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Copywork
About This Passage
Rawls uses the dream paragraph to split Jay Berry's psyche open and let the reader see inside. In waking life Jay Berry is confident and triumphant — the monkeys are caught, the money is coming. But at night, in the unconscious, two anxieties surface: first the fear of losing the monkeys (fire, escape), then the fantasy of the pony (the surface want that will replace them). The triple repetition 'riding, riding, riding' is the deliberate rhythm of wish-fulfillment — and it sits directly next to the nightmare of loss, which is Rawls's way of telling us that Jay Berry himself does not yet know which of these dreams is really his.
That was a miserable night for me. I must have had a dozen dreams — good ones and bad ones. I dreamed that the corn crib was on fire and the monkeys were screaming for help. Then I dreamed that Jimbo ...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 16 across five movements: (1) Jay Berry's fastest run to Grandpa's store and the telegram arrangement, (2) the candy sack and the quiet revelation to Grandpa that Jay Berry changed his fairy-ring wish, (3) the Bible-reading night with the Red Sea crossing and the troubled sleep that follows, (4) the Johnson Brothers' truck and Jimbo's leap into Ben Johnson's arms, and (5) Jay Berry's payment of six dollars to Daisy and his departure for Grandpa's to choose the pony.
Discussion Questions
- What textual evidence in the Jimbo-Ben Johnson reunion tells you that the 'catch' of the monkeys has been — all summer long — a rescue rather than a capture? Consider both the physical choreography of the embrace and the specific words Rawls places in Ben Johnson's mouth.
- Jay Berry tells Grandpa he 'started' to wish for the pony and gun at the fairy ring but 'changed my mind,' and then refuses to say what he did wish. Rawls is deliberately keeping the wish off-page. What can you infer about the wish from everything else the chapter shows you about Jay Berry's character — and why does Rawls withhold the content of the wish rather than state it?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Very unhappy or uncomfortable; causing distress or suffering.
Item 2
Crying out in a loud, sharp, high-pitched voice from fear, pain, or urgency.
Item 3
Rough, uneven, and difficult to cross; often used of wild or mountainous terrain.
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Critical Thinking
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