Summer of the Monkeys — Chapter 9

About This Passage

This is the exact moment when Rawls lets the reader see what Jay Berry is seeing — a troop of wild animals acting almost human — and lets us, like Jay Berry, figure out what has gone wrong a few seconds before he does. The stacked verbs ('milling, screeching, chattering, chasing, rolling, kicking') create a slapstick cascade that is funny until you realize what caused it. Copying this passage trains an ear for ACCUMULATION — the way a list of participles can build a scene faster than an explanation can describe one.

Narration Prompt

Tell the story of Chapter 9 in four or five sentences. Include the apples, Rowdy's reluctance, the whiskey still, Jimbo offering sour mash, the monkeys grooming Rowdy, and Jay Berry waking up without his britches.

Discussion Questions

1. What does Rawls show us about Jimbo's intelligence in the way he responds to Jay Berry's apple — both how he accepts it AND how he insists on offering something in return?
2. Jay Berry pretends to cry so that Rowdy will come to the bottoms with him. The text says 'I always felt guilty fooling my old dog that way.' Does feeling guilty afterward change the rightness or wrongness of the trick? Why or why not?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide