Warm-Up, 8/31

For the first time that night she looked at me, really looked at me.

“You’re a funny kid, you know that?”

Funny. Different. Dreamy. Odd. How many times was I to hear that in the years to come, all spoken with the same quizzical, half-accusatory tone Sheila used then. Poor Sheila!

What does the point of view in the paragraphs above help the reader understand about the story’s theme?

• How Sheila dislikes the narrator’s personal values

• How the narrator will be rejected repeatedly in the future

• How the narrator accepts himself despite the opinions of others

• How Sheila fails to understand the importance of personal identity