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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the moment Paulsen rewards Brian's new way of looking. Brian has waded into the lake, stood still with the sun at his back, and is studying the water as he has never studied water before. The passage is stuffed with details — narrow fish, round fish, a patch of mud, clam shells, a crayfish using its claws to move between shells. Paulsen packs the prose because the lake ITSELF is packed, and the density of the description shows us that Brian is now capable of holding all of this in one seen moment. The old Brian would have seen 'a lake.' The new Brian sees the whole ecosystem.
It was, he saw after a moment, literally packed with life. Small fish swam everywhere, some narrow and long, some round, most of them three or four inches long, some a bit larger and many smaller. The...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell chapter eleven, paying attention to its structure. Begin with Paulsen's opening refrain — 'There were these things to do' — and tell how Brian transfers the turtle eggs into the shelter, cleans the camp, and gathers more wood. Include the moment Brian stops at the lake and sees his reflection, noticing that his body has changed (tan, thinner, face like leather). Narrate Brian's realization that his mind has also changed — 'I am not the same... I see, I hear differently.' Move through his trip up to the rock bluff to build a signal fire, the moment he sees the kingfisher dive and catch a fish, and his realization 'Fish... Of course.' End with his wading into the water, his first failed attempt to grab a fish with his hands, and his decision to make a fish spear. Close with Paulsen's repeated refrain — 'There were these things to do.'
Discussion Questions
- Paulsen opens AND closes chapter eleven with the SAME sentence: 'There were these things to do.' Why do you think Paulsen uses this sentence as a kind of frame around the whole chapter? What does it tell us about how Brian now lives his days — and why does Brian seem to need a sentence like this?
- Brian notices that his mind AND his body have changed together — 'the two things, his mind and his body, had come together as well, had made a connection.' Why do you think Paulsen is careful to tell us the changes are linked, not separate? What does the linking tell us about what kind of growth is happening inside Brian?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Exactly in the way the word says, not just as a saying — the water was literally packed with life, meaning truly stuffed full of living things, not just a figure of speech.
Item 2
A small freshwater animal with claws, looking like a tiny lobster, that lives in lakes and streams.
Item 3
A large sea animal with two big claws and a hard shell — Brian compares the crayfish to a tiny one of these.
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Critical Thinking
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