Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird

Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird

1. What is Dialogue?

2. What is Dialect?

3. Early in "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," what conflict does the author establish?

4. When you visualize the setting in this passage from "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," where

can you infer that the action takes place?

"Nice things here," said the man, buzzin his camera over the yard. The pecan barrels, the sled, me and Cathy, the flowers, the printed stones along the driveway, the trees, the twins, the toolshed.

5. When the man nicknamed Camera addresses Granny as "aunty," Granny says to him,

"Your mama and I are not related." What does this bit of dialogue reveal about Granny?

6. In "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," how does the detail "about this lady Goldilocks who

barged into a house that wasn't even hers" help a reader to understand Cathy's character?

7. Granny's habit of addressing her husband as "Mister Cain" shows that she and her husband value

8. When you visualize the action in this passage from "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," what

effect do you think Granny's silent stare has on the twins?

"Yeh, did he jump?" say Terry all eager. And Granny just stared at the twins till their faces swallow up eager and they don't even care any more about the man jumpin.

9. In "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," why does the giant hawk come "wailin up over the

meadow, flyin low and tilted and screamin, zigzaggin through the pecan grove … flyin into

things reckless with crazy"?

10. Toni Cade Bambara describes the cameraman "duckin and bendin and runnin and fallin,

jigglin the camera and scared." What is she doing in this description?

11. In "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," what is the source of the impression of great power and

strength that Granddaddy creates?

12. Use the details in this passage from "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" to visualize the scene. What can you infer was the result of Smilin's and Granddaddy's actions?

And Smilin jumpin up and down swipin at the huge bird, tryin to bring the hawk down with just his raggedy ole cap. Granddaddy Cain straight up and silent, watchin the circles of the

hawk, then aimin the hammer off his wrist. The giant bird fallin, silent and slow.

13. How does Granny and Granddaddy's relationship parallel that of the two hawks?

14. Judging from "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird," what is typical of the dialect of

the American South?