The Water Dancer Lesson Plan

For Hiram, what is the difference between the Quality and the Tasked?

Students should have an idea of the general differences between the Quality and the Tasked—like that one group owns the other. Hiram offers some specific insights into the structures and processes of how his world works. One of the main differences he mentions is that the Quality depends on the Tasked. “The masters could not bring water to boil, harness a horse, nor strap their own drawers without us. We were better than them—we had to be. Sloth was literal death for us, while for them it was the whole ambition of their lives” (35). This dependence is something that the Quality try to hide by casting...