The Water Dancer Lesson Plan

How is Hiram’s experience with gingerbread when he is Tasked similar and different to his experience with gingerbread when he is free?

When Hiram is Tasked, his aunt Emma gives him gingerbread. The gingerbread is supposed to be for the master, so Aunt Emma risks getting in trouble by giving some to Hiram. When he is free, he gets gingerbread from Mars, a man who runs a bakery at Philadelphia. The main similarity is that an elder, someone Hiram could trust, gave him the gingerbread in both situations. The main difference is that Aunt Emma’s gingerbread was a great risk for her. That tainted the experience. Mars’s gingerbread was freely given.

The narrator personifies...