(A.K.A. “Don’t Pull a Schatz!”) Pronoun Confusion (A.K.A. “Don’t Pull a Schatz!”)

Antecedents Pronouns are substitutes for nouns. An antecedent is the noun the pronoun is replacing. Examples: “The book lost the book’s pages” becomes “The book lost its pages.” “The girl broke the girl’s pencil” becomes “The girl broke her pencil.”

Examples in “A Day’s Wait” (A.K.A. “Hemingway broke the rules…”) “He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed…” (pg. 81) Who is “he”? Who is “we”? “At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone come into the room.” (pg. 83) Who is “they”?

And the big one… “After a while he said to me, ‘You don’t have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you.’ ‘It doesn’t bother me.’ ‘No, I mean you don’t have to stay if it’s going to bother you.’” (pg. 82) What does Schatz mean by “it”? What did Papa mean by “it”?

More examples… She told her that she needed the papers. Ms. Baboval told Ms. Scala that Mrs. Langone needed the papers. He asked him if he was coming. Mr. Ostrowski asked Mr. Rochon if Mr. Lomma was coming. It was difficult for it. The weather was difficult for the dog. They didn’t do what they said. The students didn’t do what the teachers said.

The lesson you should learn from Hemingway is… …you should NOT be using a pronoun until you have named its antecedent! If you break this rule, it will cause confusion for your reader!