Drown Lesson Plan

How do the customers treat Wayne and the narrator? How do they respond, and why? (Edison, New Jersey)

The narrator often senses condescension or concern from the customers, perhaps because he is Latino or perhaps because he is poor. This manifests itself in several ways: the customers put down old newspapers to protect the floor, they suppress concern when they have to leave the house while the men are in their house, and sometimes they even yell at them or “let their kids throw golf balls at us.” Understandably, these actions bother the narrator -- probably not for the specific circumstances themselves, but for the fact that they reflect a larger power differential in...