Big Water

Question

by Andrea Curtis

There’s a moment in which nothing happens, as if no one can quite believe what he is hearing. Then one man shouts, “Survivors!” and scrambles to take the bowline. Another reaches far down into the boat to haul Daniel up like a fish on a line. They gesture to me. “Petite fille,” they gasp. I lift my arms, and someone takes my hands. The blanket falls from my shoulders as I’m in the air. “A girl,” one says. “A child.”

I don’t have time to think about how strange these words sound, how little I feel like a child, before I am half carried, half dragged down the dock, men smelling of sweat and wood and coal pushing in on either side of me. I am still weak, my forehead on fire once again, and I let them lift me, though I don’t like their arms around my waist, though I want to turn back to Eva to say, Thank you, thank you for your berries and your kindness. Thank you, Henry, for keeping us safe when there was no one else. Daniel is beside me, though he is allowed to walk on his own. I can hear him talking to the men, but I can’t make out the words. There are shouts all around us. “The Asia! Survivors! Make way! Survivors!”

Excerpt from Big Water by Andrea Curtis. Printed with permission by Orca Book Publishers

Question
Use the excerpt from “Big Water” to answer the question.

What detail from the text best supports an inference about a change in the narrator’s overall perspective?

(1 point)
Responses

The narrator feels weak and ill.
The narrator feels weak and ill.

The narrator finds being referred to as a child strange.
The narrator finds being referred to as a child strange.

The narrator dislikes being lifted and carried.
The narrator dislikes being lifted and carried.

The narrator seems to be disoriented.

Answer 1

The detail from the text that best supports an inference about a change in the narrator’s overall perspective is:

The narrator finds being referred to as a child strange.

This indicates a shift in how she perceives herself; while she may still be physically a child, her experiences and feelings make her see herself in a different light, suggesting maturity and a change in her perspective.