(5) My mother's upbringing in the pastoral valleys and highlands of the Virginia Piedmont had not prepared her for the tiny yards,

Question

carefully delineated with privacy fences, or the perfectly duplicated homes crammed onto our cul-de-sac.
For the sake of the logic and coherence of the essay, sentence 5
should be placed:

Answer 1

To determine the best placement for sentence 5 in the essay, we need to consider the context of the surrounding sentences. Sentence 5 describes the contrast between the speaker's mother's rural upbringing and the suburban environment in which they currently live.

If the preceding sentences discuss the suburban setting, its characteristics, or differences from rural life, then sentence 5 should follow those sentences to provide a contrast and highlight the mother's adjustment to this new setting.

Conversely, if the preceding sentences focus on the mother's background, placing sentence 5 after them would create a smooth transition into the discussion of her life in the suburbs.

Therefore, sentence 5 should be placed after any discussion of the mother's background (if present) or before detailing her experiences adapting to the suburban environment. If no specific context about the mother’s background exists, it should likely follow a sentence that introduces the suburban setting.

Overall, without seeing the full essay, the ideal placement would be after a description of the mother's rural upbringing or before a discussion on suburban life to effectively connect the contrasting themes.