Characters and Characterization
Setting
Racism and Adversity
Figurative Language
"Diary Quotes" and Inferences
100
The novel’s main character, a Spokane Indian whose experiences living on a reservation include coping with an alcoholic father, poverty, transferring to a “white” school, hydrocephaly, and maintaining his friendship with his best friend despite his friend’s own history of abuse.
Who is Junior
First-Hand Toss Up: His real name (first/last)
100
The name of Junior's school on the rez; the one he transfers to
What are Wellpinit/Reardan?
100
The most common ailment facing Native Americans in the book (and in real life)
What is alcoholism?
First-Hand Toss Up: Who dies after being shot in the face by his friend in what was likely an argument over the last drink of wine?
100
41. When Junior says he was “born with water on the brain” he is being _____________; we know this because . . .
a. figurative; one cannot literally have water in the brain
b. Literal; he had to have it drained in his early life
c. figurative; Junior frequently exaggerates his illnesses
d. Literal, the water is still present in his brain
What is "B"
First-hand Toss-Up: "Water on the brain" is known as h____________.
100
______ is information that is directly said and/or requires little to no interpretation while ___________ meaning must be figured out because it is "deeper."
What is explicit; implicit (or similar answers)
First-Hand Toss Up: Of this list (literal, figurative, denotative), the one LEAST associated with explicit meaning.
Of this list (connotation, literal, denotation), the one MOST associated with implied meaning.
A reader must ________ what the author __________.
200
His best friend, a gifted athlete and reservation native with a history of physical lashing out, itself the likely result of living with an abusive father.
Who is Rowdy?
200
A traditional Indian event with dance with colorful costumes
What is a pow wow?
200
Which of the following are LITERAL statements as opposed to metaphors or similes?
a.”My brain was drowning in grease.”
b. “[T]he doctors cut open my little skull and sucked out all that extra water with some tiny vacuum?”
c. “I was supposed to suffer serious brain damage during the procedure and live the rest of my life as a vegetable.”
d. “And I started wearing glasses when I was three, so I ran around the rez looking like a three-year-old Indian grandpa. And, oh, I was skinny. I'd turn sideways and disappear.”
What is "B?"
200
When Junior rages, “I wanted to hate him for his weakness. I wanted to hate Dad and Mom for our poverty. I wanted to blame them for my sick dog and for all the other sickness in the world,” he is using ____________ as a repetition device.
What is anaphora?
First-hand toss-up: The Biblical passage below is an example of mid-sentence/line repetition, which is called . . .
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;
we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken;
cast down, but not destroyed. —2 Corinthians 4:8-9
200
To whom does the below quote implicitly refer: “I ran away from there as fast as I could. I wanted to run faster than the speed of sound, but nobody, no matter how much pain they're in, no one can run that fast. So I heard the boom of my father's rifle when he shot my best friend. A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that.”
Who is Oscar?
300
Of Mr. P., Mr. Gordy, and Ms. Jefferson, the teacher who convinces Junior to go to Reardan so he will not die on the reservation
Who is Mr. P.?
First-Hand Toss Up: What is the inciting incident that leads to Mr. P.'s conversation with Junior? What is the inciting incident that led to that incident?
300
The Spokane rez is set in this state
What is Washington?
300
When Junior says, “Okay, so now you know that I'm a cartoonist. And I think I'm pretty good at it, too. But no matter how good I am, my cartoons will never take the place of food or money,” he knows that a career as a cartoonist is not . . .
a. Pragmatic when compared to real-life issues facing Native Americans on his reservation. b. Realistic because Native Americans are never accepted to accredited art schools. c. Possible because his drawings are not good enough. d. Acceptable to his parents
What is "A"
300
In the context of the basketball game and the racial implications of the Wellpinit vs. Reardan game, which of these lines should be considered ironic given its language’s racial overtones and the irony of who is speaking it?
a. He scored on a layup in the first quarter when I tripped over my teammate's foot and fell.
b. And he scored in the fourth quarter, with only five seconds left in the game, when he stole the ball from me and raced down for a layup.
c. But I didn't even chase him down because we were ahead by forty-two points.
d. The buzzer sounded. The game was over. We had killed the Redskins. Yep, we had humiliated them.victory. . .. I whooped. We had defeated the enemy! We had defeated the champions! We were David who'd thrown a stone into the brain of Goliath! And then I realized something. I realized that my team, the Reardan Indians, was Goliath.
What is "D"
First-hand Toss-Up: What phrase in A-D is a Biblical allusion?
300
When Junior says/implies that he felt like two different people inside one body, he is implicitly referring to an idea promoted about the state of black Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
What is the Double Consciousness?
First-Hand Toss-Ups:
-The man who wrote The Soul of Black Folks, including the "Double Consciousness"
-The organization for black advancement he helped found
-Within five years, the date slavery ended via the Emancipation Proclamation.
-The system of legalized segregation and racist practices following the Civil War, named after this minstrel show character
400
A fellow “weird” white student who befriends Junior and offers insight into the value of literature
Who is Gordy?
400
Why does no one swim in Turtle Lake for more than a decade?
a. It is a dormant volcano crater.
b. A mysterious fire started there, but could not burn a dead horse that mysteriously did not decompose
c. It’s where rez kids are bullied.
d. It’s where Indian alcoholics go to die.
What is "B?"
400
In the chapter “Go Means Go” the difference between Junior and his sister is that she is running ________ from something whereas he is running _________ a new school and new life.
What is away; towards
First-hand Toss-Up: To what state and Indian reservation does Mary go? What happens to her there?
400
In the chapter in which Mary, Junior’s sister, dies, find any quote that is an example of personification.
Answers will vary
400
Junior refers to himself as a "yucker," which is the habit of doing this before stressful situations, like his basketball game vs. Rowdy and Wellpinit
What is throwing up/vomiting?
500
A white billionaire who is mocked with disdain for his supposed love and affection of Indian culture; he shows up at Grandma’s funeral with a sacred powwow dancing outfit due to his guilt for having purchased it. Despite his sincerity, he is humiliated when it turns out Grandma was never a powwow dancer and the outfit was not Spokane in origin.
Who is Ted?
500
Mary runs away to the Flathead Indian reservation in this state
What is Montana?
500
In the lines, “At school today, I went dressed as a a) homeless dude. It was a pretty b) easy costume for me. There's not much difference between my good and bad clothes, so I pretty much look b) half-homeless anyway. And Penelope went dressed as a homeless woman. Of course, she was the most beautiful homeless woman who ever lived. c) We made a cute couple,” which two sentences/phrases are ironic because one of them is quantifying (turning into numbers) something that can’t be, and the other is simply not true at this point in the story.
What are B and C?
500
Mr. Dodge's mocking Junior for what he learned on the rez is best called . . .
a. Sarcastic and racist
b. Affirming
c.enlightened
d. harmless
What is "A?"
First-Hand Toss-Up: The fact that he knows less than his students might best be called *this* figurative language term
500
If one was to "Draw hope as if it were a mythological creature" (e.g. unicorn, griffin), you'd be using *this* literary device.
What is personification? (Also acceptable: visual imagery)
First-Hand Toss Up: The diary topic "you felt like a loser in a world built for winners" is built off of *this* rhetorical device in which you juxtapose parallel, but opposite ideas together. Other examples include, "Give me liberty or give me death" or "No pain, no gain."