Humanities Homework Help

From Question 1-4 there can be more than one answer. Question 5 and 6 is multiple choice answer (only one answer).

1. Read the poem which follows and select the emotions and imagery of a parent’s perspective on a child’s death that also appear in The Sweet Hereafter.
   “Luna Rayne” by Susan Michalski

   I hold this tiny thought
   in my fist
   if my moon girl
   could
   she’d dance
   through the storm puddles
   left behind
   in my next dream
   and sing like rain
   on canvas
   for one brilliant moment
   as I recall
   

   		The lonely image of the moon
   		The feeling of anger like a fist
   		The feeling of being in a dream
   		The feeling of living in memories
   		The feeling of joy one has when dancing

3 points

QUESTION 2

1. Read the poem which follows and select the emotions and imagery of an outsider’s perspective of death that also appear in The Sweet Hereafter.
   “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House” by Emily Dickinson

   There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,
   As lately as Today —
   I know it, by the numb look
   Such Houses have — always —

   The Neighbors rustle in and out —
   The Doctor — drives away —
   A Window opens like a Pod —
   Abrupt — mechanically —

   Somebody flings a Mattress out —
   The Children hurry by —
   They wonder if it died — on that —
   I used to — when a Boy —

   The Minister — goes stiffly in —
   As if the House were His —
   And He owned all the Mourners — now —
   And little Boys — besides —

   And then the Milliner — and the Man
   Of the Appalling Trade —
   To take the measure of the House —
   There’ll be that Dark Parade —

   Of Tassels — and of Coaches — soon —
   It’s easy as a Sign —
   The Intuition of the News —
   In just a Country Town —
   

   		The image of the undertaker
   		The numbness of the bereaved
   		The curiosity of the children
   		The image of the casket and the procession
   		Survivors looking to the church for comfort

3 points

QUESTION 3

1. Read the poem which follows and select the emotions and imagery of an outsider’s perspective of death that also appear in The Sweet Hereafter.
   “Every Death Is Magic from the Enemy to Be Avenged” by Brooks Haxton

   When fever burned the last light out of my daughter’s eyes,
   I swore to find and kill the ones to blame. Men
   must mount the long boat in the dark with spears.
   At dawn, where the flowering spicebush hid my scent,
   I crouched. A young wife, newborn slung across her chest,
   came first for spring water. She stooped. My god,
   for vengeance, spoke her secret name inside my ear. Her god
   stepped back with no scream, his right hand at his mouth,
   the knuckles clenched between the pointed teeth.
   

   		The idea of secrets being told
   		The idea of assigning blame
   		The image of the flowering bush
   		The image of the pointy teeth
   		The image of the newborn

3 points

QUESTION 4

1. Read the poem which follows and select the symbols and imagery of death that also appear in The Sweet Hereafter.
   “Absence” by Amy Lowell

   My cup is empty to-night,
   Cold and dry are its sides,
   Chilled by the wind from the open window.
   Empty and void, it sparkles white in the moonlight.
   The room is filled with the strange scent
   Of wisteria blossoms.
   They sway in the moon’s radiance
   And tap against the wall.
   But the cup of my heart is still,
   And cold, and empty.
   When you come, it brims
   Red and trembling with blood,
   Heart’s blood for your drinking;
   To fill your mouth with love
   And the bitter-sweet taste of a soul.
   

   		The cold
   		The darkness
   		The moonlight
   		The sweetness
   		The empty cup

3 points

QUESTION 5

1. In The Sweet Hereafter and the following poem, what does the newborn symbolize?
   “Every Death Is Magic from the Enemy to Be Avenged” by Brooks HaxtonWhen fever burned the last light out of my daughter’s eyes,
   I swore to find and kill the ones to blame. Men
   must mount the long boat in the dark with spears.
   At dawn, where the flowering spicebush hid my scent,
   I crouched. A young wife, newborn slung across her chest,
   came first for spring water. She stooped. My god,
   for vengeance, spoke her secret name inside my ear. Her god
   stepped back with no scream, his right hand at his mouth,
   the knuckles clenched between the pointed teeth.
   

   		Death is not evil.
   		Innocence of childhood
   		The continuing cycle of life and death
   		The children that will never be born

3 points

QUESTION 6

1. In The Sweet Hereafter, why is the accident scene described only in similes – “bearing down on me like a wall of water” – and surreal images – “the sky tipped and veered away and the ground lurched brutally forward?”
   

   		A description of the accident would be too graphic and brutal for most readers
   		None of the characters can remember the accident well enough to tell it
   		It is too hard to write a graphic description of an automobile wreck
   		A graphic description of the accident would not serve the themes, plot, or characters

3 points

QUESTION 7

1. Match each kind of figurative language from a poem with the same kind of figurative language from the novel The Sweet Hereafter.
   

   –A.B.C. “The skeleton of the Ferris wheel…called out to me”Read Answer Items for Question 9 –A.B.C. “We sounded like strangers, sitting in a dentist’s waiting room.”Read Answer Items for Question 9 –A.B.C. “In Vietnam he was field commissioned.”Read Answer Items for Question 9

   Answer A. “A piercing Comfort it affords/In passing Calvary – / To note the fashions – of the Cross – “ B. “At the word, the saw,/As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,/Leaped out at the boy’s hand” C. “A Window opens like a Pod”

6 points

QUESTION 6

1. Which lines from The Sweet Hereafter do the following lines (see stanza 5 in bold typeface) from the Emily Dickinson poem relate most closely to?
   “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House” by Emily DickinsonThere’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,
   As lately as Today —
   I know it, by the numb look
   Such Houses have — always —The Neighbors rustle in and out —
   The Doctor — drives away —
   A Window opens like a Pod —
   Abrupt — mechanically —Somebody flings a Mattress out —
   The Children hurry by —
   They wonder if it died — on that —
   I used to — when a Boy —The Minister — goes stiffly in —
   As if the House were His —
   And He owned all the Mourners — now —
   And little Boys — besides —And then the Milliner — and the Man
   Of the Appalling Trade —
   To take the measure of the House —
   There’ll be that Dark Parade —Of Tassels — and of Coaches — soon —
   It’s easy as a Sign —
   The Intuition of the News —
   In just a Country Town —“‘Show me my room, Daddy.’…it was all very nice like my own apartment.”“The pallbearers stepped forward…and took their posts by the caskets.”“The girl has done us all, every single person in town, a valuable service.”“Angry? Yes I’m angry; I’d be a lousy lawyer if I wasn’t.”