Angie Grajeda

Professor Lao
College 1
September 8, 2014
Reading Response Journal #2
1. In chapter 2 from The Madonnas of Echo Park novel we enhance lots of information from events
that occurred throughout the chapter. This chapter is told by a charter named Felicia, who first meet
in chapter one. She was the wife of Hector. Moving on this chapter contained a series of events and
new characters. A few characters that we meet throughout the chapter were Mrs. Calhoun, Rick,
Alma Guerrero, Ana Gomez, etc. This chapter mostly took place in Mrs. Calhoun house. It mostly
took place at her house because Felicia got a job as the cleaning lady. She spent the whole chapter
cleaning Mrs. Calhouns house. Other major events that happened in this chapter were Auroras pool
party, the death of Alma, and also the death of Mrs. Calhoun.
2. While reading this chapter I found it to be really intriguing since the first few paragraphs. At the
beginning of the chapter there was a particular part were I found lots of people can relate to. This
particular part was on the bottom of page 26 were it talks about a nightmare she had. Everyone can
relate to having some type of nightmare, we all know that nightmares do not bring anything good, but
torment. She mentions that this dream she had made her scream and quiver. For a fact I know that
now one would like to be in her position right now, especially I were a nightmare was so vivid and that
revisited you every night. Just imaging it scares me. Throughout this chapter, I had so much
amusement of what each person was going through. Overall, I really liked this chapter it got me
hooked since the beginning
3. Do you think Mrs. Calhouns death was caused or by accident? Why do you think she might have
taking the decision to kill herself?
Why do you think Mrs. Calhoun and her husband never demonstrate/show affection towards each other?
1. On the previous chapter I felt confused, but in this chapter I actually did not feel confused at all, it was
a much easier understandable flow. While I read this chapter I underlined in my book key words that I
did not know the meaning to, and I also took side notes of things I should remember or I thought they
were important to know and understand. The only hard part in this chapter was the words that I did
not know. The strategy that I used to be able to understand the meaning the word, I hand to find
context clues in the sentences. If I still did not get what the word meant I looked up the word in a
dictionary.
2. As I said above, while reading this chapter I encountered a few words that I did not know the meaning
to. I felt that without the understanding of a particular word in a sentence, you can miss the whole
meaning of the sentence. The few words that I wrote down on my side notes were amethyst,
callused, martyrs, stalactites, and antiseptic. I chose these words as good words because without
the understanding of these words anyone could have been misled and were not able to fully grasp
the true meaning behind the sentence.
-Amethyst: a purplish tint
-Callused: a hardened or thickened part of the skin; a callosity
-Martyrs: a person who willingly suffers death rather renounce his or her religion
-Stalactites: a deposit, usually of calcium carbonate, shaped like an icicle, hanging from the roof of cave
or the like, and formed by the dripping of percolating calcareous water
-Antiseptic: free from or cleaned of germs and other microorganisms