Journal Entry 1/Title:
-Before beginning the book, look at the title I Heard the Owl Call My Name. Write your journal entry to explain what you feel the title means. Also, based on the title, make predictions on what will happen in the story. What do you think the story is about? What significance do you think the title phrase has on the story?
Journal Entry 2/Opening Page: (Choose one of the two journal assignments)
`"So you see, my lord, your young ordinand can live no more than three years and doesn't know it. Will you tell him, and what will you do with him?"' (p. 9)
-Pretend you have been asked the question above. As the bishop, how would you respond? Would you tell the ordinand immediately? Do you agree with the Bishop's decision not to tell him just yet? Why or why not?
-Pretend you have just received news that you only have two years (at the most) to lead an active life. What would your reaction be? What would you choose to do with the years you have left? What is your reasoning for your decisions?
Journal Entry 3/Chapter One: (Choose one of the three journal assignments)
`"Be sure to use the Victorian `we,' lad."
"When you bury anybody, remember to look in the box the very last minute. Forty years ago up at Fort Rupert I buried the wrong man, and even now the RCMP has not forgotten it."
"Don't call them cannibals. It was never true literally. No one alive has seen the famous dance in which the young man, maddened by the cannibal spirit, returns to his village crying for flesh and carrying a body taken from a grave tree."' (p.11-12)
`"Don't be sorry for yourself because you are going to so remote a parish. Be sorry for the Indians. You know nothing and they must teach you."' (p. 12)
-The above is Caleb's advice to the young vicar (Mark Brian). Do you think it is good advice for a priest going into the wilderness to live? What advice would you give Mark? What do you think the "Indians" will have to teach him?
`"My people call it `Whale Pass' because long ago the gods turned a whale into that rock."' (p. 16)
-Recreated the legend of "Whale Pass" within your imagination. Explain why the gods turned the whale into stone.
`"His village is not the strip of land four miles long and three miles wide that is his as long as the sun rised moon sets. The myths are the village and the winds and the rains. The river is the village, and the black and white killer whales that herd the fish to the end of the inlet the better to gobble them. The village is the salmon who comes up the river to spawn, the seal who follows the salmon..."' (p. 19)
-Write your own version of this passage. Take a physical place (such as home, school, church, etc.) and describe what makes the place unique and specifically itself based upon the people and/or things that occur around or within it and directly effect it.
Journal Entry 4/Chapter Two: (Choose one of the two journal assignments)
-Read the following passages from the book and choose one. Explain what the passage tells you about the role of death in the Kwakiutl culture. What is your reaction to the passage itself? What does it tell you about the person described? How does it make you feel? Were you shocked, disturbed or confused by the passage? Why?
`On the broken step of the vicarage sat an old Indian woman, her face scratched and bleeding. She was wailing loudly.
`"One of the professional mourners," Jim told him. "There are three. When somebody dies they take turns wailing day and night."' (p. 24)
`She waited as if she had waited all her life, as if she were part of time itself, gently and patiently. Did she remember that in the old days the Indian mother of the Kwakiutl band who lost a child kicked the small body three times and said to it, "Do not look back. Do not turn your head. Walk straight on. You are going to the land of the owl!"?' (p. 25)
`"Then I'll go fishing. Maybe I'll get drunk. Do you want to know why I'll get drunk?...Because the weesa-bedo was my relative. When I was five, which was his age, my uncle gave a feast for me and I was given my third name and I danced. I had practiced steps in play."' (p. 29)
-In the passage below we see the first recorded emotional reactions of the Kwakiutl people. What was your reaction to the passage? Why do you think they reacted the way that they did and not laugh outright at the constable?
`They entered the vicarage, Constable Pearson plucked the sheet from the small body and leaned toward it. Then he bolted from the room, down the rickety steps and into the bush where he was very sick. The Indians were delighted. Laughter rose in their eyes, higher and higher, filling them, and hovering there in tremulous balance. Not a drop overflowed. When Constable Pearson emerged from the bush, all the eyes were sad agains, and all the faces solemn.' (p. 26)
Journal Entry 5/Chapter Three: (Choose one of the four journal assignments)
`"He will be no good at hunting or fishing. He knows little of boats. All the time he says we. `Shall we have dinner now? Shall we tie up here?' Pretty soon he will say, `Shall we build a new vicarage?' He will say we and he will mean us," and they both smiles.' (p. 30)
-Do you think that Jim is making a correct prediction about Mark in the above passage? What is he basing his assumption on? Why do Jim and the chief smile? So you think that the situation is funny to them?
`"Did you notice that at the graveside he left quietly and asked no questions?" They all nodded. "He respected our customs. And what will he say when he knows we are losing our sons, and that our young no longer understand the meaning of the totems?"
"When the constable was sick in the bushes," said Chief Eddy, "how well he held his laughter."' (p. 31)
-Why do you think the group of men considered these things about Mark as important? Do you think they will come to approve of him or will they reject him? What does this passage tell you about the qualities that the Kwakiutl value in people? What qualities do they notice?
`"And what vegetable shall we have?" Mrs. Hudson's answer was always the same, and her small revenge on the white man, the intruder.
"Mashed turnips." No white man liked mashed turnips.' (p. 31)
-What does the above passage tell you about Mrs. Hudson's character? How does she view "white men"? Have you ever known anyone in your life like Mrs. Hudson? What were some of the things that person did that reminds you of Mrs. Hudson?
-On pages thirty-two thru thirty-three the book gives short descriptions of Sam, Ellie, Jim, Keetah and old Peter's reactions to the coming of Mark. Choose one character and explain what their passage tells you about them. Predict what role you think they will play in the story and what you believe could happen to them.
Journal Entry 6/Chapter Four: (Choose one of the three journal assignements)
`"Please, my lord, do not send me a vicarage. At least, not yet. I do not even know how to get it up the river, much less put it up. I am going to begin today by cleaning the church. When I finish, I shall patch up the vicarage. It's strange, bu since receiving your letter, I do not seem to find the sweet smell of death too oppressive."' (p. 36)
-Why do you think Mark refused the Bishop's offer to replace his vicarage? What does this tell you about Mark's character? What is your reaction to the last half of the letter?
"...It was always the same. The sad eyes. The shy smiles. The cautious waiting. But for what? How must he prove himself? What was it they wished to know of him? And what did he know of himself here where loneliness was an unavoidable element of life, and a man must rely solely on himself?" (p. 37)
-Answere these questions of the book in your own words and explain your answers. What are these people waiting for and what do you think they expect of Mark? What do you think it will take for Mark to meet the Kwakiutl's expectations?
`There were two kinds of naivete, he said, quoting Schweitzer; one not even aware of the problems, and another which has knocked on all the doors of knowledge and knows men can explain little, and is still willing to follow his convictions into the unknown.' (p. 39)
-Do you agree or disagree on Mark's reasoning? Explain why you agree or disagree and give evidence from your own life's experiences to support your argument.