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English 221-224 Ninth-Grade English                         Name:                                                                                               

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THE BRAVE

Reading #1:  Chapter 1 (pgs. 1-13 [hardback]; pgs. 3-13 [paperback])

Vocab

• Hillbilly—person from the country (redneck)
• Friday night smoker—a local boxing match
• Jab—(boxing term) a short, straight punch

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

1. Who are the two fighters in the ring as the scene opens on the first pages?  Which is the fighter the crowd is rooting for?

 

 

 

 

 

2. Who is Jake?

 

 

 

 

 

3. Why isn’t the match over after the second knockdown?

 

 

 

 

4. What happens just at the end of the first round to make Sonny see “three Hoffers”?

 

 

 

 

 

5. What is meant by a “mixed-blood white boy”?  What information does this give the reader about Sonny Bear?

 

 

 

6. How does the referee save Hoffer near the end of the second round?  How does Sonny react?

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1. This first chapter introduces the protatgonist, Sonny Bear, to the reader. Describe what you think is his major problem, or the central conflict of the story so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The monster is referred to several times during the chapter. Describe what you think is its significance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Go back through the chapter and choose what you think is the most important line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #2:  Chapters 2-3 (pgs. 14-32 [hardback]; pgs. 14-30 [paperback])

Vocab

• Lipflap—idle talk; meaningless story
• Alkie—alcoholic
• Res—Indian Reservation
• SoHo—an area in Manhattan known for its art studios and galleries
• Scarecrow—a thin beggar

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 2

1.     Name two things that the Running Braves could do with their “super sharp” senses.

 

 

 

2.     Where is Sonny planning to go when he leaves early in the morning?  What does he want from his mother? (What does he see as “freedom”?)

 

 

 

3.     What has Sonny’s life been like, growing up with his mother?

 

 

 

4.     What was Sonny’s mother the first member of the reservation to do?

 

 

5.     What does Jake mean when he asks Sonny, “How is going to be different from football?”  What does he tell Sonny to do?

 

 

 

6.     What special thing does Sonny take with him on the bus, along with the Grateful Dead tape?

 

 

 

Chapter 3

7.     What color skin does the skinny kid have?  Describe the kid’s walking stick. 

 

 

 

 

8.     While they are eating breakfast, what does Stick say he wants Sonny to do for him?

 

9.     Describe two memories Sonny has of New York City.

 

 

10.  How does Sonny seem to feel about Doll?

 

 

11.  What does Sonny think Stick does for a living?

 

 

12.  Describe what happens when Sergeant Alfred Brooks arrives.  How does Sonny protect Doll?

 

 

 

13.  What happens to Sonny at the end of the chapter?

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     Explain Jake’s comment to Sonny near the end of Chapter 2, “Find the hawk inside you and let it loose and follow it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.     What is learned about Sonny’s mother and father in this reading section?

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #3:  Chapters 4-5 (pgs. 1-13 [hardback]; pgs. 33-51 [paperback])

Vocab

• Tonto—the name of an Indian character from an old-time radio and TV show, The Lone Ranger
• Geronimo—a great Indian leader
• pathetic—so terrible it’s almost laughable
• jurisdiction—area of responsibility
• the pig posse—the cops
• rock—slang for crack cocaine
• reef—slang for marijuana
• loop, cube--?
• jacked—excited, happy
• undercover narc—undercover narcotics (drugs) police officer

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 4

1.     What is the cop holding on “his bearded jaw”?  Why?

 

 

 

2.     How does Brooks refer to Sonny—as opposed to the other cops?

 

 

 

3.     What happened to Sonny’s backpack and wallet, according to Brooks? (Why is Sonny pathetic?)

 

 

 

4.     What does Sonny tell Brooks when asked why he wanted to “get away”?

 

 

5.     How do the monster and Sonny respond to Brooks when Brooks asks Sonny, “How’d you do?” ?  What does Brooks then let Sonny do?

 

 

6.     Who sees Sonny just as he gets out of bus terminal?  How does the reader know who it is?

 

 

Chapter 5

7.     Why does Sonny feel “proud” as the chapter opens?

 

 

8.     Who is Chub?  Describe him.

 

 

9.     How does Doll appear to be involved with Mo—based on the short conversation she has with Chub?

 

 

10.  Who does Jessie appear to be?

 

 

11.  How do Doll and Sonny escape from the undercover narc?  Where do they end up?

 

 

 

12.  What is special about Stick’s cane?

 

 

13.  Why does Stick think Brooks let Sonny go?

 

 

14.  What job do Doll and Stick set up for Sonny at the end of the chapter?

 

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     In terms of character development, what appears to be important about the conversation between Sonny and Brooks?

