Sticks 2026-2027 - close reading

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• Leerjaar 6

Sticks - close reading

George Saunders, “Sticks” (1994)

Author’s own remarks on the writing process and meaning of the story?

• born December 2, 1958

• background of working different manual jobs as well as several years as a technical writer and geophysical engineer before turning to creative writing

• professor at Syracuse University, New York since 1996 

• writes essays, short stories, novellas and novels •

• has won multiple awards

Close reading exercise: Think – Pair – Share

1. Think (10’): read the story and write down a few notes independently. Use the below
   questions as inspiration ; you do not need to answer every question.

2. “Pair” (8’): Get into small groups of two or three. Discuss your answers
   with your partner(s). Work together!

3. Share: Share some of your group’s ideas with the room.

Questions to think about:

1. Who tells (i.e. narrator) this story? What do you know about the narrator? What is the narrator’s attitude towards his father? Is his attitude/opinion constant throughout the story, or does it change over the course of the story? Be sure to point to the text to give concrete evidence for your claims.

2. What does the pole tell you about the father (e.g., his personality, his psychological changes, his relationship to his family members)? Also consider the various objects the father places on the pole
   throughout the story. What patterns or shifts do you notice in the father’s choice of objects over time? Be sure to point to the text to give concrete evidence for your claims.

3. The father’s final messages on the pole are “LOVE” and “FORGIVE?”. Who are these messages directed to, do you think? Why? Be sure to point to the text to give concrete evidence for your claims.

Tricky vocab:

Thanksgiving Day: end of Nov = most important holiday in the USA

crucifix = cross

meanness = zuinigheid

glee = delight

to shriek = to cry out

discernible = clear

Groundhog Day = early Feb = end of winter?

a rift = kloof

frantic = gejaagd, paniekerig

Central question:

How can such a short story reveal so much about a person's character, family relationships, guilt and regret?

Focus of today's lesson

1. characterization

2. symbolism

3. Contrast and tone

4. theme.

Read the story silently.

In three adjectives, describe Dad.

1. (Indirect) Characterization

The children are allowed only one crayon at a time.

Dad becomes furious over a wasted apple slice.

He carefully controls the amount of ketchup.

Birthday parties have cupcakes but no ice cream.

1. What do these examples suggest about Dad's personality?

2. Why does Saunders give us several small incidents instead of simply telling us that Dad is strict?

3. Does Dad's behaviour suggest discipline, fear of waste, a need for control, or something else?

Indirect characterization

i.e. We learn about a character through actions rather than explicit descriptions.

Teacher explanation: Saunders uses indirect characterization — we learn about a character through actions rather than explicit descriptions.

Also highlight the sentence about the children discovering similar meanness within themselves.

This is a crucial detail because the narrator acknowledges that Dad's behaviour has affected the next generation.

Key insight

Dad is not simply presented as an eccentric man. His controlling behaviour affects the entire family, even after the children leave home.

"We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us."

1. Why is this an important sentence in the first paragraph?

   1. The narrator acknowledges that Dad's behaviour has affected the next generation.

Dad

Not simply presented as an eccentric man. His controlling behaviour affects the entire family, even after the children leave home.

Teacher explanation: Saunders uses indirect characterization — we learn about a character through actions rather than explicit descriptions.

Also highlight the sentence about the children discovering similar meanness within themselves.

This is a crucial detail because the narrator acknowledges that Dad's behaviour has affected the next generation.

Key insight

Dad is not simply presented as an eccentric man. His controlling behaviour affects the entire family, even after the children leave home.

2. Symbolism

Why does Dad spend so much time decorating the pole when he seems unable to express affection towards his children?

• Beginning => Santa, Uncle Sam, ghost, soldier

  • Indicates:

    • Playfulness, creativity, self-expression

• Middle => Death, family photographs, personal belongings

  • Indicates:

    • Grief, memory, loneliness

• End => Apologies, LOVE, FORGIVE?

  • Indicates:

    • Guilt, regret, desire for reconciliation

What to point out:

The pole initially seems humorous and eccentric.

After Mom's death, the decorations become increasingly personal.

