Determining Theme and Summarizing with "The Hawk" - Gretchen Blanchard | Library

"The Hawk" by Brian Doyle

Recently a man in my town took up residence on the town football field, in a small tent in the northwestern corner, near the copse of cedars. He had been a terrific football player some years ago for our high school, and then played in college, and then played a couple of years in the nether reaches of the professional ranks, where a man might get paid a hundred bucks a game plus bonuses for touchdowns and sacks, and then he had entered into several business ventures, but these had not gone so well, and he had married and had children, but that had not gone so well either, and finally he took up residence on the football field, because, as he said, that was where things had gone well, and while he knew for sure that people thought he was nuts to pitch a tent on the field, he sort of needed to get balanced again, and there was something about the field that was working for him in that way as far as he could tell after a few days, so, with all due respect to people who thought he was a nutcase, he thought he would stay there until someone made him leave. He had already spoken with the cops, he said, and it was a mark of the general decency of our town that he was told he could stay awhile as long as he didn't interfere with use of the field, which of course he would never think of doing such a thing, and it was summer, anyways, so the field wasn't in use much.

1. copse - a small group of trees
2. nether reaches - the lowest part of something
3. nutcase - not mentally sound

Required

1

Which answer is a good summary of this reading?

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Choose ONE of the incorrect answers for question one and explain why it is not a good summary for the passage. For example, you could say the choice that starts with "a poverty-stricken town" is not a good summary because the passage does not describe the town as poverty-stricken so that answer is not correct. OF COURSE YOU CANNOT USE MY EXAMPLE.

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Which sentence DOES NOT correctly explains what the word "copse" means in this passage?

He had been nicknamed the Hawk when he was a player, for his habit of lurking around almost lazily on defense and then making a stunning strike, and he still speaks the way he played, quietly but then amazingly, and when we sat on the visiting team's bench the other day he said some quietly amazing things, which I think you should hear.

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Which quote from the text explains how the man got his nickname "the Hawk"?

USE THIS TEXT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS 5-10.

The reporter from the paper came by the other day, he said, and she wanted to write a story about the failure of the American dream, and the collapse of the social contract, and she was just melting to use football as a metaphor for something or other, and I know she was just trying to do her job, but I kept telling her things that didn't fit what she wanted, like that people come by and leave me cookies and sandwiches, and the kids who play lacrosse at night set up a screen so my tent wouldn't get peppered by stray shots, and the cops drift by at night to make sure no one's giving me grief. Everyone gets nailed at some point so we understand someone getting nailed and trying to get back up on his feet again. I am not a drunk and there's no politicians to blame. I just lost my balance. People are good to me. You try to get lined up again. I keep the field clean. Mostly it's discarded water bottles. Lost cell phones I hang in a plastic bag by the gate. I walk the perimeter a lot. I saw coyote pups the other day. I don't have anything smart to say. I don't know what things mean. Things just are what they are. I never sat on the visitors' bench before, did you? Someone leaves coffee for me every morning by the gate. The other day a lady came by with twin infants and she let me hold one while we talked about football. That baby weighed about half of nothing. You couldn't believe a human being could be so tiny, and there were two of him. That reporter, she kept asking me what I had learned, what would I say to her readers if there was one thing to say, and I told her what could possibly be better than standing on a football field holding a brand-new human being the size of a coffee cup, you know what I mean? Everything else is sort of a footnote. If you stay really still at dusk you can see the progression of what's in the sky in order, which is swallows, then swifts, then bats, then owls, then lacrosse balls, and when the lacrosse guys are finished they stop by to say hey and to tell me they are turning off the field lights. Real courteous kids, those kids. If the world to come is going to be run by kids who play lacrosse, I think we are in excellent hands.

Required

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In the passage, the phrase "failure of the American dream" suggest that the character has a _______  outlook on life and highlights the contrast between _______  and despair as the character _______  on personal _______ .

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How does the character's description of the people around him, like those who bring him food and check on him, contribute to the theme of community support?

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In the text, the character mentions holding a newborn baby while talking to the mom. This event was important enough that the character mentions it along with other important events that took place in his life. Do you think this moment reflects the theme of new beginnings or the importance of life? Do you think holding the baby also signifies hope and renewal, emphasizing the theme of new beginnings and the value of life amidst struggles?

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What does the character mean by saying, "Everything else is sort of a footnote"?

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How do the activities of the lacrosse players and their interactions with the character reinforce the idea of kindness and respect in the community? What theme does this illustrate?

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The American Dream mentioned in the text is the belief that _______  person may obtain material _______ , equality, and freedom in the _______ .