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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the pivotal moment of the chapter — and arguably of the entire novel's moral education. Rawls composes Jay Berry's rescue of the weakest monkey as a PRE-REFLECTIVE act: 'Before I realized what I was doing, I reached in.' The grammar is deliberate. Rawls is showing a character whose virtuous instinct is now faster than his conscious deliberation. Notice also the euphemism 'on his way to monkey heaven' — Jay Berry cannot quite say 'dying,' and the softened language registers the boy's tenderness toward an animal he was supposed to see as a thief.
One little monkey looked as if he were already on his way to monkey heaven. He was off a little to one side, stretched out on the cold ground. At first, I thought he was dead. Then I saw his tiny mout...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 15 in your own words. Include Papa's breakfast question, Jay Berry's discouraged search through the storm-wrecked bottoms, Rowdy's nervousness, Jay Berry sinking onto the sycamore log in near-tears, the faint cry, the discovery of Jimbo and the twenty-eight huddled monkeys, the rescue of the sickest little monkey, Jimbo's decision to climb into Jay Berry's arms, the procession home, Mama's tea kettle, Daisy's exclamation about 'a thousand monkeys,' and Daisy holding Jimbo before Mama would.
Discussion Questions
- Rawls places Jay Berry's deepest moment of despair on the sycamore log — 'I'll never have a pony or a gun—not ever' — just ten steps before he hears the pitiful cry that leads him to all twenty-nine monkeys. What narrative theory of reward is the author enacting by staging the near-surrender immediately before the success, and how does this echo Papa's earlier claim from Chapter 13 that 'help comes when you least expect it'?
- When Jay Berry sees the sickest little monkey 'stretched out on the cold ground' and 'gasping for breath,' he reaches for that one FIRST, before any of the easier monkeys. Rawls uses the phrase 'Before I realized what I was doing.' What theory of moral formation is the author proposing — is virtue here a thing one reasons toward, or a thing one has become such that one does it without reasoning?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Extended to full length, especially when lying flat on a surface.
Item 2
Breathing in with short, sharp breaths, usually because of suffering, surprise, or lack of air.
Item 3
Became aware of something — often suddenly — or understood it clearly.
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Critical Thinking
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