The excerpt is from Jane Rogers’ short story “Hitting Trees with Sticks,” published in 2010. In this passage, the speaker, an older woman named Celia Benson, arrives home from an outing. She has just walked by two children at play, one of whom is methodically hitting a tree with a stick. Read the passage carefully. Then, write a paragraph in which you make a defensible claim regarding how Rogers uses first-person point of view to convey Celia’s complex perspective. In your paragraph, you should incorporate at least one piece of evidence from the text to support your claim.

In your response you should do the following:

Respond to the prompt with a claim that presents a defensible interpretation.
Select and use evidence to support your interpretation.
Explain how the evidence supports your interpretation.
Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.