 

 

 

 

 

2.     How is Brooks’s character revealed by the very first words he says in the chapter?  (Go back and find the words:  they come right after, “The door banged open.”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Explain Stick’s reasoning for his hatred of Sergeant Brooks?

 

 

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #4:  Chapters 6-8 (pgs. 52-70 [hardback]; pgs. 49-65 [paperback])

Vocab

• hung over—sickness the morning after being drunk in the evening
• mule—a person (like an animal) who carries drugs for dealers
• feint—boxing term—fake or deceptive move (feint one way, go the other)
• George Harrison—one of the Beatles, the popular British rock band from the 60’s

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 6

1.     Describe the directions that Stick gives to Sonny about the exchange he is to make in New Jersey.

 

 

 

 

2.     What does Sonny “kick back and daydream” about while he is sitting on the bus?

 

 

 

3.     Describe how the chapter ends.  Whose is the familiar voice Sonny hears in the last lines of the chapter?

 

 

 

Chapter 7

4.     What drug was Sonny carrying when he was arrested?

 

5.     What are Mushrooms?

 

6.     What information does Brooks give to Sonny about Stick and Doll?  Who are the X-Men?

 

 

 

7.     What does Brooks want from Sonny in exchange for not having him arrested?

 

 

8.     What does Sonny mean when he thinks, I may be a mule, but I’m not a rat?

 

 

9.     What is Sonny unable to do with one arm cuffed to the chair

 

 

10.  Why does the chapter end with Brooks’s words, “Bury the fool”?

Chapter 8

11.  What is Sonny’s real name?

 

12.  What are Sonny’s lawyer and the DA (district attorney) arguing about to begin the chapter?  What does the judge decide?

 

 

13.  What is the unique tattoo on one of the Spanish-speaking youth on the bus to the facility?

 

14.  “Whitmore rules.  It’s no hair, so get in the chair, Mr. Bayer.”  What is going on here?

 

 

15.  What happens to Lieutenant Deeks at the end of the chapter?

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     Near the end of Chapter 6, when Sonny imagines being “Free,” why is this dream ironic?  What is he imagining will give him freedom?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.     Explain the importance of the following Chapter 7 quotation to the story:  “Sonny lowered his head.  He tried to sort the feelings running through his body and the thoughts jumbled in his mind.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     What is Sonny’s reasoning behind refusing to help himself by telling Brooks what he wants to know?

 

 

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #5:  Chapters 9-10  (pgs. 66-85 [hardback]; pgs. 71-92 [paperback])

Vocab

• Benjy—a one hundred dollar bill (with Benjamin Franklin’s picture on it)
• Solitary—being alone in a special prison cell, separated from the general population as a special punishment, frequently for violence
• Latrine—toilet
• Buffalo chips—buffalo poop
• Muscle atrophy—a condition where the muscles of the body weaken because of lack of use
• Airborne—a paratrooping division in the army
• Nam—short for Vietnam

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 9

1.     Briefly describe Sonny’s jail cell as the chapter opens.

 

 

 

 

2.     If a person wants to become a Running Brave, what does he have to be ready to do?

 

 

 

3.     How does Sonny use the Styrofoam meal tray?

 

4.     What does Brooks want Sonny to do once Sonny is in the general population of prisoners?

 

 

5.     What does Brooks tell Sonny about how Sonny was caught on the bus earlier?

 

 

6.     Why are the prisoners chanting “Son-nee, Son-nee. Son-nee” when Sonny comes out of his solitary cell?

 

 

7.     Briefly describe the internal conversation that Sonny has with the monster when he is asked to join the X-Men.   Then how does Sonny respond to X-One and the rest of the group?

 

 

 

8.     How does the chapter end?

 

 

Chapter 10

(In the opening of this chapter, real events are taking place while Sonny is in a dreaming state.)

