Literary Elements #2 When the Legends Die

Literary Elements #2   When the Legends Die     Name: 

1.  What literary element is this? P.22R, 30W
“Summer passed like a white cloud drifting over the mountain.”

2.  What does this mean? P.27R, 37W
He glanced at her pack, then at her clothes.  “You are living in the old way,” he said.

3.  How would you describe the style of writing in this passage? P 30 R, 43W
At last the storms eased.  He prepared to get meat.  She said she would go with him and he said she should not do that.  She remembered what had happened to her man at such a time.  She did not say this thing, but she went with the boy to the lower valleys.  She was weak and could not travel fast.  The cold made her cough.

4.  What does the euphemism “going away” in this passage mean? P 30R, 43W
Then she said, “Sing the song for going away, my son.”

5.  What literary element is this? P 31R, 44W
“A jay came and said it wanted to be his friend…Then the chipmunks that lived in the rocks came to him and asked to be friends.”

6.  What does the underlined part mean? P 33 R, 47W
“The boy waited, listening to the man’s voice thin away in the distance.”

7.  What literary element is this? P 33-34 R, 47W
“He wondered if the man was singing his song for going on the long journey.  He knew it was a fear-song.  The man had killed the she-bear.  Now he was afraid the she-bear was going to kill him.”

8.  Find a colloquialism (idiom) that means “calm down.” P 35R, 50W

9.  A protagonist is a main character that the reader feels sympathy towards.  In the beginning of this story, who are the protagonists?

10.  An antagonist is a main character that creates conflict with the main character.  In the beginning of this story, who are the main antagonists?  Why?

11.  The boy tells Blue Elk that his mother “…went away in the short, white days.”  What does this mean? P42 R, 59W

12.  What effect does the boy have upon Blue Elk when the child sings the old songs?   “He watched the boy and his eyes were full of years. Blue Elk was a boy again as he heard.”  P43 R, p61

13. How does Blue Elk convince the boy that he should go to the school in Ignacio with him?  p46R, 64W

14. What literary element is this?  p46R, 64W 
“Then he went to the door and called the jay.  When it came and sat on his shoulder, he whispered a question and it pecked his ear.  He called the squirrels and they came and  one sat in his hand.  He held it close to his face and asked the question, and it seemed to answer.”

15. Why does the boy consider the bear cub to be his brother?  What does the boy call himself?

16. Why does the author end a section of his book after part 12?  What are the titles of these two sections? 

17. What does this passage mean?
On p 44R, 62W, Blue Elk tells the boy,
“The old days are gone.” 
The boy replies, “How can there be an end?  There is the roundness.” He made the gesture for the circle, the no-end.
Blue Elk said,  “There is the roundness.  But today is gone.  The day before today is gone.”