Page 154 - ELA_CA_HighSchool_Sampler_Flipbook

ACTIVITY 1.18 continued
Teacher Notes
74 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Senior English
9781457304682_TCB_SE_G12_U1_B2.indd 74 10/3/15 12:54 AM
74 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Senior English
ACTIVITY 1.18
continued
Reading with a Cultural Criticism Lens
My Notes
5. Craft and Structure: Paragraph 4 ends very differently than it starts. Describe how the narrator reveals the important details in the paragraph.
The paragraph follows the narrator’s train of thoughts as he goes about his job. It begins with an observation about the weather and how in the East, “a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events, the vaguer it becomes.” He then provides specific details about an old woman shooing away children and a gruesome description of a man who had been trampled by the elephant. RI.11–12.5
6. Key Ideas and Details: What is the narrator’s attitude toward shooting the elephant in paragraphs 5 and 6? Provide evidence from the text to support your answer.
The narrator states clearly that he has “no intention of shooting the elephant” despite having the elephant gun because, at this point, the elephant is “peacefully” eating grass. In addition, the narrator understands that it is “a serious matter to shoot a working elephant...and one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided.” He has a healthy respect for the animal and its strength. RI.11–12.1
7. Key Ideas and Details: What makes the narrator change his mind about shooting the elephant? What does he understand about himself—as an Englishman and a white man—at the moment of this decision?
Once the narrator realizes that thousands of people “expected” him to shoot the animal, he understands that he “would have to shoot the elephant after all” because he is “only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of” the crowd. As “the white man with his gun,” he must act the part of the “sahib” and “impress the natives” by killing the animal. RI.11–12.1
8. Key Ideas and Details: The narrator formulates a logical plan of action in paragraph 9 that will allow him to avoid shooting the elephant, but he does not follow it. Why not? What persistent thought or worry causes him to prepare to shoot the animal?
The narrator is acutely concerned with not being laughed at by the local people. He states in paragraph 7 that “every white man’s [life] in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.” In paragraph 9, he worries that if the elephant attacked and killed him, “it was quite probable that someone would laugh,” and, the narrator concludes, “that would never do.” RI.11–12.3
9. Key Ideas and Details: What miscalculation does the narrator make as he prepares to shoot the elephant? How does his error affect what happens next?
Because the narrator has never shot an elephant before, he “did not know”
that he should “have aimed straight at his earhole.” Instead the narrator aims “several inches” away. The narrator’s mistake causes the elephant to die slowly and painfully. RI.11–12.1
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.