9.     Explain the following:  “A pinprick in his arm and he walks the wind again.

10.   According to the doctor, why is Sonny “lucky”?

 

 

11.   What is Brooks’s stare helping Sonny to do?

 

12.   How many days has Sonny been on his back in the hospital?

 

13.   How does Brooks respond to the doctor who asks if Sonny is still a prisoner?

 

 

14.   Whom does the get well card come from?

 

15.   Who is James Mosely and what happened to him?  How is this related to Stick?

 

 

 

16.   What is Brooks’s plan for Sonny?

 

 

17.   What is the message of the Running Braves?  How will their secrets continue?

 

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1. Why does Brooks think Sonny is “dead meat loose in the city?”

 

 

 

 

 

2. Jake is talking about the evil spirit with Brooks at the prison hospital.  Describe how this is related to the hawk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. According to Jake near the end of Chapter 10, what did the Running Braves do for the Indian community?

 

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #6:  Chapters 11-12  (pgs. 93-112 [hardback]; pgs. 86-103 [paperback])

Vocab

• Loincloth—a cloth covering the hips and genital area
• “Karate Kid”—a 1980s movie about a teenager who learns karate from an old Japanese gardener

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 11

1.     What is Jake doing early in the morning to show Sonny the importance of “Balance. Footwork. Concentration.”?

 

 

2.     Why does Jake want Sonny to keep the tea in his mouth without swallowing?  What happens when Sonny does swallow the tea?

 

 

3.     On the hand-clapping training exercise, what does Jake say that Running Braves do to be successful at such a game?

 

 

4.     Why does the monster tell Sonny to “[t]hrow the hook” at Jake?  What does Sonny say he learned from the exercise?

 

5.     What letter is missing from the alphabet game?  What is the important lesson, according to Jake?

 

6.     Why does Jake say he couldn’t be a Moscondaga chief?

 

 

7.     What does Jake mean by saying that Sonny has the “worst of both sides”?

 

 

8.     After Sonny’s solo one-night stay on Stonebird Mountain, what does Jake say Sonny will be ready for?

 

 

Chapter 12

9.     How does Sonny build up his wrists and forearms?

 

10.   How does the morning sun affect Sonny’s mind?  What simile is used for this description?

 

 

11.   How does he build up his shoulders?  Improve his balance?

 

 

12.   Briefly describe the story Jake tells about his grandfather.  Why did the grandfather go into a “little death”?

13.   What does the subchief mean by “Don’t need no more enemies”?  What does Jake yell “so the subchief could hear him” after the subchief leaves?

 

 

14.   Why does Jake admire Muhammad Ali?

 

 

15.   “And then one morning,” what was different for Sonny?  What does this difference mean for Sonny?

 

 

16.   When Sonny and Jake are looking down on the reservation from a mountain, whom does Jake blame for its bad condition?

 

 

17.   Describe the secret sign of the Running Braves.  Why does Jake share it with Sonny?

 

 

 

18.   Who comes out of the stretch limousine at the end of the chapter?

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     In Ch. 11, why does Sonny swallow the monster down when Sonny is angry at Jake?  What does this say about Sonny’s character development?

 

 

 

 

 

2.     In Ch. 12, what is the significance of “the glint of sunlight on the distant lenses of binoculars”?

 

 

 

 

 

3.     What is Sonny’s concern about the monster near the end of Chapter 12?

 

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #7:  Chapters 13-15 (pgs. 113-132 [hardback]; pgs. 104-121 [paperback])

Vocab

• Kiva—an underground chamber, usually with a hole to let in light, used by the Pueblo Indians in Arizona and New Mexico.
• Monotone—boring tone of speech

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 13

1. Give the news of Sonny’s mother’s new plan for her and Sonny.

 

 

2. Describe Roger.

 

 

3. What does Sonny’s mother say she will do if Sonny refuses to go along?

 

 

4. What role does Jake play near the end of the chapter?  (Where is Sonny headed?)

 

 

5. What is the final thing Jake tells Sonny before the boy is on his way?

 

 

Chapter 14

6. “Life funny.”  What is funny to Brooks, who remembers going to Donatelli’s Gym twenty years before?

 

 

7. What is it that, according to Brooks, Mr. Donatelli said can “make the man”?  Explain.

 

 

 

8. Also, according to Brooks, Mr. Donatelli talked about “fire”.  How is related to the hawk and the spirit?

 

 

 

9. Describe Brooks’s plan for Sonny’s daily routine at Donatelli’s Gym.  And what/who is “Rocky”?

 

 

 

10. What is Brooks’s condition for Sonny staying there?

 

 

 

11. Brooks:  “But before you can beat anyone else,you                                                                              .”  What does he mean?

