Summer of the Monkeys — Chapter 10

About This Passage

Wilson Rawls places this passage right after the most embarrassing chapter of Jay Berry's life — the sour mash, the lost britches, the castor oil — and suddenly the whole page opens up into sky and bronze wings. Copying it teaches trailblazers how a writer uses a 'reward passage': the hero has suffered, so the author gives him (and us) a moment of pure Ozark beauty. Notice the verbs — gobbling, beating, rose, blinked, winged — each one builds the motion of the flock rising. The 'green blanket' and 'burst of fiery bronze' show two kinds of seeing: the wide soft ground and the sharp metallic sunlight cutting across it.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 10 in four or five sentences. Be sure to include Jay Berry's morning-after sickness, Papa's gentle sickbed conversation, Daisy's Red Cross nursing with the castor oil trick, Rowdy's dug-out hole under the trough, and the trip to Grandpa's store where the plan to visit the library is born.

Discussion Questions

1. Papa says, 'if a fellow can learn something through experience when he's young, he doesn't ever forget it.' What does this tell you about how Papa sees his job as Jay Berry's father?
2. Daisy's castor oil 'trick' works because she knows exactly how Jay Berry's stomach will react. What does this moment reveal about how well the twins know each other?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide