“An Earful” Literary Analysis Literary Analysis: “An Earful” By 5th Grader Do you have a lot of sounds where you live? You probably do, but you most likely don’t really hear it because you are used to it. If you don’t hear the sounds around you, then you’re like Jacob, the main character. Jacob, from “An Earful” by Dale-Marie Bryan, is very unhappy about his homework at the beginning of the story. His homework was to collect an earful of sounds on a cutout of an ear. He didn’t want to do his homework, because he thought that he couldn’t collect enough sounds on his family farm. After he realizes that everything he needs is right in front of him, he got very excited about his homework. At the beginning of the story, Jacob is upset and grouchy about his new homework. He has to find sounds on his family farm, but he thinks that there are no sounds! In the story it says, “Jacob glared out the school bus window.” This shows readers that he is grumpy and angry about his assignment. It is also clear that he is upset because he describes the gate noise as groaning like a ghost. He also feels grumpy about living on the farm. In the text it says, “Not fair, he thought. How could he collect enough sounds on his family’s farm? There were plenty of noises in town. If only he lived where tires squealed and sirens wailed.” This proves that he doesn’t enjoy living on the farm, but it still proves that he is mad about his homework. At the end of the story, Jacob is cheerful and excited about his homework. It was evident that he was happy and excited about his homework because in the text it says, “‘I hear you!’ he called. He hurried down from the tree. He had an earful of homework to do.” This shows readers that he is excited because he hurries down the tree to go do his homework. Another place that Jacob shows he is happy about his homework is when he sits up straight. This confirms that he is happy because normally people abruptly sit up when they realize something that makes them happy. Jacob realizes that everything he needed was right where he needed it to be. In the story, Jacob changed from being upset and agitated about his homework to being happy and excited. In the story it says, “‘QUIET!’ Jacob shouted. “Once he does this, Jacob then realized that there are plenty of sounds on the farm and that living on the farm isn’t so bad after all. Jacob also ran down his tree in the story after sitting up straight after realizing that the farm has lots of noises. This proves that he is now excited about his homework. At first, Jacob was upset about his homework and didn’t think he could do it, but he was excited to do it in the end. He also thought that he would rather live in a town, but he notices he preferred staying at the farm. He understands that there are plenty of noises on his family’s farm and that he should be grateful for living there. Now Jacob is happy about his home and homework and is excited to do it. As you can see, Jacob’s feelings about his homework and home have changed from bad to good.
