1. Reflective essay (nonfiction narrative)
“The Sun Parlor”
Reflective essay (nonfiction narrative)

2. How does West make it feel like she’s having a conversation with her readers?
She addresses us directly.
She uses the second person (you).
She announces to us at the opening that this is “a story with a moral.”

3. What does West focus on as her topic?
It is about a special room in the author’s home.
More specifically, it’s about the author’s changing attitude toward a specific room in her home.
The author reveals directly that the emotion she connects most with the sun parlor is _________________.
REGRET

4. West tells us this is a “tale with a moral.” What is this moral?
Don’t make people feel subordinate to possessions.

5. Why does West tell Sis not to play in the sun parlor?
West has just painted it, and she’s worked really hard on it.
She feels protective, and Sis is, after all, a small child.
She says it’s a place for adults, not children.

6. What event changes the way West feels about the sun parlor? Why and How?
They change the sun parlor into a sick room because the aunt cannot climb stairs.
The aunt eventually dies.
West ends up closing the sun parlor for a time because it reminds her of her grief.

7. What’s the overall lesson the aunt’s stay in the sun parlor teaches?
A room’s mood depends not on its décor and lighting, but on the events that occur there.

8. Know your vocabulary: Lavished Succinct Cajoled Subordinate
Rejuvenation
Convalesce