http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com

1. http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com Permission to use for classroom purposes. For other uses contact Carolee Dean for permission at caroleedean@yahoo.com Directions: Tell students to number 1-20 on a piece of paper and write down the correct answers for the following slides. You may want to give them a copy of the poetic and literary devices from slides 4-5. If you have clickers, you may want to use those instead of paper.

2. Literary and Poetic Devices in TAKE ME THERE by Carolee Dean

3. TAKE ME THERE is the story of a young man named Dylan Dawson who can’t read or write, but dreams of being a poet. After a tragic accident that sends him fleeing from the law and a violent LA gang, he goes looking for his father who is in prison on Texas. He wants to find out if badness is in his blood, or if it is something he can outrun.

4. Literary & Poetic Devices • Allusion: A reference to a famous person, place, or event in life or literature. • Metaphor: A comparison in which one thing is said to be another. Ex. Love is a battlefield. • Simile: a figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though. Ex. Love islike a battlefield. She acts as though love were a battlefield. Love is as dangerous as a battlefield.

5. Devices Continued • Personification: giving human qualities to animals or objects. Ex. The moon laughed at me. • Alliteration: The repetition of the initial consonant. There should be at least two repetitions in close proximity. Ex. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. • Assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds that are not followed by a similar consonant (because that would be an exact rhyme.) Ex. The hoops of doom.

6. EXAMPLES from TAKE ME THERE

7. #1 p. 7 of TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Assonance Happiness is swimming in the ocean of her eyes.

8. ANSWER – A. Metaphor Using the word is to compare “happiness” (an abstract idea) to “swimming in the ocean of her eyes” is a metaphor that helps the reader know what happiness means to Dylan at this point in the story.

9. # 2 p. 18 TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Alliteration “Her name is Baby Face.” “Like the gangster,” Jess asked, and I felt like an idiot again. Why did I ever name my dog after a bank robber?

10. ANSWER – C. Allusion This is an example of allusion because Dylan named his dog Baby Face, alluding to the famous bank robber, Baby Face Nelson.

11. #3 p. 26 TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification By the time I turned around and headed home, the sun was setting over the ocean, a huge ball of fire sinking into the sea, leaving streaks of red and gold like a melting candle.

12. ANSWER – B. Simile Using the work like to compare the sunset streaks to a melting candle is what makes this a simile. (Note: This passage also contains an implied metaphor, by suggesting that the sun is a huge ball of fire without using is in the comparison, but that was not the section that was highlighted. When you take a test, pay close attention to what is being asked.)

13. #4 p. 35TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification Words are like people, I think. Put too many of them too close together and they cause trouble.

14. ANSWER – B. Simile Using the word like to compare crowded words with a crowd of people is a simile that helps us understand the kind of trouble Dylan has with words.

15. #5 p. 48TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification THE ROAD Life isn’t a destination. It’s a journey. But you gotta be heading somewhere or you’re just a mouse going round. Even if the place you wind up isn’t the place you were bound.

16. ANSWER – A. Metaphor To say that life is a journey is a metaphor because “a journey” is being compare with the more abstract idea of “life.”

17. Extended Metaphor This example becomes an extended metaphor when it goes on to compare lack of direction in life to being like a mouse going nowhere. If life is a journey, then what kind of life does a mouse on a wheel have?

18. #6 p. 97TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification She was trembling like a kitten left out in the rain, and I suddenly realized what she wanted. What she needed.

19. Answer – B. Simile Drawing a comparison between Jess’s trembling and a kitten using the word like is an example of simile that shows the reader just how frightened Jess is.

20. #7 p. 109TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification TIME Time goes round and round the spinning clock, until the fateful day time folds its tired hands and stops.

21. Answer – D. Personification Time is not human. It cannot “fold its tired hands.” That is something only a person could do, so this is an example of personification.

22. #8 p. 146TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification Her lips were like fire.

23. Answer – B. Simile Comparing lips to fire using the word like is an example of a simile.

24. #9 p. 186TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Alliteration B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification He had a smial a mile wide. In prizen wite wuz clad. The momint that he lukked at me, I new he wuz my dad.

25. Answer – A. Alliteration The words wide, wite, and wuz all start with the w sound. This is an example of alliteration.

26. #10 p. 196TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification “Those people at the state house in Austin act like they’ve forgotten how he died, but I haven’t forgotten and that boy sure hasn’t forgotten. Blood never forgets. Do you hear me? Blood…never…forgets!”

27. Answer – D. Personification Blood can’t remember or forget. That is only something that a person can do, so this is an example of personification.

28. #11 p. 201TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification Levida has exchanged my two rear tires with replacements that look like they came off one of her farm vehicles. They are huge, in contrast to the tires in front , and make my car look like a giant beetle with its butt in the air.

29. Answer – B. Simile This passage uses the word like to make a comparison between a car and a beetle. This is an example of simile.

30. #12 p. 209TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification Blood is a river. One drop follows another.

31. Answer – A. Metaphor To say that blood is a river is a metaphor. It becomes an extended metaphor when the poem goes on to describe one drop following another. The poem continues on the next slide.

32. #13 p. 209TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. PersonificationB. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Metaphor Until they all reach the bottom of the deep blue sea.

33. Answer – B. Assonance The answer is assonance because the vowel sounds in reach, deep, and sea are all the same.

34. #14 p. 227TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. SimileB. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Metaphor People look at me and say I’ve got it all, but when you’re standing at the top you’ve got a long, long way to fall.

35. Answer – B. Assonance The answer is assonance because the vowel sound in got, top, and long are all the same.

36. #15 p. 251TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. SimileB. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Metaphor There will never be another girl like Jess, and the weight of this truth settles on me like a foot on the back of a drowning boy.

37. Answer – A. Simile Using the word like to compare the weight of truth to the weight of a foot is an example of simile.

38. #16 p. 296TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Simile C. AllusionD. Personification These are the words of thecuckoo’s song, as he asks us who will right these wrongs. The cuckoo sings and the cuckoo wails, for the dead who cannot tell their tales.

39. Answer – D. Personification The answer is personification because birds can’t ask questions. Only a person can do that.

40. #17 p. 296TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Personification These are the words of the cuckoo’s song, as he asks us who will right these wrongs. The cuckoo sings and the cuckoo wails, for the dead who cannot tell their tales.

41. Answer – C. Alliteration The answer is alliteration because the words tell and tales both start with a t sound. The word “their” is not part of the alliteration because th is a different sound.

42. #18 p. 300TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. SimileB. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Metaphor He spends the afternoon in prayer until they bring his final bread. Then take him to a back room where they strap his legs, his arms, his head down in the heart of Texas.

43. Answer – C. Alliteration The phrase “bring his final bread” contains two words that start with br. This is an example of alliteration.

44. #19 p. 301TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. SimileB. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Metaphor Every clock is a bomb, ticking away at the minutes of our lives, counting off the seconds before we die.

45. Answer – D. Metaphor To say that a clock is a bomb is a metaphor because it draws a comparison between time and something dangerous, showing us how Dylan feels about time at this point in the story.

46. #20 p. 316TAKE ME THERE by Carolee DeanA. Metaphor B. Assonance C. AlliterationD. Allusion In the heart of Texas nighttime falls, and there is silence in the WALLS, for there will be no mercy here. No second chance. No words of cheer.

47. Answer – D. Allusion The Penitentiary in Huntsville, TX where executions are carried out is called the Walls Unit. Locals refer to it as “The Walls” because of the tall red brick walls surrounding the prison. This is an allusion to a real place.

48. Find more great classroom activities at http://caroleedeanbooks.blogspot.com THE END Now go out and write some poems of your own.