 

12. What does Brooks have to say about the spirit, or the hawk?  How is it like fire?

 

 

Chapter 15

13. Describe Sonny’s daily routine at the gym.

 

 

14. Describe Martin Witherspoon.  How is he different from the other training partners?

 

 

15. Where does Sonny go running in the mornings?

 

16. Who is Dave the Fave?

 

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     In the beginning of Chapter 13, Sonny’s mother introduces the man who came with her in the limousine, “This is my…friend.  Roger.”  How should the reader interpret the three-dot space, called an ellipsis?  What does she appear to mean?

 

 

 

 

 

2.     What does Jake mean in Chapter 13, “Stonebird ain’t the only mountain”?

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #8:  Chapters 16-17 (pgs. 133-157 [hardback]; pgs. 122-143 [paperback])

Vocab

• Shaman—a kind of priest with religious healing abilities
• Pow-wow—a traditional Native American ceremony for a large gathering, such as a marriage
• Yuppie—young professional workers

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 16

1.     What does Jake say that a Running Brave should think about when he chops wood?

 

 

2.     How does Jake’s visit influence Martin’s helping Sonny in the beginning pages of the chapter?  What does “bingo urgent” mean?

 

 

3.     Who is the “tall, gray-haired man in a pin-striped suit” who comes into the gym?

 

 

4.     What is the news that Jake brings Sonny about Sonny’s mother?  About Heather (Doll)?

 

 

5.     Before he leaves, what advice does Jake give to Sonny about Martin?  Also, what does he say is the reason that he started Sonny boxing when he was little?

 

 

 

6.     Who does Mr. Kim think Jake is to Sonny?

 

 

7.     Why has Brooks been so busy lately?

 

 

8.     What is the brief story of Spoon, Martin’s dad, according to Brooks?

 

 

 

 

9.     How does Sonny think Doll had been able to call Jake?  What else does Sonny want back?

 

 

10.  What is Henry Johnson’s first response when both Sonny and Martin ask him if he’ll okay a fight with the Punching Postman?

 

 

11.  Briefly describe how the fight goes.

 

 

 

Chapter 17

12.  Why is he being given a special dinner at Martin’s house?

 

 

13.  Who is Denise?

 

 

 

14.  Dads.  How does Martin’s father treat him?  What does Sonny know about his father?

 

 

 

15.  Briefly describe Sonny’s fight with Cooper?  How does Sonny control the monster?

 

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     Why do you think that Jake hugs Sonny just before he leaves, in Chapter 16?

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.     In Chapters 16 and 17, Sonny has several important moments in his relationships with other people.  Can you identify them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #9:  Chapters 18-19 (pgs. 158-180 [hardback]; pgs. 144-162 [paperback])

Vocab

• cobblestone—as small rounded stone used for paving streets
• hero sandwich—a large submarine sandwich; a grinder
• kayo—K.O. ; knock out in a boxing match
• Golden Gloves—a national amateur boxing tournament
• “brother”—a fellow African American
• the semis—the semi-final round in any tournament
• Indian rights—political civil rights for Native Americans

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 18

1.     Explain this description of Delgado:  “His stomach was laid with cobblestones.”

 

 

2.     What is Sonny’s plan for fighting Delgado?

 

3.     Read the following exchange between Sonny and the monster. 

 

Real man gets in there and bangs, said the monster.

Gets his butt kicked for no reason, said Sonny.

 

       What does this suggest about whether Sonny is changing?

 

 

 

4.     How does Sonny’s plan for Delgado work?

 

 

5.     Explain “like wings rustling,” a feeling Sonny has at the Witherspoons.  Why does Sonny have this feeling?

 

 

6.     When Brooks says to Sonny after the Delgado fight, “It works outside the ring, too.  Just be cool.  Whatever happens,” what do you think he means?

 

 

7.     What doe Sonny tell Jake about what Al (Sergeant Brooks) said about his fight?

 

 

8.     What is Johnson’s idea for the best plan for Sonny?  What is turning pro immediately so difficult?

9.     What does Johnson tell Sonny about Kwame Hicks’s loud mouth in the locker room?

 

 

10.  Describe the fight with Hicks.

 

 

11.  Why is there “no pleasure in the victory” over Traynor?

 

 

12.  What does Jake deliver to Sonny at the end of the chapter?  What does he say Sonny is beginning to look like?

 

 

Chapter 19

13.  What does Brooks tell Sonny he’ll have to “get used to”?

 

 

14.  Describe Velez’s fighting style.

 

 

15.  What are the “concrete block” and the “battering ram”?

 

16.  Whose voice calls “Sonneee”?

 

17.  What does Sonny learn about the monster, which he calls on to help him after getting punched by Velez?

 

 

 

18.  Whom does Sonny look for after the fight with Velez is over?

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     Explain:  “Control the monster, use the monster, the fire was his partner.”

