1. The boys are upset at the idea of the girls carrying the water bucket because the boys feel threatened that the girls are going to take their responsibility away from them. They don’t value the girls as equals and don’t believe that the girls are strong enough or brave enough to carry the water bucket. 

 2. The strategies the boys use to pressure the girls to give in is that they beat up the girls and excluded them from the softball game. They also threated them and tried to persuade them to give up the idea. The girls were definitely not happy about the way the boys were treating them but still wanted to not give in and stand for what they think is right. 

 3. The story is told in first person point of view by a girl in the same class as Alma. She seems to respect Miss Ralston very much and is very grateful of the way she stood up for the girls and took Alma’s question about the water seriously. The narrator is not pleased by the way the boys are treating the girls but still wants to stand beside Alma and the other girls in the fight for their rights. 

 4. The setting takes place somewhere in Eastern Canada in the early to mid 1900’s. The evidence that shows the setting is that a line from the story says that “If one of those German planes, like in the movies, appeared over the school and dropped a bomb”. This shows that the story must have taken place sometime after WWII. Also the story states something about “driving a tractor or playing for the Toronto Maple Leaves”. This shows that the story must have taken place somewhere in Canada. The conflict was person vs. Person because both sides (Boys vs. Girls) were fighting for the same thing (the water bucket).  

 5. The protagonist is Alma Niles. She is the protagonist because she was the girl to ask the question about the water and she was the person who tried to change tradition. 

 6. That Friday, the balance of equality changed for the better. After Miss Ralston told the class that “next week, Alma Niles and Joyce Shipley will be going for the water”, she swept her hand on her desk. I believe that this symbolizes satisfaction in the change that she has allowed and  pride for the girls and that she has balanced the equality in the classroom. The theme is stating that equality should always be evident and that girls can do just as much as boys can. 

Vocabulary 

1. Galvanized: Coat (iron or steel) with a protective layer of zinc “a galvanized bucket”. 
2. Remotest: Of a chance or possibility unlikely to occur.
3. Intoxicated: Excited or exhilarated.  
4. Ominous: Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen. 
5. Supplementary: An additional person or thing. 
6. Forlornly: Pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely. 
7. Earnestly: Resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction.  
8. Gloating: to contemplate or dwell on one’s own success or another’s misfortune with smugness or malignant pleasure 
9. Transfixed: cause someone to become motionless with horror, wonder or astonishment 
10. Pirouettings: spin around, twirl, whirl, revolve or pivot