Welcome


The following information is a study guide for the required ninth grade summer reading. The selected title is WALKABOUT, by James Vance Marshall. This book was chosen as the first representation of the freshmen class literary theme, SEARCH FOR SELF. Please use this study guide to prepare for the testing in fall.
Consider these terms for literary analysis: Setting
Allegory Imagery Point of View
Characterization Irony
Conflict Narrator Style
Figurative Language Plot Theme


Chapters 1-7
1.How did the characters come to where they were?
2.What is the "silence" compared to?
3.What is the "miracle of miracles" that the children found amongst the trees?
4.Based on Mary's initial observation of the bush boy, describe how he was not "the least bit like the Negroes back home." What does this mean? Why is this significant?
5.What was the "shocking" thing that Mary could not "accept" about bush boy?
6.What was the "ever-present enemy" of the Aboriginal people?
7.What idea, "like a sudden inspiration", did Mary have? How does it backfire and become a catalyst for miscommunication and misunderstanding?
8.After the dance what sudden realization did the bush boy come to? Identify the differences.
9.Identify and describe details of the setting throughout the story.
10.Who is the primary speaker?
11.Identify and describe three new experiences each main character has throughout the story.
12.Desribe the Aboriginal and their culture. How does it differ from American culture?
13.What is the meaning of the book's title? Define and give a description based on the reading.
14.What does the narrator mean when he/she says, "Brother and sister were the products of the highest level of mankind's evolution"?

Chapters 8-18
15.How does the following quote foreshadow the bush boy's fate? "Aboriginals know all about the fever, but they never have colds and seldom sneeze."
16.What final emotion does Mary show to busy boy? Why? How does he respond?
17.Who are Mary and Peter's rescuers? How do they signal the children? Of what is Mary frightened?
18.Explain how both Mary and the bush boy believed that they each were, "superior" to the other.
19.Describe the differences between Mary and Peter's attitudes toward asking for the bush boy's help.
20.How does the story and its characters relate to the freshmen theme, SEARCH FOR SELF?

****Identify and define ten (10) Australian / Aboriginal words. List fifteen (15) unfamiliar words***