"Words Left Unspoken" Response Questions

1. What was Leah Hager Cohen’s earliest memory of her grandfather?  Since she can’t sign and

he’s unable to speak, how do they communicate?

    Cohen’s earliest memory of her grandfather was of his hard pointy chin. He would pick her up by the elbows and rub his chin on her face.  Because Cohen did not know sign language, her grandfather played games with her. He played card tricks, imitated Charlie Chaplin and played a hand slap game. Playing games was his way of communicating with her.

2. What is the significance of the essay’s title? What do you think the “words left unspoken” are?

    To me, the title “Words Left Unspoken” means that there was probably a lot that Cohen wanted to say to her grandfather, as well as a lot that her grandfather wanted to say to her. He died before she learned sign language so they never had the chance to have a deep meaningful conversation.

3. What do you think Cohen means when she says, “That was the longest conversation we ever

had”?

    The meaning of this sentence is that although Cohen and her grandfather did not communicate through sign language, they did have a conversation. Through holding hands and walking together, they must have had an understanding of each other even when no words were spoken.

4. What figures of speech (see yesterday’s notes) does Cohen use in the essay?

    Cohen uses subjective description in her essay. I find that there are similes present in the essay. For example when Cohen says, “he released deep, hushed moans… like a dreaming dog.” She was comparing her grandfather to something that is completely different from him, a dog. Another example of a simile in Cohen’s essay is when she compared her grandfather’s hands to big white fish.

5. In the last paragraph, Cohen says that now, after her grandfather’s death, “everything seems

like a clue.”  What do you think she means by this?  Do you think this is an effective way to

end the essay?  Why or why not?

    To me, this means that maybe she did not know her grandfather as well as she would have liked to. Because he died before she knew how to sign, she was not able to ask him questions and get to know the person that he was. Maybe she finds things like her grandfather’s teeth in a glass a little piece of him, a clue as to who he was, and this is something that remains that she wishes to know. I do not think the end of the essay was effective or ineffective, but it definitely did not have a happy ending. Her grandfather died without her really knowing him, and the fact that she states that there are clues of her grandfather left behind leave me to wonder if Cohen ever found the answers that she sought.