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Copywork
About This Passage
The whole plan turns on this insight: the mate is 'a cunning fellow in all matters which did not affect his superstitious prejudices.' Copying it teaches the parenthetical aside tucked inside a longer sentence, and shows how a writer can locate an enemy's single weakness amid a chain of qualifications.
I objected to this, because I could not believe that the mate (who was a cunning fellow in all matters which did not affect his superstitious prejudices) would suffer himself to be so easily entrapped...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: the death of Hartman Rogers, the alliance Peters forms with Augustus and the narrator, the gale that forces the brig to lie-to, the rejected plan to rush the cabin, and the narrator's scheme to disguise himself as the dead man. Then name the moment you find most decisive and defend your choice.
Discussion Questions
- When his own faction collapses after Hartman Rogers's death, Dirk Peters suddenly throws in with Augustus and the narrator. Explain what Peters's shifting alliances reveal about his position aboard the brig, and what they suggest about why he is so welcome an ally now. Use details from the chapter.
- The narrator rejects Peters's plan to rush the cabin, reasoning that the mate is 'a cunning fellow' except in 'his superstitious prejudices.' Explain how the narrator turns that single exception into the heart of his own plan. Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Governed by irrational fears of the unknown or supernatural.
Item 2
Impossible to dispute; beyond doubt.
Item 3
A large or unfair difference in size, number, or degree.
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Critical Thinking
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