Part A

Question

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

Responses

1) The narrator feels she has betrayed her mother by telling Mrs. Crosman she wished she were her mother and accepting her gift.

2) The narrator's mother is proud of her work and her ability to support her family.

3) The narrator feels embarrassed by her mother's accident and is convinced she will never be accepted by American society.

4) The narrator and her mother believe in the importance working together as a family.

Part B

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

Responses

1) “I got out after them; and while everyone else was inspecting the damage we’d done, I threw the umbrella down a sewer.”

2) “She was supposed to be on the day shift, but the other employees were unreliable, and her boss had promised her a promotion if she would stay until the evening shift filled in."

3) "She sighed. 'The Chinese have a saying: one beam cannot hold the roof up.'"”

4) “Remembering what I had said to Miss Crosman, I tried to maneuver the umbrella under my leg so she wouldn’t feel it.”

Answer 1

Part A

The best inference to make based on what happens in “The White Umbrella” is:

1) The narrator feels she has betrayed her mother by telling Mrs. Crosman she wished she were her mother and accepting her gift.

Part B

The two details from the story that best support the inference in Part A are:

1) “I got out after them; and while everyone else was inspecting the damage we’d done, I threw the umbrella down a sewer.”

4) “Remembering what I had said to Miss Crosman, I tried to maneuver the umbrella under my leg so she wouldn’t feel it.”

These details illustrate the narrator's feelings of guilt and betrayal toward her mother, reinforcing the inference that she feels she has disappointed her mother by expressing a desire to be in another family dynamic and taking a gift that symbolizes different values.