Questions+-+Chp.+1

Chapter 1

1. What are the functions of light and shadow in the first paragraph?

2. Why is it important for the father to explain how he acquired Sounder?

3. Explain why the comparison of the scattered sharecropper cabins to flyspecks on a white ceiling is especially appropriate.

4. Why does the boy stop going to school?

5. What compensation does the boy find at home for giving up school?

6. What does the circle of half-light that aprons the cabin's front symbolize?

7. What is the significance of the mother and father's conversation while eating their corn mush?

8. What do the descriptions of the mother's lips and father's hands reveal about the book's point of view?