Use the passage to answer the question. Using the ACES format, describe how the author uses sensory language to create mood in this passage.

Question

"Sinking and Swaddled"
by Beth Gilstrap

She swore she felt the earth drop-like a hitch in an elevator-several miles from her
mother's house. She thought of all those bedlinens agitated, curled, heaped on top
of her mother, sunk along with everything else, beams, roof tiles, the acrylic nails her
mom wore, the senselessness of waste. Her father had sunk, too. Years ago, in a
prefab home out on the lake. One day the lake rose a mite and the ground dove a
mite and from what her mother said, her father was better off down there, probably
still passed out on his leather couch. Ona had been swaddled and maneuvered into
the bow of a rowboat and, as legend tells, slept through the whole affair. Perhaps it
was this swaddling she longed for more than anything with all this terrible sinking
going on.

Ona walked for days, determined to find safety on higher ground. If she read her
instruments correctly, she was adjacent to a national forest. The public would not
stand for the sinking of a national forest so when she found a slate bungalow, she
settled there. Though two walls were missing, she concluded it was due to wind and
rain and the birch tree that had swindled its way up and through the middle of the
sweet, abandoned home. It wasn't sinking.

The kitchen still held a butcher-block table with a family of plates. Ona piled them
one on top of the other and pulled them to her chest, sick with grief, sick with longing
at the sight of the dust-free circles left behind. After rinsing each dish in the creek,
she dried them with her shirtsleeve and put them back in place. At dusk, fingertips
numb, Ona tore sheets of bark from the tree, building herself a papery cradle on the
uneven floorboards where she could sleep for years.

In one or two sentences, describe how the author uses
sensory language to create mood in this passage.

Sensory
Language

Words or phrases that
connect to the five
senses and describe
how something looks,
smells, tastes, feels or
sounds
Mood

Reader's reaction

What is the reader's
emotional response to the
story?

First, note that your response should be 1 to 2 sentences long. The question is asking you to show how the author uses sensory language to create mood in the passage. Think about the language the author is using and how it makes YOU feel as a reader. Include text evidence from the passage to support your response. Use the template below to help answer the question.

A- The author uses sensory language to create mood in the passage by _______________.
*HINT* Remember the mood is how the author makes the READER feel!

C- For example, in the passage it says that “_______________”.

E- This shows that, ___________________.

S- In conclusion, ____________________.

Answer 1

A- The author uses sensory language to create a somber and melancholic mood in the passage by evoking feelings of loss and despair through vivid imagery and tactile details.

C- For example, in the passage it says that Ona is “sick with grief, sick with longing at the sight of the dust-free circles left behind,” which vividly illustrates her sense of loss.

E- This shows that, by highlighting the absence of the plates and their former life, the author creates a deep emotional resonance with Ona's yearning for connection and stability amidst chaos.

S- In conclusion, the sensory details employed evoke a profound sense of sadness in the reader, drawing them into Ona's emotional turmoil as she navigates her world of loss and uncertainty.