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Copywork
About This Passage
A textbook example of objective correlative — T.S. Eliot's term for the writer's trick of locating an emotion in a set of physical objects. Rylant gives us the feeling once ('felt very sad') and then proves it three more times by photographing the rooms Dave is no longer in. The lesson: a writer who trusts the image needs almost no adjectives.
When Dave the cat was gone, Henry and Mudge felt very sad. The towel closet was shut. The bathtub was empty. The dog toys were still. Henry had to cry a little to take his nap.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize this chapter, then explain what you think the author most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What techniques did the author use to push you toward that response?
Discussion Questions
- Across chapters 1-3, the cat goes by three names: 'shabby cat,' 'happy cat,' and 'Dave.' Names track recognition. Whose recognition does each name belong to? What is Cynthia Rylant teaching about how naming and knowing change one another?
- The family promised in chapter 1 to keep the cat 'only until we find a home for it.' By chapter 3, that promise has become a kind of trap — keeping the promise costs them the cat. Is a promise made before you fell in love still binding once you have? Do the family's actions in chapter 3 show wisdom, foolishness, or simple decency?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
deliberately uncivil; lacking the politeness others have a right to expect
Item 2
being the only one of its kind, with no real equivalent
Item 3
identified again from memory; knew the thing by having known it before
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Critical Thinking
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