“A Celebration of Grandfathers” Rudolfo A. Anaya Page 444

Before You Read: Reading Guide (handout) values: a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life. worldview: the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world perspective: a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view interpret: to understand the significance of; to explain the meaning of

Rudolfo A. Anaya Born 1937 in New Mexico novels, stories, and articles writings reflect Mexican American heritage and his concern for the past “A Celebration of Grandfathers” reflects on the “old ones” he remembers from his childhood

Notes: What type of essay? reflective essay What is the most important subject that Anaya reflects upon? Anaya reflects on his feelings about the value of the elderly in our society What does the passage that describes his grandfather as “connected to the cycle that brought the rain and kept it from us” (447) reveal? He saw himself as a participant in the “circle of life” not a bystander. What is Anaya’s attitude toward the values of young people today? He believes that young people are making a “harmful break”(448)– young people will be “less” for not knowing and embracing them What does the “autumn of life” (451) refer to? old age What does Anaya do to bring the essay “full circle?” Ends the essay with the same greeting that he begins it with What lesson did Anaya learn from the death of his friend, a young man dragged by his horse? Death is only “a small transformation in life” (447). Part of a natural cycle