 

 

 

 

 

2.     How does Sonny grow as a fighter in Chapters 18 and 19?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #10:  Chapters 20-22 (pgs. 181-195 [hardback]; pgs. 163-176 [paperback])

Vocab

• George Harrison—one of the four members of the 1960s band The Beatles
• Memoirs—someone’s written account of his or her own life, or of a special event that occured

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 20

1.     Why had Sonny been named George Harrison?

 

 

2.     Who is Elston Hubbard, why is he at the boxing arena, and how does he know Brooks?

 

 

 

 

3.     Describe the involvement of the photographers that makes Hubbard whisper to Sonny, “Never pass up publicity.”

 

 

4.     How does Sonny respond to Stick and Doll’s invitation?

 

 

Chapter 21

5.     How does Sonny deal with being “tired and cranky all that week”?  Why is he tired and cranky (What’s on his mind?)?

 

 

6.     Where does Sonny stay two days before the final match?

 

 

7.     What is “beginning to seem real” for Sonny?

 

 

8.     Describe the picture Sonny sketches while in Martin’s room, for which Denise says, “Hey! You’re really good.”

 

 

 

9.     Explain the hawk, once again, as Martin understands it.

 

10.  What is the plan that Martin has for writing a book, which involves Jake?

 

 

 

11.  What is the news of Brooks as the chapter ends?  What does Sonny think Brooks tells him to do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 22

12.  Briefly explain the big news of this short chapter.

 

 

 

 

 

13.  What is Martin’s plan?

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

1.     Explain the “dark shadows” mentioned at the beginning of Chapter 21.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.     Why does the monster stir in Chapter 22?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

THE BRAVE

Reading #11 (final reading): Chapters 23-24 (pgs. 196-215 [hardback]; pgs.177-195 [paperback])

Vocab

• Colt 45—pistol
• Penthouse—an expensive and comfortable apartment on the top floor of a building

 

 

PLOT QUESTIONS

Chapter 23

1.      Which three things does Martin say to Sonny that he is, in order to get Sonny to take him with him?  Where is Sonny going?

 

 

 

2.     Martin voices what Sonny is thinking about Stick and Doll.  What is it?

 

 

3.     What does Sonny take with him from the glove compartment of Jake’s tow truck, as he goes into Chub’s?

 

4.     What does Stick mean when he says to Sonny, “It was him or me”?  What is he admitting to doing?

 

 

5.     What does Sonny accuse Stick of also doing?  How does Stick respond?

 

 

6.     Who ends up with Stick’s shotgun stick?

 

7.     What does the monster want Sonny to do?

 

 

8.     What does Sonny think he should do if he were “a dumb Redskin”?  What does he do?

 

 

9.     When Sonny says that Doll will “do what she thinks is right for her baby,” he thinks of his own mother.  What does Sonny think his mother did?

 

 

10.  Explain:  “The hawk was free.”

 

 

11.  What makes Sonny and Martin laugh as the chapter ends?

 

 

Chapter 24

12.  Where are Sonny, Johnson, Martin, and Jake as the chapter opens?

 

 

 

13.  Sonny thinks (tries not to think) about Brooks.  How long has he been in the hospital now?  What is his condition?

 

 

 

14.  Why is Sonny’s mother “on her way” to see Sonny?

 

 

15.  What is Stick’s situation at the moment?

 

 

16.  Whom is Sonny fighting?  Why is this important to the novel?

 

 

 

17.  How does the crowd cheer at the end of the fight?

 

 

18.  What sign does Jake show to Sonny just as the chapter and the novel end?

 

 

 

ADVANCED QUESTIONS

4.     How is the hawk set free in Chapter 23?

 

 

 

 

 

5.     What is the significance of Sonny fighting Glen Hoffer again to end the novel?

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.     Go back through the chapters and choose what you think is the most significant line?  Write it down below and explain your reasoning.