Brae

**Literary Luminary: 186-235**
 * Literary Luminary: pages 1-30**
 * “Hi, Papa, he said. / I’m right here. / I know" (5).
 * No quotation marks
 * Something about the time it was written?
 * “What is that Papa? / It’s a dam. / What’s it for?” (19).
 * Shows the son's curiosity in many things. Could be because of his age and lack of education.
 * Vocabulary Miser: 31-82**
 * ** Skeins ** - "They crossed a river by a concrete bridge where skeins of ash and slurry moved slowly in the current (51)."
 * a length of thread or yarn, loosely coiled and knotted
 * **Gyrus** - "To hear it you will need a frontal lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus and you won't have them anymore (64)."
 * a ridge or fold between two clefts on the cerebral surface in the brain
 * **Colliculus** - "To hear it you will need a frontal lobe and things with names like colliculus and temporal gyrus and you won't have them anymore (64)."
 * a small protuberance, esp. one of two pairs in the roof of the mid-brain, involved respectively in vision and hearing
 * Discussion Director 83-135**
 * 1) What does the father think about their future in the world? Does he think they will survive or die?
 * 2) Would the father be able to kill his son if he needed to? What about the son?
 * 3) Who are "the marchers"?
 * 4) Why do you think the boy keeps bringing up the question, "Are we still the good guys?"
 * Connection Master: 136-185**
 * When I read about the shed and the bunker under the plywood, it kind of reminded me of The Hunger Games when Katniss and Peeta are in The Games and they keep shelter in the cave. Of course Katniss had to continuously leave to get food and medicine but just the idea of it.
 * When the father starts to have good dreams about his wife, it reminded me of Cobb from Inception. Both Cobb and the father lost their wife to suicide and at a certain point in each of their journeys, they start to remember the good things they used to have.
 * "'Can I go swimming?' 'Swimming?' 'Yes.' 'You'll freeze your tokus off.' 'I know.' 'It will be really cold. Worse than you think.' 'I know"' (217).
 * This shows how even though they didn't see what they were expecting, the boy is insistent on trying to make the best out of their situation.
 * "What they had seen was a charred human infant headless and gutted and blackened on the spit" (199).
 * This just shows how far people will go to survive. It also makes me wonder if they had the baby just so they could eat it. Yes, its a long wait but that justifies my point.
 * Discussion Director: End of the book**
 * 1) What was your initial reaction when you finished the book?
 * 2) What do you think the last few sentences of the book mean? Are they foreshadowing? Does the future seem positive or negative?
 * 3) Before, when the father and son were approached by a stranger, the boy would be open to them and want them to stick around if they didn't look like a bad guy. Why do you think the boy was hesitant to join the man at first? Do you think it has anything to do with the father dying?