wanted to escape as much as they did, as the Native-Americans attending these schools were subjected to all sorts of mistreatment and disrespect. Louis’ confinement in the basement is one example of this. The narrator describes the conditions of this room as Maggie descends into the basement:
When she opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, the carbolic mustiness that had been growing and expanding within the heat and confines of the basement hit her face like a damp rag thrust over her nose and mouth. “Huh,” she breathed to expel the smell, and was answered by a gasp and huff from the dark and empty hallway . . . The gaslight in the middle of the hallway, turned low, provided just enough light for her to see the two doors that Julia had told her to look for. (Page 52)
The United States was supposedly founded on human equality, and for these establishments to treat these human beings with such disrespect is shameful. All persons should be free of the absurd constraints that we as a society sometimes place on them. A child should have something better than " a dirty mattress and a moth-eaten, linty blanket" (page 55).
Works Cited
LeGarde, Linda. The Dance Boots. Univ of Georgia Pr, 2010. Print.
Arjmand Khan
Professor Sabir
English 1 B
8 September 2011
Maggie and Louis Analysis
In “Maggie and Louis, 1914” Louis undergoes major changes. He goes from a trouble causing to a more kind and disciplined person. Maggie plays an important role in Louis' character development.
When Louis is first introduced, he is described as the boy who tries to run away whenever he gets the chance. While Louis was being chased, a girl asked whether Louis was planning to escape again and in response, someone said he will be brought back (46). Since the girl was confident when she said Louis won't be able to run away, we know that he has been doing this for a while without succeeding.
Louis also knows that there is a punishment for running away, yet he still tries to do it:
Punishment. The first time he ran away was the day after he arrived at Harrod from Grand Bois. He waited until bedtime, when the boys were undressing and putting on their nightshirts. (54)
Louis cannot be blamed for wanting to escape because living conditions were strict and the children going to the school were treated badly.
We see Louis' change in character when Maggie brings him supper to eat. At first, he looks for an opportunity to run. “He had intended, once he maneuvered her into the cell, to push past her and run up the stairs and out of the building” (56). Instead of running, he decides to stay and do what Maggie tells him to. We also see he acts kind towards Maggie later when he tells her how to handle the padlock so she would not hurt herself.
Work Cited
Grover, Linda Legarde. The Dance Boots. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print
Tien Hardin
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1B Tuesday/Thursday 9-10:50 AM
6 September 2011
Maggie and Louis
Essay Focusing on One Element from Gardner's, Writing About Literature (1)
The theme in Linda Legarde Grover’s short story “Maggie and Louis” is revealed as Maggie LaForce begins training to be a teacher at the Herrod School, a school reminiscent of her own unhappy years at the Catholic Mission School; a school that practiced abuse, and humiliation of the children. In spite of Maggie’s unpleasant experience at the Catholic Mission School and the harsh example of the matrons at the Herrod School, she treats her charges with kindness and empathy.
While teaching the girls how to mend socks, she quietly observes the matron speaking to the girls harshly. Elisabeth, an Indian girl from north of Miskwaa Rapids, breathing noisily struggles to breathe more quietly so as not to annoy the matron and be sent out of the room. Maggie asks the matron, “Can they sing while they work?”(2) perhaps thinking that by singing and breathing through the mouth would ease Elisabeth’s trouble as well as liven up the other sleepy girls. The matron enthusiastically agreed.
It is during this class that she see’s Louis for the first time out of the window. He is running, trying his second escape from the school. Chasing him is Robineau (later to be Maggie’s husband) and prefect McGoun (later to chase down her own son Sonny and capture her nephew Mickey). Louis was caught and locked in a dark, filthy room in the basement of the laundry building. Maggie was instructed to bring him his super.
“She saw a cot with a dirty mattress and a moth-eaten, linty blanket, a wooden kitchen chair, and in the corner a chipped chamber pot. It was so dark, the smell so foul . . .‘I will tidy this,'” “Wiisinin” she said, to comfort him, “eat your supper.”(3)
Louis planned to flee after Maggie went into the cell to attempt making it more comfortable for him. He considered his odds. She was not likely to yell out and was unlikely to located McGoun fast enough to be caught(4). Louis did not run. Instead he stayed, instructing her how to lock his cell properly and falling to sleep with dreams filled of Miss LaForce.
Works Cited
1 Gardner, Janet E. Writing About Literature, Writing About Stories, Elements of Fiction page 57
Grover, Linda Legarde, The Dance Boots, Maggie and Louis
2 page 44, paragraphs 1-7
3 page 55, paragraph 8
4 page 56, paraphrase paragraph 1
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