1. How does Justine change in the story “A Birthday Tradition”?
Answer: She recognizes that her previous behavior was rude and ungrateful.
Justine has a wake up call on her fifteenth birthday: because her grandmother isn't able to show up this time due to being feeling unwell, Justine remembers her mother's words: "your grandmother won't be around forever",which causes the teenager to reflect upon her past behavior, as in the passage:
"As she stared at the tacky outfit, she realized in retrospect how selfish she had been, and her mother’s words returned to her: “Your grandmother won’t be around forever.”"
2. Which of the following detail best supports the change in Justine’s character in “A Birthday Tradition”?
Answer: Justine is eager to spend time with her grandmother after receiving the note.
The gifts she'd been given ever since she was five- the dreadful outfits- made Justine see the yearly visit her grandmother paid her as a real burden, since she'd have to walk around wearing those weird clothes. Nevertheless, after learning her grandmother is unwell, Justine even calls the old woman and makes future plans with her, as seen in the following passage:
"She called and thanked her grandmother and rescheduled the trip to the movies so she could wear her new clothes and continue the birthday tradition."
3. Which statement best describes the effect of the narrative point of view in “A Birthday Tradition”?
Answer: The third-person limited point of view allows the author to focus solely on the inner thoughts and feelings of Justine.
The author focuses on Justine's point of view. We learn her impressions, thoughts and feelings regarding the birthday tradition. It's a third-person limited point of view, since we only know how Justine's mother feels about her daughter's behavior due to Justine's remembering her words, as shown in the following passage:
"Later that night when Justine had complained to her parents about the embarrassment of going to the movies in her birthday outfit every year, her mother simply told her that she should be grateful. “Your grandmother won’t be around forever; you should be thankful for the time you have with her and the effort she puts into selecting those outfits for you. Cherish your moments with her,” her mother said."
4. Which statement best describes how the flashback affects the story “A Birthday Tradition”?
Answer: They help develop and explain the anxiety Justine feels.
The flashback affects the story in the sense that it shows the reader why Justine feels so anxious, in a negative way, about the birthday tradition. We learn the teenager had been through awkward, embarrassing situations due to the outfits she'd been getting over the years. We can see that in the passage below:
"Justine felt as though she not only sparkled but also glowed in the dark, and later at the theater, the outfit was so itchy that she was scratching and thrashing around throughout the whole motion picture."
5. Grandmother’s arrival was imminent because it was…
Answer: about to happen.
That's what the word "imminent" means: liable to happen, about to occur. We know it never happened that day, but since Justine didn't know it when she reclined on the front porch and looked out at the driveway, the word "imminent" was used with the meaning above.
6. What is the theme in the story “A Birthday Tradition”?
Answer: Be careful what you wish for.
Justine didn't feel like going to the movies with her grandmother at all, and was hoping she wouldn't have to. Then, unexpectedly, she learned it wouldn't be necessary or even possible to do that due to her grandmother's poor health condition in that particular day. Justine felt very sad about it and even regretted her previous rudeness and ungratefulness.
7. Which of the following quotations best supports the theme from question 6?
Answer: “Justine felt tears well up, even though she realized that this was exactly what she wanted.”
We can't say Justine experienced a feeling of bittersweetness; actually, she was plain sad, just an immature teenager who was starting to learn the hard way about the complexity of human feelings.
