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.”