The pole gradually functions as a means of communication.

The six smaller crossed sticks may suggest his children or a symbolic family, although the story never explicitly establishes their identity.

Introduce the term symbolism: an ordinary object acquires additional meaning through its role in a story.

Higher-order question: Is the pole mainly a symbol of Dad's creativity, his inability to communicate, or his desire for forgiveness?

Encourage students to defend different interpretations.

The changing meaning of the pole

• “The pole was Dad's only concession to glee.”

  • pole represents Dad's playful side, in contrast to his strict behaviour towards his children.

    • Why is the word only important?

• “Dad began dressing the pole with more complexity and less discernible logic.”

  • a turning point. His decorations become stranger and more difficult to understand.

    • What does this change suggest about Dad?

• “Mom died and he dressed the pole as Death”

  • pole becomes associated with grief and loss. Its function changes from public celebration to personal expression.

    • Why might Dad express his grief through the pole rather than through words?

The changing meaning of the pole

• “odd talismans from his youth arranged around the base”

  • Personal objects connect the pole to Dad's memories and past. It increasingly reflects his inner life.

    • What might these objects tell us about Dad's emotional state?

• “provided offspring by hammering in six crossed sticks around the yard.”

  • The smaller sticks may represent children or a symbolic family.

    • Why does Saunders describe the smaller sticks as offspring?

• “letters of apology, admissions of error, pleas for understanding”

  • The pole has become a means of communication. Dad appears to be attempting to acknowledge his mistakes and seek reconciliation.

    • What is Dad finally trying to communicate? Why might he use the pole?

      
      

      
      

3. Contrast and tone

1. Where does the atmosphere begin to change?

2. How does Mom's death influence Dad's behaviour?

3. Why does the author accelerate the events at the end?

What to point out:

The first paragraph covers family life and the children's growing up.

The second concentrates on Dad's later years and emotional decline.

There is no dialogue in which Dad openly apologizes to his children.

His attempts to communicate become increasingly desperate.

The ending is abrupt: death, sale of the house, removal of the pole.

The story's brevity makes its ending particularly powerful. The narrator provides no extended emotional commentary on Dad's death.

Why does Dad create a symbolic family in his garden instead of communicating directly with his real family?

4. Theme

Do you think Dad genuinely regretted the way he treated his family?

Did the children forgive him?

Distinguish between what the text tells us and what we infer.

Explicit information

Dad writes letters of apology.

He displays LOVE and FORGIVE?

The family sells the house.

The new owners discard the pole.

Possible interpretation

He recognizes past mistakes.

He wants affection or reconciliation.

They may be ready to leave the past behind.

A deeply personal symbol loses its significance when its owner is gone.

deeper irony

Dad once controlled his children's lives, but now he creates a symbolic family. The only one he can still control.

Then draw attention to the narrator:

The narrator speaks as one of Dad's children.

We see Dad primarily through his child's memories.

We never hear Dad explain his feelings directly.

The narrator provides little information about the family's response to his apologies.

Essential teaching point: The story uses a limited first-person perspective. We cannot know with certainty what Dad was thinking or feeling.

One strong concluding question is:

Is Sticks ultimately a story about a cruel father, a lonely man seeking forgiveness, or both?

Summarize the story

Between 5-8 lines

Which elements to include, which to exclude?

= selection of statements of fact about the story

=> facts cannot be refuted

=> still, a summary reflects the internal logic of the story (linking devices)

Start with: In 'Sticks' a short story by George Saunders ...

Write your summary on a test sheet. Title: Summary of 'Sticks'

Evaluation criteria

Example summary

In George Saunders’ “Sticks,” the narrator recalls his father’s habit of decorating a crucifix-shaped pole in the front yard with various items. Initially, the decorations are seasonal (a Santa costume at Thanksgiving, Uncle Sam on the Fourth of July) – a rare “concession to glee,” the narrator claims, in the strict and stingy atmosphere the narrator and his siblings were raised in. Over time, however, the father starts dressing the pole in more complex and personal ways, eventually stringing notes onto it which seem to indicate a cry for forgiveness .