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Copywork
About This Passage
At the very peak of their false hope, the friends give thanks for a 'complete, unexpected, and glorious deliverance,' the rising three-part phrase lifting their joy to its height just before it is destroyed. Copying it teaches the dash-bound aside and the climactic tricolon, and shows how a writer raises hope to its summit the instant before the fall.
The brig came on slowly, and now more steadily than before, and—I cannot speak calmly of this event—our hearts leaped up wildly within us, and we poured out our whole souls in shouts and thanksgiving ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the starving friends sight a brig and are overwhelmed with joy, how a figure aboard seems to smile and beckon, how a dreadful stench warns them, how they discover the whole crew dead and the 'smiling' man only a corpse swayed by the wind, and how the silent ship drifts away with their hope. Then choose the moment you find most powerful and explain why.
Discussion Questions
- At the first sight of the brig, Peters dances and raves, Parker weeps like a child, and the narrator stands frozen and speechless. Explain what these three opposite reactions reveal about the friends in this moment, and why so strong a feeling should escape in such different ways. Use details from the chapter.
- A figure at the bow nods, smiles, and seems to beckon, and Augustus, Peters, and the narrator give thanks for a rescue they feel sure of. Explain what makes the friends so ready to read the figure as a living rescuer, and what in the chapter supports your reading. Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Impossible to understand or get to the bottom of.
Item 2
Energetic gestures made while speaking or signaling.
Item 3
Spoken curses; wishes for harm to fall on someone.
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Critical Thinking
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