Group 1: Good description relies on the use of concrete and specific nouns. Find two instances of this use on the first
page of his essay. How is it significant to the reader’s entrance into the story?
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Group 2: Momaday uses concrete details to describe the landscape he sees. Find one example n_ot on the first page 01’
the last page, and discuss the significance of those particular concrete details to the story.
Group 3: Momaday uses concrete details to describe his grandmother. Find one example and discuss the significance of
those concrete details.
Group 4: Like most good writers, Momaday uses figurative language. Find one example of simile and one of metaphor.
What is the effect of such language in his story? (Avoid the cricket image for this answer)
Group 5: Momaday’s prose often has a rhythmic beauty. In paragraph five, he writes that his grandmother “could tell of
the crows, whom she had never seen, / and of the black hills, where she had never been.” We hear sound echo (tell/hill,
seen/been, could/whom, never/never) and find 22 beats (l l/ l I). Find another example of sentence rhythm. How do these
kinds of rhythms work in the text, in particular, the one you found?
Group 6: Momaday tells us about the sound of his grandmother’s voice. Find a specific reference to that and explain the
significance.
All groups answer: Other parts of the essay appeal to our sense of touch. Find one place this occurs in the essay, and
discuss why it is significant. (Avoid the cricket image for this answer)
All groups answer: What is the significance of the cricket image?
